Early Bird #5: Rubbing is Racing?

Rubbing is racing is a great quote from an even better movie, Days of Thunder. If you haven't seen it, stop reading this, go watch it, and then post a comment about how I just changed your life after.

The obvious difference between Tom Cruise and his Mountain Dew Chevy and how this quote applies to my races is that I'm not inside of a Mountain Dew Chevy. Sure rubbing is a part of racing and there are certain times in a bike race where two competent riders actually keep themselves from falling by leaning on each other. Notice the word competent used in the previous sentence.

The race was going as most 5 races due. Everybody confusing cornering on your bike to the same as in a go-kart where you try and hug the inside as closely as possible so nobody can pass you. This makes for some very interesting lines going both in and out of the corners. At one point a guy to my left was touched by someone else. He freaked out, screamed and then dove his right shifter directly into my hip. I casually gave him a polite, get the f-bomb off of me nudge back into the group. He didn't go down, but I have no idea how. This was the first of 3 times I was assaulted. And not because someone was trying to fit into a spot they couldn't, but because they wigged out and I happened to the be the closest guy for them to try and kill.

The Men's 5 race was delayed due to some crash in the Women's 4. They didn't tell us that due to this delay our race would be cut short so they could stay on schedule. We didn't learn this nifty bit of info until we came through the start finish about 20 minutes after starting and they were ringing a bell so I looked over and saw a lap card with a 1 on it. I sort of freaked out and over reacted because I was nowhere near the front. I knew I needed to be at the front because I was going to try and sprint. Instead of doing the smart thing and waiting for some wheels to follow that would deposit me at the front, I just decided to move up myself. This turned out to be genius because there was a huge pile up in turn 1, which my over reaction put me in front of. Coming out of turn three there were two more crashes. One of them was directly beside me. I still can't figure out why this guy fell down. I heard a crash a few spots behind us and then all of the sudden homeboy to my right just flails out and is sliding across the pavement. My best guess is that it was basically the equivalent of a sympathy puker; someone else crashed so he thought he had to as well.

While I wasn't behind this crash it did disrupt my ability to follow some wheels close to the front for the sprint. The front 5 guys put their heads down and drove hard. The next 3-4 guys behind them couldn't match the effort and I had to get myself around them to try and rejoin the front. I never really got myself into a good position to sprint but I did take back some spots and ended up 7th out of what started as 35-40. Who knows how many official finishers there were with all the crashing on the last lap.

Top 10 is ok I guess but what's really important is that my ass did not end up on the pavement. I made it through all the Early Birds with out a single crash. I was pretty sure that it was bound to happen at least once. Luckily I avoided them. The upgrade request is in and so next I'll be racing as a 4. I'm not sure it's really going to be that much safer, but in theory the people should have some experience.

And the only person that will be sad about this is my mom, but all the Feb. races filled up so I won't race again until a stage race the 2nd weekend in March. I'm pretty stoked about it so we'll see what happens. I'm going to use Feb to get in some good smart training and go super long on the weekends.

Here's to keeping the rubber side down!

My Friends

My core group of friends back east are not nice to each other. Nobody from the outside looking in understands this. I've tried to introduce other people to this group and they think we're either all really mean or that we really hate each other. But, nothing could be further from the truth. We all just like each other so much that saying nice things to each other just doesn't seem appropriate. Rene recently described it as our own language. Which, in reality, is probably pretty accurate.

This picture basically describes 90% of our verbal interactions:



The caption, "That's Jamar and you know the TV never lies." It was posted on facebook, now it's posted on my blog. See, it's how we show we care. Now maybe Jamar will try and lose some weight. It's pretty embarrassing in public sometimes!

More Quotes

After reading the following quote I realized I might have to change my opinion on their inspirational powers. This is too much knowledge not share. You can all thank me later for changing the way you now look at life.

Let's take 'em to church: (Which is actually another quote but from a Jay-Z song, ignore that fact!)

“There are three rules that I live by: never get less than twelve hours sleep; never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city; and never get involved with a woman with a tattoo of a dagger on her body. Now you stick to that, and everything else is cream cheese.” – Coach Finstock, Teen Wolf

Bathroom Disaster!

I've never been one of those people that loves to talk about what goes down in a bathroom. You've all met the people that do. They kick open bathroom doors with a great sense of triumph for whatever damage they just did and then speak far too loudly to the person closest to them to ensure everyone can clearly hear the tale. These are not stories that should be shared. I mean, I didn't even believe that girls pooped until I was 22 and lived with 4 of them so you can see where I think of the bathroom as a private venue.

My current office only has one bathroom on the main floor. The other bathroom requires you go down a flight of stairs, through an extra door and use a key to get in. This other bathroom has a major default in the fact that the door is always locked, but not from the inside. So anyone with a key can always roll right in. This factor drives me insane. Both bathrooms are unisex, which in theory is ok, but in practice not so great. For clarification read the last paragraph from above for a refresher.

Recently the size of our office staff has basically tripled with seasonal members. It does not take a phD in Economics to see the supply and demand curve of the bathroom availability skewing in an unfavorable direction. Still, the occasional to often waiting for someone to exit isn't that bad. What is bad is the unavoidable knowledge of what just happened in that bathroom before you entered it's domain.

People stroll out of there with the biggest smiles on their faces like it's totally normally, and maybe it is. I completely realize that I'm probably the weird one here, but nobody seems to be the slightest bit embarrassed that the next five people who walk into that bathroom aren't going to be able to breath normally for the next day or two. A few days ago I literally held my breath the entire time I was peeing because it was so bad. No I didn't wash my hands because that would have taken extra time and I was already starting to turn blue. It was that bad. I am not being dramatic.

I'm left with this problem and have no idea what to do about it. I could always go downstairs to the other bathroom, but really, it's no better. I could grow up and deal, but there are clearly some deep seeded issues that my brain can't handle. Or, I can keep doing what I currently do now. Every time I open the bathroom door I take in the biggest breath possible and hope I can hold it for the duration. It is not unlikely that someone will find me passed out on that bathroom floor. I'm considering buying a fake gas mask and hanging it next to the door to try and make the point. Let's just hope the odor doesn't stick to clothes.

It Does Not Suck to Be:

With readership of teamLandall on the rise (I learned of a new reader this weekend, what's up Karla? You get shout outs here at teamLandall because we're a blog of the people! Or, something like that?) I'm thinking of starting some standard segments that have been floating through my brain. I've had this idea for a long time and just haven't actually acted on it. The staff here have been absolutely swamped with things like facebook scrabble and the occasional bike ride.

So, let's start this off and see if it lasts more than 1 entry.

It does not suck to be Lance Armstrong. As the entire world knows Lance decided to come back to bike racing to spread the cause of his cancer fighting foundation. Good for Lance! I mean that. But really, you'd think by this picture that good old Lance won the Tour Down Under where he made his comeback debut. But nope, Lance finished 29th but got more publicity than anyone else at the race. Let's also not forget about his A-list celebrity pals and make out sessions with an Olsen twin in some seedy LA Club that for a while seemed like just another day in the life. Outside of that whole cancer thing which in reality probably propelled him to where he is today, it certainly does not suck to be Lance Armstrong!

Early Bird #4: blah, blah, blah.

It started to rain about 10 minutes leading up to the 5s race and that made me wonder if it was worth it to even take the chance. These races can be sort of sketchy anyway so add in rain and the increase in wind and I figured it was a disaster waiting to happen. I went to the start anyway, go figure.

I was shivering at the start line and of course there was a 15 minute lecture on the hydro-dynamic features of bots dots. I know these guys have the best intentions but I'm pretty sure it just makes the field act even more stupid. And is it just me or does everybody like to ride right down the middle of the road and over them? Seriously, we have two lanes, just because on your morning commute you aren't allowed to ride down the middle of the road doesn't mean you need to make up for lost time on Sundays.

So, like I said, it was rainy, windy and cold. I think I mentioned cold, if not, it was cold. The first 20 minutes were insanely pedestrian and there was some fat guy who confused himself for General Custer whenever someone would go up the road he'd demand that nobody chase. And, everybody listened, including me, but I at least shook my head in disapproval every time. With five laps to go I decided that I was going to give the old flyer move a try with 3 to go. The field had slowed to a crawl every single lap coming down the home stretch because of the headwind. I usually go backwards in headwinds but figured I could ride faster than 18 by myself so I'd give it a go. Coming into the start/finish with 3 to go the group did not slow down. And, like the big fat idiot that I am, ignored this factor and stuck with my original plan devised on an entirely different set of circumstances.

