Blow Up Dolls
Let's just kick it off with our new team mascot
Here's my race recap. This is taken entirely from the various posts I made in our team forum. So the team guys will have already read this. Anyway, to recap, I think I have mental problems...
My time last year was 1:53:50. This year it was about 1:39:50. That's a 14 minute improvement. My goal this year was to be under 1:40, shooting for 33 minute laps. My laps were 33+, 33-, and 34-. I wanted to start out slow and steady, not blowing on the first 3 climbs - I did exactly that, and after that 3rd climb on the first lap the only person to permanently pass me was Kirt, at the start of the 3rd lap.
In short, I knew this course wasn't great for me. I had a few goals and I hit them. I paced myself very well, managed to reel back in a ton of riders. Never pushed past the breaking point. And yet, I still feel like that race where it all comes together just hasn't come yet. When I was done my legs hurt. Squatting down to get some carrots in the fridge Monday morning while I was packing my lunch, my legs let me know just how unhappy they were. I feel like I raced at my limit, right where I should have been. I had a strategy, stuck to it, and beat last year's time by 14 minutes. And yet, I dunno, I still felt lethargic out there. I don't know if my warm-up isn't right, my pre-race meal, my race nutrition of choice, or what.
Oh and another thing. I joked about one of the experts pacing me through the race. Well just into the second lap, Marc Lewis passed me and we went back and forth the rest of the day. Marc used to work at Planet Bike and used to race expert-level on the Specialized team. NORBA denied his expert application so he was in sport class. Literally for the last 9-10 miles, we paced each other around the course, and at the end we sprinted out the fire road to the finish. He bailed at the end and I took the spot ahead of him, but I'm pretty sure he backed off the gas and let me have it, though we were hammering at a pretty good clip. Regardless, his pressing me at the end is why I managed to keep it under that 1:40 time.
Still, it was a fantastic day. I got to see everyone from the team (except Steve!!!!!), plus a whole lot of other people from the site. These races are turning more and more into really fun events and even if I have the crappiest race, the before/after is really a lot of fun. Good stuff.
The BBQ after was good times. While I wish more people could have come by, my wife would have punched me if the whole team showed.
So I looked at last year's results for sport here. This is a PDF so don't click if you don't want it to open Adobe Acrobat.
Anyway, if I take my time and add 2:00 (like the results from '07) I get 1:41:50. Using last year's results that would put me in 6th place for a combined class. Given they split the class this year, and using last year's rider ages, that would put me in 4th place.
Regardless if I came in 4th (or by some miracle 3rd) this makes me feel better about yesterday's race now. I also had a faster race yesterday than Rave had in '07. Rave won the series (before the PayDirt points were applied).
Another moment I just remembered from after the race. Ben and Chris were with me at my car after the race, talking about how it went. I said, "I think today I finally felt those extra 10 pounds a little bit out there." Ben just half-smiled and shook his head knowingly. I think I should get a little more serious about dropping that damn vacation weight now...
More Bike Stuff
Wednesday morning. This heavy dose of biking is catching up to me right now. Consider the lineup:
Thursday: Race pace with 3 expert+ riders
Saturday: Hour preride, 18 miles, road
Sunday: Race
Tuesday: 26 minutes of short-burst intervals
Wednesday: 8x5:2 for a total of 40 minutes of high-end intervals.
That's 4 high-quality workouts in 7 days, for a total of 5:20 of solid, quality biking. Total hours for the week were about 7:00. The other 1:40 was the pre-ride on Saturday and the warm-up Sunday. Make every ride count.
So I'm tired. And I weight 194 this morning. I broke out the online food counter (fitday.com) again Monday because it's time to do a little defragmentation on my eating habits. So I should see the 180s again before long. This is just something I need to do once in a while.
The recurring saddle sore on my left butt cheek is half back again today. I'm wearing a red shirt. Does this effect who sits next to me? I am sitting in the back of the train so it's more than likely the person who sits here will only have my balding head to assess me with.
Cycle 12
Monday morning. I have trashed my body this weekend, racing Lewis Morris yesterday then having some of the team over for some burgers and beers. Then I stayed up too late and didn't get enough sleep. So I'm tired and likely look like ass sitting here. Black pants and light blue shirt. I shaved Saturday. I am reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton (thanks FatCat). I can't get enough of this book.
