The Greatest Generation

I've had the opportunity to travel to France twice so far in my life. The second time was in '04 to follow the second week of le Tour through the Pyrenees and spend the last week in Paris with Gina on our extended honeymoon. While spending two weeks and enjoying the country on a grander scale with my new wife, it doesn't compare to the week spent there two years earlier with my grandfather traveling through the Normandy region. This wasn't my grandfather's first trip to France either, his first trip as he would always say was courtesy of Uncle Sam, first stepping foot on Omaha beach in Normandy on June 6th, 1944 from a landing craft while taking fire from German artillery and machine guns. He was in the National guard as part of the 115th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Division out of his home town of Frederick. During his time in France he earned two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star, but as the story goes, since his Company Captain didn't have a Silver Star no one in his command could either, so the orders were rewritten as a Bronze Star.

In 2000 he returned for the first time in almost 60 years with a group of veterans, when he returned he insisted he go back again with his two grandsons. Growing up we always knew he served in WWII and landed on Omaha beach. Over the years I can't count the number of times I watched the movie The Longest Day and watched in amazement how these men were able to fight their way off the beaches let alone go on to liberate France. My grandfather never talked about the war, only little things here and there like the hedge rows, the first German he had a close encounter with while searching a farm just inland from the beach and some other lesser events of his experience. He never discussed the things that I knew kept him awake at night, even years later I know he still had nightmares of his days there. At the suggestion of a friend he began writing down some of the stories but I have yet to read them. When we visited the WWII museum in Aramange they had a small theater where you watched a short movie recounting the events of D-Day. Within the first few minutes of the movie that opened with the sound of machine gun fire and explosions, he had to leave the theater. This was probably the first time I had ever realized how much this part of his life still affected him and made me regret all of the Christmas and birthday gifts of books and movies on the war that probably only served as a reminder of things best forgotten.
During our trip we visited a small farm not far from the city of St. Lo made famous by the 101st Airborne to visit the Wall of Remembrance. The Wall of Remembrance was erected by the local farmers to pay homage to the soldiers of the 29th. Typically if your name is up on this wall, it is put there posthumously. To our surprise, while we were there my grandfather was honored by having his name put on this wall with his daughter and grandsons present. I think this was the first time I had ever seen him cry.
When he returned from the war he married my grandmother whom he had only corresponded with through letters. He originally wrote to her sister but she was already engaged at the time so she had her sister respond. After the war he continued to serve in the National Guard and went on to become a cabinet maker. My fondest memories of my youth were the summers spent working in my grandfather's basement workshop constructing things out of wood, glue and nails.

He passed away on Saturday, June 28th at the age of 88. He's survived by his wife Madeline, his daughter, his two grand children and his great grand daughter. At his service, many of the men he later served with in the 29th came to honor him as well as those who had grown up or worked with him. They all spoke so highly of him, considering him among the greatest people they knew and how they were all honored to have known him. One man that grew up with my grandfather told my brother and I that "we could only hope to be half the man he was". I believe him.
It's taken me a month to come up with the words for this post and be able to finish writing them down before having to walk away. Regardless, they'll still not capture the man that my grandfather was or how much I'll miss him.

Take What You Want, Eat What You Take

"This means you, Numbnuts!"

Life is full of things to do, just beware of bitting off more than you can chew.

I was registered to do the 12hrs of Cranky Monkey this past Saturday as a singlespeed duo team with my teammate Tom.
Tom is one of our juniors and a really good bike rider, both on and off road. We were all psyched to do this race way back in early April. Fast forward to a week before the race and things start to unravel. First, my grandfather had fallen very ill and I wasn't sure if I would be able to race so I told Tom I would help him find another teammate. Second, Tom was now leading the Jr. 17-18 BAR competition and would have to miss a BAR points race the next day. I left it up to him, we could work it out with me doing more laps to keep him fresh for Sunday, but ultimately decided it was best for him to not race Cranky Monkey and be rested for the crit.

This left me with several choices, find a replacement teammate, race solo or not race at all. I tried searching for a teammate but everyone I was referred to was already racing solo. It's hard to find someone to commit to racing a 12hr race let alone on singlespeeds. So I was left with two choices and seeing that it was too late to get my entry fee back I decided to just race solo, how bad could it be?

Bad, very bad. Cranky Monkey is held on the Marine Corp training base at Quantico, VA. Of all the off road racing I've done in VA, unless you're west along the Appalachian's, the courses are flat to moderately rolling so I figured no problem racing SS for 12hrs. Well, the course turned out to be very singlespeed unfriendly in my opinion and was shared by some of the other solo SS riders as well. Fast descents into hard turns where you then then faced walls.