I jumped from about 10 back. Got a gap, sat down to try and ignore the lactic acid starting to pile up. This was about the time that I noticed my heart rate monitor telling me I was going to die soon. 199. I stayed away for about another minute and realized that even if the group wasn't chasing I burned every match I had in my book pushing through the wind to that point. I sat up, got caught and then made a half assed effort of 13mph chasing to get back on for about 10 seconds.

I soft pedaled to the start/finish where a lap later I was greeted by the grunting of fat boy General Custer winning with the least impressive sprint I've ever seen in my life. Oh well, I guess the early birds are designed to teach you lessons. The one I learned today, don't stick to plans when the scenario changes. Oh yeah, and the other one, which I really already knew, don't trick yourself into thinking you're a power guy just because the field is going slow.

Guess Who's Back!

About mid fall I heard that Floyd Landis was coming back and going to be riding domestically for what used to be Health-Net. To say I was stoked is a bit of an understatement. I remember the first story I read about Floyd in one of Lance's books where he described this young kid with lots of talent who on a day off sat at a coffee shop in Gerona, Spain and drank 13 espressos just to see if he could. If you know me, you know why I was instantly a fan of Floyd.

Most people by now know of Floyd Landis as the winner of the 2006 Tour de France who then had his title stripped because of an abnormally high testosterone ratio. Floyd is probably the one case in cycling where I really don't feel like he doped. I'm no scientist but what I do know about how testosterone works as a doping agent doesn't fit the description that he's accused of using it. (Nobody reading this wants these details.) It's also been proven that the machines the French lab used to test the samples on were not calibrated correctly and standard lab procedures were essentially ignored. Both of these factors, if you ask people that work in labs, can grossly effect the results of any test. There are those people who think the French were using Floyd as a way to try and get to Lance. I don't know, I don't usually give conspiracy theorist much attention, but, there was definitely a group of people who decided they needed to make an example out of someone. Unfortunately for Floyd, they pulled his number.

But, screw all that. It's over. To any real fan we all know that Floyd won the 2006 Tour and that's what matters. With a lot of big comebacks, namely one Mr. Armstrong, Floyd's is going to be overshadowed a bit. But, for Floyd that's ok. He clams up in the spot light. But, since he's racing domestically all year it's going to be huge for a sport that is struggling to find sponsorship in our current economic wonderland. Races like the Tour of Utah that are really close to being a race with recognition will now have a big time name with a big time domestic fan base lining up on day one. And that is huge! So whatever people say about Lance bringing great press to cycling is probably true, but that press is mainly going to be overseas. Floyd's going to be doing it at home and I'm super stoked that I'm going to get the chance to see him race a few times this year.

Here's to hoping Floyd gives them hell. And, what's not to like about a guy who eats In-N-Out for lunch instead of weighing his boiled chicken?

Our New Fearless Leader

With the swearing in of our new President this week everybody was going crazy with gushy emotions about how great the world is about to be. Being my naturally cynical self I'm a bit less than ready to crown Mr. Obama the greatest President of all time until he actually gets some of the stuff that he promised done.

It's easy to talk about what you're going to do. In any context, not just when trying to convince people to elect you leader of the free world. What's more difficult and should count for a lot more is when you deliver on those things you spoke about.

I totally understand that the simple idea of change gives people hope and Obama certainly embodies that. So, as I listened to his speech on Tuesday I did so without much emotion because again, they were just words. As this week as progressed I've caught glimpses of the new President in the oval office on the front page of major newspapers and I realized it hasn't really set in for me. Sure I realize that good old boy W is out and there's a new guy with access to the fancy pen set, but my life didn't change. And that's sort of why I find it so difficult to get fired up about many political causes or the process as a whole. Sure these people we elect are important. Sure they make big decisions that have the possibility of effecting the world. But on a personal level there isn't much they do that changes my day to day life. Some people find this ridiculous but it's just the way I feel.

So, did I vote? I did. And did I vote for Obama? I did. But why? If I don't notice the difference of one administration to another what made Mr. Obama seem like a better candidate than Mr. McCain? Simple. Mack Brown thought so. The day the stories came out that Obama visited the Longhorns my mind was made up, I was voting for Obama.

Early Bird #3: I guess that's bike racing.

I went into this race with a plan, which was really the first time. My plan was to do my best Levi impression and sit on wheels the entire day. On the last lap I'd make my move up to the top 10 and then I'd either move off the front in the last turn if it was slow or wait for the sprint if it was fast.

I did everything exactly according to plan, but unlike the last two weeks where I had good results, this one was the definition of mediocre. It was fast and so going into turn four I decided to follow a small train of guys going up the outside to set up for a bunch sprint. As we made our way up some homeboy on the inside decided it was his time to shine and he jumped WAY, WAY, WAY too early. Usually, this move could be ignored because he'll fade and you can laugh about it later. Unfortunately his way too early jump meant he needed to get to the outside and his path went through the front end of my bike. Fortunately I was able to get out of his way but the sudden move made me forget we were still a long way from the line and I started to sprint. 200 meters later my legs stopped cooperating. I sat down and coasted in giving up about 15 places to other guys who weren't sprinting at all. But, sometimes that's how it goes. You do everything right and the luck just isn't on your side. At least I kept all my skin.

The picture above is pretty much how I felt going across the line. And it proves my non violent nature because I should have been pointing my finger gun and to the fool who tried to kill me. But, as we all know, I'm way too nice for that!

High Tech Nutrition!

Almost never does anyone ever ask me what I eat when I go out for a 5+ hour bike ride. Mostly I think it's because nobody cares, which is probably the right feeling to have about the topic. But, because I rode my bike for 6.5 hours today and experienced a few different food related issues I decided I'd share exactly what I consumed throughout the day.

There are endless discussions on what and how much of something someone should eat during a ride. Generally the calculations are based on calories/hour but I can't be bothered with that kind of math. I also can't be bothered with eating things that are sold in the "energy bar" isle of your local grocery store. I've ingested so many cliff bars and gus that I swore I'd never have another a few months ago. And, I haven't. But, if I'm not eating a cliff bar or taking in gu ever hour what is one to do? Don't I realize that those products are specifically designed to keep me going.

In the picture below you will see three cookies in a sandwich bag. I ate a cookie every hour. They are not special cookies. They are turtle supreme or something. They taste delicious! You will also notice an apple turnover thing. I saw these at Safeway on 10 for $7 sale. I bought 5 because I couldn't remember if I liked them or not. After eating one on top of Mt. Diablo today for lunch I remember that I do like them. I also ate a banana which depleted my "getting there food." On the way back I stopped at a gas station and bought two Ms. Fields cookies, a snikers bar (which I ate immediately and threw the wrapper away so it's not pictured) and two packets of salted peanuts in case I started cramping. But I didn't, so I didn't eat them.



So, that's it. I have no idea how many total calories I took in. I have no idea what my carb to protein ratio was. I do know that I could pretty much care less about any of that crap. This line of thinking leads to the occasional bonk but not usually. And, this stuff is way cheaper than all that "scientifically formulated crap," not to mention all the people forcing down a cliff bar gaze at your cookies quite longingly.

The Wrestler: An unqualifed review

I'm going to do the 3-10 people who read this blog a favor and tell you not to go see The Wrestler. I had never heard of this movie until the guys on a radio talk show that I listen to were praising it like they were being paid to do so. And after watching it, I think maybe they were. After they hyped it up so much I found a trailer online and was blown away. The trailer made me cry so I thought for sure this movie was going to be amazing. I mean really, who cries during the trailer?

One thing I hate when people review movies is when they critique acting. Mostly I hate this because the people doing the critiquing don't act and so how the hell do they know what it takes to be a good actor or not. Another thing I hate is when people insist that a movie is amazing and that if you didn't like it it's because you missed the point. This clearly insinuates you aren't smart enough to see the bigger point the movie was trying to convey.

Let me state very clearly that I didn't hate The Wrestler for any of these reasons. I thought the acting was pretty good. I mean I believed the main character was a beaten down old wrestler. All the fill in wrestlers looked enough like guys who I saw wrestle at county fairs growing up in the south. And I certainly didn't like it because I left confused. Nope, I got it. Old dude can't give up the dream because he can't do anything else. He realizes after a heart attack that he's wasted his entire life wrestling so he tries to quickly build relationships with his daughter who he's neglected for years and a stripper who he loves. Once these two options blow up he goes back to wrestling because it's the only thing he knows. I think I got the point.

The talk I heard leading up to seeing it was that it really makes you feel bad for these guys who continue to beat the hell out of themselves for literally no money and no fame. I'd say the movie also does a decent job of conveying this aspect. Well, at least it shows you they beat the hell out of themselves and then get almost no pay for it. Maybe I'm just not a nice person, but it didn't make me feel sorry for any of them because it's a decision these guys are making.

