So I've used a mixture of google maps (especially since they added the customizable route thing, without adding a destination) and pedometer, a google maps hack, to plan rides, and to track out where group rides go... that sort of thing. Well over the last few days, I've put together what I consider to be the most bad ass ride google maps has ever seen.
Duration: a month or two?
Southern California to Seattle
I only have 18 destinations planned, all no more than 120 miles apart. They range from state parks to national parks, and major cities. 120 miles is NOT very far if that's what you're doing that day. Get up, eat some breakfast, break down camp and pack up, ride for 4-5 hours. Stop and make some lunch, and then ride for another 4 hours. So on the very longest days, you'd have to average ~15mph... reasonable. Most days are shorter, so ~12mph would do. But the bigger parks, and cities I'd want to spend a few days in I'm sure... so time frame is at least 40-45 days I'd say.
I figure I get some racks for the cross bike and carry camping gear- live the minimalistic lifestyle for a little while. If by minimalistic you mean carrying only a cell phone and digital camera, and eating as many clif bars and peanut butter jelly sandwiches as I can afford, and probably the occasional McDonalds milkshake.
Not sure when a good time to do it would be.... maybe one year right when I've had enough road racing- maybe July through mid August?
who's going with me?
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
What a difference a week makes
Riding went much better this weekend than it has the past week, which was spent trying to recover while continually piling on too much riding.
On Saturday I went down to San Diego to crash with the bro, and hit up Swami's, where Chris Horner and Dominique Rollin both showed up and contested the sprints, well I heard that they contested the sprints after they had blown the doors off most people's ride (read mine). Still felt a lot better than the previous week, felt like I was able to dig a bit deeper before my legs really objected. Sunday I hit up Como Street and hung well the pretty relaxed pace ride, and climbed well on the long gradual climb that churns the ride into many groups.
Going to be taking it real easy this week... just spinning the legs out and making sure I'm fully recovered. Will probably open it up a little bit later in the week to make sure the legs are open. Sunday will be the first race- the first CBR event of the year. Looking forward to laying it all out there.
Expect this blog to go from about 95% cycling content, to about 100%.
Also, Slipstream took another big step recently, landing themselves a Giro invite! Hopefully the big show will be next, but the Giro invite is nothing to sneeze at, as it also comes along with other big races like Milan SanRemo. Can't wait to see the arglye boys hitting up the Italian races...
On Saturday I went down to San Diego to crash with the bro, and hit up Swami's, where Chris Horner and Dominique Rollin both showed up and contested the sprints, well I heard that they contested the sprints after they had blown the doors off most people's ride (read mine). Still felt a lot better than the previous week, felt like I was able to dig a bit deeper before my legs really objected. Sunday I hit up Como Street and hung well the pretty relaxed pace ride, and climbed well on the long gradual climb that churns the ride into many groups.
Going to be taking it real easy this week... just spinning the legs out and making sure I'm fully recovered. Will probably open it up a little bit later in the week to make sure the legs are open. Sunday will be the first race- the first CBR event of the year. Looking forward to laying it all out there.
Expect this blog to go from about 95% cycling content, to about 100%.
Also, Slipstream took another big step recently, landing themselves a Giro invite! Hopefully the big show will be next, but the Giro invite is nothing to sneeze at, as it also comes along with other big races like Milan SanRemo. Can't wait to see the arglye boys hitting up the Italian races...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Grinding Away
The last two Coffee Crew rides (Tuesday / Thursday morning) I've done I've gotten dropped like a rock. The first time, I figured maybe I wasn't recovered from my first week back on the bike, along with a good bonk and some climbing workouts, it was a pretty hard week. The second time was windy as crap, but I did eventually make it back to the group, but obviously because they had slowed down considerably. Up the last climb I got dropped again, real early.
I'm hoping that I'm just dragging a bit from not quite recovering from last week.... hopefully some more sleep and I'll come back around.
For a more uplifting reading experience, check this new Slipstream article out. I really hope they do something special this year. A podium in a Classic, a stage win for Julian Dean in the Tour, some medals out of Beijing. Anything is possible.
I'm hoping that I'm just dragging a bit from not quite recovering from last week.... hopefully some more sleep and I'll come back around.
For a more uplifting reading experience, check this new Slipstream article out. I really hope they do something special this year. A podium in a Classic, a stage win for Julian Dean in the Tour, some medals out of Beijing. Anything is possible.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Mountain Climbing
This Saturday, I have some climbing on tap... About 2500 feet of it over 20 miles. Overall that gradient is not bad at all, but the first 15 miles are pretty steady, with some climbs mixed in with a lot of flat roads, but over the last 5 miles, which I plan to ride up a few times, the road scales up considerably more...
Check out the gmaps-pedometer here.
The bigger climb in the area reaches up to 6,000ft- Palomar Mountain, which I'll eventually do, but I'm not quite in the mood to get up at 5:00AM and shove a thousand calories in my face while driving down the 5 to get there in time to ride. Hopefully I'll get there once before Boulevard though.
Check out the gmaps-pedometer here.
The bigger climb in the area reaches up to 6,000ft- Palomar Mountain, which I'll eventually do, but I'm not quite in the mood to get up at 5:00AM and shove a thousand calories in my face while driving down the 5 to get there in time to ride. Hopefully I'll get there once before Boulevard though.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Lunatic Drivers....
So I've been out East for the break, and had a great relaxing time, and despite the sub 20 degree weather and wind tunnel like canyons of Manhattan, I miss it already.
But the real entertainment value here is from some crazy drivers in California... two to be exact, and crazy for very different reasons. I got a shuttle ride to/from the Long Beach Airport, because it would have cost about $130 dollars to park over the break, and only slightly less for a ride in this public transportationless hell. On the ride home, we were in the middle of a rainstorm, which in Cali can be pretty bad because the water brings all the oil and junk out of the roadway and makes everything slick as ice. On these conditions a car on the 605 swerved a few times, and then finally ended up veering from the right hand lane all the way across the four lanes, and smashed into the middle divider. The car ended up on its side, and it was close enough that we were already past him in a second or two.... crazy. Good thing there weren't alot of cars out.... I hope noone hit his car before they got flares out. I'm pretty sure he (or she) was drunk, judging by the amount of swerving before the accident... but who knows.
The second crazy driver was the dude driving our shuttle. Luckily his driving was pretty good, though a bit fast, but at 1 in the morning, it was all good. He seemed pretty normal while we were dropping off the first guy, but as soon as it was just me and him, we got to talking some more. After he learned I was studying fuel cells, he began spouting off on Nicola Tesla, who did a lot of early research into electricity. He claimed that Tesla's invention of wireless electricity was being held back from implementation for cars by the oil companies, and that a group of terrorists used scalar energy technology to create hurricane Katrina and the tsunami of a few years back. It kept getting weirder and weirder.... aliens, secret weapon technology, and an odd explanation for the trees that had fallen down in Siberia. Anyway, I won't go into all his crazy stories, but he did give me this printout with all sorts of crazy shit on it... here's a sampling:
These are topics that are suggested to look up on youTube for more info. Good source.
Al Bielek (Time traveler from Philadelphia Experiment)
Stewart Swerdlow (Time traveler / Mind control)
Phil Schneider (Built underground bases for Illuminati. Involved in Dulce, N.M. firefight with Reptilians, assisinated in January 1996) [this one is my favorite, just congers up a poor Sci-Fi show with iguanas flying UFOs]
D.A.A.R.P.A (U.S. Military Secret Division creating New Weapon Systems) [I think they might have one too many A's in there. Munas, watch out... your research is being used to build high powered construction bridges on Mars)
Freemasonary (several other secret societies were mentioned, illuminati... bla bla)
I think the best part of the conversation was when I asked him how he got into all this stuff, and he said it was after he dropped out of his Astronomy program at Long Beach State U, and got into witchcraft. Even funnier was later when he was talking about the terms the government deleted from Maxwell's equations, I made some comment on them, and he clearly did not know what they were.... astronomy without wave equations.... hmmmmm
Awkward ending... he wouldn't take my tip, he just told me to seek out this technology and open it up for the rest of us. FREEEEEEEEKY!!!!!!
But the real entertainment value here is from some crazy drivers in California... two to be exact, and crazy for very different reasons. I got a shuttle ride to/from the Long Beach Airport, because it would have cost about $130 dollars to park over the break, and only slightly less for a ride in this public transportationless hell. On the ride home, we were in the middle of a rainstorm, which in Cali can be pretty bad because the water brings all the oil and junk out of the roadway and makes everything slick as ice. On these conditions a car on the 605 swerved a few times, and then finally ended up veering from the right hand lane all the way across the four lanes, and smashed into the middle divider. The car ended up on its side, and it was close enough that we were already past him in a second or two.... crazy. Good thing there weren't alot of cars out.... I hope noone hit his car before they got flares out. I'm pretty sure he (or she) was drunk, judging by the amount of swerving before the accident... but who knows.
The second crazy driver was the dude driving our shuttle. Luckily his driving was pretty good, though a bit fast, but at 1 in the morning, it was all good. He seemed pretty normal while we were dropping off the first guy, but as soon as it was just me and him, we got to talking some more. After he learned I was studying fuel cells, he began spouting off on Nicola Tesla, who did a lot of early research into electricity. He claimed that Tesla's invention of wireless electricity was being held back from implementation for cars by the oil companies, and that a group of terrorists used scalar energy technology to create hurricane Katrina and the tsunami of a few years back. It kept getting weirder and weirder.... aliens, secret weapon technology, and an odd explanation for the trees that had fallen down in Siberia. Anyway, I won't go into all his crazy stories, but he did give me this printout with all sorts of crazy shit on it... here's a sampling:
These are topics that are suggested to look up on youTube for more info. Good source.
Al Bielek (Time traveler from Philadelphia Experiment)
Stewart Swerdlow (Time traveler / Mind control)
Phil Schneider (Built underground bases for Illuminati. Involved in Dulce, N.M. firefight with Reptilians, assisinated in January 1996) [this one is my favorite, just congers up a poor Sci-Fi show with iguanas flying UFOs]
D.A.A.R.P.A (U.S. Military Secret Division creating New Weapon Systems) [I think they might have one too many A's in there. Munas, watch out... your research is being used to build high powered construction bridges on Mars)
Freemasonary (several other secret societies were mentioned, illuminati... bla bla)
I think the best part of the conversation was when I asked him how he got into all this stuff, and he said it was after he dropped out of his Astronomy program at Long Beach State U, and got into witchcraft. Even funnier was later when he was talking about the terms the government deleted from Maxwell's equations, I made some comment on them, and he clearly did not know what they were.... astronomy without wave equations.... hmmmmm
Awkward ending... he wouldn't take my tip, he just told me to seek out this technology and open it up for the rest of us. FREEEEEEEEKY!!!!!!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
CX Nationals: Collegiate Race
Sunday morning was the collegiate race, and the course was much different than the first two days. Mud had frozen into thick unmovable ruts, and a dusting of snow covered parts of the course.
I got a good warmup in, and was ready on the start line in about 5th row back.... so not great, but I was more than half-way up the huge field. The start, and the first lap, didn't go too badly at all. I worked my way up into the top ~30ish in the first loop around a small lake, somehow handling the completely foreign frozen tundra quite well. I tried to pick a line, and ride it out, and only jump out of the rut if I really need to. Brushing shoulders time and again became normal, and I only had to run a few times around people who had fallen down in front of me.
The second lap was quite different. I came out onto the pavement, and just felt like a piece of shit. I think its unfair for the pavement section to be uphill... I was waiting for that for a while, and it hits, and I'm just like.... whhhhaat-no legs. So I lost a few spots, that interestingly I would make up once we hit the nasty ruts again. My first crash came trying to avoid people sprawled out in a particularly nasty section... I unclipped and was looking to tripod it around the guys getting up, when my front wheel caught more than I thought it would, and over I went, toppling into the snow. A bunch of drunk guys enjoyed it, and I scored a high five for good measure before continuing on. It was either that crash, or some other tumble to the hard mud that screwed up either my caliper or lever for my rear brake. I was pulling the lever all the way to the bar, and no stopping power. Combine using only the front brake with my already less than ideal handling skills in such conditions, and more spills were going to happen. And they did. I think three or four times. Bummer!! Not to say I would have had the sort of top 30 finish I was aiming for, but I would have finished at least.
Anyway, after one more spectacular endo after I was already out of the top 50, I decided I'd rather not kill myself, and called it quits.