After the first lap I was already questioning my sanity and ability to finish 12hrs of this course in the hot and humid conditions. To make matters worse, I started the second lap without pitting and went out with a third of a water bottle for a 10.7 mile loop. By half way through the second lap my head was pounding, dehydration headache. I pitted after lap 2 and downed some Coke. I felt a bit better on lap 3 but not great. About a mile from the finish I flatted on a long gravel road section. Nystrom stopped to lend a hand as I had given my toolkit to Adam at the start of lap 1 when I saw him standing on the side of the trail on the first climb with a broken chain. As I go to inflate the tire and put it on the rim, I notice I have way more tube than required for a 26" wheel. I remove the tube only to discover it's a 700x35, WTF? Why do I even own this tire let alone carry it as my spare. Nystrom riding a 29er didn't have a tube so I rode in on the flat.

After about an hour or so of rest, rehydration and eating with Nystrom, Chris Larkin and Tony Vachino who were all racing SS solo as well, we decided to go out for another lap. Larkin was rolling and was already a lap ahead of us and Chris, Tony and myself were pretty much tied for 2nd although in time I was off a few minutes due the flat. Nystrom and I started our 4th lap together but less than a mile in I knew I was cooked. I struggled up every little rise and walked the steeper stuff. Soon some stomach cramps kicked in and the headache was back with a vengeance. After a crash in the last few miles I decided it was over. I couldn't concentrate on the downhills and I wasn't about to hauled away for dehydration or heat exhaustion or some horrific crash. At the end of my lap I turned in my key fob tracker and resigned myself to the tent to rest up for the trip home.

I definitely think I bit off a bit more than I could chew and that my appetite for suffering was larger than my ability to swallow the pain it brought.

No Title

Shit, another month has gone by. Not a single post, was May that uninteresting? Actually it wasn't, but I've found I have a lot less motivation to sit around and talk about what I did. Instead it's mostly hanging out with this chick.
I decided racing hasn't been going so great so I would go back to something I know I'm good at, drinking beer. A new liquor store opened up close by, it's been there a few months but I just haven't made it there until last weekend. It's called The Perfect Pour, more like, The Perfect 'Way to' Pour 'Money into the Economy'.
I figured while picking up mulch at Lowe's I might as well pick up some good beer. I'd heard the selection was good, but this was incredible. So many Beligians to choose from. You know it's a good day when you spend more at the liquor store than the home improvement store. I picked up an importer's mixed six and a six of singles. They also let you mix and match out of 6 and 4 packs.
I've only sampled the Monk's Cafe Flemish Sour Ale so far but what an experience. A mix of old and new beer that smacks your senses with a pungent vinegar aroma well before it ever touches your lips. Once on the palate though, it's a very smooth and flavorful beer with an almost carbonated texture. I was in the kitchen when I heard Gina gag and knew she had just taken a sip, bravo for at least getting to her lips.

I guess the biggest news of the month was my final breakdown and submission to the purchase of a minivan. Yep, you heard right, a minivan. What an ordeal though, I so hate buying cars. We went to the dealer a few weekends ago to test drive after doing all of the research online and knowing exactly what we wanted. That's where we met Ben. Ben was severely hung over the day we went in and is probably still ruing that day he met us. Gina drove, I thought Ben was going to toss his cookies in the car as Gina immediately put the minivan to the 0-60 test.

When we went back to finalize the purchase, what should have taken less than hour turned into a three hour hair pulling, teeth grinding experience. All we (I) wanted was a tow package, for a hitch mounted bike rack of course. Basically, do not try to go outside the box, even if it is an "offered" feature from the manufacturer. This was the cause of much consternation between Ben and the service department. In the end, a tow package with no hitch mount, why call it a tow package then? Anyway, it was coming from out of state but Ben realized he entered the wrong color code, he then couldn't get the color we wanted so we went to our fallback, black. Finally, a week after actually buying the van, we picked it up Saturday.

Maybe I can find someone to get to look like this...

Mudfest 2008

The rain from last weekend found it's way back to thoroughly soak the course for Sunday's Greenbrier Challenge. After a second pre-ride Thursday and a warm up ride at Patapsco Saturday I was expecting a dry fast course, that was until the biblical rains came and dumped several inches of rain overnight. I spent most of the week getting the bike ready and as of this post I'm officially ending my relationship with the Singleator. I decided to go with a gearing for the climbs but in the end the chain length to do so caused issues and pretty much ruined the day, along with my dead legs.