When I go see a movie I want it to be one thing, entertaining. That's all I want from a movie. There are a ton of levels of entertaining so I generally find that I like a wide variety of movies. The only highlight of this movie is when Marisa Tomei is naked in the strip club. And, luckily, for the movies sake, it happens about 5 or 6 times. I joked with a friend before going to see this movie that I love movies she's in because she's always naked. Good thing this movie was no exception or it wouldn't have a single redeeming factor.

I think the most annoying thing about the movie is that they seemed to use the same camera crew as the guys in The Blair Witch Project. When dude would walk the camera would walk behind him and shake the same way it does if its mounted to your shoulder. I didn't get motion sick or anything from the constant bobbing up and down of the camera but it did get on my nerves about 3 minutes into the show.

So, there you go. If you want to see Marisa Tomei naked just go rent "Before the Devil Knows Your Dead" for like $3 bucks at blockbuster. You'll come up $7 ahead and it's just about as bad of a movie as The Wrestler. If you want to see old people get thrown through a table, I'm sure there's youtube videos that can hold you over and won't take nearly the time commitment.

Partner vs. Boyfriend/Girlfriend

This may or may not make sense. It also may or may not make a point.

Recently I have met quite a few people who refer to their significant other as their “partner” as opposed to boyfriend or girlfriend. For me, I’ve mostly heard the term partner used in reference to same sex relationships. This has always confused me a bit because just because the people in involved shared the same anatomy, I never understood why that person wouldn’t simply be your boyfriend or girlfriend. Why partner?

When I worked at Georgetown I had a lot of interaction with the residential life staff through various committees and other work functions. For the most part res life staffers are insanely positive and overly PC. Due to the PC nature of their job, I heard a guy refer to his “partner” in a story. I assumed this guy was gay because of the reference. I later learned he was not. His partner was his girlfriend, but somehow referring to his girlfriend as partner was the new way to not alienate same sex couples. This doesn’t make any sense to me.

I remember when I was a kid my mom used to refer to her friends from high school in stories as girlfriends. This confused me and so as a kid I asked for clarification. She explained it in a perfectly logical way and my little brain started to understand that words can have different definitions being used in various contexts.

Being a hetero dude I have never referred to a girlfriend as anything except girlfriend. I think if I started to use the term partner it’d sound really weird and fake and clearly way too PC than I am or have any aspirations to be. At the same time I could care less about which gender someone else is attracted to. Like any sane person in the world I realize that people are all made differently and so some folks find themselves attracted to people who share the same anatomy, or maybe people with every form of anatomy and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. If a girl who digs other girls calls her significant other her girlfriend it doesn’t change anything about how she feels about that person just as it doesn't change the way I’d feel about my girlfriend. If we defined the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” using the general way that society uses them, the same definition works for both hetero and homo-sexual couples.

I guess my point is I just don’t see the utility value in having a term that was originally used to define the significant other of a same sex couple and then morphed into the PC term so as not to alienate those same sex couples. For me, the feeling of obligation to use such a term is just as alienating as forcing them to call their significant other something other than what everyone else does. Maybe this is a larger overlying problem as our society attempts to move forward. Can we really get past any issue that segregates if we can’t all use the same inclusive vocabulary?

It's Only Sort of About Bike Helmets.

For most of my friends I’m the only cyclist they know and so when there is a question regarding anything on bikes I’m generally the one that fields it. Some of these questions range in topics from racing to general idiots on wal-mart bikes clogging up city streets. It’s not uncommon for people to ask me how I feel about wearing a helmet but the answer varies a bit depending on the circumstances.

When I’m racing I wear a helmet because the rules say I have to. Not that I wouldn’t anyway in a race filled with fools who can take you out, but since it’s a rule there’s no point in discussing why I do.

When I’m out training I still wear a helmet but not really because I feel like it keeps me any safer. A lot of my training rides are done solo so there’s not really anybody else who’s going to crash me. I’ve crashed a few times over the years on training rides and never once hit my head on the road. Even when I got hit by a car a few years ago my head didn’t make any contact with the pavement. Still, I wear one and I think the reason I do is because of the stigma of having other cyclists who are very pro-helmet constantly yell at you about not wearing one. There’s nothing that drives me more insane than hearing people I don’t know correct me for something like they’re my legal guardian. This happens all the time with my iPod and every time I ask these fools with camelbaks when they’re going to start giving me an allowance they generally get the point and leave me alone. But, with a helmet it’s different. The badgering doesn’t stop and so I wear one.

I really hate commuting by bike but in the odd chance that I’m doing it I never, EVER, wear a helmet. I just don’t see the point and it’s just one more thing that has to be carried or locked up once I get wherever it is I’m going. And that factor alone is more of a pain in the ass than I’m willing to deal with.

Recently on Velonews.com there was a picture of a pro team on a training ride where a lot of the riders weren’t wearing helmets. The picture I posted above isn’t the same photo but it’s an example of the same type of thing. Tons and tons of pros never wear helmets and in my opinion that’s their own prerogative as a decision making adult. If one of these pros crashes on this ride, cracks his head open and whatever else, nobody else can be blamed for it. He knew the inherent risks just like anybody else who decides not to wear a helmet. But apparently the rest of the world doesn’t see it that way. The amount of outcry that came by the way of fan mail from idiots into velonews.com threatening to cancel subscriptions if the publication showed helmetless riders ever again was absolutely ridiculous.

Ok, I get it, you wear a helmet and you think that the world will implode if you don’t. I’m sure you make your poor kid wear a helmet when they ride their bmx bike over to their friends house as well. And while I feel sorry for your kid because bicycle helmets, especially while riding a bmx bike, are really dorky, I guess since the kid is under your supervision you can enforce such precautions. But it drives me nuts that people feel the need to impose their own overly precautious hysteria and try and force it on everybody else. Is it a bit more risky to ride your bike with no helmet? Probably. Do you hurt anybody else by not doing so? Nope. As an adult should you be allowed to make your own decisions about how much risk you’re willing to take with your own life? Absolutely!

So dudes writing in about helmets, instead you should maybe take the time to fill up your camel back, lube up your triple crank and adjust your fred mirrors. For the rest of us that are sane and respect other people’s ability to make a decision about their own personal safety when it doesn’t affect anybody else, turn up your iPod so you can’t hear that old dude when he tells you it’s dangerous. And then point out that you can’t hear him and smile.

Also, substitute the word “seat belt” for every “helmet” and you’re essentially looking at the same issue where instead of annoying readers you have the gov’t making that decision for you.

Ugliest Kit, So far.

Every year with the team press conferences the new kits (uniform for those of you not up on the cycling vocab) get revealed. This is team Columbia - High Road's new kit and boy is it ugly! These guys have multimillion dollar budgets and the best they can do is something that looks like it came from the semi-custom pages of a brochure. Did you really need to put fake abs on the jersey? The yellow is supposed to represent success and the white purity. That's all fine and well but seriously, this is the best you could do? I might be alone on this one but I'd rather wear the "venom" Rock Racing kit (see the post about Fast Freddy from November) than this thing. Here's to hoping the other teams have a few creative designers they go to for their racing gear!

Early Bird #2

If this entry were to have a subtitle it would be, The lesson of suffering and then sprinting.

The race was a bit faster this week. The field was also about double the previous one. On the third lap this big dude went by me up the middle following another guy and so I thought he'd be a nice big body to draft off of. He was, but he also wasn't stopping when he got to the front. Since I was already there I figured what the heck, let's see what happens. The group didn't react and so I thought maybe we've have a shot to at least stay away for a lap or so but it was not to be. The guy on the front of our little three man train pulled until the exploded. The big guy I was following did the same. When it was my turn the group had brought us back so to ensure I wasn't towing the entire group I just swung the hell off the front and drifted back 10 or so places.

But that effort hurt! And I never even stuck my nose in the wind. Those two guys were super strong and should have took much smaller pulls trying and I think the three of us could have organized enough to stay away a bit longer.

With three laps to go I was in the pain locker so I decided I need a good set of wheels to follow and just sit there for a couple laps. What do you know, that actually helped! I recovered a ton and after turn 1 I moved up 5 or so places. After turn 2 I moved up another 5 or so until I found myself in the top ten for turn three, which is really the last turn because 4 is a huge sweeper. I ended up beating a couple guys in the spring which really surprised me. Mainly because I suck at sprinting and I remembered these guys for being super powerful in Cross races.

So, I finished about 7th or so out of 40 guys. A group of three attacked after turn three and ended up holding it. I had no idea that we weren't all together. I'm more stoked about the lesson I learned, which is, even if you're hurting and it's hard to hold wheels, if you suffer through, you might be able to recover enough to do decent sprint at the end.