All and all, it was a fun trip out to Kansas, but I'm not sure if I'll go out next year. Maybe if I'm riding top 10s in the elites in SoCal I'll give it another tussle. It's definitely gotten me hooked for cross though, and I'm already looking forward to winding down the road season early to put some hard training in for cross next year...maybe learn how to mount correctly would help too.
If you want to see what the course was like (on Saturday, but basically same as Sunday) check out this guys videos of the first lap of the 50+ race:
1st half
2nd half
I got a good warmup in, and was ready on the start line in about 5th row back.... so not great, but I was more than half-way up the huge field. The start, and the first lap, didn't go too badly at all. I worked my way up into the top ~30ish in the first loop around a small lake, somehow handling the completely foreign frozen tundra quite well. I tried to pick a line, and ride it out, and only jump out of the rut if I really need to. Brushing shoulders time and again became normal, and I only had to run a few times around people who had fallen down in front of me.
The second lap was quite different. I came out onto the pavement, and just felt like a piece of shit. I think its unfair for the pavement section to be uphill... I was waiting for that for a while, and it hits, and I'm just like.... whhhhaat-no legs. So I lost a few spots, that interestingly I would make up once we hit the nasty ruts again. My first crash came trying to avoid people sprawled out in a particularly nasty section... I unclipped and was looking to tripod it around the guys getting up, when my front wheel caught more than I thought it would, and over I went, toppling into the snow. A bunch of drunk guys enjoyed it, and I scored a high five for good measure before continuing on. It was either that crash, or some other tumble to the hard mud that screwed up either my caliper or lever for my rear brake. I was pulling the lever all the way to the bar, and no stopping power. Combine using only the front brake with my already less than ideal handling skills in such conditions, and more spills were going to happen. And they did. I think three or four times. Bummer!! Not to say I would have had the sort of top 30 finish I was aiming for, but I would have finished at least.
Anyway, after one more spectacular endo after I was already out of the top 50, I decided I'd rather not kill myself, and called it quits.
All and all, it was a fun trip out to Kansas, but I'm not sure if I'll go out next year. Maybe if I'm riding top 10s in the elites in SoCal I'll give it another tussle. It's definitely gotten me hooked for cross though, and I'm already looking forward to winding down the road season early to put some hard training in for cross next year...maybe learn how to mount correctly would help too.
If you want to see what the course was like (on Saturday, but basically same as Sunday) check out this guys videos of the first lap of the 50+ race:
1st half
2nd half
Friday, December 14, 2007
CX Nationals: Day2
Wasn't racing today, but JP was. We made the discovery before heading off to Kansas that we were roughly the same size, and ran the same pedals. Sahweet, instant pit bike. So today I worked the pit for the first time. I was not prepared at all. Didn't have any brushes or buckets or any of that. Friendly dude in a Pedros jumpsuit next to me in the pits helped me find the water sprayer, and let me borrow one of his brushes to get all the mud and grass out of the chainrings and der pulleys.
I think JP switched up the ride at least 3 times, maybe 4- had to be an even number now that I think about it because he finished on his bike, so probably 4 times. Certainly saved him a lot of time. If nothing else I cleaned off about 5 or 6 pounds of mud off the bikes each time. Also cleared off the drivetrain and made it that much easier to get around. It was pretty sweet to work the pit and experience the craziness that goes on in there.
Jim did awesome in his race- he got the start of his life. Starting off in the 2nd row, he was top 10 coming off the pavement, and muscled and handled his way up to 3rd the first time through the pits. At that point I was thinking, fuck!!! I hope I don't screw anything up for him. The power riders had bided their time, however, and JP lost time on alot of the uphill sloppy muddy sections, spinning through mud whereas other riders were able to sneak by. Still ended up in the 20's I think, which is an awesome result in such a strong field of over 120.
Making the big time...
Tonight the snow is descending upon Kansas, and hopefully won't screw with the schedule of the races too much. I'm slated to start my last race on Sunday, at 10AM, when the temperature is supposed to be 24 deg F, with a windchill of about 13. Schwell.
I think JP switched up the ride at least 3 times, maybe 4- had to be an even number now that I think about it because he finished on his bike, so probably 4 times. Certainly saved him a lot of time. If nothing else I cleaned off about 5 or 6 pounds of mud off the bikes each time. Also cleared off the drivetrain and made it that much easier to get around. It was pretty sweet to work the pit and experience the craziness that goes on in there.
Jim did awesome in his race- he got the start of his life. Starting off in the 2nd row, he was top 10 coming off the pavement, and muscled and handled his way up to 3rd the first time through the pits. At that point I was thinking, fuck!!! I hope I don't screw anything up for him. The power riders had bided their time, however, and JP lost time on alot of the uphill sloppy muddy sections, spinning through mud whereas other riders were able to sneak by. Still ended up in the 20's I think, which is an awesome result in such a strong field of over 120.
Making the big time...
Tonight the snow is descending upon Kansas, and hopefully won't screw with the schedule of the races too much. I'm slated to start my last race on Sunday, at 10AM, when the temperature is supposed to be 24 deg F, with a windchill of about 13. Schwell.
CX Nationals: Day1 in pictures
My roomate Jim snapped some pictures of the first day of racing...
Warmup in the tent... there was a big space heater blowing in behind me that they got turned on just before my start. It was a pretty nice place to hang out later in the day though... all this snow/ice would melt real quick. After Jim's race, we were hanging out in the tent and realized we were all from SoCal... just drawn by the heat I guess. We tossed around the idea of having our own race with a course completely inside the warmed tent....
Getting called up. The kid over my right shoulder is 14, and led for laps 2 and 3. Ummmm check that name, and buy his baseball- er- cyclo-cross rookie card now.
Good shot of what most of the course was like. Stay in the brown and you were allright. Many places had deeper/wetter mud.... but the above captures what most of the course was like.
The first flight of stairs. These got harder and harder as my bike got heavier and heavier throughout the race. DAMN mud! I passed this dude on the stairs, one of the 4 or so that I beat. Boo-yeah.
The mess of a bike directly after my race. Click on it to enlarge, and check out the crank / rear der area. Can't see it really well in the overall shot, but they are absolutely covered in junk. Only my three or four largest gears worked, as the other ones were junked up with mud and ice.Thursday, December 13, 2007
CX Nationals: Day1
Day one was pretty epic, but should be nothing compared to Sunday, which should feature 3-6" of snow. Anyway, course was still pretty iced over for my race. There was a mud "singletrack" around the whole course, which everyone took, but you could pass by riding over the crusted ice.... though you had to be more careful.
Got a good warmup in at the warmup tent, which featured trainers in BOXES that we needed to assemble before using. So... that sucked, but I was able to stay warm, and felt like I was relatively ready to go. No where near the numbers were there at the start than I thought. I thought there were 140 registered riders, but I think there were only about 40 starters.
I started off allright, didn't quite hold my position through the opening road section, probably got passed more than I passed people... but I could see the front, and felt like I could make efforts to at least get towards it. This plan started to unravel once I fell once going up a little bit of an off-camber uphill. I took the line off the mud, and went into the ice to try and pass people, but ended up sliding out. That cost me a few spots, and a shout-out from the announcer. I made a few efforts then to get back up to some groups in front of me, but after those efforts, I didn't have the gas to get around them or work to the next one. After a while I just wanted to learn the course and ride the hard sections smoothly, thinking ahead to Sunday's Collegiate race. I guess I finished 26th, which might sound respectable being at nationals, but there weren't that many people... and most of them were in front of me.
I had a lot of fun though, and I'll throw up a picture later of my bike, which was TOTALLY full of grassy mud after the race. Seriously, never seen my bike look anything like that. Thankfully they had a spray booth set up, which will lead into a funny story I'll put up once I get the photographic evidence later on.
The So-Cal roomate, Jim, had a great race to finish a very respectable 16th of 79 in the 40+ B race. He'll be racing tomorrow in the age-graded national championships, then transferring solely to super-fan and taxi-cab duties.
Got a good warmup in at the warmup tent, which featured trainers in BOXES that we needed to assemble before using. So... that sucked, but I was able to stay warm, and felt like I was relatively ready to go. No where near the numbers were there at the start than I thought. I thought there were 140 registered riders, but I think there were only about 40 starters.
I started off allright, didn't quite hold my position through the opening road section, probably got passed more than I passed people... but I could see the front, and felt like I could make efforts to at least get towards it. This plan started to unravel once I fell once going up a little bit of an off-camber uphill. I took the line off the mud, and went into the ice to try and pass people, but ended up sliding out. That cost me a few spots, and a shout-out from the announcer. I made a few efforts then to get back up to some groups in front of me, but after those efforts, I didn't have the gas to get around them or work to the next one. After a while I just wanted to learn the course and ride the hard sections smoothly, thinking ahead to Sunday's Collegiate race. I guess I finished 26th, which might sound respectable being at nationals, but there weren't that many people... and most of them were in front of me.
I had a lot of fun though, and I'll throw up a picture later of my bike, which was TOTALLY full of grassy mud after the race. Seriously, never seen my bike look anything like that. Thankfully they had a spray booth set up, which will lead into a funny story I'll put up once I get the photographic evidence later on.
The So-Cal roomate, Jim, had a great race to finish a very respectable 16th of 79 in the 40+ B race. He'll be racing tomorrow in the age-graded national championships, then transferring solely to super-fan and taxi-cab duties.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Do YOU know your birthday?
A while back I needed to bring my birth certificate to the DMV. I misplaced it after the trip, and eventually had to order a new one, which cost me 10 bucks. However, THE DAY I get the replacement birth certificate, I'm sitting at my desk, move something I guess I hadn't moved for a while, and out pops the original birth certificate. Swell. Well I opened the new one to see what it looked like... and noticed something surprising.
First of all my birthdate is really hard to read on the new certificate, so... that is kind of silly. It's handwritten, whereas it was type written on the original. Come on... we've progressed since '84 haven't we? Besides being almost illegible, I'm also pretty sure it has the WRONG DAY. Now, ordinarily this wouldn't be a huge deal... but this is my BIRTH CERTIFICATE, and it has my wrong birthday!??! So... what day should I choose?
I think I'll just stick with the original date... just has a ring to it by now.
First of all my birthdate is really hard to read on the new certificate, so... that is kind of silly. It's handwritten, whereas it was type written on the original. Come on... we've progressed since '84 haven't we? Besides being almost illegible, I'm also pretty sure it has the WRONG DAY. Now, ordinarily this wouldn't be a huge deal... but this is my BIRTH CERTIFICATE, and it has my wrong birthday!??! So... what day should I choose?
I think I'll just stick with the original date... just has a ring to it by now.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Oh Kansas...
At least cross nats aren't going on right now. The weather looks horrid in Kansas today and tomorrow, hopefully those 40 degree days they are predicting for the weekend will still hold true....
Maybe I should re-glue those 34's instead of studying for my finals.....
Maybe I should re-glue those 34's instead of studying for my finals.....
Sunday, December 09, 2007
What not to do before a cross race...
ride 80 miles. Also probably not the best idea before going to Cross Nats either, but I have another week to recover for my main race on Sunday. Certainly lots of feet up in the air time this week, though.
On Saturday I rode steady for about 5 hours with some of the new team mates for the road season, and that was probably a bit too much before this particular cross race especially. I had done 80 mile days before placing in the top 5 the next day before, but this course was made for sapping power out, and only had a few, though tough, technical sections to it. So my preparation for it was pretty poor, but I still had fun. I'll definitely get some pictures up when they're online... it's not called "Storm the Beach" for nothing. End result, finished up 8th, which given my tired legs and lacking motivation, was just fine with me. I hope that will be enough to lock up 3rd overall for the series.
Got home and cleaned the cross bike completely. Took most everything apart, regreased, relubed.... she's all set to go, minus pedals.... getting ready to put her in a box for the trek to Kansas. I gots two finals coming up... Tuesday and Wednesday, then I'm speeding down to San Diego, and flying out to Kansas City for a few days of pain.
On Saturday I rode steady for about 5 hours with some of the new team mates for the road season, and that was probably a bit too much before this particular cross race especially. I had done 80 mile days before placing in the top 5 the next day before, but this course was made for sapping power out, and only had a few, though tough, technical sections to it. So my preparation for it was pretty poor, but I still had fun. I'll definitely get some pictures up when they're online... it's not called "Storm the Beach" for nothing. End result, finished up 8th, which given my tired legs and lacking motivation, was just fine with me. I hope that will be enough to lock up 3rd overall for the series.