Victim: Summit, which is the first time a victim has taken that long to get on. It's always been Murray Hill or New Providence before. White, male, by Summit the men don't care if there are 2 big guys in 1 seat. Tough to call age but I'll say 40-49. Not fat. Marrier, regular. Plays on the Blackberry reading email or perhaps blog entries about train experiments. Dressed in a suit and tie. The tie is orange, like my bike and jersey. He is reading Thirteen Moons.
Assessment: Quiet, space respectful, couldn't ask for anything more. Good cohabitant. The only issue was an occasional space violation from the puffy shirt sleeve which is always annoying.
Cycle 13
Post work Monday. I have added a new option to the list today.
Victim: Evacuate. A young boy sat with me. He was with his brother, father, and grandparents. I got up so he, his father and brother could all sit in the 2 seater. The grandmother insisted I take the seat the father was going to take but NFW was I going to let her stand.
Assessment: Standing in the vestibule is fine, especially when you're doing the right thing. The guy behind us was sitting on the outside, blocking anyone from sitting with him. If he wasn't such a dickhead he would have gotten up and let the 2 grandparents sit there. But 35 year old, healthy white men need to sit and make 70 year old men stand. What a dick. I hope he gets herpes from screwing his secretary.
Cycle 14
Tuesday morning. I'm normally on the left side but today I'm on the right. I am wearing brown pants and a yellow shirt. I wonder if color has anything to do with it. Not if you read THIS.
Victim: Woman, white, not fat, 50+, non-regular, married, New Providence. This woman has been riding the train since I've been commuting to the city since November 2004. She and her friend come in every day together. Same train, same stop. Completely unremarkable. I think I need to redefine "regular" because she is on the train every day yet has a ticket, not a monthly pass. I can't tell you how much more that would cost but it's a lot more every month. She's probably one of these assholes that tries to cheap out and pay only 1 way. In the end that costs the honest people like me more money. Dick. For FatCat, she has never been confused with a high school or college pole vaulter ever in her life. She has a Blackberry. She opens up Readers Digest. Wow, I haven't seen that in years.
I read a PM that Steve sent which made me actually LOL. The woman looked around confused. Actually I don't think it's Reader's Digest. But same general shape.
Assessment: I am now going to classify this into 3 types. Good, Bad, and Indifferent. I think those are self-explanatory though I considered just Good and Not Good and decided that in order for me to be a good and fair arbiter of seat mates it would be unfair to classify someone who was passable as Not Good. It would be more accurate to say Good and !Good, but I think the nuance would be missed by most. I could use Good and Other but fuck it I've gone on long enough. Today's contestant was Good.
Cycle 15
Victim: Nobody.
Assessment: Good.
Cycle 16
Victim: Murray Hill, woman, not married, not fat, 19-29, non-regular. Blonde hair, just past shoulder length. While she is thin she does have solid calves, suggesting she was possibly an athlete at some point. Attractive yet hammish in that "I don't know how to be elegant so I come off a little gaudy" way that so many mid-20s women do. Wearing a long black (rain) coat and has a red umbrella. Wears a ring on her right hand, middle finger. Has a black hair clip/band. Big silver bracelet on her left wrist as well as a red banded watch. Breaks out a dark red mini iPod. Has a green purse and another bag. Obviously she likes colors but the black jacket suggests confusion at some level about that. Wears a perfume that reminds me of TD (Tackle Dummy - she played rugby) from back in college. I don't like it. Her name could be Shelly or Sandy. Her iPod is playing Boyz II Men. WTF? Her head routinely drops down and picks up as she struggles to stay awake.
Assessment: Perfume bad. Jacket arm rubbed my arm which is annoying. Just closed her eyes and listened to the music which is fine. But the perfume was too strong which makes her Indifferent. Not bad, as such. Just not good.
Here's my race recap. This is taken entirely from the various posts I made in our team forum. So the team guys will have already read this. Anyway, to recap, I think I have mental problems...
My time last year was 1:53:50. This year it was about 1:39:50. That's a 14 minute improvement. My goal this year was to be under 1:40, shooting for 33 minute laps. My laps were 33+, 33-, and 34-. I wanted to start out slow and steady, not blowing on the first 3 climbs - I did exactly that, and after that 3rd climb on the first lap the only person to permanently pass me was Kirt, at the start of the 3rd lap.