Oh yeah, and Freddy Rodriguez won the Pro, 1, 2, 3 race in a bunch sprint. He and Danny Holloway left the rest of the group like they weren't moving. It was awesome to see up close!

The Landall Uninteractive Poll

There are three things that I love when it comes to college football and those three things are, the Longhorns, the Longhorns beating the Sooners and the Sooners losing big bowl games. The last 6 years have really brought me a lot of joy.

I was going to bash Oklahoma for not winning a BCS bowl game since 2000. Oklahoma has the highest paid coach in college sports and I am now completely convinced that they justify that bloated salary by making themselves feel good when they beat totally inferior teams by 50. That must be what helps them overlook the fact that they haven't won the last three BCS games they played in, all of which they were favored.

But, I'm not going to bash Oklahoma. Instead I am going to officially publish what I think the final top 10 should look like for major college football. Below will be the rankings and below that will be my justification of each.

1. Utah
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. USC
5. Oklahoma
6. Alabama
7. Penn State
8. Ohio State
9. Texas Tech
10. TCU

1. Utah - Only team to go undefeated and in my opinion the only team to make a statement with their bowl win. They are penalized in most polls for playing in the Mountain West but I'd argue that the Mountain West has just as many tough football programs as the Big 10 or the ACC. To paraphrase their coach, "All we could do was beat the teams we were scheduled to play." And they did. Every last one of them.
2. Florida - Eh. I'm not a big Florida fan and ever since ESPN did that special interest piece of Tim Tebow going to prisons to talk about Jesus it makes me like them even less. However, they are clearly good. Are they good enough to be the consensus National Champs? Not to me. But, in the system we have, I guess that's what they are.
3. Texas - I'm not being a fair weather fan by putting them over USC. They beat Oklahoma 45-35 on a neutral field. They played 4 consecutive weeks against teams all in the top 11. Our loss was to a Texas Tech that finished higher than Oregon State who beat USC. And, with 2:05 left on the clock Colt McCoy showed just how good he is and marched his team down the field to win the game. Not every important win is by 60.
4. USC - They're clearly good. I think the rounding out of my top 5 would make for some of the best games in a playoff system that exists. They beat Penn State pretty easily, but, everybody saw that coming.
5. Oklahoma - I guess they deserve to stay in the top 5. Sam Bradford's Heisman stats are insanely bloated due to never coming off the field when they're up by 45. The deserved to play in the Fiesta Bowl, not the Orange. OU Sucks!
6. Alabama - All year I had a feeling that Alabama wasn't as good as everyone who jumped on the band wagon was making them out to be. Still, in his first year at the program, Nick Saban can clearly coach 'em up!
7. Penn State - When Penn State was still undefeated and there was conspiracy theories that they'd jump Texas to play for the national title so that JoPa could have another shot at winning I began to pray mercilessly that they'd lose. JoPa is like a billion years old but you gotta love the guy. It's not his fault that Penn State is stuck in the Big 10 playing other mediocre teams of great football past.
8. Ohio State - They're better than I thought they were. They're seniors have lost every bowl game they've played in so from a personal standpoint that says something about both the players they recruit and the coaches. Jim Tressel should stop wearing sweater vests.
9. Texas Tech - They seem to do well when teams only have a week to prepare for their crazy offense and not an entire month. They still beat a very good Texas on a last second play. In my opinion they are on the map and clearly take over the number 3 spot for the programs in the Big 12 south.
10. TCU - I don't know anything about TCU but everybody else has them at like 7 in their polls. So, I'll stick them in at 10. And because their a christian school, maybe god won't smite me for making the Tim Tebow comment earlier.

Early Bird #1

You know you're in for a treat when the guy running the fundamentals clinic asks who thinks they're good at riding in a pace line and only 3 out of about 80 riders raise their hands.

The Early Birds are a series of races here in the bay area that run every Sunday through January. They are intended to give newbies race and skill experience without throwing them to the wolves. If you are a 5, you can attend a skills clinic and participate in the race and get upgrade credit for each.

Rumor had it they are crash laden and basically every race that day had at least one. My race didn't, however, that's due to one guy being filled with magical powers when an idiot three bikes up from me basically decided to just run into him. He didn't go down, which, was really nothing short of a miracle.

Outside of that the race was pretty uneventful, usual stuff you'd expect from a bunch of 5s racing for the first time this year. Nobody really taking the right line through the corners and even less people holding the line the started on. We raced for 40 minutes. Some dude got away and stayed about 200 yards off the front since nobody, included myself cared to exert the effort to chase him. I ended up about 5th as a group of 10 eventually split the field and then we sort of half sprinted at the end. My 5th was almost solely because at least 3 guys in front of me started sprinting way too early and faded and I was able to basically just ride by them. And, since I am still in my non-fit fat stage, I'll take it!

Nothing exciting, but at least the rubber side stayed down. Racing the first weekend of the year? Crazy if you ask me!

New Years Extravaganza!

I can't tell you how many flights I've been on that have offered up flight vouchers if people were willing to take a later one. In every case I always want to do it but am unable because I need to be back wherever it is I'm going. This morning I was scheduled to fly out of San Antonio at 8am to get back to SF around 10am. I put myself on the volunteer list just in case they started auctioning off cash and prizes.

So, here I am. Complimentary accommodations at the very swanky LaQuinta Inn. I am booked for the same flight tomorrow, only I was upgraded to first class for being so patient. I also put myself on that volunteer list as well so maybe I can get bumped off that flight and get another free flight voucher.

My goal is to try and get as many free flights as I can for the next year. I don't think I will have enough vacation or money to take advantage of more than a couple if I can amass them, but, the options will be there.

With no plans for any sort of New Years celebration it seems sort of fitting that I'll likely be in this room, by myself, asleep by the time the ball or whatever it is they drop in San Antonio. Maybe a spur?



Let's make some official public New Year's resolutions:
(I have given this absolutely no thought so who knows where this is going!)

- Lose weight. I figure this one is a pretty universal one. Getting myself down to a solid fighting weight in the 148-153 range will make me ride my bike about 1 mph faster.
- Be less of a jerk. I don't really mean that one. It just seems nice to say.


Ok, I decided that was lame and no longer want to write those out. Drink a lot. Maybe till you vomit!

I gotta go find the cheapest way to the river walk so I can entertain myself while I'm here.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

Literally. My folks live in Cotulla, TX which is closer to Mexico than San Antonio with not much in between in any direction. It's warm and sunny and in some cases the streets in town are fully paved. It is not however, a place people under the age of 40 could live. There is simply nothing to do.

We took a trip to Austin, and I'll do my best to post some pictures soon. I'd never been to Austin so I paid my respects to my beloved Longhorns taking a moment of silence outside of DKR Stadium. Austin, is a great city. It's unlike any other place in Texas I'd ever been. It's still country but it's progressive. You see as many hipsters on fixies as you do cowboys climbing out of giant trucks.

Everyone always makes fun of me for my Texas pride since we moved when I was so young. There's just something about Texas cowboy culture that is appealing to me. However, I've always made fun of people that dress up and play cowboy so I wouldn't jump into boots and a hat just because it's Texas. It's a city that mixes the best parts of two cultures I'm drawn to and on some level identify with.

Keep Austin Weird, the official unofficial town logo. I don't think this statement means the same thing to two people that live there. And I think that makes it a pretty rad city!

One more for Bowl Season

One more argument from the Texas contingent that we got screwed by the BCS.

Texas' weakest out of conference win, Floria Atlantic. Florida Atlantic is playing in the Motor City Bowl.

Oklahoma's weakest out of conference win, Washington. Washington went winless and is currently looking for a head coach.

Clearly Oklahoma had more "quality wins."

Cross Race in Livermore

Saturday I went and raced in Livermore. I raced in the B's because I didn't feel like getting up early enough to get there for the C race. at least 50% of the course took place inside of a small town rodeo arena. We had to ride through the chutes and through some pretty technical muddy sections out in the middle. They took us up the back side of the stairs for the bleachers which was pretty cool. There was a barrier in front of the stairs which I thought was stupid because you were going to have to get off for the stairs anyway. I didn't understand why they forced the dismount 10 feet in front of the stairs.