Got home and cleaned the cross bike completely. Took most everything apart, regreased, relubed.... she's all set to go, minus pedals.... getting ready to put her in a box for the trek to Kansas. I gots two finals coming up... Tuesday and Wednesday, then I'm speeding down to San Diego, and flying out to Kansas City for a few days of pain.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Planet Earth
I've been watching a lot of Netflix recently. Have lots of movies I want to watch, but I've been doing tv shows on there, as I can usually watch an episode or two (or a whole disc or two) each night.
First up was Entourage, which was an excellent show but made me depressed about how I have to actually do something with myself in order to make a buck. If you've seen it... Ari, the agent, is probably my favorite character. The shit that comes out of his mouth is hilarious. His assistant Lloyd is pretty funny too. Drama wears on me after a while, his role is pretty predictably pathetic, but it's all good. I'm waiting anxiously for season 4 to come up on Netflix. I don't think its even been on HBO yet though.
However, the show at the moment is BBC's miniseries "Planet Earth". Spectacular. Each episode features at least one tidbit, where I think to myself... that is bullshit, you are making this crap up. A monkey that swims? Global climate change? (some things are more stretches than others). If you happen to see this on TV, WATCH IT, or if you have Netflix, add it. I think it's on TV on the Discovery channel? or National Geographic maybe? You have google on your computer too, find out for yourself. Good show though, with excellent visuals. I really like how for most episodes you never see a human, it's as if you're there by yourself, with a pretty well educated and deep-toned subconscious providing narration. Five stars.
First up was Entourage, which was an excellent show but made me depressed about how I have to actually do something with myself in order to make a buck. If you've seen it... Ari, the agent, is probably my favorite character. The shit that comes out of his mouth is hilarious. His assistant Lloyd is pretty funny too. Drama wears on me after a while, his role is pretty predictably pathetic, but it's all good. I'm waiting anxiously for season 4 to come up on Netflix. I don't think its even been on HBO yet though.
However, the show at the moment is BBC's miniseries "Planet Earth". Spectacular. Each episode features at least one tidbit, where I think to myself... that is bullshit, you are making this crap up. A monkey that swims? Global climate change? (some things are more stretches than others). If you happen to see this on TV, WATCH IT, or if you have Netflix, add it. I think it's on TV on the Discovery channel? or National Geographic maybe? You have google on your computer too, find out for yourself. Good show though, with excellent visuals. I really like how for most episodes you never see a human, it's as if you're there by yourself, with a pretty well educated and deep-toned subconscious providing narration. Five stars.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Districts
This past weekend saw some racing action up in Bakersfield, Ca... about a 3 hour haul up North, so my teammate Ted and I snagged a hotel room up there to avoid copious amounts of driving.
Saturday was the sand-bag race for the Bear jersey. I was hoping to snag the win, but ended up 3rd, after a good hard fought battle that came right down to the wire with another guy. We went head to head on the last big runup, knowing whoever was in front would win... I almost pushed him over a cliff, but hey, I was barrrrely in front of him, so I had the slot.
Sunday was a Prestige series race, and I started off allright, then a yellow blur went by me about 1 minute in, whilst I was sitting in 2nd place. The leader had just buzzed by, and shot by Ted on the downhill. Ted only lost contact with him later on in the race when he skidded out around a corner, but finished strong in 2nd. I meanwhile, continued to go gradually slower, sitting in 4th, and racing negatively- looking back at the same guy who sloooowly brought me back at Turkey Trot. Well the guy catches me on the last 1/3 of the last lap, and finally is right with me right when we get onto the long downhill finishing straight. Now I should have realized that if he JUST got up to me, he's got to be a bit gassed, and should have punched it ASAP. But thinking like a roadie, I lead out the sprint slowly, not wanting to let lead him out... so I jumped when I thought I could get a gap and hold until the line, but he came through right at the end and nipped me... DAMN. So I ended up 5th.
Fall quarter is coming to an end already, though, and I'm finishing my last homework, and looking over things for my shortened 2-day finals week before I head out to Kansas City for cross nats. Before that, though, is the last prestige race I'll be doing... Storm the Beach. Literally on the beach at Camp Pendleton. I will definitely have some pictures from this sweet venue...
Saturday was the sand-bag race for the Bear jersey. I was hoping to snag the win, but ended up 3rd, after a good hard fought battle that came right down to the wire with another guy. We went head to head on the last big runup, knowing whoever was in front would win... I almost pushed him over a cliff, but hey, I was barrrrely in front of him, so I had the slot.
Sunday was a Prestige series race, and I started off allright, then a yellow blur went by me about 1 minute in, whilst I was sitting in 2nd place. The leader had just buzzed by, and shot by Ted on the downhill. Ted only lost contact with him later on in the race when he skidded out around a corner, but finished strong in 2nd. I meanwhile, continued to go gradually slower, sitting in 4th, and racing negatively- looking back at the same guy who sloooowly brought me back at Turkey Trot. Well the guy catches me on the last 1/3 of the last lap, and finally is right with me right when we get onto the long downhill finishing straight. Now I should have realized that if he JUST got up to me, he's got to be a bit gassed, and should have punched it ASAP. But thinking like a roadie, I lead out the sprint slowly, not wanting to let lead him out... so I jumped when I thought I could get a gap and hold until the line, but he came through right at the end and nipped me... DAMN. So I ended up 5th.
Fall quarter is coming to an end already, though, and I'm finishing my last homework, and looking over things for my shortened 2-day finals week before I head out to Kansas City for cross nats. Before that, though, is the last prestige race I'll be doing... Storm the Beach. Literally on the beach at Camp Pendleton. I will definitely have some pictures from this sweet venue...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Photos from Turkey Trot
Throwing the bike on up just before the runup. Wish you could have ridden it, because it would have been pretty sweet to have ridden this little creek, then up a climb, but you didn't carry much momentum, it was sandy, and had a big lip on the top....
The entrance to the "single track-ish" section. Wish I had a picture of barreling through here on the last lap, made up a good 5-10 seconds through the turn alone... though I was pretty damn close to eating it into the large rock.
One set of barriers, located on an uphill meant no bunny hopping. More specifically for me: lack of skills required to bunny hop barriers in the first place led to no bunny hopping.
The sand pit. I rode this pretty well each lap- only got caught up once where I slowed down, but still rode through it easily.Sunday, November 25, 2007
Turkey Trot
After dropping Nicole off at LAX for another 4-week session of talking on the phone, I was able to make it over to Glendale in time to do the 3/4 race at my third to last prestige series race, the Turkey Trot.
This was by far the coolest course there is in SoCal. Added to the course was just enough leaves and loose dirt and sand to make the course challenging but fun. Swooping turns you could rail through, a short sandy runup, a sand-trap and a hard little bit of single track that came after an almost 180-degree sandy turn.... pretty flipping sweet.
I started in the front row, and didn't quite get the usual fast sprint of a start that I'm capable of... probably didn't warm up enough. Though I still managed to slot into 5th or 6th. The whole first half of the first lap I had about a 5 second gap to the front group, and behind me was an even larger gap.... so I knew I had to gas it real hard to stay with the leaders. On one tricky part right when I had caught back on, a guy fell right in front of me, but by locking up the rear brake and sort of sliding around, I was able to get by him quickly, and right back up to the front of the group. After things settled down, it was the yellow jersey and another guy up the road, then me, and then two guys chasing me at about 10 seconds. Stayed that way for most of the race, until the 4th placed rider caught up to me, and then passed me when I slid out on a sandy turn. I didn't hammer it hard enough to get right back on his wheel, and he ended up getting a bit of a gap with about 2 laps to go.
With one lap to go, I had 4th in the bag, as I couldn't even see the 5th placed guy anymore, so I figured I'd take all the risks I could to try and catch the dude ahead of me. It was fun, with a few people yelling at me to catch up. I had been gaining on him in the corners, so I railed through some, going through sections without brakes that I didn't think I'd be able to manage. I finally caught him by skidding through the 180-degree sandy turn and getting the sand pit perfect. Though I botched the opportunity to pass him, and instead was right on his wheel (This as it turns out, is a subtle difference between cross and road. In a cross race, pass people. Always. This isn't always true on the road...) Having made the effort to get there, I didn't have the gas on the last quarter of the lap to stay on his wheel to try and win the sprint, and he got a bit of a gap again that I couldn't close. So I ended up 4th, but it was a heck of a fun race.
Looking forward to Bakersfield next weekend, where I'll be looking to snag another free jersey...this time it might have a bear on it...
Also, this is awesome. My former roomate Mike Friedman was on Slipstream for the last two years, and is still on it this year, as it progresses to a top-tier almost pro-tour level team. What a ride. I used to take craps in a toilet that he clogged on a consistent basis- I can't imagine what it's like to say hey, I have to get some good training in so I can help Magnus out in the Spring Classics. Unreal.
This was by far the coolest course there is in SoCal. Added to the course was just enough leaves and loose dirt and sand to make the course challenging but fun. Swooping turns you could rail through, a short sandy runup, a sand-trap and a hard little bit of single track that came after an almost 180-degree sandy turn.... pretty flipping sweet.
I started in the front row, and didn't quite get the usual fast sprint of a start that I'm capable of... probably didn't warm up enough. Though I still managed to slot into 5th or 6th. The whole first half of the first lap I had about a 5 second gap to the front group, and behind me was an even larger gap.... so I knew I had to gas it real hard to stay with the leaders. On one tricky part right when I had caught back on, a guy fell right in front of me, but by locking up the rear brake and sort of sliding around, I was able to get by him quickly, and right back up to the front of the group. After things settled down, it was the yellow jersey and another guy up the road, then me, and then two guys chasing me at about 10 seconds. Stayed that way for most of the race, until the 4th placed rider caught up to me, and then passed me when I slid out on a sandy turn. I didn't hammer it hard enough to get right back on his wheel, and he ended up getting a bit of a gap with about 2 laps to go.
With one lap to go, I had 4th in the bag, as I couldn't even see the 5th placed guy anymore, so I figured I'd take all the risks I could to try and catch the dude ahead of me. It was fun, with a few people yelling at me to catch up. I had been gaining on him in the corners, so I railed through some, going through sections without brakes that I didn't think I'd be able to manage. I finally caught him by skidding through the 180-degree sandy turn and getting the sand pit perfect. Though I botched the opportunity to pass him, and instead was right on his wheel (This as it turns out, is a subtle difference between cross and road. In a cross race, pass people. Always. This isn't always true on the road...) Having made the effort to get there, I didn't have the gas on the last quarter of the lap to stay on his wheel to try and win the sprint, and he got a bit of a gap again that I couldn't close. So I ended up 4th, but it was a heck of a fun race.
Looking forward to Bakersfield next weekend, where I'll be looking to snag another free jersey...this time it might have a bear on it...
Also, this is awesome. My former roomate Mike Friedman was on Slipstream for the last two years, and is still on it this year, as it progresses to a top-tier almost pro-tour level team. What a ride. I used to take craps in a toilet that he clogged on a consistent basis- I can't imagine what it's like to say hey, I have to get some good training in so I can help Magnus out in the Spring Classics. Unreal.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Urban (in the ghetto) cross
My new team, liquidfitness, was the host of the #3 race in the Urban cross series, the other series in SoCal. My teammate Ted and I drove up to Torrance to race in a sand bowl, which I had heard stories about.... but wasn't half as bad as what people were saying. This course was different than the Prestige series courses, not necessarily worse.
The course started on one of the "road" sections, a lot of gravel. Very quickly in there was a sharp turn, then a LONG loose sandy runup that HURT like hell. Following this was a longer less steep sandy descent to the barriers that really didn't require any pedaling, just holding on. After the barriers was some more sand, then a little single track, then down through the finish where there was a 2nd set of barriers right after a loose gravel turn. Little ways down were three tree trunks that you had to get off the bike for, then a long loose sandy ride-up, which fed into a bit of a hairy sandy descent, then basically back start.
I did the 4, and the 3/4 race. The 4s I did basically just to get points to try and get at my upgrade. There were about 12 dudes there.... from the gun I took off, and by the top of the runup I had a big gap. The race was already over. I just rode relatively easily, watching the 2nd place guy when the course snaked back on itself, but he was a ways back. Sweet... 10 upgrade points, only 3 to go.