Two stops to repair the drivetrain and a lot of running pretty much summed up the race. I had planned a strong finish really only looking at Mayhew as the lone competition.
The highlight of the course was the final downhill, a washed out, muddy, rooty mess with a steady stream of water flowing down it with some large stone and log waterbars at the bottom to launch off of. It almost made all of the climbing worth it. I finished 10th, well of my goal. I'm boxing up all of my Singleator parts and shipping them back to Surly with a letter, hopefully my new tensioner is sitting down at Avalon Cycles.

Maddy is growing up so fast. She's trying to sit up on her own and loves her new Bumbo chair. She's such a happy baby, always smiling even when she's crying like last night when she went to bed. She started to cry but was smiling at me the whole time at me as I tried to calm her. She also loves her feet, they're probably her favorite toys. Whenever she's cranky I just take her feet out of her sleeper, whenever she has the chance they go right in her mouth.

A Spring Classic

Rain, rain and more rain. That pretty much sums up Sunday's day of racing. After early morning showers the rain relented a bit as I made my way over to Gateway for the Carl Dolan race. It's so nice living 5 minutes from a bike race, almost too convenient as I was a bit late getting out the door.

I was registered for both the 30+ and the the 1/2/3 races not quite sure what kind of legs I was going to have. My only road race so far this season was Walkersville where I got shelled at the start of the 4th lap. I was coming off a decent race at Fairhill so I did have some confidence in my fitness despite the prolonged sickness.

As we lined up for the start of the 30/40 Masters race, the skies grew dark and drops of rain began to hit our faces forewarning us of the impending deluge. The first couple of laps we actually pretty mellow for some reason, that would all change. By about the 3rd or 4th lap the scattered drops of rain turned into a torrential downpour. It was so bad you couldn't see the wheel in front of you. On the fast downhill after the only turn on the course, there was a river of water an inch deep and as you made the transition to start the uphill through the start finish, a river of water was flowing down the road at you. Incredibly we were bombing 35+ mph through this inch of steadily moving water.
We had a solid 40+ squad in the race while Chip and I held up the 30+ end of things. I made a few attempts to escape and for some reason it always turned out to be Craig Snydal from LSV. The first go at it we had a small gap and were working together along the backside of the course. When we were finally caught Chip rode up and apologized for putting Ryan on the front to reel us in not knowing I was up the road. Oh well.
The rain kept pounding us and at one point it felt like needles sticking me in the face and my left hand was so numb I thought I broke my shifter off because I couldn't feel it, not even the pressure from squeezing the brakes. I ended up in another short lived move with Craig then spent the rest of the time trying to keep the pace high as Ramon and Fuentes had gotten themselves a nice gap. We never caught them so the race was on for second in both fields since Ramon had the 40+ while Dave had the 30+.

I was in decent position through the final turn and starting up the hill but with about 300m to go it happened. Just in front of me to my left I see some bozo jump right and into the handlebars of some Artemis rider. If he went down I had no where to go so I reached for the brakes. For a split second it looked like he might save it but his unweighted rear end finally gave in to the slippery pavement and fishtailed out from him, as he landed he somehow managed to skid from left to right. At that point I had to jam on the brakes as hard as I could hoping to not hit him or have to try and ride over him. I watched as he skid in front of me and then in a horrific ending to to an already bad crash, his teammate who was sprinting for something like last place rides square into him, ejecting him from his bike and apparently taking out several other riders.

Chip pulled off an impressive sprint to take 2nd in the field sprint and 3rd overall in the 30+. After waiting around an extra 45 minutes on top of the hour and a half wait between races as the EMTs scrapped up a bunch of 3/4s off the pavement from a 20+ rider crash which required a restart of the race, we finally started the 1/2/3 race. Just like the previous race, as soon as we line up the skies turned black and the rain drops start. The legs were heavy and water logged and the first couple laps hurt pretty bad. About 3 or 4 laps in I see the moto ref pull off at the officials tent, I assume to talk about whether or not they were going to call the race. I was raining almost as hard as the earlier race and a lap later as we come up the hill I see lightening in the sky, that's a definite show stopper. Next lap some juniors struggling on the climb let a huge gap open up, Chip, Ryan and I were sitting on the back snoozing and had to jump across the gap to the back of the pack. At that point I decided it wasn't worth the effort since this race was going to be called. I pulled off and headed for the warmth of a dry car. After a quick change I was already rolling out of the parking lot as the rest of the pack was riding in, the officials had called the race at the end of the next lap.

I really enjoy racing in the rain, I'd prefer it to be a road race than a crit, although Dolan is technically a road race but raced like a crit. The rain washes the suffering away, makes the hurt feel good.