The field size was a lot smaller than the other races as I discovered the Super Prestige series is really well attended. They races all of the B's together. that included the 18-34 Bs, 35+ Bs and 45+Bs. It seemed like we had about 40-50 guys at the start line. Come to find out this also included all of the 35+ and 45+ As also. The field size really only matters at the start since it's important to sprint as fast you can to the first corner so that you don't have to try and pass people later. After the first lap it inevitably strings itself out with myself somewhere in the middle. This field was deceiving though because I could never tell who I was racing against in the Bs. I knew I wasn't in contact with the leaders anymore but I thought I was at least in the top 15 or so from where we started. And, I may have been, it's really hard to tell. On the results sheet I discovered there was actually only 11 Bs and I finished 9th out of those. I'm not really sure how to "race" when you don't know who you're racing against on the course. What I discovered was that everybody I passed were all in the 35+ or 45+ category so it didn't matter that I passed them.

I had a decent race. A few times my brain decided not to function properly and I did a few stupid things. There was a set of double barriers close to the start finish line that I convinced myself were lower than usual and that I could bunny hop them. On the third lap a guy cut me off in the corner before the barriers and since I was already trying to decide whether I should bunny hop them or not all the momentum I lost from getting on the brakes made me decide not to try but I also seemed to forget I was still going to have to get off the bike anyway. I literally just came to a stop at the barrier and shook my head in frustration. The very next lap I came around by myself and decided I was going to bunny hop them. I tried to carry as much speed through the corner as I could. It was all wood chips so it was sort of hard but I thought I did it. As I approached the barrier I committed, bunny hopped, heard the crash of my front tire on the barrier and felt my junk land on the top tube as the bike and me went down in a giant blaze of glory. Since these barriers were so close to the finish line people were gathered. The crash must have been pretty ugly because instead of cheering, which normally happens when crash at cross races, everybody just stared at me. I was pretty tangled up in the bike so I gave the crowd a thumbs up and then untied myself. One of the ladies thanked me for being ok. And I said, "you're welcome."

I'm still convinced I could bunny hop those barriers. I didn't try it on the next lap because I passed a guy going into the section that I had been using as a rabbit the entire lap. I wanted to make sure I actually beat him instead of letting him walk past me as I lay on the ground.

But, no injuries. Just a slightly sore neck which didn't set in until yesterday afternoon so I'm not totally convinced it's from crashing.

Cross racing is still fun. And I'm still not very good at it!

Abbreviated Words and Substitutions

Typing was invented so people could write faster. Why then do people insist upon abbreviating words when they type them? Especially in ways that can't possibly save any time. Writing the word "government" as "gov't" certainly saves time. Writing the word "come" as "cum" does not save time. In fact it's an entirely different word with a definition that has nothing to do with it's intention in sentences when it's used.

What I've noticed lately that drives me even more insane than abbreviations that don't abbreviate much are "bad" words where people use characters to replace vowels. You aren't fooling anyone or changing what you intend the word to mean if you write "f*ck" instead of "fuck." It doesn't change anything. Just write the word you intended and move on.

Motivational Quotes

My high school baseball coach loved quotes. On almost a daily basis, just after everyone had gotten loose, the whole team would gather in the dugout and wait for instruction. Just before instruction was given some random quote would be read a loud to the team and I suppose the idea was to give us something to think about to keep us from simply going through the motions. I practiced with the varsity my freshman year so I had four solid years of daily quotes during baseball season. I remember one:

"Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining." - Coach Mike Greene.

This quote is clearly not motivational unless you need to be motivated not to lie to people. Maybe it's my personality and natural cynicism but hearing the words that someone else said in a completely unrelated context has never done anything for me.

My father is also a lover of quotes and over the course of my lifetime I can't think of how many times he's said one or tried to use one to make a point. Again, I remember one:

"Excuses are like assholes. Everybody's got one and they generally stink." - Dad.

Now I'm sure my father isn't the original author of such insightful words but his voice saying them rings out in my head almost anytime I hear someone explain why they failed at just about anything. But again, it's not really motivational.

What I have always found to be a great motivator is challenging myself to overcome whatever barrier might be in front of me. Going into my senior season of high school baseball our team thought we had a shot to win the district title. We were returning almost all of our starters from the year before and we only lost 3-4 games. The local papers that covered our district saw it otherwise. I cut out every single article I could find that predicted we'd finish 3rd, 4th or even middle of the pack in some cases and hung those articles up in the locker room directly above my locker. We ended up having one of the best seasons our high school ever had and lost in the regional tournament because of home town officials on a series of plays that sometimes still wake me up from nightmares.

When I was younger I used the motivation of someone telling me I couldn't throw to work on that aspect of my game. I didn't remember his exact words but when I got home I wrote, "Your arm is your weakness" on a piece of paper and hung it above my bed on the ceiling. I woke up every morning and read those words. It'd piss me off on a daily basis but motivate me to work on it. At some point the motivation changed from gaining arm strength to simply trying to make Mr. Thompson (One of the best baseball minds I've ever met.) eat his words.

My Senior year of college I decided I wanted to do an Ironman triathlon. My friend Chris Durlak told me I couldn't do it. I'm not sure he really doubted me, but I used that as motivation to get myself out of bed to train. Later when I started planning my bike trip around the US he openly said he wasn't going to be my doubter on this one.

Recently I read an article in a cycling magazine that discussed just how easy it is for people to talk about winning, or even say they want to win races, but very few of those people are willing to actually do what it takes to win. Put in the proper training hours or even make themselves hurt to the point that is often necessary during the race itself. The idea of winning is nice. The suffering and sacrifice it often takes to make it happen just isn't worth it for most.

So I guess different people are motivated by different things. Still, I can't fathom how reading the great words of Einstein can possible get people excited to do something better than they would otherwise. I need doubters. I need there to be someone that I can prove wrong. Oddly enough, sometimes I find that person is myself.

So, I'll leave you with this. It's the best I can remember of what I used as my favorite quote in an athlete bio I had to fill out for a triathlon team I used to be on.

"If you need motivational words to get up, turn to google." -Landall.

From when I was famous

As I was putting stuff away in my new apartment I found a bunch of cds. One of them had all of the old stuff from my ridearoundamerica.com website which tracked that little bike ride I did. Included were the three various pieces that were done on me. I've decided to share them with you in case you haven't seen them.



This video is from one of the local Richmond, VA news stations that did this story before I left.



The dude that did this interview in Lubbock, TX was really cool. He miked me and we literally just talked for about a half hour or so. I totally forgot I was being filmed.



This was from Tyler, TX. Probably the worst of the three. I was really sick of the trip and ready to be home at this point. Plus, the lady doing the interview is an Oklahoma Alum and the whole time I was holding back mentioning that the Longhorns crushed the Sooners that year.



This is the day that I rode a 5 hour century on the rollers. There's about 10 seconds of dead air before anything starts to play. I don't know how to edit this shit.

Do they mean anything?

Has anyone else noticed that college football seems to give out about a billion awards to individual players? They're all named after people that nobody except someone looking to work on an ESPN research desk has ever heard of and in reality this seems pretty appropriate because with so many awards they can't really mean anything right?

There's the John Doe something or another best all around player award. Which, generally goes to a quarterback. There's the some old dude from the 1930s best offensive player award. Which also seems to go to quarterbacks. There's the [insert person of your choice] award for most service award. Which, went to Tebow, who is a quarterback but this award had more to do with his going to prisons and telling people about God and how much God helps him on the field and blah blah blah.

(A quick aside. If God helps Tim Tebow on the field but not the other players then shouldn't the other players find someone else to ask for help? Just a thought. Why's god like Tebow so much? It can' be his good looks becuase let's face it, that kid's face looks like he took on an All American Linebacker during one of his designed run plays without a helmet. But anyway, those points don't matter.)

It just seems to me that awards are really only given their value when they are rare. In the sport of triathlon, which I have since retired, I used to get insanely annoyed at awards ceremonies because in the larger categories they're recognize dudes that came in like 12th place. What does that mean? 12th place? It means that they're old and a lot of other old people are signing up for that race and so percentage wise 12th place was like top 5% or something. But that shouldn't matter. 12th place means you got your butt kicked by 11 other dudes and maybe next time you should run faster. But for the organizers it made sense to give out that many places because it made people feel valued and they were more likely to return for subsequent years since they got a crappy medal or coffee mug or something else to put in their office at work and show to friends.

Just like in triathlon, recognizing the 12th best dude doesn't mean anything if every person in college football seems to be getting an award for something. Or, every quarterback rather. The Heisman is really no exception. For someone other than a quarterback to win the Heisman there needs to be a lot of factors working in that persons favor other than what they do on the field. You won't hear me argue that the quarterback isn't the most vital part to any team. They are. But if you put the best quarterback ever concieved (maybe my immaculate conception like Allen Iverson) on a field with totally useless receivers, a line that is afraid to get touched and running backs who fumble every time they touch the ball, you're going to lose every game. You have to go all the way back to Charles Woodson in 1997 for the last defensive player that won and 1936 to some white dude who played End at Yale before that.