The 3/4 went pretty well too, and was fun. Wish there were more guys there, I think there were only about 15. Ted and another guy went at the runup hard on the first lap, and were gone. I was in third, and came relatively close to catching them.... but after people started settling into their paces, the front two took off quickly. A guy caught up to and passed me, and I couldn't quite hold onto his pace. Then another guy came up and we were fighting for 4th for the next 3-4 laps. He rode for another team that is run by a guy who does coaching, so all the guys associated with our two teams sort of made a rivalry out of it, and everyone was LOUD when we came through... made it a lot of run. He kept getting away from me on the runup, and I'd fight back up on the sandy climb. With ~2.5 laps to go, he attacked, and I thought had it sealed, but he ended up fading reaaaal hard, and I caught him right before the runup on the last lap, and cruised to 4th. Go liquidfitness. Ted managed to get us onto the podium with a strong 2nd place.
With those results, I should have my upgrade, but I think I'll be holding off upgrading until after Bakerfield, where I can vie for a cat.4 SoCal championship jersey.... I think the ones around here with a big bear, like the state flag.... sweeeeet.
The course started on one of the "road" sections, a lot of gravel. Very quickly in there was a sharp turn, then a LONG loose sandy runup that HURT like hell. Following this was a longer less steep sandy descent to the barriers that really didn't require any pedaling, just holding on. After the barriers was some more sand, then a little single track, then down through the finish where there was a 2nd set of barriers right after a loose gravel turn. Little ways down were three tree trunks that you had to get off the bike for, then a long loose sandy ride-up, which fed into a bit of a hairy sandy descent, then basically back start.
I did the 4, and the 3/4 race. The 4s I did basically just to get points to try and get at my upgrade. There were about 12 dudes there.... from the gun I took off, and by the top of the runup I had a big gap. The race was already over. I just rode relatively easily, watching the 2nd place guy when the course snaked back on itself, but he was a ways back. Sweet... 10 upgrade points, only 3 to go.
The 3/4 went pretty well too, and was fun. Wish there were more guys there, I think there were only about 15. Ted and another guy went at the runup hard on the first lap, and were gone. I was in third, and came relatively close to catching them.... but after people started settling into their paces, the front two took off quickly. A guy caught up to and passed me, and I couldn't quite hold onto his pace. Then another guy came up and we were fighting for 4th for the next 3-4 laps. He rode for another team that is run by a guy who does coaching, so all the guys associated with our two teams sort of made a rivalry out of it, and everyone was LOUD when we came through... made it a lot of run. He kept getting away from me on the runup, and I'd fight back up on the sandy climb. With ~2.5 laps to go, he attacked, and I thought had it sealed, but he ended up fading reaaaal hard, and I caught him right before the runup on the last lap, and cruised to 4th. Go liquidfitness. Ted managed to get us onto the podium with a strong 2nd place.
With those results, I should have my upgrade, but I think I'll be holding off upgrading until after Bakerfield, where I can vie for a cat.4 SoCal championship jersey.... I think the ones around here with a big bear, like the state flag.... sweeeeet.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Eco-Cross
This past weekend's SoCal Cross race was up in Sylmar again, in the same park where the second race, Redline Cup, was held. Other than the start/finish paved stretch and the barriers, though, everything was different. The loose dirt and carpet of pine needles didn't serve me very well this time around either.
The course was pretty technical, which isn't quite an advantage for me, as I'm not all that comfortable taking turns through loose dirt and stuff yet... but it was still a really fun course to ride. My favorite stretch featured a steep loose dirt (I should almost say sandpit) hill, which was ridable only because you could carry momentum into it. I consistently lost time in the more technical sections, and wasn't able to gain it all back in the power sections. Suspicions of my being limited by handling skills were apparent when people I had been riding with for a lap or two (10-15mins) would easily gap me once they got the chance to pass me. I didn't feel all that gassed, so it wasn't me being tired, they just weren't such wossies in the turns! Still had a fun time though, and I did get more comfortable as the race went on, and caught up to two people on the last lap that had passed me earlier.
I got a decent start, and was sitting around 4-5th going into the barriers for the first lap. There was a dirt patch, and a paved hill after the barriers, and the leaders rode a bit away from me, and I never saw the front 3 or so again. I yo-yoed between 6-10th for much of the race, and ended up finishing 10th. I should slide a place or two in the overall standings from 5th, but I'll still get the all important callup.
I'll post some pictures of me in the green racer jersey later on when they're up online.
The course was pretty technical, which isn't quite an advantage for me, as I'm not all that comfortable taking turns through loose dirt and stuff yet... but it was still a really fun course to ride. My favorite stretch featured a steep loose dirt (I should almost say sandpit) hill, which was ridable only because you could carry momentum into it. I consistently lost time in the more technical sections, and wasn't able to gain it all back in the power sections. Suspicions of my being limited by handling skills were apparent when people I had been riding with for a lap or two (10-15mins) would easily gap me once they got the chance to pass me. I didn't feel all that gassed, so it wasn't me being tired, they just weren't such wossies in the turns! Still had a fun time though, and I did get more comfortable as the race went on, and caught up to two people on the last lap that had passed me earlier.
I got a decent start, and was sitting around 4-5th going into the barriers for the first lap. There was a dirt patch, and a paved hill after the barriers, and the leaders rode a bit away from me, and I never saw the front 3 or so again. I yo-yoed between 6-10th for much of the race, and ended up finishing 10th. I should slide a place or two in the overall standings from 5th, but I'll still get the all important callup.
I'll post some pictures of me in the green racer jersey later on when they're up online.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Cyclocross Nationals
The UC Irvine cycling team is picking up my tab to send me on out to cyclocross nationals this year. Sahweeeet. The race is in Kansas City, KS, a mere few days after I finish up the finals for the fall quarter. I'm currently trying to get my math final moved so that I can get out there to race the B race on Thursday, before the collegiate race on Sunday. I've been looking at the weather for that time of year (probably snow!), and just ordered a pair of 34 Tufos to use instead of the 30s I've been running out here- I'm planning on throwing those on my Ksyriums... would be a sweet cross bike when paired up with those wheels, I'm pretty siked for it.
Next though, I need to clean all the gunky horrible Vittoria glue off the Ksyriums before I can put the new fatties on there properly... gonnna get high on some lacquer fumes
Next though, I need to clean all the gunky horrible Vittoria glue off the Ksyriums before I can put the new fatties on there properly... gonnna get high on some lacquer fumes
Monday, November 05, 2007
Weird video on YouTube
I have a math test tomorrow, so naturally that means I'm online looking at cyclo cross videos on YouTube. Check this gem out... really weird, yo.
I think the weirdest part is at about 2:40 in... is that the woman's house the race is going by?? it looks like it... really weird, and the music right at the end makes you think that cyclo-cross has some tie-in with Halloween or something. freaky.
I think the weirdest part is at about 2:40 in... is that the woman's house the race is going by?? it looks like it... really weird, and the music right at the end makes you think that cyclo-cross has some tie-in with Halloween or something. freaky.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Just a few years ago...
I was racing collegiate C's back East at PennState. Found some old pictures while cleaning off the harddrive on my desktop. I know I'm probably wearing a few more layers in the first picture, but damn-I think I must have been pushing 185 back then.
First race weekend in Rutgers: 2003. Our best result would come from Mike Lahm, I think 4th (yeah, I take that gimkabo for memory, can't remember the name right off). Munas ended up making love to a curb... I wish I could remember what BS Lou was telling me at this moment.
Just a few weeks ago, digging the pre-fire clean air....
First race weekend in Rutgers: 2003. Our best result would come from Mike Lahm, I think 4th (yeah, I take that gimkabo for memory, can't remember the name right off). Munas ended up making love to a curb... I wish I could remember what BS Lou was telling me at this moment.
Just a few weeks ago, digging the pre-fire clean air....Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Coffee Crew Ride turned Octagon Death Match
So this morning I went for my first group ride since the fires, and it turned out to be pretty dramatic. We took a different route that kept us away from where the fire had been just last week. Visibility was poor, thankfully due mainly to fog... I hope. At any rate, at one point in the ride, a dude sort of went real fast on a downhill to catch up to some homies up the road, and kept drilling it. Another dude on the ride wasn't too happy about this, and after coming back together in a mile or two, they started exchanging words. It was pretty unsafe how the first guy rolled off... sort of rode right through a group on a narrow road with poor visibility.... but what transpired was still flipping crazy.
They started exchanging more words, and even smacking each other on the helmet. Numerous times people said "come on ladies" or something to that effect to try and prevent the fight, in the presence of some women on the ride who probably thought... well fuck you! Then at a stop light, all hell broke loose. Full on swings, head locks.. you name it. Both of them laid their bikes on the pavement and went at it. It was so very middle school.
So if you're ever on a group ride in SoCal, don't fuck with a dude in a Disco kit. He really does ride for Disco... maybe he's just mad that his team is gone...
They started exchanging more words, and even smacking each other on the helmet. Numerous times people said "come on ladies" or something to that effect to try and prevent the fight, in the presence of some women on the ride who probably thought... well fuck you! Then at a stop light, all hell broke loose. Full on swings, head locks.. you name it. Both of them laid their bikes on the pavement and went at it. It was so very middle school.
So if you're ever on a group ride in SoCal, don't fuck with a dude in a Disco kit. He really does ride for Disco... maybe he's just mad that his team is gone...
Monday, October 22, 2007
Training this week?
Probably not. I'm already taking off Friday - Sunday to go visit the Big Apple, which I'm psyched for. I'll be doing a good bit of work this week, catching up so I won't have to do a lot this weekend... but I still planned to do some riding this week until this happened....
D'oh! I usually climb up and over that ridge and ride through the canyon on the other side. But I can't even ride anywhere else around here because the air quality is atrocious. So hopefully these will clear up a bit by the time I have to take off from Long Beach on Thursday afternoon...
If you're bored check this site out. Shows all the fires, though its not updated all that often.
D'oh! I usually climb up and over that ridge and ride through the canyon on the other side. But I can't even ride anywhere else around here because the air quality is atrocious. So hopefully these will clear up a bit by the time I have to take off from Long Beach on Thursday afternoon...
If you're bored check this site out. Shows all the fires, though its not updated all that often.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Damn Cross (UCI #2)
So today was the same race as yesterday. Some changes were supposed to be made to the course, but they weren't, but that was ok because there wasn't much that could be done to make the course any better, given the location with all the gopher holes anyway...
It was my cleanest cross race so far, and not surprisingly I got my best result, both due to that fact, and some poor luck of folks in front of me (that's cross!). So right from the gun I was in 2nd position, but couldn't hold the fast pace up the first grade, and got gapped a bit. 4 leaders with a 5-10 second lead, then me with another two guys. That was basically the scenario until the series leader, and my teammate Ted, who were both in that front group of 4, both had mechanicals. The leader got a flat, but had to ride a little bit to get to the pit before changing and getting back in- he would up just inside the top 10. Ted was a bit more unfortunate. He rolled his tubular front tire after hitting an odd corner, but was able to ride the wheel into the pit and get his spare, which he then flatted somewhere in the next lap or so. Bummer because he was looking REAL good up with the leaders.
Those two mishaps and I'm sure some surges a the front, broke everything apart. I was well behind the two riders up the road, with two different guys coming up towards me. One guy faded, and one guy made his way up to me. I punched it real hard going into the last lap, and he spent the whole rest of the lap clawing his way back to me. He then flatted trying to hop the curb to ride the last runup, so I had an easy ride in for 3rd.
Really looking forward to the next few races... next one is in two weeks, so I'll be on the road again for a bit...
It was my cleanest cross race so far, and not surprisingly I got my best result, both due to that fact, and some poor luck of folks in front of me (that's cross!). So right from the gun I was in 2nd position, but couldn't hold the fast pace up the first grade, and got gapped a bit. 4 leaders with a 5-10 second lead, then me with another two guys. That was basically the scenario until the series leader, and my teammate Ted, who were both in that front group of 4, both had mechanicals. The leader got a flat, but had to ride a little bit to get to the pit before changing and getting back in- he would up just inside the top 10. Ted was a bit more unfortunate. He rolled his tubular front tire after hitting an odd corner, but was able to ride the wheel into the pit and get his spare, which he then flatted somewhere in the next lap or so. Bummer because he was looking REAL good up with the leaders.