*Photos courtesy of Jim Wilson

Fixx Your Singleator

So I've refused to give up on my Surley Singelator for my singlespeed chain tensioner, I have just way too time and money much invested in this stupid little part to let it overcome me since I now own three of them. I've come to the determination that this is a simple case of over engineering a simple solution. This is pretty much it for parts, minus the pulley wheel.
The Singleator relies on loading an internal spring to put tension on the chain. That task requires bolting the arm onto you derailleur hanger and using an 18mm cone wrench to pre-load the spring as you tighten the arm down. Nice idea, poor execution. The notches for the cone wrench on the aluminum sleeve are too narrow for any wrenches I have causing the cone wrench to get trapped between the arm and the hanger making it impossible to get the cone wrench out once tightened.
Problem lately with them is two fold, the spring never holds enough tension to keep the chain tight and second, the internal threads of the arm strip out for the bolt that holds the pulley assembly rendering the whole thing useless. Basically I have two stripped out arms and only one pulley wheel that hasn't been sucked through my drivetrain after the bolt loosened up while riding.

Today I finally remembered why I was running a 32x15, because it was the only gear configuration that worked to put enough tension on the chain. This all fell apart though after I put on a 17T cog to go pre-ride the Greenbrier course. As soon as we took off up the first hill, the dreaded sound of my chain skipping over the cog, slipping off the teeth. Then on the first downhill I hear what sounds like coins hitting the pavement and look back in horror at my rear wheel to see the entire pulley assembly gone. Fortunately it all landed relatively close together and I found all of the pieces. Needless to say this meant for a frustrating day. I managed one lap, at the start of the second, Sean's rear derailleur cage sheared in half so that was the end of the day since he was my ride.

When I got home I went down to Avalon Cycles since they cater a wider variety of riders and have some boutique parts in stock. Although I didn't find a Soul Craft chain tensioner or similar design that does not require a spring, I did talk to one of the shop employees who had converted the Singleator on his trials bike to not need the spring. He accomplished this by grinding down the aluminum sleeve that holds the spring in place and has the useless notches for the cone wrench.
This solves two problems, first it allows the arm to to be bolted tight against the hanger and second there's no more messing around with the cone wrench to adjust the tension. Just set the tension when tightening the arm to the hanger and you're done. I just converted mine and it works great, still need to hit the trails with it for a good dirt session but it's definitely promising. It does require carrying a 5mm with you to loosen it should you need to remove the rear wheel but at least it works.

Simple solution to a simple problem.

ABRT in the News

It's not very often you get good press about cycling in a local news paper. Last time anyone was in the paper it was part of the Anne Arundel County police blotter for an apparent incident with a motorist at North Beach.

One of our teams newest members, Lance, is a born again cyclist. As a junior he went to the Olympic training camp and trained with the best. After quite a while away, he's refound his love for this sport and is pouring his heart into it. He was able to work with the new sports editor of The Capital, Annapolis' local newspaper, to get this article printed.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2008/04_15-30/SPO

Fairhill - A Day in the Dirt

Sunday was the Fairhill mountain bike race sponsored by Bikeline. I decided last minute to do this race, more becasue I just love riding the trails at Fairhill but also as a warm up for the State Champs at Greenbrier in two weeks than anything. I envy anyone who lives close to this area as they are near some of the best trail riding around. For me I just don't get there often enough, and unfortunately it's only to race.

Registered for Single Speed Expert I wasn't really confident of my fitness. Saturday I went to Davidsonville and had to sit up from the group before we even got to Rt. 258. I spent the next hour and a half riding solo back to the park and ride wondering how poorly I would do the next day and hoping it would rain enough to cancel the event so I could get my $28 back.

Sunday's weather was cool and damp, cross season weather, I like racing in this weather. I almost didn't make it to the race as I assumed it was at the same location as the summer race, fortunately I read the website one last time and realized the parking was in a completely different area. The ABRT/Latitude team was out in force representing juniors through expert class.

Our youngest racer, Spencer, puts on his game face for his first mountain bike race
While his mom Sue also looks to be having a good time in her first race
Sean and Doug representing in the SS Sport class, sorry Kidd, no one took your picture but we know you were there, too. All three placed well in the SS Sport race.
Dennis taking home the big DUB-YA in the Vet Sport class, still representing his Guy's team though, nice way to start the season...
I went against one of my general rules of racing and made a major equipment modification the day before by swapping my rigid fork for a suspension, only major in that I haven't ridden suspension is well over a year or two and wasn't sure of handling since I had no time to dial the thing in. I was also concerned over my gearing selection, I got my ass handed to me last year at Granogue because I ran to large of a gear. While at Race Pace Saturday picking up my bike I grabbed a16T cog thinking I had been riding on a 17T all winter and wanted something a bit smaller for what was said to be a relatively flat course. When I took my wheel off to swap the cogs I found that I had been riding a 15T, no wonder the waterbar climb was kicking my ass. So instead of making a second modification to the bike I decided if I could ride Avalon on the 32x15 I could race Fairhill.