If the Heisman is just an award for the most "exciting" offensive player in the country then call it that. But it strikes me as odd that the Heisman is revered as the highest honor in all of college sports but only a handful of offensive players, mostly quarterbacks are ever really eligible.

In 2007 Michael Crabtree broke every receiving record for the last decade as a true Freshman. He plays for Texas Tech who weren't in the hunt for the Big 12 title much less the National Championship so he wasn't even mentioned until the last week of the season and then only as a footnote. Texas Tech still plays Oklahoma and Texas and all the other Big 12 schools that Sam Bradford plays. Why are Crabtree's numbers less meaningful simply because he plays at Texas Tech? But still, had he won, it'd still be another offensive player winning the award where NO defensive players were even footnotes.

What if a kicker played for Iowa. Iowa is a Big 10 school so they play a conference schedule that if they went undefeated would rank them in the top 5 whether they went on to play for a national title or not. Let's say in this made up season Iowa wins every game in either overtime or on a completed field goal with 1 second left on the play clock. Let's also assume that all of these field goals were 40+ yards. In this scenario, this kicker is clearly the most valuable person on this team. Should he win the Heisman?

What if a defensive end records a sack in ever key 3rd and short or anything and goal for an entire season thus always forcing the other team to punt or settle for a field goal? Should this guy win the Heisman?

I think in the long rambling mess of logic I'd tried to present my key point is simply that there are too many awards and the awards they do give out hardly means what the description of each one says. Just call them what they are. Just give out three or four quarterback of the year awards if that's what you want to do. But don't forget about free safety. Without them you'd have a tough time putting together your highlight reel at the end of the season.

Living in an ipod world

When I was in college I used to constantly make fun of the kids who couldn't make it across campus to class without popping in their ear buds and listening to half of their favorite song on their way to class. Granted, I'm not a "music" person and really only listen to it while on my bike working out, in my car or at work to help the time go by. It just never made sense to me that these people couldn't make it from even the furthest most points on campus, maybe a 15 minute walk, without the aid of music.

This morning while I was getting gas I was treated to beautiful sight, young love. Two middle school aged kids were walking down the sidewalk headed to what I can only assume was school. They were holding hands and doing all the other awkward middle school puppy love things as they walked. Just as I was admiring their love and taking a small trip down memory lane I noticed these kids both had something that did not exist when I was young and in love, ipods. Both sets of ears were plugged with ear buds and while I wasn't remotely close enough to hear whether they were rocking their favorite jams, one must assume there was music.

Why? Why bother doing anything that could otherwise be seen as even remotely social if you're going to insist on using your ipod at the same time? The more I think about it the more I realize that I am constantly in social settings where individuals are using ipods.

I'm not one of those doom and gloom, the world is going to shit and all that other terrible stuff type of person. But isn't the awkward days of middle school where you should start to learn the social skills that will be probably the most important thing you have later in life? If you can't even walk the 10-15 minutes it takes you to get to school without music you've got issues. If you can't do it with your girlfriend by your side then you've got a long future of World of Warcraft ahead of you.

Good luck with that!

On a sort of related note. If anybody has an old blackberry that doesn't work I'd gladly take that off your hands so I can walk down sidewalks pretending to type emails and thus avoiding giving directions to tourists. This activity would also allow me to pretend like I'm too focused to give a response to the homeless guy asking me for change.

Best Video Ever!

I'm pretty sure that everyone, especially everyone that lives in California and has a facebook account has seen this video by now. But, if you haven't, it's probably the funniest video ever.

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

If you aren't crashing you aren't trying...

Probably one of the funniest videos I've seen in a very long time. I was crying from laughing. Of course I showed it to a co-worker and they only thought the clothes were funny. I guess it's a cyclist thing?

Yo me gusto cyclocross!

I think I might be addicted to cross. Or maybe it’s just racing my bike that I like so much, but either way, Sunday was awesome! I made another small component upgrade to the Fondriest (switched out the stupid commuter pedals for SPDs. This made a huge difference in remounting) bringing my total bill for bike rebuild to about $120. Not bad!

The races that I’ve been in are part of a larger five race series. Because my buddy Kevin (who finished 7th on the day and ended up 8th in the overall series) didn’t convince me to race cross until the 3rd race in the series, race number 5 for everyone else was race number 3 for me. That’s a lot of confusing number placement so go ahead and take the time to read that previous sentence one more time if needed.

Outside of track racing it’s a safe bet to say that no two courses are the same. Even on the road race organizers can get creative with chicanes in downtown sections or take up really steep short hills in some races and longer climbs in others. I really liked the course at Coyote Point. It had a few elements that we hadn’t had in the last few races. Some of these aspects were:

- A long climb with some steep sections thrown in for good measure. I am not a power guy so I really like climbing. This climb was long enough to hurt the power guys and steep enough to hurt what seemed like everyone else. On the first lap when it was still bunched up I was able to pass a lot of people on this climb. On the laps that followed after it had strung out a bit I was still going by at least one or two each time up.

- A very technical section of four consecutive 180 degree switchbacks over woodchips. I can’t imagine a cluster of woodchips like that was natural so I can only assume they were brought in by the race organizer. This section was insanely hard and I thought it’d give me a lot of trouble. I am going to chalk up my riding this section clean and actually passing people through here as pure dumb luck. There is no way I should have gotten through there clean, but I did. One guy following me actually praised me on my cornering skills as we exited the 4th one. This made me laugh because I really had no idea what I was doing.

- A long descent (what goes up must come down) on not very smooth single track. There was one good line so if you were in front you could pick it. Outside of that you just had to follow the wheel in front of you and hope he picked it. The exceptions were the guys on mountain bikes on the first lap who basically decided they didn’t care about the line and just bombed the thing.

- A beach. There was a section of about 50 yards on a loose sandy beach. As people ran this section the sand got packed and later races eventually started riding the whole thing. For the C’s at 8:30am I don’t think anybody was riding it. I never even attempted it and it’s the one time that all those years of triathlon came in handy. I passed about 10 guys on the first lap running this section. On the subsequent laps I would maybe pass one guy or run at the same pace. Today I have a bruise on my right shoulder from carrying the tank more lovingly known at the Fondriest over this sandy section. Later I asked people how they managed to keep their saddle from constantly banging them in the back of the head as they ran and nobody had an answer. I guess that’s just the way it works.

- There was a set of barriers that were totally bunny hop-able. And while I was going to try it on the last lap I didn’t because I was trying to hold my place and didn’t want to lose it because I did something stupid.
- There were also two pretty significant sections of pavement where the power guys would really throw the hammer down. Since I am by no means one of these guys with huge amounts of power I would simply try to hold wheels and get as much of a draft as I could. I usually ended up passing them on either the climb or some other technical section of the course.

Now, if you got through all of that rambling I’m sure you’re thinking I won the race since I did nothing but mention all of the people I was constantly passing. Unfortunately this was not the case because I started about three rows from the back of the pack due to being a complete idiot. On my warm up lap I lost track of time and suddenly realized I was on the only person riding through this one section. I glanced at my watch and realized I had about 2 minute before the race started. I had to sprint through the middle of the course to get myself to the staging area and the only place I could squeeze in was at the back. So, most of those people I passed on the first climb and beach section were people I should have been way in front of to begin with.

In the end I finished 23rd out of 68 with is another big improvement over my 38th from Golden Gate Park and 2nd to last at Sierra Point (this result really shouldn’t count due to 17 chain drops). In the overall classification for the series I moved up to the top 30 (I think. They don’t have this posted and I’m trying to remember what they had posted at the race) despite having skipped the first two races.

Basically using very complex mathematical formulas on this degree of progression will bring you to see that as long as I stay on this trajectory I should be World Champion in about a year.

I would like to race a few more CX races, if for nothing else to use as threshold/power workouts. But, with the road season quickly approaching Northern California I feel like I should save any travel money for those races. And since I know this ending is keeping you glued to the edge of your seat waiting to see if I race anymore, you’ll just have to come back to find out.

Please define the word Dominate.

Gators, Sooners to meet in BCS national title game

I found this article staring back at me this morning as I checked my email. After reading the first couple paragraphs I realized it was just one more article that down played a head to head loss and glamorized winning the last half of the season by big margins.

You don't really need to read the whole article. Just the fist sentence couple sentences to show just how ridiculous the end of this college football season turned out.

"Dominated the last two months" is basically what seems to determine who gets to play for championship games.

Except there's one problem with that statement. On 10/25/08 Oklahoma lost to Texas 45-35. That's inside of two months. So maybe they weren't so "dominating" after all. Unless of course you ignore head to head match ups as an important aspect of college football. Which, clearly seems to be the case!