Those two mishaps and I'm sure some surges a the front, broke everything apart. I was well behind the two riders up the road, with two different guys coming up towards me. One guy faded, and one guy made his way up to me. I punched it real hard going into the last lap, and he spent the whole rest of the lap clawing his way back to me. He then flatted trying to hop the curb to ride the last runup, so I had an easy ride in for 3rd.
Really looking forward to the next few races... next one is in two weeks, so I'll be on the road again for a bit...
Saturday, October 20, 2007
UCI (not UC Irvine) cross, #1
Cross racin.... pegged to 185 from the beginning, kept up there for nearly 45 mins, with a max at 195. Sahweet.
This weekend was the first ever UCI weekend for Southern California. UCI in terms of cycling has nothing to do with UC Irvine, for those of you wondering.... Union Cycliste Internationale is the global governing body for cycling- a UCI race usually means big names will show up, and the promoter will loose lots of money because they have to pay the commissaries a billion swiss francs per hour.
Anyway, none of that really matters for my Cat 3/4 races, so it was just a normal race. Attendance was actually a little low unfortunately, only about half of the top 10 on the series were present, so that was a bummer, but a good chance to move up I guess. I was 11th in the series going into the race, so no call-up, but that didn't matter much. I punched it hard on the opening paved section and cruised up the first big hill, and got into 3rd. My buddy Ted had the misfortune of unclipping on that hill, and lost a few spots, but he was quickly back up near the front. In the early parts of the first lap I did my usual first lap crash, just sliding out (despite the new tubies!). This not as bad as last week though, and I was able to quickly get back up, only losing 3-4 spots. After a few laps most of the race had shaken out, and the two leaders were well up the road, Ted was in 3rd, I was in 4th, and there were a few riders looking to come up, who never quite made it. I don't think I would have placed any differently had I not crashed. Maybe I would have been there when the guys took off and made their gap (my crash may have been what caused their initial gap....) but I don't think I would have hung with, and may have even blown up, so maybe it's a good thing.
So I should be looking at a callup for tomorrow's race, which I hope will feature more people, especially more from the top 10 who had been handing to us pretty well the first few weeks.
This weekend was the first ever UCI weekend for Southern California. UCI in terms of cycling has nothing to do with UC Irvine, for those of you wondering.... Union Cycliste Internationale is the global governing body for cycling- a UCI race usually means big names will show up, and the promoter will loose lots of money because they have to pay the commissaries a billion swiss francs per hour.
Anyway, none of that really matters for my Cat 3/4 races, so it was just a normal race. Attendance was actually a little low unfortunately, only about half of the top 10 on the series were present, so that was a bummer, but a good chance to move up I guess. I was 11th in the series going into the race, so no call-up, but that didn't matter much. I punched it hard on the opening paved section and cruised up the first big hill, and got into 3rd. My buddy Ted had the misfortune of unclipping on that hill, and lost a few spots, but he was quickly back up near the front. In the early parts of the first lap I did my usual first lap crash, just sliding out (despite the new tubies!). This not as bad as last week though, and I was able to quickly get back up, only losing 3-4 spots. After a few laps most of the race had shaken out, and the two leaders were well up the road, Ted was in 3rd, I was in 4th, and there were a few riders looking to come up, who never quite made it. I don't think I would have placed any differently had I not crashed. Maybe I would have been there when the guys took off and made their gap (my crash may have been what caused their initial gap....) but I don't think I would have hung with, and may have even blown up, so maybe it's a good thing.
So I should be looking at a callup for tomorrow's race, which I hope will feature more people, especially more from the top 10 who had been handing to us pretty well the first few weeks.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Greenhouse Dollars
... no greenhouse dollars are not things that Republicans spend on the free market in order to fund the military by buying Haliburton contracts while also pissing off Al Gore.
They are a form of free money disseminated by the University (UC Irvine). One of my buddies Dave told me today that if you work for the University (which graduate students do) and you do not have a parking permit for parking on campus, then you are eligible to receive 10 greenhouse bucks for each month, meaning $90 for us right now. These can be used at the bookstore, or any place on campus to get food. So obviously we marched right over to get burritos with Dave's money, then walked over to get myself some "wad of cash".
Today just got a lot better... I have "85 dollars" burning a hole in my pocket. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way for this money to make its way onto my bike. I think the best way may be to shop around on half.com for a book that is selling for a decent amount of its retail value, and then try and buy it at the store, and sell it quickly online. Though I fear my timing for this might not be that great... with quarters starting later than other schools, and the fact that we are a third of the way through this quarter...
I don't really want to use the money for food on campus.... I mean my last post was an excel spreadsheet screen shot depicting how I'm counting calories. Seriously.
Suggestions are welcome. If you wish to suggest I wait and use it for my textbooks for next quarter, then don't even bother responding, that is deplorable. This is FREE MONEY.
They are a form of free money disseminated by the University (UC Irvine). One of my buddies Dave told me today that if you work for the University (which graduate students do) and you do not have a parking permit for parking on campus, then you are eligible to receive 10 greenhouse bucks for each month, meaning $90 for us right now. These can be used at the bookstore, or any place on campus to get food. So obviously we marched right over to get burritos with Dave's money, then walked over to get myself some "wad of cash".
Today just got a lot better... I have "85 dollars" burning a hole in my pocket. I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way for this money to make its way onto my bike. I think the best way may be to shop around on half.com for a book that is selling for a decent amount of its retail value, and then try and buy it at the store, and sell it quickly online. Though I fear my timing for this might not be that great... with quarters starting later than other schools, and the fact that we are a third of the way through this quarter...
I don't really want to use the money for food on campus.... I mean my last post was an excel spreadsheet screen shot depicting how I'm counting calories. Seriously.
Suggestions are welcome. If you wish to suggest I wait and use it for my textbooks for next quarter, then don't even bother responding, that is deplorable. This is FREE MONEY.
Monday, October 15, 2007
I'm a dork....
So I dig excel graphs for some reason, don't ask. Spent a little too much time on this guy....Net calories calculated from basal metabolic rate (calculated to be 2700 KCal per day), my Polar output in KCal, and my food intake, estimated to within a few hundred probably. Not that I'm really manging my eating/training habits off this, but I think it might be kind of cool to watch how it goes.... Interesting at least. I've already noticed that I'll spike at least 1.5 to 2 lbs for a day or two after a hard ride (and presumably eating more, I just started "counting" calories now)... then it'll settle down in a few days. Sort of cool... body has a large time constant.
So spoiled...
So I was taking a look at the flyers for this weekend's double header of cross action, and I was thinking to myself... MAN I don't want to have to make this drive twice! An hour and fifteen minutes each way!? That sucks....
Then I remembered back in the day in good ole Pennsylvania where I would have driven about 4 hours to race.... damn I'm getting spoiled out here already. I'm already sulking the fact that I need armwarmers and kneewarmers to ride in the morning... wazup with that?
Then I remembered back in the day in good ole Pennsylvania where I would have driven about 4 hours to race.... damn I'm getting spoiled out here already. I'm already sulking the fact that I need armwarmers and kneewarmers to ride in the morning... wazup with that?
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Major Jake, ready for deployment...
So the Kona is finally done up right. As I said before, the cross rig now features sram rival 10spd drivetrain, paul's touring cantis, and tubular race wheels (though I only have one 10 spd cassette that is crossworthy, so these will basically be training and race wheels). As shown, comes in at 18lbs. Legit!!
For those of you who don't know what the heck is going on, then you might not realize how Paul's brakes work, which I didn't either before buying them. It is actually really cool - they do not use the typical tabs which lock the torsional spring into place (in fact I took them out on the fork). The springs are held between the caliper itself and the nut that the mount bolt goes through. A really cool design, that you really need to see to get your head around I think, and even then it took me a while to realize what was going wrong with my particular installation.
Yes, I'm a dork for making up that picture. Excuse me while I go spend my Saturday evening recovering from a 90mile road ride by coding matlab and watching the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car".
The front end... featuring the extra brake levers that I have not used much since I've gotten used to being on the hoods / in the drops
Paul's brake calipers. Sexy.
They feel just as nice as they look. I promise this bike won't be clean in one weeks time... have two races next weekend...
The picture below shows an extra washer I had to put in so that the calipers would work properly. The problem was that with certain calipers, there was an inordinate amount of torsional friction, which would not even be compensated for with high spring tension (which would have felt weird anyway). So it took a few days, a phone call and a few emails with Paul himself to get to the bottom of it. Actually Paul didn't know what was wrong (hard without see it)... it took me taking the calipers apart numerous times to realize what was happening. What happened was that if you accidentally overtighten the bolt without holding the nut the caliper down on the post on the frame / fork, then the sleeve, which is slid on top of the post, is pushed onto the flats (further than it was designed to go) and therefore allows the spring mechanism to be squished. Now this could have been avoided if AlphaQ and Kona had made the flats on these parts larger than the shank of the post, but that would be hard to fix now.... so what I did was add an additional washer to make sure the caliper didn't push the sleeve up onto the flats. Might be easier to see what I mean...
Yes, I'm a dork for making up that picture. Excuse me while I go spend my Saturday evening recovering from a 90mile road ride by coding matlab and watching the documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car".
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Pictures....
Also, check out this picture from the Redline cross race this past weekend...
This last one reminds me of the TTT from Bucknell, depicted below with artistic addition from Anna Kelso.
Eatin' good in the neighorhood
So I've been making a conscious effort to really watch what I've been eating the last few months. It's been sloooowly paying off (I'm down to about 165 on good days now). I've basically had a veeery simple diet:
Breakfast:
cereal, bannana, OJ
Lunch:
sandwich, carrots, apple, couple cookies
Dinner:
salad, pasta or stirfry
Snack:
yogurt with pretzels (don't knock it until you try it... but be ready to be addicted people).
Anyway, my main point is that today I was coming home from cross practice, and I stopped at Subway. Got a chicken bacon ranch on the cheesy bread. Not the best of choices, but I had just put in a good cross workout, and I was hungry. Probably the first "greasy" food I'd had in a while. I used to eat these things all the time... but let me tell you... I was not ready for the chaos this would have on me... I felt like I had just eaten a Big Mac or something!! I think I really got my body off the greasy food, and it didn't like going back.
Tomorrow, breakfast is oatmeal.
I'll also be posting some pics soon of new completly overhauled Kona Major Jake. Sram Rival 10spd group. Paul's touring cantis (funny story about these, and Paul himself later), and a new appropriately used left non-sti brake lever (instead of a right one). It feels faaaaaast.
Breakfast:
cereal, bannana, OJ
Lunch:
sandwich, carrots, apple, couple cookies
Dinner:
salad, pasta or stirfry
Snack:
yogurt with pretzels (don't knock it until you try it... but be ready to be addicted people).
Anyway, my main point is that today I was coming home from cross practice, and I stopped at Subway. Got a chicken bacon ranch on the cheesy bread. Not the best of choices, but I had just put in a good cross workout, and I was hungry. Probably the first "greasy" food I'd had in a while. I used to eat these things all the time... but let me tell you... I was not ready for the chaos this would have on me... I felt like I had just eaten a Big Mac or something!! I think I really got my body off the greasy food, and it didn't like going back.
Tomorrow, breakfast is oatmeal.
I'll also be posting some pics soon of new completly overhauled Kona Major Jake. Sram Rival 10spd group. Paul's touring cantis (funny story about these, and Paul himself later), and a new appropriately used left non-sti brake lever (instead of a right one). It feels faaaaaast.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
More Crossin
Did the 4, and the 3/4 today at the second race in the Cross series out here. The first race went pretty well, got 3rd place, and my future teammate took the first lap by storm and never got caught. The race split up very quickly, and after about 10 minutes in, I was battling with one other guy for 2nd... so it was a good result, but it wasn't the most competitive or anything. There were a decent amount of guys there... just blew to pieces real quick I guess.
The second race wasn't quite a race for me. I got the last callup spot from my 10th place finish last week, and got a decent start, into about 4th or 5th in the beginning of the first lap. My bud Ted dropped his chain over the barriers, and myself and at least 5 or 6 others flew by. I was pretty amazed when, about a minute later, he came absolutely flying by me... I mean totally different speed. Impressive, too bad he dropped his chain again, but still ended up 10th. We're going to get that 3rd eye chain watcher adjusted...then look out. As for my race... I slid out in a corner over some pine needles in one corner, and being a little too frantic to catch back on, overcooked a fast downhill grassy corner and landed pretty hard. I was a little shook up, but probably would have ridden it out, but my shifter was on the fritz.... so not even one lap into the 3/4, I was just hobbling back to get changed back into civilian clothes. Bummer.