Warming up on the gravel roads my legs were heavy and tired, not a good feeling going into a 22 1/2 mile race. The SS Expert field doubled from 13 to 26 riders with day of registrations making for a nice size field. The turn out overall was huge for the first cross country race of the MASS series. For once I had a teammate in a mountain bike race, our junior Tom Mackay.

On the start up the gravel road Tom took off for the front but it was a bit comedic as the pack took off then bunched up as no one could really go any faster than the next guy regardless of how quickly you spun the pedals. I moved up on the long gravel road down hill and hit the single track about third wheel. Two guys quickly opened up a gap and I just didn't have the legs to follow. A few more guys got around me so I was sitting top 5 with Poz on my wheel. We were ripping through the course picking off slow moving Sr Experts and just having fun on the great trails.

By the end of lap 1 we were sitting 4th and 5th, not bad for being sick all of March and feeling like shit the day before. I managed to lose my waterbottle on a bumpy log bridge and I was losing my waterbottle cage as well so I didn't bother trying to take a bottle at the end of the first lap. Lap 2 we headed into the woods but Poz opened up a gap on me by getting around some geared riders. Then, in what I can only say is what Adam Craig describes as Eye Bonk, I blew a turn and ran head on into a sapling riping me from my bike. I picked myself up as Buddy the Leg Breaker went by and started chasing.

Thanks to Dennis, Sue and Stu for hanging out for my race and handing up bottles. I grabbed one for the uphill gravel road but tossed it knowing I couldn't carry it through the woods.
I was pretty much riding solo for the better part of the third lap which sucks because it becomes too easy to back off the pace. Two guys caught me and for some reason I just couldn't chase. Entering the back half of the course I could see a small group closing in but couldn't tell if it was anyone in my class when I clipped a tree hard with my shoulder and came to a stop. Another SS'er went by me, f$%!. Chase, chase, chase. I stayed on his wheel and decided I would just take him in the sprint. As the trail opened up into the field I jumped right to try and go early but the grass just bogged me down and I ran out of real estate before the line.

8th place. Tom finished not too far behind me in 11th.
Not bad for a last minute race I hadn't been training for and a great day all around for the ABRT/Latitude team.

*Photos courtesy of Sue Estes and Dennis Smith

Run Down

For the record, the month of March officially sucked ass. The picture says it all, the entire house was sick, even Boulder was sick. I didn't bother putting his stuff up because it was actually quite a chore since he required additional fluids with his anibiotic to prevent kidney failure so we were pumping him full of fluid though an IV each night for a week. Afterwards he looked like the hunchback of Notre Dame.
After Maddy infected me with her cold following her first week she was in daycare, a week or so later she then contracted Pink Eye which she then gave that to Gina while my cold festered into a sinus infection which was settling nicely in my chest to make matters worse. This was all a few days before my first race of the season. I figured a trip to the Dr., some antibiotics and a few days rest would get me back on my feet for Kirkwood. Nope. I just wasn't meant to race in March, or at least race well.

Yesterday was our race, The Tour of Walkersville. The race gods were smiling on us as the forecast of early rain and cooler temps were replaced with a warm, sunny and clear day albeit with some strong wind. I got a few decent rides in during the week, one on the road and two off road, even with all of the coughing and congestion, breathing hadn't seemed to be a problem so I was feeling confident of at least finishing the 30/40+ Master's race. No dice. First three laps were spent on the front either chasing breaks or trying to get in one. There was a big one forming at the end of the third lap and I busted my ass to get myself onto the tail end of it but it was my undoing. As we made the first turn the field strung out single file into the wind and I was gassed. Too many early efforts and some atrophied lungs made for a short race. I woke up this morning feeling pretty run down and after seeing that yesterday's forecast on tap for today I bagged driving to Virginia for the Tyson's Corner crit. The thought of racing in the cool, wet weather only made my lungs shrink into my chest even more. Minus a few days between the cold and the sinus infection, I've pretty much been sick for a month straight now.

I'll try to get some good training in this week as I'm looking forward to racing Fairhill on Sunday. Hopefully my new fork will be here in time to put on the SS, although racing FH on the rigid fork wouldn't be too bad, but after my Granogue experience last year, I'd much prefer the suspension.

The Bug...

C'est la Vie

So today marks another year, a good year. One that went by rather slow actually, except for the past month or two really. I guess the agonizing over the experience of having your first child makes the time tick by a bit slower, especially when you decide not to find out if it's a boy or a girl. But once Maddy was here, time is passing at a good clip, maybe it's also the expectation that spring is around the corner and along with it warmer, more hospitable weather.