So now, after Oklahoma embarrassed Missouri (who really didn't deserve to be in that game either except the Big 12 North must play the South) they will go on to play Florida for the national title. I am no Florida fan but you better believe I will be cheering for the Gators as if I were born in the swamp. I realize this win would probably make a case for the argument that the SEC is always the strongest conference in college football and right now I just don't care about that.

As a consolation prize Texas plays Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. I have NO idea how an overrated Ohio State still got themselves into a BCS game when Texas Tech is clearly getting snubbed. But, Texas always plays great in big bowl games and Ohio State always falls apart so if it shapes up the right way it should be a good day for the Longhorns.

Hook 'em!

Fat Kid!

I have this habit of referring to myself as "fat kid" when I'm talking to some of my cyclist buddies. I don't really mean fat kid in the way you made fun of the chunky kid in 4th grade. For me, it's really a term I use to describe my state of fitness. Once I'm fit and in race shape, I'll probably stop, but while its the off season and base miles are being gathered by the plenty, using the term "fat kid" is just another small motivating tool to get myself where I need to be.

In reality, I'm grossly anorexic. The body mass index charts say so. I challenge to google one, find the box between 6'2" and 6'3" and then find the corresponding weight of about 157lbs. It doesn't exist. According to that chart, I need to seek attention fr an eating disorder. But, since I think that chart is stupid, I could always stand to lose a few pounds because nothing makes you ride your bike faster than being lighter.



Last night, riding home from the port, all my fat kid jokes seemed to come back to me as I broke my saddle. I should point out that I ride on a Tiogo Spyder which is all plastic, but still, it's rated to people up to 185. So, fat kid really might be a fat kid. Hopefully they'll warranty it. If they don't, I'll be riding a pink saddle I borrowed from Jennifer in the mean time. It's super cute yo!



Maybe last night was telling me I need to be at 150 by race season?

Cross race numero dos

After the help of some friends I go the Fondriest back into cross mode for another race this morning (Sunday, 11/30). I was a bit nervous because I didn't really know what to expect and figured if my mechanic skills held up, I wouldn't really have any excuses for turning in a poor result.

This course was a lot faster and a lot more technical than the last one. There were a few sand pits that made for some interesting bike handling to get through. One set of barriers that were immediately followed by a step hill so you had to run up. More than one set of turns that were at least 120 degrees, some of them following downhill sections that were really fast and then required a lot of braking and diving into the turn. Oh yeah, and it was pretty hilly in general.

I started closer to the front this time and sprinted like crazy just like everyone else when the gun went off. This strategy in most racing would be really stupid except in cross it's absolutely essential because it's so hard to pass people, especially slow ones later in the race. The first couple turns turned into cluster fucks and somehow I picked a magical line through the people, roots and sand passing about 12. I held this place until a turn that I didn't take correctly the entire day and while being lucky enough to keep myself upright was passed back by about 3 people. One of those was a friend of mine and so I decided to ride in this little mini group for a while to try and figure out how the course was going to ride at race pace. (I also thought we were closer to the front than we were. But, I didn't discover this until the results sheet was printed much later.)

This strategy was working out ok. On the third lap I decided I wanted to try and make a move up and I took a 90 degree right hand turn too fast. The course is usually marked by police barrier tape and so on a few occasions taking turns I'll find myself with the tape on my hip until I get all the way around. This never causes any problems and so when my left shifter was touching the tape in this particular turn I didn't think much about it. What I didn't realize was that my shifter had actually gone under the tape and as I rounded out the turn the tape decided it had stretched enough. The bike went was jerked back and I kept going. I want to think that it looked awesome for the people standing around watching at this point. And there were a lot. It all happened so fast and since I landed in pretty soft grass and mud that it didn't hurt and my first reaction was to get back on the bike so not to lose my place in this group. The bike had slightly different ideas and as I un-sucked the chain just a bit and spun the cranks to make sure it was sound, about 5 guys passed me.

I ended up passing most of them back but it takes so long to have stretches long enough that I never did quite make it back to the group I was with earlier. All in all I had a pretty good race. It was definitely fun and I hope that I can continue to get better at it. I feel like I have the fitness, but these races just don't work like racing on the road. The cornering is totally different as the speeds change so much going in and coming back out of the turns. But, since that power aspect of road racing is something I struggle with, maybe these races will help to boost that a bit.

A few random observations from the day:

- I found that'd I'd pass someone on the outside just before going into a corner. These people would not slow up and give me the line, they'd simply take the corner really hot (fast on the inside) and almost t-bone me at the apex of the corner. I'm not sure if this is the correct way to corner in cross, but it's certainly a good strategy for scaring the shit out of me and making me wait to pass everyone well before any corners.

- Jumping off your bike, hoping the barriers and jumping back on should be graceful. It is not graceful when I do it. I think I only got it right once.

- Whenever you approach the barriers with people around, it's best to assume they are all going to do something really stupid that will include all of the following: change lines to get in your way, hit their bike on the barrier and then drop it in front of you, jump back on their bike only to lose control and swerve in front of you, or anything else that makes the already taxing effort of getting over the barriers every more difficult.

- People who aren't fit enough to run up the "run ups" late in the race never move out of the good line. They also don't appreciate my yelling at them to move.

Next week I'm racing again. Apparently that course is pretty crazy and if it's wet it starts to look like the finish of that video I posted a few weeks back. Should be awesome!

You've got to be kidding me!

I hate Oklahoma. I always have. I always will. I hate Oklahoma to the point that when I meet someone who happens to be from there I almost immediately become suspicious of them and pretty much decide I don't like them. There are occasional exceptions to this, but not many. It's bred into your blood as a good Texas boy.

Today, with the latest release of the BCS rankings the Sooners jumped the Longhorns and will now play Missouri for the Big 12 championship and assuming they win a shot at the national title.

As much as I hate Oklahoma I'm not mad at them. I am furious at this ridiculous system that we have. Money aside, the entire premise behind the BCS is that every game matters. The system asks that on every Saturday each team shows up and tries to be the best team on the field that day. When Texas played Oklahoma on a neutral field in Dallas that's exactly what they did. They showed up and proved they were the better team in a head to head match up winning that game 45-35. The game was not played in Austin, it was played in Dallas, which is just about as equidistant to both campuses as a town could possibly be.

Both teams finished their regular seasons 11-1. Why with tied records does the Big 12 ignore head to head match ups as a tie breaking factor? If the Big 12 used the SEC tie breaker rules for a three way tie, they'd throw out the lowest BCS ranked team, in this case Texas Tech, and then look at head to head results. This, makes a lot more sense.

I really hope that in the next few weeks everybody forgets that I'm a Texas fan so I'm not constantly fielding the question, "How do you feel about that?" I could go on forever about how I think the system lets down deserving teams every year. It just seems to me that the system asks the teams to show up and be the better team that day. Take the field and show us who is better. And for some reason answering that question doesn't really seem to matter in the long run.

Fast Freddy

There are only a few places in the US where you are likely to ride past pros who are out doing the same training ride you are. Luckly, I live in one such place. When I moved to San Francisco I knew that Fred Rodriquez lived in Emeryville (Just across the bay) and I used to joke that a few of my cycling goals while here were 1) to see him while I was training and 2) figure out someway to make him my friend so I can train with him.

This morning as my buddy Jennifer and I were finishing up a very easy 2.5 hours I noticed a Rock Racing kit about two turns away. As we got closer I realized it was Freddy and I was sort of like an 8 year old seeing their favorite baseball player for the first time. I wasn't sure if I should wave. If I should say good morning. Or if I should play it totally cool and just roll past. Freddy smiled and waved to both of us and then I really looked like that 8 year old as I sat completely up to wave back. Jennifer, knowing that I wanted to run into him on a ride looked back and started to poke fun at me because I was clearly a bit star struck.

But, what a nice guy! He's a three time US National Champion and he waved hello to us. I've always liked Fast Freddy, but now I like him even more. If I can just figure out how to work out goal number 2!

Things I'm Thankful for on Thanksgiving, Sort of.

If you read my post a few days ago about my birthday then you probably won't be surprised to find that I am not a big holiday person either. The things that everybody loves about holidays have never really had much of a resounding effect on me.

Some people like big family affairs, I haven't really experienced many of these, but I'm going to say it doesn't really seem all that appealing. We moved away from family when I was young so most of my "big family gathering" experiences growing up were with other families from my dad's churches and I can't think of a single one of these that I found fun or looked forward to. Lots of sitting around and listening to older people talk about older people things.