Good news though, is that I have a new shifter, brake calipers and tubular tyres (if you are talking about cross tubulars, they are tyres, not tires, bitches) coming... so this cross bike is going to be raging.... just need to get more comfortable taking turns at speed... still feeling overall better each time on the bike though, and it's still fun as heck...
The second race wasn't quite a race for me. I got the last callup spot from my 10th place finish last week, and got a decent start, into about 4th or 5th in the beginning of the first lap. My bud Ted dropped his chain over the barriers, and myself and at least 5 or 6 others flew by. I was pretty amazed when, about a minute later, he came absolutely flying by me... I mean totally different speed. Impressive, too bad he dropped his chain again, but still ended up 10th. We're going to get that 3rd eye chain watcher adjusted...then look out. As for my race... I slid out in a corner over some pine needles in one corner, and being a little too frantic to catch back on, overcooked a fast downhill grassy corner and landed pretty hard. I was a little shook up, but probably would have ridden it out, but my shifter was on the fritz.... so not even one lap into the 3/4, I was just hobbling back to get changed back into civilian clothes. Bummer.
Good news though, is that I have a new shifter, brake calipers and tubular tyres (if you are talking about cross tubulars, they are tyres, not tires, bitches) coming... so this cross bike is going to be raging.... just need to get more comfortable taking turns at speed... still feeling overall better each time on the bike though, and it's still fun as heck...
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Cross Race #1 in the bag
Did my first cross race this weekend, and it was pretty sweet. Was only about a half hour drive, up in Fullerton. It was basically an all grass course, which makes it slow and hard... but since I did the 3/4 which was the last race on the 2nd day of racing, there was a beaten down path in the middle of the course which made it much faster than my trial runs on it before the elite race the day before.
I started in the 2nd row, and was probably about 10th through the first turn and into the first set of barriers. By the end of the first lap I had worked up to 6th or so, feel pretty good. My highest position was 5th, which I held for a lap, despite skidding out around one corner. My big mishap came on a concrete slab before a few stairs. I think that I didn't get my left cleat unclipped all the way before I started to lean over to start running, and both myself and the bike went down. Picked the bike up, but when I put it back down on top of the grass, the rear wheel was locked down. Damn. The canti caliper had been jammed down past the rim, and I needed to nail it back over with my hand. Took only about 15 seconds, but I lost about 10 places in the process. I was pretty bummed, and went real easy the next lap and a half, feeling like the race was all but over, but I managed to find some motivation to suffer a bit more, and over the last two laps made a bunch of places up as people were hurting to come back and secure a 10th.
All in all a good race. I just ordered some better calipers (not that they were really at fault for the rear wheel lockup) but they do suck, despite being orange. Also planning on making some spare tubie wheels into cross wheels if I can do it cheaply enough. They are box section rims, so I might beat them up a bit, but the cross riding out here isn't too terribly tough, so I hope to be able to use them so I can run tubies. I'll post some pictures later on if the photographer uploads them online.....
Next weekend, look out for another top 10.... hopefully.
I started in the 2nd row, and was probably about 10th through the first turn and into the first set of barriers. By the end of the first lap I had worked up to 6th or so, feel pretty good. My highest position was 5th, which I held for a lap, despite skidding out around one corner. My big mishap came on a concrete slab before a few stairs. I think that I didn't get my left cleat unclipped all the way before I started to lean over to start running, and both myself and the bike went down. Picked the bike up, but when I put it back down on top of the grass, the rear wheel was locked down. Damn. The canti caliper had been jammed down past the rim, and I needed to nail it back over with my hand. Took only about 15 seconds, but I lost about 10 places in the process. I was pretty bummed, and went real easy the next lap and a half, feeling like the race was all but over, but I managed to find some motivation to suffer a bit more, and over the last two laps made a bunch of places up as people were hurting to come back and secure a 10th.
All in all a good race. I just ordered some better calipers (not that they were really at fault for the rear wheel lockup) but they do suck, despite being orange. Also planning on making some spare tubie wheels into cross wheels if I can do it cheaply enough. They are box section rims, so I might beat them up a bit, but the cross riding out here isn't too terribly tough, so I hope to be able to use them so I can run tubies. I'll post some pictures later on if the photographer uploads them online.....
Next weekend, look out for another top 10.... hopefully.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Stealing some thunder
So Andy sent me a cool link today about a dual drive "fixed" gear. The question we had, though, was whether the gear ratio had to be the same for both sides. In case you are too lazy to read the link, the setup is basically two front chainrings, with chains running parallel back to two FREEWHEELS on either side of the rear hub. (if its two fixed gears the answer is much simpler)
I believe that the gear ratios can be different. I thought about it this way:
If the two concentric circles are the two chainrings, and the two cogs on the outside are the rear cogs. Because they freewheel in opposite directions, they cannot produce torque against each other, so they have no physical mechanism that connects their motion.... so I drew it this way to make it more clear. Obviously the two gear ratios above are different.
So clearly the angular velocity has to be the same for both chainrings, being constrained by the bottom bracket. But if you then express the cogs' angular velocities through the gear ratios, you see that the only way that omega2 = omega1 is if r2/r3 = r1/r4, or if the gear ratios are the same.
Physically, if you had a big gear for going forward, and a small gear for stopping, or going backward, then the whole time you are moving forward, the other freewheel (on the non-drive side, or I should say the left) will be freewheeling like crazy, but because its going backwards it shouldn't matter. If you get a cheap freewheel like I have on my single speeds, then it might sap a few watts out though!
Anyway, if you disagree with my conclusions, let me know... I'd be curious if anyone sees this differently...
I believe that the gear ratios can be different. I thought about it this way:
If the two concentric circles are the two chainrings, and the two cogs on the outside are the rear cogs. Because they freewheel in opposite directions, they cannot produce torque against each other, so they have no physical mechanism that connects their motion.... so I drew it this way to make it more clear. Obviously the two gear ratios above are different.So clearly the angular velocity has to be the same for both chainrings, being constrained by the bottom bracket. But if you then express the cogs' angular velocities through the gear ratios, you see that the only way that omega2 = omega1 is if r2/r3 = r1/r4, or if the gear ratios are the same.
Physically, if you had a big gear for going forward, and a small gear for stopping, or going backward, then the whole time you are moving forward, the other freewheel (on the non-drive side, or I should say the left) will be freewheeling like crazy, but because its going backwards it shouldn't matter. If you get a cheap freewheel like I have on my single speeds, then it might sap a few watts out though!
Anyway, if you disagree with my conclusions, let me know... I'd be curious if anyone sees this differently...
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Holy shit....
legit....legit....legit.
Pictures of the Bianchi cruiser will be coming soon. 42x16 drivetrain, riser handlebars, orange grips, yellow seat. It's the shit.
Pictures of the Bianchi cruiser will be coming soon. 42x16 drivetrain, riser handlebars, orange grips, yellow seat. It's the shit.
Friday, September 21, 2007
That's MAJOR Jake to you
The Kona
Cockpit... cross brake levers... crossed up naturally. Yeah. Orange calipers.
Notice the brake housing.... running the whoooole length. The brazeons on the frame would not accept ferrels, so I had to run the housing the whole way, or buy these metal pieces from Kona that the deal said have a tendency to get sharp and cut people.....
Chainring... with chainguard and 3rd eye watcher. Still managed to hop the chain off on a descent the other night....don't think I'll do that in an actual race though, hopefully.
MAJOR Jake
Kona. notice the Alpha-Qness. Hot.Fa-Fa-Fa Friday
Friday is going pretty well. I got word that the Easton wheels that I EP'ed almost a year ago finally made it to the shop, and arranged to have them shipped out to the West Coast. See this picture for why I'm so amped about that:
Full carbon rim, straight pull spokes. No J-bends where I usually break spokes.... lovely. I'm contemplating removing all the decals (pronounced deeeeee-cals) save for the E. Originally I had planned on somehow making other letters to spell out "ERIK", but I think I'm too lazy, and since watching the show "Entourage" 'E' will do just fine. So... not that big a deal, I knew they were coming, why such a 'must write in my blog about them' sort of deal?
The charge on my credit card was over $1,000 for them. What the balls? Supposed to be like 500 bucks. So I call up Easton, and after sitting on hold and listening to the same 30 second clip of a Beethoven invention (which having played it previously made it worse to listen to over and over) for 30 minutes I found out that they forgot to take the 40% off wholesale.... and they'll be cutting me a check for about $400. Even better... I even get the points on my credit card, and I get cash.
And then to top it off, I get back and get an email stating that the irDA usb hub that my old roomate Andy (see his blog for further humorous details on this debacle) bought and sent to me (to the incorrect address that I provided) had finally found its way back to the seller on eBay, and that she was sending it again.
Rocking. Now I just need to come up with a dynamic systems level model for a PEM CHP unit, validate to published data, tweak the code and then graduate and make bank. Rocking.
Full carbon rim, straight pull spokes. No J-bends where I usually break spokes.... lovely. I'm contemplating removing all the decals (pronounced deeeeee-cals) save for the E. Originally I had planned on somehow making other letters to spell out "ERIK", but I think I'm too lazy, and since watching the show "Entourage" 'E' will do just fine. So... not that big a deal, I knew they were coming, why such a 'must write in my blog about them' sort of deal?The charge on my credit card was over $1,000 for them. What the balls? Supposed to be like 500 bucks. So I call up Easton, and after sitting on hold and listening to the same 30 second clip of a Beethoven invention (which having played it previously made it worse to listen to over and over) for 30 minutes I found out that they forgot to take the 40% off wholesale.... and they'll be cutting me a check for about $400. Even better... I even get the points on my credit card, and I get cash.
And then to top it off, I get back and get an email stating that the irDA usb hub that my old roomate Andy (see his blog for further humorous details on this debacle) bought and sent to me (to the incorrect address that I provided) had finally found its way back to the seller on eBay, and that she was sending it again.
Rocking. Now I just need to come up with a dynamic systems level model for a PEM CHP unit, validate to published data, tweak the code and then graduate and make bank. Rocking.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Cross riding... attracts cross weather?
So I went out for my first cross practice yesterday evening. I literally installed the cleats in the parking lot, then took a few minutes to spin around and practice hopping off and "hopping" on before we did a few laps around the park. It went relatively well.... need to do a lot of work so the whole process of hopping on and off is fluid and seamless, but I have some time, so I'll work on that. I did bite it once... at the bottom of a BIG hill. There is basically a large sand pit at the bottom, and I didn't realize how sloppy it actually was down there. So taking the turn at the bottom of the hill I just washed out... but it looked much more hardcore than it was due to my opening up an old cut. Sweet bloody cross.
Thursday morning... coffee crew ride. 30 miles which is usually relatively chill until the end which picks up the pace a bit, then hits two relatively good hills towards the end. The ride was completely different though. It was raining! Wasn't so bad when we started, and it didn't really even ever rain that hard on us, but the spray and all the gravel kicked up made the ride horrible. It was better out East when the constant rains drove junk off the road. There were tons of little stones in my eyes. (sunglasses were worthless). Oh well. My goal was to make it over Newport Coast Dr. (big climb at the end) with the group, but I didn't even really make it to the bottom with them... thanks rain and stoplights. Maybe it was the cyclocross that brought out the weather.... supposed to have more of it this weekend. bummer.
Thursday morning... coffee crew ride. 30 miles which is usually relatively chill until the end which picks up the pace a bit, then hits two relatively good hills towards the end. The ride was completely different though. It was raining! Wasn't so bad when we started, and it didn't really even ever rain that hard on us, but the spray and all the gravel kicked up made the ride horrible. It was better out East when the constant rains drove junk off the road. There were tons of little stones in my eyes. (sunglasses were worthless). Oh well. My goal was to make it over Newport Coast Dr. (big climb at the end) with the group, but I didn't even really make it to the bottom with them... thanks rain and stoplights. Maybe it was the cyclocross that brought out the weather.... supposed to have more of it this weekend. bummer.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Harden the F&^# up
Well the cross bike isn't quite assembled yet... still need a saddle (coming) and cleats (ordered at the shop). Hopefully I'll be able to get it out a few times before the 30th, which will be the first race... that I already regged for.... sahweet.
