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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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....

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...

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.

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...

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.

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.

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?

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!!

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...

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".

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.

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...

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.

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...