Some people really like the massive amounts of food that you can eat during the Holidays. I am not a food person. The delicious effect of food was pretty much ruined for me during high school when I was constantly trying to gain weight for baseball and ate gross amounts of food at every opportunity. Ever since that didn't really work food is simply something that my body needs to function, plus, Turkey isn't even that good anyway.

But, my friends, do not worry, even my purest of cynical thoughts realizes there are still things to be thankful for. And, in no particular order, here are the ones I can think of while I am sitting in front of my computer when I should be on my bike getting in recovery miles.

- Friends. Old ones who I unfortunately never get to see anymore. New ones who I get to see more frequently. Friends from the future who I will meet when I get the Delorean working.

- Bikes. I will forever be thankful for bikes in general. You make my life smile. Specifically I am thankful for my two bikes. My ZX3 which will be my faithful stead in many races this season. And, my Fondriest, which faithfully carried me around the country and is no openly accepting it's role as a cross bike. I appreciate it's willingness to go through that abuse.

- Family. I have a lot of family. Many of these family members I have never met. If I were ever to move back to Texas I'd certainly have to be careful when dating. But specifically my Mom, Dad and Brother. Each of which I have a very unique relationship and feel fortunate to have them in my life.

- New homes. The day after Thanksgiving I will move to my new apartment in Oakland. My rent will decrease by almost 50%. My new roommate is super rad and our apartment should be a very cool place to call home.

- The Longhorns. I am always thankful for Longhorns football and this season has been a great one. I of course think that Texas is still deserving to play for the National Title this year, but regardless of how that plays itself out, the Longhorns have once again gave me an awesome fall with a few anxiety filled Saturdays. Hook 'em!

This turned out a lot less funny than I thought it was going to. I actually had to self edit a lot of what I wanted to write because even though I joke about only having 3-5 people reading, I'm not sure that's actually accurate and so there are sets of eyes that probably would not have found humor in some of the things I was going to originally post. Oh well.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Eat until your little heart or not so little belly is content. Then of course, for tradition sake, push past the pain and break through to a new barrier. You don't really need those last few years of your life that gluttony will eliminate. You'd be old and hardly mobile anyway! Bon appetite!

Bike Review: Pedal Force ZX3

I've been meaning to write a review of this bike for a while. Outside of being lazy I don't really have any good excuse for the delay. However, in hindsight I think it's worked out better that I waited as I have now put in a ton of very different types of miles so I've experienced the bikes performance in a lot of areas. Since I've never reviewed a bike outside of conversation with other cyclist I may leave out things that other people might want to know. But, mostly, I don't see many of you getting past the picture.

First off, I get asked all the time, "What kind of bike is that?" Pedal Force is an online dealer that sells mostly carbon frames. None of these frames are badged so it took me a long time to have an answer to that question. I was on a ride one day and a guy with a Scattante something came up to me and asked if we had the same bike. I told him I didn't think so but after further comparison of both of our bikes it was pretty obvious that we did indeed have the same bike. I don't remember the exact model, but it is an unbadged Scattante of some sort. And, since Scattantes are made on the same line as all the Fuji carbon bikes, it's essentially some sort of Fuji. This line of logic really doesn't mean a thing to me, but since it does exist, I figure it's worth maybe pointing out.

When looking to buy a new bike there are two things that matter most to me. Weight is not one of them. This bike is advertised as fully built (without bottles) at 16.5lbs. That's not insanely light, but it's lighter than my old Cervelo Dual (which is Soloist), but I can't really tell.

Geometry is really important to me because I am essentially a freak of nature. My legs are insanely long. My torso is incredibly short. This combo makes for very weird bike fit issues. The ZX3 in a 58 fits me really well. I have to use a 90mm stem to shorten the reach a bit, but that's better in the long run than having an extra foot of seat tube creating constant torque on the frame. And, I can't tell the difference in handling.

The other factor I really look for is stiffness. The other selling point for me was the gigantic over sized bottom bracket in the pictures. I don't care about road dampening or any of that crap. When I push the pedals down I want the bike to go forward. The Cervelo was stiff. When I'd start to lose a wheel in front of me on that bike I'd mash two or three hard pedal strokes and I'd be right back where I was. For a while I owned a Salsa Campeon, but not for very long because that frame simply didn't respond to those kinds of accelerations. My ZX3 is stiff! Whether it's following surges from other people on climbs, accelerating to stay on wheels in groups, sprinting or riding people off my wheel this bike moves forward. No complaints about the stiffness.

The price of this bike was another great factor. Total build was $1,650 with SRAM Rival. Since I'm going to be racing a ton of crits this year this price doesn't make me squeamish when thinking of the carnage that can be made of a bike during crashes.

This is also my first time using a SRAM groupo. It took me about two rides for the double tap shifting to become intuitive. Since then I've noticed that it takes much less fine tuning than Ultegra. Aesthetically speaking I also like that all of the cables are routed inside the bar tape.

The only complaint I have about my ZX3 is that there are occasional noises coming out of some new place. The noises come and go so I've sort of learned to ignore it for a bit and see what happens. The happening is usually the noise going away within a few days.

Overall I am very happy with my bike. It's stiff. It climbs well. It handles well. I'm learning to be a better descender and I feel like this bike is helping with that as well. And, after spending the last hour trying to write this, I've also learned that I should not be a professional product reviewer.

So It's my Birthday and yesterday's Douche Bag

I am not a big birthday person. I don't usually parade around weeks or months in advance telling people the day is coming up so they can prepare. This used to be because of a sort of selfish reason. I figured if people didn't remember my birthday then it balanced the universe when I didn't take the time to remember theirs. Now, with the most wonderful invention of facebook and about 99.9% of my friends being members, this is no longer really a factor because facebook does all the reminding for me. Facebook tells me it's your birthday, I send you a wall post.

But, today's not your birthday, unless of course it is, in which, happy birthday, but mostly it's my birthday. And if I could have any one thing on my birthday it would be a pass that lets me say whatever I want and there'd be no long term repercussions for anything that may come out of my mouth. Think about it. All those times that someone says something so incredibly stupid and you want to point out their idoicy but can't because of silly social norms and the need to be tolerant. F-bomb that! Just one day of the year you can say whatever is on your mind with no filter what so ever. This would be a reason to get excited about a birthday.

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On a completely different note, yesterday I joined up with the Sunday group ride I have been doing for a while. It's really mellow as there are a lot of very new people to bikes coming out. As we were standing around I noticed that some douche bag had rolled up with his Cervelo P3C ($6000 bike) with a full zipp disc rear wheel and 909 up front ($3000 wheelset). Anybody who rides knows why this is insane, but if you don't allow me to point out the ways:

1) This guy is clearly a tri-geek. He will have NO bike handling skills and will probably try and live in his aero bars during the ride and will inevitably kill someone.
2) Disc wheels are essentially sails on the bike of your bike. Really fast if there is no wind, but if there is even the slightest amount of wind coming from any direction except directly head on, you get pushed all over the place. They don't allow disc wheels at the Hawaii Ironman due to the strong winds literally throwing cyclist and bike off the road in the lava fields. If you have never ridden a bike in the bay area, allow me to inform you it's almost always windy here. Yesterday was really windy. If this guy had been out all by himself on completely deserted roads maybe getting pushed around would have been ok. But, to be out in a group where you'll always be around other people, borderline retarded.
3) Did you notice how much these wheels cost when I wrote it earlier? $3,000! What sort of a rich douche bag are you that you are ok with some other fool taking you out and destroying your wheels in the process? And I got news for you buddy. When people crash people on bikes, insurance doesn't take the cost and in most cases, you repair damages yourself. It's an inherent risk of riding. So, show up to group rides on crap your ok with being destroyed.

This isn't the first time we've had some fool show up to one of these rides on an insanely expensive bike with insanely expensive wheels and have no clue how much of an idiot they are. I like to think of myself as an educator so I usually find the owner of the bike and ask them questions that point out the moronic nature of riding those wheels for fun. They usually get really uncomfortable and decide they don't like me. This response is great as they never want to ride with me ever again and they also don't show back up on those wheels.

Yesterday I took a different approach. As I poured coffee I shouted across the group to a buddy of mine to ask whose bike that was. I then asked very loudly if he thought that was safe. His response, because he's nicer than me, was to shrug his shoulders and make a face that indicated no. Luckily douche bag went with the very slow group, which meant he was riding with people on hybrids and mountain bikes. Which seems a bike ironic.

If I knew how to upload pictures from my camera phone I would so that all 5 (readership is improving!) of you reading this could see the exact bike I'm talking about. But, since I can't, you'll have to settle with the closest thing I could google.



Ignore the power meter. He hasn't bought one of those yet.