Don't have much creative to say... but this dude does... the motivation behind Staurt O'Grady's black wristbands at the Tour...
Don't have much creative to say... but this dude does... the motivation behind Staurt O'Grady's black wristbands at the Tour...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Kona in charge
I got a cross bike! Kona Major Jake. I've got most of the cockpit assembled, but am still waiting for a few essentials in the mail... saddle, brakes... But I'll throw a picture up of the new steed up on the blog when she's all done. For now, suffice it to say... it's going to look HOT.
Took advantage of one of the last homework free weekends by squeezing in about 8.5 hours of riding. I will be taking this week reaaaal easy. Got a nice easy spin planned for early in the week up the Santa Ana river... looks like a cesspool on GoogleEarth, hope it doesn't smell too much.
Also likely switching my emphasis at work a bit... looks like I'll actually be doing work with some stationary PEM units for my MS work. Probably doesn't mean a whole lot to most people, but instead of doing SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) which are real big, high temperature units, I'll be doing smaller (though on the large size for PEM) PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells. Obviously most of the basics are the same with these different kinds of systems, but there are some big differences, which I'll highlight real quick. SOFCs have a solid electrolyte and need to be run at high temperatures so that this electrolyte can efficiently conduct oxide ions. The ion migration is from the cathode to the anode..... oxide ions. This differs from PEM fuel cells, which have a polymer (repeating chain of something or other... remember organic chemistry? neither do i... i didn't take it) electrolyte which generally require water to be conductive for protons, which originate from the hydrogen fuel. In PEM systems ion migration is from the anode to the cathode in the form of protons. The net reaction is the same for both types of cells, generally, but the actual chemical mechanisms are different. If you made it this far, then you are a trooper. Give yourself a pat on the back.
So, if you skipped down to here, don't blame you. I'll be working on large-scale PEM fuel cells, which would be placed in someone's house for example, which would provide power for the house 24/7, and the grid when the house doesn't need it (ie during the day when everyone is at work). They would run on pipeline natural gas (gasp! a fossil fuel!) which would be reformed to hydrogen (the clean answer right?? yeaaaaah). They would also provide heating and possibly cooling, through CHP (combined heat and power) equipped units. Basically heat exchangers to take advantage of the fuel cell's heat generation. With big enough units you can actually cool down air if you have hot air, by using a heat pump... but with small systems it becomes too costly, so smaller units would likely just have heating capabilities, which only require an exchanger, not a heat pump.
If you were interested in any of that mumbo jumbo, then good. If not, I didn't tell you you had to read it. If you want to know more, ask.
Off to bed... I rode 80 miles today...
Took advantage of one of the last homework free weekends by squeezing in about 8.5 hours of riding. I will be taking this week reaaaal easy. Got a nice easy spin planned for early in the week up the Santa Ana river... looks like a cesspool on GoogleEarth, hope it doesn't smell too much.
Also likely switching my emphasis at work a bit... looks like I'll actually be doing work with some stationary PEM units for my MS work. Probably doesn't mean a whole lot to most people, but instead of doing SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) which are real big, high temperature units, I'll be doing smaller (though on the large size for PEM) PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells. Obviously most of the basics are the same with these different kinds of systems, but there are some big differences, which I'll highlight real quick. SOFCs have a solid electrolyte and need to be run at high temperatures so that this electrolyte can efficiently conduct oxide ions. The ion migration is from the cathode to the anode..... oxide ions. This differs from PEM fuel cells, which have a polymer (repeating chain of something or other... remember organic chemistry? neither do i... i didn't take it) electrolyte which generally require water to be conductive for protons, which originate from the hydrogen fuel. In PEM systems ion migration is from the anode to the cathode in the form of protons. The net reaction is the same for both types of cells, generally, but the actual chemical mechanisms are different. If you made it this far, then you are a trooper. Give yourself a pat on the back.
So, if you skipped down to here, don't blame you. I'll be working on large-scale PEM fuel cells, which would be placed in someone's house for example, which would provide power for the house 24/7, and the grid when the house doesn't need it (ie during the day when everyone is at work). They would run on pipeline natural gas (gasp! a fossil fuel!) which would be reformed to hydrogen (the clean answer right?? yeaaaaah). They would also provide heating and possibly cooling, through CHP (combined heat and power) equipped units. Basically heat exchangers to take advantage of the fuel cell's heat generation. With big enough units you can actually cool down air if you have hot air, by using a heat pump... but with small systems it becomes too costly, so smaller units would likely just have heating capabilities, which only require an exchanger, not a heat pump.
If you were interested in any of that mumbo jumbo, then good. If not, I didn't tell you you had to read it. If you want to know more, ask.
Off to bed... I rode 80 miles today...
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Riding
I've been out in Cali for a bit now... and I know where the grocery store is, where the closest 173 Starbucks are, and where not to take a #2 on campus. Pretty productive first few weeks. I've also been riding quite a bit. Since I don't really have anything to do in the lab, sometimes I just don't go. Now I'm all physched for when I do have work.... I like getting stuff done (not gettin' 'er done), but when my adviser applauds my simply writing a 4 page fluffer of a thesis proposal, and says its a great start.... its time to slow it down and decrease those expectations.
So yeah... not so much work means a lot of riding. And a lot of riding I did. The first week back on the bike I logged 17 hours. Granted about 9 of those were just real easy spinning around, but still... 17 hours is a good chunk for me. I've done some sweet riding in Santiago Canyon nearby (which sucks when its really hot) and also along the coast (which never sucks). Also been finding some really cool hills to do repeats on later in the year... I'm really pumped for trimming down a bit, and hitting the hills hard in attempts to not be dropped on every climb in every race this year.
Also pumped at the prospect of finally doing a cross season. Despite having two cross bikes in the past, I've never gotten a good ride and a healthy Erik in the same season.... so hopefully this will be it. Got my eyes on a few gems (and a few rustbuckets) on eBay, and also a Major Jake w/ Alpha Q carbon fork locally that I'm checking out tomorrow..... wouldn't that be sweeeeet.
So yeah... not so much work means a lot of riding. And a lot of riding I did. The first week back on the bike I logged 17 hours. Granted about 9 of those were just real easy spinning around, but still... 17 hours is a good chunk for me. I've done some sweet riding in Santiago Canyon nearby (which sucks when its really hot) and also along the coast (which never sucks). Also been finding some really cool hills to do repeats on later in the year... I'm really pumped for trimming down a bit, and hitting the hills hard in attempts to not be dropped on every climb in every race this year.
Also pumped at the prospect of finally doing a cross season. Despite having two cross bikes in the past, I've never gotten a good ride and a healthy Erik in the same season.... so hopefully this will be it. Got my eyes on a few gems (and a few rustbuckets) on eBay, and also a Major Jake w/ Alpha Q carbon fork locally that I'm checking out tomorrow..... wouldn't that be sweeeeet.
Monday, August 27, 2007
California...
So for those of you who read about the cross country extravaganza here, you know that I'm already out in Irvine. Got my apartment all set up, and after Nicole helped me assemble some Ikea furniture, the place is looking pretty rocking. I'll snap some photos later...
But down to the real business at hand, I've been on a few rides, and already have a pretty funny story to tell. I did a ~50 miler (second day back on the bike after 30 days off) to Santiago Canyon. Now most people would hear "Canyon" and figure they'd be climbing a bit. I trusted gmap pedometer's profile, and thought it looked relatively flat. Wrong. It was lump enough to make my completely out of shape legs feel it quite a bit. Wasn't so bad though.... but it was getting dark as I started to get back onto the roads that I know well.... and then... passing under the 5 (that's how you call out highways here... the 5) I nailed something, and a mile or so down the road, my front wheel went flat. Balls. Changed that up pretty quickly, and got moving on.... the last hurdle was going through this gated community. I knew it was a private road, due to the large signs stating such, but I figured as a cyclist, I'd just cruise on through. Well I came up to the entrance of Jurassic Park, and thought... shit, how do I get through this? Keep in mind its getting dark, and if I have to go around this Porsche haven, then it's on busy roads with cars that all have their headlights on by now.... So I sort of skirt through the first gate, and that's when three dudes come out of nowhere and are like.... "what are you doing?? you can't go through here". So evidently there is a bike path through the rich fuckers community that I missed.... so they showed me where us mere two wheelers tread through their land, and I was off.... But it was looking sort of hilly to me, and I didn't remember seeing any hills near campus, where this was supposed to let me out. Went on for a few miles, and finally ran into a couple walking on the path. Stopped and asked them if I was close to UCI, and they said it was just ahead... so sweet, saved. Then they keep talking for a while because the husband is a cyclist, and he starts offering up all his advice on cool routes to ride around there... so that was pretty cool. Then his wife tops the boat, and is like, you know we live right up around the street.... if you want to come over for home cooked dinner, feel free any time, we're always around. What!? Seriously? Just because I shave my legs? Weird. I've already forgotten where they said they lived... but still, pretty cool I guess.
Back to work. I'll talk a bit about what I'm studying out here later. When I figure out what that is.
But down to the real business at hand, I've been on a few rides, and already have a pretty funny story to tell. I did a ~50 miler (second day back on the bike after 30 days off) to Santiago Canyon. Now most people would hear "Canyon" and figure they'd be climbing a bit. I trusted gmap pedometer's profile, and thought it looked relatively flat. Wrong. It was lump enough to make my completely out of shape legs feel it quite a bit. Wasn't so bad though.... but it was getting dark as I started to get back onto the roads that I know well.... and then... passing under the 5 (that's how you call out highways here... the 5) I nailed something, and a mile or so down the road, my front wheel went flat. Balls. Changed that up pretty quickly, and got moving on.... the last hurdle was going through this gated community. I knew it was a private road, due to the large signs stating such, but I figured as a cyclist, I'd just cruise on through. Well I came up to the entrance of Jurassic Park, and thought... shit, how do I get through this? Keep in mind its getting dark, and if I have to go around this Porsche haven, then it's on busy roads with cars that all have their headlights on by now.... So I sort of skirt through the first gate, and that's when three dudes come out of nowhere and are like.... "what are you doing?? you can't go through here". So evidently there is a bike path through the rich fuckers community that I missed.... so they showed me where us mere two wheelers tread through their land, and I was off.... But it was looking sort of hilly to me, and I didn't remember seeing any hills near campus, where this was supposed to let me out. Went on for a few miles, and finally ran into a couple walking on the path. Stopped and asked them if I was close to UCI, and they said it was just ahead... so sweet, saved. Then they keep talking for a while because the husband is a cyclist, and he starts offering up all his advice on cool routes to ride around there... so that was pretty cool. Then his wife tops the boat, and is like, you know we live right up around the street.... if you want to come over for home cooked dinner, feel free any time, we're always around. What!? Seriously? Just because I shave my legs? Weird. I've already forgotten where they said they lived... but still, pretty cool I guess.
Back to work. I'll talk a bit about what I'm studying out here later. When I figure out what that is.
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Monday, July 02, 2007
Fitchburg Day 4- Crit
The last day of Fitchburg.... and I was feeling it. Crits have been my thing this year, and I really wanted to be able to have something positive to remember this race for. Got a descent warmup in, and got to the line at the right time.... second row back behind the callups. This crit is pretty tough... good uphill grade up to a 180 degree turnaround, then back down a screaming (35mph) descent into two hard left hand 90 degree turns, which places you back on the homestretch uphill grade.
Pace was pretty high at the beginning, and I quickly lost my position near the front. I dug in in the middle of the field, and spent most of the race just moving up when the opportunity presented itself to do so easily. My plan for winning this race was to get to the front for the last points sprint with 3 to go, follow the dudes sprinting, and then peg it as hard as I could after their sprint was done to try and hold on solo. I kept feeling better and better as the race went on... as I was able to recover and move up on the descent relatively easily. With 4 to go I moved to the front, but couldn't muscle my way into the top 10 places. The points sprint came and went, and someone else executed my plan.... he stayed away and won. Ben Showman... strong A rider from Army's collegiate team. Had I known it was him off the front, I would have buried myself to try and get up there... but I probably would have just toasted myself anyway.
I sat back and tried to start looking for the leadouts. Most of them came up the left side.... where noone was moving up before. I was stuck on the right side, where I had been able to move up all day. Balls. Coming into the homestretch on the last lap I didn't have great position at all. Way too far back to contest anything. I still uncorked a good sprint, passing probably 20 people from the last two turns up to the line to finish a respectable 37th. I was satisfied with how much better I felt in the race, and the placing is allright. I think I'll be setup allright for Owasco. Bring on the upgrade points.... hopefully.