Having your birthday on St. Patrick's day has it's perks, it was definitely fun in college when we would go downtown to Canton starting at noon to get a good seat at Claddaghs's or Looney's Pub. Everyone is out for your birthday, filling the streets drinking green beer, although I always just stuck with Guinness as the green beer gives me one hell of a hangover. Things are definitely different now though, but in a good way.

So tonight Gina decided to make me a birthday dinner, an Irish classic of corned beef and cabbage. I think she got the idea from by mom I like corned beef. Honestly, I'm not sure if I've had it since I left home for college, but it was good. She slow cooked it in beer, anything cooked in beer can't be bad. To top it off she made a cake, it kind of looks how I feel as this cold is still lingering and for my birthday I managed to strain my right hamstring doing yard work over the weekend. Fantastic.

The Bug

Maddy has earned herself the new nickname of Bug. My friend Thomas warned me, "as soon as you have kids, be prepared to be sick all of the time" he told me, "especially once they go into daycare". I used to just laugh at him but he wasn't kidding. Maddy spent two days last week in daycare and by Friday night she had a cold. By Sunday I had a cold. She's fine, I'm still swimming under water. I'm not sure which is worse, a cold or the flu. The flu is definitely harder on you but at least it has a beginning and an end. A cold just seems to drag itself out, letting you feel like you're getting better then smacking you down again and again. I'm not sure if the pounding headache is from the cold or from a lack of caffeine.

The Fix

After sitting around the past few weeks wondering about my fitness and thinking about how I'm itching to race already, I decided to go feed the craving by hitting the Tradezone training races in Bowie put on by Bike Doctor. Tradezone is a typical industrial park crit, nothing interesting and not all that technical. Just 3 corner circuit with a long downhill finishing stretch, perfect for early season carnage as these things always have a bunch sprint, even for 37th place.

Week before last I didn't ride all week and my legs were tight from lifting that Friday so I decided to just enter the B race which I thought was limited to Cat 3/4s and would provide a decent workout without the fear of early season road rash. On the start line the refs realized that the field was close to 100 riders and consisted of Cat5's, a no no to the USCF. So to get the field down to the 75 rider limit that started pulling riders. I would have volunteered to move to the A race but there was no guarantee one of my pulled teammates would get my spot and that I could actually hang in the A race. After an hour of narrowly escaping crashes by people who cannot corner at speed, I decided no more B races.

I had a shitty week on th bike, well, it wasn't exactly on the bike. Friday was a failed attempt at FTP intervals that ended with severe stomach cramps. I tried to rebound Saturday with a long ride with Mike C. The first hour was fine then the legs left me. After 2 1/2 hrs or riding into a 20-30mph head wind we finally turned for home, 3hrs later the legs were cooked. This didn't make me feel good about hitting the A race at TZ the next day. I woke up feeling rested so I decided to pack the bag and hit the road. A nice 11:45 start makes for a nice morning to take time getting out the door.

As I'm about to turn into TZ, a the meat wagon is pulling out with it's lights on. Not a good sign. Apparently there was a big pile up with a few laps to go int the C race. The weather was good and the forecast was for a fairly warm day, I assume this is what brought out a lot of the big guns. Looking around while warming up I was feeling like it was going to be a short day for me given the legs and the quality of the field. From the start it was on, immediately some Harley guy went off the front and that field chased. The first 4 or 5 laps were nothing but guys trying to launch breaks and the field chasing, I never saw my speed drop below 28mph. Finally a break of three established itself and stayed out for close to an hour. Some good work between several teams reeled the break in with about 5 laps to go. Ryan had been on the front the whole race contributing more than his share to reeling the break in so he decided to sit in the pack for a couple laps to save his legs for the end. With 4 laps to go Ryan and I were riding side by side when some guy tried to go wide on a turn and then jumped back inside hooking his handlebars on Ryan's bike then finally loosing it and dumping it. Ryan managed to stay up right and we chased back on to the group. A half a lap later Ace and I realized the skewer on Ryan's rear wheel was wide open and his wheel wasn't going to stay in if he tried to sprint, so after all of that work he was out with 2 to go. I had had to take a lap for a mechanical earlier so I couldn't contest the finish. The legs weren't great but I make the split in the field with about 1k to go so I got to the top of the hill and just rolled in.

Good day all around. What was interesting was analyzing the power files from the A and B race. Off the top, they were almost exactly the same with regards to average Watts and Normalized Power. Main difference was that the A race was 30min longer but only 1mph faster. A higher NP in the B race over a shorter time period would indicate the B race is actually harder than the A due to the amount of efforts at or above FTP.

It's February, Huh?