In short, I knew this course wasn't great for me. I had a few goals and I hit them. I paced myself very well, managed to reel back in a ton of riders. Never pushed past the breaking point. And yet, I still feel like that race where it all comes together just hasn't come yet. When I was done my legs hurt. Squatting down to get some carrots in the fridge Monday morning while I was packing my lunch, my legs let me know just how unhappy they were. I feel like I raced at my limit, right where I should have been. I had a strategy, stuck to it, and beat last year's time by 14 minutes. And yet, I dunno, I still felt lethargic out there. I don't know if my warm-up isn't right, my pre-race meal, my race nutrition of choice, or what.
Oh and another thing. I joked about one of the experts pacing me through the race. Well just into the second lap, Marc Lewis passed me and we went back and forth the rest of the day. Marc used to work at Planet Bike and used to race expert-level on the Specialized team. NORBA denied his expert application so he was in sport class. Literally for the last 9-10 miles, we paced each other around the course, and at the end we sprinted out the fire road to the finish. He bailed at the end and I took the spot ahead of him, but I'm pretty sure he backed off the gas and let me have it, though we were hammering at a pretty good clip. Regardless, his pressing me at the end is why I managed to keep it under that 1:40 time.
Still, it was a fantastic day. I got to see everyone from the team (except Steve!!!!!), plus a whole lot of other people from the site. These races are turning more and more into really fun events and even if I have the crappiest race, the before/after is really a lot of fun. Good stuff.
The BBQ after was good times. While I wish more people could have come by, my wife would have punched me if the whole team showed.
So I looked at last year's results for sport here. This is a PDF so don't click if you don't want it to open Adobe Acrobat.
Anyway, if I take my time and add 2:00 (like the results from '07) I get 1:41:50. Using last year's results that would put me in 6th place for a combined class. Given they split the class this year, and using last year's rider ages, that would put me in 4th place.
Regardless if I came in 4th (or by some miracle 3rd) this makes me feel better about yesterday's race now. I also had a faster race yesterday than Rave had in '07. Rave won the series (before the PayDirt points were applied).
Another moment I just remembered from after the race. Ben and Chris were with me at my car after the race, talking about how it went. I said, "I think today I finally felt those extra 10 pounds a little bit out there." Ben just half-smiled and shook his head knowingly. I think I should get a little more serious about dropping that damn vacation weight now...
More Bike Stuff
Wednesday morning. This heavy dose of biking is catching up to me right now. Consider the lineup:
Thursday: Race pace with 3 expert+ riders
Saturday: Hour preride, 18 miles, road
Sunday: Race
Tuesday: 26 minutes of short-burst intervals
Wednesday: 8x5:2 for a total of 40 minutes of high-end intervals.
That's 4 high-quality workouts in 7 days, for a total of 5:20 of solid, quality biking. Total hours for the week were about 7:00. The other 1:40 was the pre-ride on Saturday and the warm-up Sunday. Make every ride count.
So I'm tired. And I weight 194 this morning. I broke out the online food counter (fitday.com) again Monday because it's time to do a little defragmentation on my eating habits. So I should see the 180s again before long. This is just something I need to do once in a while.
The recurring saddle sore on my left butt cheek is half back again today. I'm wearing a red shirt. Does this effect who sits next to me? I am sitting in the back of the train so it's more than likely the person who sits here will only have my balding head to assess me with.
Cycle 12
Monday morning. I have trashed my body this weekend, racing Lewis Morris yesterday then having some of the team over for some burgers and beers. Then I stayed up too late and didn't get enough sleep. So I'm tired and likely look like ass sitting here. Black pants and light blue shirt. I shaved Saturday. I am reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton (thanks FatCat). I can't get enough of this book.
Victim: Summit, which is the first time a victim has taken that long to get on. It's always been Murray Hill or New Providence before. White, male, by Summit the men don't care if there are 2 big guys in 1 seat. Tough to call age but I'll say 40-49. Not fat. Marrier, regular. Plays on the Blackberry reading email or perhaps blog entries about train experiments. Dressed in a suit and tie. The tie is orange, like my bike and jersey. He is reading Thirteen Moons.
Assessment: Quiet, space respectful, couldn't ask for anything more. Good cohabitant. The only issue was an occasional space violation from the puffy shirt sleeve which is always annoying.