Pace was pretty high at the beginning, and I quickly lost my position near the front. I dug in in the middle of the field, and spent most of the race just moving up when the opportunity presented itself to do so easily. My plan for winning this race was to get to the front for the last points sprint with 3 to go, follow the dudes sprinting, and then peg it as hard as I could after their sprint was done to try and hold on solo. I kept feeling better and better as the race went on... as I was able to recover and move up on the descent relatively easily. With 4 to go I moved to the front, but couldn't muscle my way into the top 10 places. The points sprint came and went, and someone else executed my plan.... he stayed away and won. Ben Showman... strong A rider from Army's collegiate team. Had I known it was him off the front, I would have buried myself to try and get up there... but I probably would have just toasted myself anyway.
I sat back and tried to start looking for the leadouts. Most of them came up the left side.... where noone was moving up before. I was stuck on the right side, where I had been able to move up all day. Balls. Coming into the homestretch on the last lap I didn't have great position at all. Way too far back to contest anything. I still uncorked a good sprint, passing probably 20 people from the last two turns up to the line to finish a respectable 37th. I was satisfied with how much better I felt in the race, and the placing is allright. I think I'll be setup allright for Owasco. Bring on the upgrade points.... hopefully.
Fitchburg - Day3 Road Race
I was looking forward to improving upon my last Fitchburg Road Race, when I came into it at 8th in the GC, and ended up at 99th. That was when I was a 4, and we only did 3 laps. On tap for today was 6 laps, for a total of 68 miles. There is one signifigant climb with a long false flat after it that hurts a lot... then a really fast (57mph) descent back on down. The final lap features a crazy climb to the top of Wachusset Ski Resort. Nuts.
I felt pretty good on the first lap. We were sort of neutralized because we had been caught by the 35+ field. That kept things real easy on that false flat after the climb. So the first lap was cake for staying in the field. Second lap we went balls to the wall to try and catch a break that had formed on the first lap. We flew up the climb, catching the masters field... which was confusing as heck, and finally leaving them behind for good. I got a bit gapped on the false flat section, but made it all back on the descent by hammering out 57mph. That was fun. I knew what was in store for the next lap, however, and lights went out on the climb. I could reach out and grab the field the whole time.... and actually almost got back on the false flat, but they got a bit too much of a gap that I couldnt' make up on the downhill. Balls. 30 miles to go. A bunch of groups were behind, and they were drilling it paceline style. These people were all idiots. We're not getting back on. We're going to loose massive time, dont' kill yourself! So I rode easy to the feedzone again and stopped and hung out with my parents. When the field came by I hopped back in and finished up with them. Lapped riders finish on the lap with the field... so I rested, and did one less lap. Fresher for tomorrow right? Hopefully... The climb up to the ski resort still hurt like hell. I didn't even start with the group, as I was dropped for a second time (that's a first for me) on the false flat.
I felt pretty good on the first lap. We were sort of neutralized because we had been caught by the 35+ field. That kept things real easy on that false flat after the climb. So the first lap was cake for staying in the field. Second lap we went balls to the wall to try and catch a break that had formed on the first lap. We flew up the climb, catching the masters field... which was confusing as heck, and finally leaving them behind for good. I got a bit gapped on the false flat section, but made it all back on the descent by hammering out 57mph. That was fun. I knew what was in store for the next lap, however, and lights went out on the climb. I could reach out and grab the field the whole time.... and actually almost got back on the false flat, but they got a bit too much of a gap that I couldnt' make up on the downhill. Balls. 30 miles to go. A bunch of groups were behind, and they were drilling it paceline style. These people were all idiots. We're not getting back on. We're going to loose massive time, dont' kill yourself! So I rode easy to the feedzone again and stopped and hung out with my parents. When the field came by I hopped back in and finished up with them. Lapped riders finish on the lap with the field... so I rested, and did one less lap. Fresher for tomorrow right? Hopefully... The climb up to the ski resort still hurt like hell. I didn't even start with the group, as I was dropped for a second time (that's a first for me) on the false flat.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Fitchburg Day2: Circuit Race
On tap for the second day of Fitchburg was a 28 mile circuit race featuring a two block long stairstepper climb, and a fast backside to make about a three mile loop. For most, it is easy to sit in for this race.... usually finishes all together without any time gaps. Didn't quite work out that way.
Since my TT put me way out of contention for any hope at overall glory, I figured I'd try my hand at the points jersey. The first sprint was the very first time through the line. I tried to get myself up to the front, but was still about 40 back through the turn at the bottom of the hill... so no dice for that sprint. Two laps later, I got myself into the top 15 into that turn looking to snag some points... but as soon as the road went uphill, I slid back instead of passing people, which is necessary in order to get points. From there on it was a race of survival. I kept slipping further and further back, and eventually was gapped off at the top of the hill, and the lights went out. I rode it very easily, not really caring how much time I lost... turned out to be a good strategy. The field was finishing right as they were lapping me, so I blended right in, and they placed me in the field.... at the same time. If this mattered at all, I would have corrected the officials, but their mistake moved me from 85 to 70 overall, instead of moving me down to a likely lantern rouge. So.... whatever. I'll claim that prize tomorrow during the road race.
Since my TT put me way out of contention for any hope at overall glory, I figured I'd try my hand at the points jersey. The first sprint was the very first time through the line. I tried to get myself up to the front, but was still about 40 back through the turn at the bottom of the hill... so no dice for that sprint. Two laps later, I got myself into the top 15 into that turn looking to snag some points... but as soon as the road went uphill, I slid back instead of passing people, which is necessary in order to get points. From there on it was a race of survival. I kept slipping further and further back, and eventually was gapped off at the top of the hill, and the lights went out. I rode it very easily, not really caring how much time I lost... turned out to be a good strategy. The field was finishing right as they were lapping me, so I blended right in, and they placed me in the field.... at the same time. If this mattered at all, I would have corrected the officials, but their mistake moved me from 85 to 70 overall, instead of moving me down to a likely lantern rouge. So.... whatever. I'll claim that prize tomorrow during the road race.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Fitchburg Day 1: ITT
Day one of the Fitchburg stage race was a moderately uphill ITT. This race always starts with an ITT, and I really prefer the flat affairs, but this one was a bit different. Not an uphill ITT like Army's collegiate event, but gradually up 600 feet over a few miles (with some pretty good kickers) and then a flat, almost downhill speedy finish.
I used my road bike with some borrowed clip on aerobars, and it probably wasn't the way to go. Should have brought out the TT rig. The climbs were not as bad as the profile made it out to be, and I think that good times were up for grabs from those with their TT bikes out. That being said, not sure I would have moved up much from my 85th, about 2 1/2 minutes down on the leader had I brought out the Zepp. So yeah... cracked the top 90.
Tomorrow is the circuit race, which features the first sprints for the points jersey, so I will be going balls out for that bitch. Hopefully snag some points and get myself into a good place for that. Need something positive out of this stage race...
I used my road bike with some borrowed clip on aerobars, and it probably wasn't the way to go. Should have brought out the TT rig. The climbs were not as bad as the profile made it out to be, and I think that good times were up for grabs from those with their TT bikes out. That being said, not sure I would have moved up much from my 85th, about 2 1/2 minutes down on the leader had I brought out the Zepp. So yeah... cracked the top 90.
Tomorrow is the circuit race, which features the first sprints for the points jersey, so I will be going balls out for that bitch. Hopefully snag some points and get myself into a good place for that. Need something positive out of this stage race...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
All in the details
This picture is of a wiring issue in one of the 5kW units that Siemens is operating now. It's at Phipps Conservatory near CMU in Pittsburgh, so the last few days at work I've been going down there to help with some maintenance on it. Got me thinking.
Most of the problems with fuel cells aren't the fuel cells. They work wonderfully if you give them the right amount of gas, take away the products and don't let the reaction sites clog up with carbon that you'd expect to see on a grill after charring some steak. (All that is relatively harder than you may think...)
True about a lot of things... it's all in the details. You can ride your bike alot, train yourself into the ground, but if you don't look after the details of eating well, sleeping well, and doing the right kinds of riding, it won't matter much come race time. You can take time to talk with people, but if you're constantly thinking of all the other things you have to do, and stressing about what you didn't get done, you're loosing out on the big picture. So here's to taking care of the small stuff. First off is replacing these fuses with smaller ones....
See you in the details.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Update contd
Ok, so yea. I'm living in Pittsburgh with Munas, who thinks his blog is as good as mine (actually, its far superior because I have more of a life). We have real nice place neary Shadyside/Point Breeze area. A block from Walnut St, which is a happening place. The riding is beginning to be better as we find quicker ways out of the concrete jungle and streets with needles on them.
Work is actually pretty cool. Getting paid twice as much as at school has perks, and I'm really interested in what I'm working on in general, so it's pretty good times at work. Siemens is the world leader in tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology, so it's cool to be there learning alot about what they've tried, and what hasn't worked. I do do a lot of bitch excel data work from time to time, but at the same time I'm also learning all the ins/outs of the tests being run as well, so I learn from that, and they gain from me copying and pasting, reformating, making graphs and sending it out. Good trade for now. I have a guess I might be back here some summer during grad school, and I'd like to not do that kind of work then. We'll see.
Racing hasn't gone too bad. Did pretty well in a podunk crit in WV a few weeks back. Nabbed a prime and 3rd place, so about 80 bucks. Also did a crit in jersey, which didn't work out too well because the large teams represented there gave the break too much leash. Overall I'm feeling pretty good though, and I'm looking forward to doing Fitchburg in a few weeks... that'll be fun
Work is actually pretty cool. Getting paid twice as much as at school has perks, and I'm really interested in what I'm working on in general, so it's pretty good times at work. Siemens is the world leader in tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology, so it's cool to be there learning alot about what they've tried, and what hasn't worked. I do do a lot of bitch excel data work from time to time, but at the same time I'm also learning all the ins/outs of the tests being run as well, so I learn from that, and they gain from me copying and pasting, reformating, making graphs and sending it out. Good trade for now. I have a guess I might be back here some summer during grad school, and I'd like to not do that kind of work then. We'll see.
Racing hasn't gone too bad. Did pretty well in a podunk crit in WV a few weeks back. Nabbed a prime and 3rd place, so about 80 bucks. Also did a crit in jersey, which didn't work out too well because the large teams represented there gave the break too much leash. Overall I'm feeling pretty good though, and I'm looking forward to doing Fitchburg in a few weeks... that'll be fun
Friday, June 15, 2007
Pittsburgh.
Lots happened since I've updated anything on here. I've gone done up and moved down here n'at to Picksburgh (that's 'pittsburgh-ese' for "I've moved to Pittsburgh"). I'm working this summer at Siemens, the world leader in SOFC technology.
Ok, something much more important just happened. Hi surprise.
I'll update all six of you about my life later.
Ok, something much more important just happened. Hi surprise.
I'll update all six of you about my life later.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Movin' On...
I did Turkey Hill this past weekend. Rolling ~6 mile loop with a hill thrown in the last two laps. Not too much to report- I felt pretty bad the Friday before, and on the first small uphill on the loop I pegged my HR up to 180 very quickly. My legs felt like I had alrady ridden for a few hours.... needless to say I didn't hang on long. I've been off the bike since, trying to eat and sleep alot. Not sure why I felt so hoorible on the weekend (thanks cycling.tv) but the days afterward I was pretty well messed up I think. Constantly felt starved, but couldn't really eat much. Think I may have been a bit dehydrated. Been eating much more normally the last few days, so when I get back on the bike once I'm out in Pittsburgh hopefully I'll feel allright.
Graduation is on Friday, the 18th, then it's off to Pittsburgh for the summer. Munas and myself got a place near Walnut Ave in Shadyside- a cool hipster area of the city. Even the goodwill there has a fancy storefront. Looking forward to the J-O-B- at Siemens where I'll hopefully learn a lot of real world fuel cell stuff before heading back to school.
Graduation is on Friday, the 18th, then it's off to Pittsburgh for the summer. Munas and myself got a place near Walnut Ave in Shadyside- a cool hipster area of the city. Even the goodwill there has a fancy storefront. Looking forward to the J-O-B- at Siemens where I'll hopefully learn a lot of real world fuel cell stuff before heading back to school.
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