Wow, where have I been? Almost through the second month of the year already and I can't say I have done a single memorable thing yet. Outside of raising Maddy that is, which is plenty, it just doesn't make for interesting or noteworthy posts. It is fun to watch her change, even at 2 months to see her follow you with her eyes and turn her head when she hears your voice. Lately she's started working on her motor skills and hand-eye coordination and is reaching for things. She is also exploring more, wanting to taste things even though she can't quite put them in her mouth yet. She was all excited to be dressed up last week for Valentine's Day, although I staunchly disapprove of the Winnie the Pooh outfit, long story.

Things are getting a bit hectic around here though with Gina's time off coming to an end and our realization that even with me working from home most of the time, taking care of Maddy during the day by myself may not work out as planned. She hasn't quite learned to take a nap so she can get a bit fussy and inconsolable during the day. To add to the fun, Boulder had to have is other ACL repaired so he's all laid up as he's not suppose to be very mobile. He's weathering this one much better than the first though.

Amazingly, through all of this I've been able to train, enough so that I actually needed a rest week. Although I wasn't planning on racing much road this season, I'm kind of fired up to get out there. The leg/hip issues are getting better, can't seem to make up it's mind when it's going to rear it ugly head but it's definitely better than it was even a month ago.

Anyway, hopefully something exciting will happen between now and my birthday to post about, if not, don't look for a post until about March 17th.

The Tired Life

So I spent last week in Austin, TX for my work's annual sales rally. It's not so much a sales rally as it is an excuse to go drinking on the company dime, perks of working for a privately held company I guess. Ended up flying down on Monday which was great because the airport was empty but it sucked giving up a holiday to travel for work. I looked forward to this week in a way because I knew I could catch up on some sleep, granted I didn't go out at night and my roommate didn't snore, yeah we had to share rooms, kinda weird.

Monday night was good, worked out at the hotel gym and didn't try to find anyone else who had flown in early so I had no hit the sack early. Tuesday we didn't start until the afternoon so I found a Gold's gym a couple blocks from the Omni and got myself a 3 day pass, motivation to make an attempt at staying in shape while eating crappy food and drinking all week. I managed to go twice, not bad but I still felt like ass when I got home and on Sunday's ride my legs were flatter than a twenty year old gymnast.

The highlight of the week was Wednesday's outing to a bar in the Warehouse District called Cedar St. to see The Spazmatics. If you're ever in Austin on a Thursday night and want to flash back to one of those middle school dances, go see these guys. They cover all of the classic '80's songs like Devos' Whip It, The Buggle's Video Killed the Radio Star and Soft Cell's Tainted Love as well as other 80's bands like The Cure, Morrissey, and The Pixies. I didn't go out, but apparently the following night's band was another 80's cover band but more hair bands like Warrant and Guns 'n Roses, really upset I missed that one.

Last night I went to the Wizards game with some co-workers and one of our vendors. We started out at Fado's in Chinatown for drinks, Guiness was flowing too freely and I'm a bit sore in the head today. I'm not a big NBA fan, they need to clean up their contradicting thug-life, overpaid big f'ing crybaby, whinner act before they're worth my money. It was actually a good game though, a buzzer beating, game tying 3 pointer by Toronto to send the game into OT. The Wizards pulled it out for the W. Afterwards we caught up with some more people back at Fado's before finally heading home.

Today my new toy came.
I've been trying to pull the trigger on one of these for a while now and they just keep going above my pay grade but thanks to a down trodden economy, I was able to get one relatively cheap. Now I just need to sell the Power Tap to help smooth the rather large dent in my wallet.

The Front What?

Is this real? I felt like I was watching a Monty Python skit based on an Abbott and Costello routine.

Gone in 6 Seconds

What Day is it Again? The Big Update

The past 4 weeks have been a blur, I barely know what day it is at any given time let alone that it's a new year. It's already the 8th? How long until 'cross season starts? The past few weeks have been nothing but enjoying having Maddy in our lives. Although at time it's not the easiest thing, but like everyone with kids has told me, it is a very rewarding experience. She's starting to smile and can almost roll over on her own. She gets half way then stalls on her side.
I'm finally "officially" back to work but that hasn't really changed much around here. Gina has been awesome with letting me go out and ride. For a while there I was afraid to leave the house or just felt guilty doing so. She told me she knows I'll go crazy if I don't ride and that if I'm cooped up in the house all crazy that will drive her crazy so I might as well go ride. Works for me.

Sunday the Elite/Masters 30+ and 40+ teams headed out to Frederick for a long day of hammering up and down the mountains. 7,600ft of climbing in 66 miles was the plan, but as all with all plans it started out great and then somewhere it went to shit. I knew something was going to go wrong when my front wheel rolled off the roof of the car at 80mph on the highway. I happened to look up just as it was hitting the pavement and watched it bounce then roll off the road into the median. Fortunately there were no cars behind me to finish it off. A bit of a hop and slightly out of true but otherwise ok so no having to turn around and go get another wheel.