Cycle 13
Post work Monday. I have added a new option to the list today.
Victim: Evacuate. A young boy sat with me. He was with his brother, father, and grandparents. I got up so he, his father and brother could all sit in the 2 seater. The grandmother insisted I take the seat the father was going to take but NFW was I going to let her stand.
Assessment: Standing in the vestibule is fine, especially when you're doing the right thing. The guy behind us was sitting on the outside, blocking anyone from sitting with him. If he wasn't such a dickhead he would have gotten up and let the 2 grandparents sit there. But 35 year old, healthy white men need to sit and make 70 year old men stand. What a dick. I hope he gets herpes from screwing his secretary.
Cycle 14
Tuesday morning. I'm normally on the left side but today I'm on the right. I am wearing brown pants and a yellow shirt. I wonder if color has anything to do with it. Not if you read THIS.
Victim: Woman, white, not fat, 50+, non-regular, married, New Providence. This woman has been riding the train since I've been commuting to the city since November 2004. She and her friend come in every day together. Same train, same stop. Completely unremarkable. I think I need to redefine "regular" because she is on the train every day yet has a ticket, not a monthly pass. I can't tell you how much more that would cost but it's a lot more every month. She's probably one of these assholes that tries to cheap out and pay only 1 way. In the end that costs the honest people like me more money. Dick. For FatCat, she has never been confused with a high school or college pole vaulter ever in her life. She has a Blackberry. She opens up Readers Digest. Wow, I haven't seen that in years.
I read a PM that Steve sent which made me actually LOL. The woman looked around confused. Actually I don't think it's Reader's Digest. But same general shape.
Assessment: I am now going to classify this into 3 types. Good, Bad, and Indifferent. I think those are self-explanatory though I considered just Good and Not Good and decided that in order for me to be a good and fair arbiter of seat mates it would be unfair to classify someone who was passable as Not Good. It would be more accurate to say Good and !Good, but I think the nuance would be missed by most. I could use Good and Other but fuck it I've gone on long enough. Today's contestant was Good.
Cycle 15
Victim: Nobody.
Assessment: Good.
Cycle 16
Victim: Murray Hill, woman, not married, not fat, 19-29, non-regular. Blonde hair, just past shoulder length. While she is thin she does have solid calves, suggesting she was possibly an athlete at some point. Attractive yet hammish in that "I don't know how to be elegant so I come off a little gaudy" way that so many mid-20s women do. Wearing a long black (rain) coat and has a red umbrella. Wears a ring on her right hand, middle finger. Has a black hair clip/band. Big silver bracelet on her left wrist as well as a red banded watch. Breaks out a dark red mini iPod. Has a green purse and another bag. Obviously she likes colors but the black jacket suggests confusion at some level about that. Wears a perfume that reminds me of TD (Tackle Dummy - she played rugby) from back in college. I don't like it. Her name could be Shelly or Sandy. Her iPod is playing Boyz II Men. WTF? Her head routinely drops down and picks up as she struggles to stay awake.
Assessment: Perfume bad. Jacket arm rubbed my arm which is annoying. Just closed her eyes and listened to the music which is fine. But the perfume was too strong which makes her Indifferent. Not bad, as such. Just not good.
Labels: experiment, race
2 Comments:
At 1:07 PM,
Anonymous said…
i made you laugh? i'm glad i was able to contribute to your experiment.
still-too-lazy-to-log-on-steve
At 6:36 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hey, I'm glad you're liking the book, it is a real eye opener and Crichton does a real good job of getting the science straight. Hey, maybe the world is just simply getting warmer. Its happened before and its gotten a lot damn colder too before humans ever arrogantly thought they were the cause of all things. It seems like common sense to keep the world unpolluted and our air and water clean, but if that means using scare tactics then we're really doomed. Too much fear. Here's an experiement I once did. My FIL watches the World News with Brian Williams every night on NBC. I started making hash marks on a piece of paper for every story that I perceived was negative vs every story I perceived positively. For the week, per night, it averaged something like 6 negative, 1 positive and 1 I couldn't classify either way. My lesson: Stop watching the news and go read a book or something. It made me too depressed and that stuff feeds the collective consciousness of our nation every night. Too much fear and worry.
Anyway...
Sorry she wasn't a pole vaulter. Better luck, next commute.
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