As for the ride, I was the only person with local knowledge of the roads and the route and only two of the other ten guys thought it wise to bring the cue sheet. That's a recipe for disaster on a long ride. Needless to say the ride broke up into several groups on the first long climb and the group was never together again. A new teammate Chip missed the turn chasing the lead group, ended up in Thurmont and had to have his wife come bail him out. My buddy Jeff and I gathered up the remainder of the 40+ guys and set out to hopefully regroup at High Rock, but on the climb though Catoctin Park on a road closed during winter and strewn with debris, Eric sucked a stick through his rear derailleur blowing it into more pieces than I've ever seen and finally wedging the stick into his wheel. 45 minutes of major surgery on his bike, using shift cable as dental floss, we were finally rolling again. The 40+ guys rolled back to just hit some hill repeats around Myersville while Jeff and I set out to finish the ride. A total of 5 hours later we finally rolled back to the parking lot totally spent. Legs are weak, and rightfully sore after that ride.

Today I hit the Morning Ride, Maddy was up at 5:10 so it made getting to Child Time by 6 a piece of cake, even had time to stop at Dunkin' Donuts for coffee and a double chocolate glazed donut, hmmm, chocolate. I finally replaced the bald rear tire and leaky tube on the fixie last night only to be greeted this morning with a flat. Replace a leaky tube with a more leaky tube, that's my luck. Not feeling like changing it as it would ruin my coffee and donut plan, I pumped it up and waited to see if it would hold, obviously not long enough as I realized at the end of the ride the tire was half flat, probably for most of the ride and just before bombing a big downhill which requires some skid stopping. 10 minutes later when I rolled into the garage I was at 30psi, just in time!

Working from home has it's perks, we took advantage of the nice weather (mommy what's a polar bear?) and grabbed some lunch to go at the Hollow Bean in Ellicott City and took Maddy for her first stroll through Patapsco park. We hung out on the foot path and ate while she bathed in the sunlight then proceeded down to the swinging bridge.

enjoying the warm sunlight....

Getting a free ride...

contemplating how to keep us up at night.

Shut Up and Enjoy the Ride

I can't say that going without a full night's sleep going on a week and a half straight now is anyway to live, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Maddy is a trip, except for the fact that her theme song is Up All Night (Sleep All Day), preferably the Slaughter version, remember those guys? or at least their hair? What parents wouldn't want a newborn that sleeps all day right? Not when there's hell to pay when the sun goes down.
We're starting to get into a groove with her, thanks to Melanie and her book of wisdom. The past few days were busy for us and we're all pretty wore out. Christmas started Sunday with Gina's brother, sister-in-law and mother coming down. Monday was my family. Maddy made out in her first Christmas, money, clothes, toys, what else could a girl want? Oh yeah, how about a Harley? Compliments of uncle Paul.
So I knew it had to happen, and it probably would have taken a bit longer if it weren't Christmas, but out came the pink. This girl already has more clothes than Gina and I combined and more pink clothes than Gina has owned in her lifetime.

I'm not sure about all babies, but Maddy loves the water. We gave her a bath Friday night and she loved it, especially getting her hair washed, she would arch her head back trying to get further under. Baths go great until they're over and she realizes she's cold.











Boulder still thinks she's a special toy he's not allowed to play with yet, but he's getting used to her. He still insists on getting as close as possible.
I am looking forward to some long rides this weekend, unfortunately the trails will probably be a no go with all of the rain and temps not cold enough to freeze the ground. Time to get out the fixie and rack up some long miles.

We're Still Alive, I Think

Maddy and Gina came home yesterday from the hospital. I have to say this was probably the scariest part of the entire experience, not just traveling in the car with her for the first time but also that we were now officially on our own as responsible parents. We gave this outfit to our good friends Thomas and Ann when their son James was born and they gave it back to us for Maddy so I thought it was appropriate to bring her home in it.

Last night was rough, more so for Gina since Maddy hasn't quite found a rhythm when it comes to feeding. I think she was up every hour from 11:30 on. She falls asleep while eating then wakes up and either realizes she's still hungry, or that she has completely blown out a diaper. This morning was her first Dr.'s appointment, already.

Boulder is so excited he can't contain himself. After several hours of letting him sniff her out he was finally able to get up close and check her out. She's so small compared to him.

Madeline "Maddy" Marie Harshman

Born Friday, 12/14/2007 at 6:43pm
6lbs 8.4oz., 19 1/2 inches