Tuesday, September 26, 2006

i am unfrozen caveman runner

Definitely not forever, but for the past week it's been the case. Running workouts become fun when you can't grip a handlebar due to roadrash stigmata. It's not like i'm some kind of weenie but whenever anything comes close to the palm of my hand i break into a bout of turret's syndrome that Chris Jackson would be proud of.

Lots and lots going on, i turned 3 dozen yesterday.

The night before, BeBe had a heart attack and fell in her room. She's doing better now, but she's obviously still very sore. Jose is her doctor in the hospital, which is both awesome and bizarre at the same time. It never fails to trip me out that the Hoch is an M.D. We're walking around OLOL yesterday and i'm all "JOSE!" and everyone else is all "Dr. Mendoza". Enough of that.

Runs. Stuff i never thought i'd do. Saturday was an 8 miler with a mile casual then a 2 mile pickup, then a mile casual. Turn around, do it again. Last night was the ladder down Lakeshore to the lake, slam a mile, jog back, slam a half, jog back, slam a quarter, jog back, each time up the hill. It's a character builder to say the least.

In the wacky world of sports, get a load of these beauties, whoops i mean these beauties. I love the P3 Carbons, they're just so sweet looking with the rearwheel cutout and all. I hope the aerobar mounted brake thing stays in the pro ranks if you catch my drift.

Hats off to Fabian and the Cricket who will now be the rainbow touting cricket. Sounds like Spain's tactic didn't quite work.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

ttt crap sandwich

How prophetic was my prediction from last week?

Should be fun and painful.

It was fun, then it was extremely painful.
For some reason, i decided not to wear gloves Saturday morning, this would come back to haunt me. We started well, and because everyone is on the course at once, began to pass teams almost immediately.

The first lap flew by in 23 minutes something. Everybody was looking strong and taking at least one minute pulls, Norm took over twice that long once in the tailwind. We were really flying and the second lap seemed to go easier. Brian appeared to be getting stronger. We passed some more teams which had follow vehicles and that made passing interesting, then a rebellious bunch of tri people swerved into the left lane and made us pass them on the right, more thrills, but the best was yet to come.

With about a mile or so to go in the second lap, we came upon our Cat 4 team. The way that we came up on them, it felt like we were probably going 4 or 5 mph faster than them in the headwind. I couldn't tell our speed there because my trusty cyclocomputer (!@#$%!@#$%!@) went out in the first lap. They were middle of the lane, Norm was on the front and we passed them near the centerline. We let them know we were passing, they heard us. I'm not sure what happened next, stories vary, the major theme being that the Cat 4 team rotated as we passed them and evidently our guys slowed down. I know this last part to be true because i was third wheel and i ran up the back of Brandon, who was second, pronto and before i could do much i was down. While sliding i started wondering if Brian would be able to avoid me but soon he was sliding past me. Race over.

Once i made sure i hadn't broken my collar bone i looked at my bike and it wasn't good. In an effort to stay up, my handle bars had slipped straight down and then been driven into the side of the top tube putting a nice size dent in two places. So Erik Espade is now going to be a wall decoration in my garage. Luckily i didn't hit my head, so the tt helmet survived.

The damage to me was skin loss, the best being a hunk of flesh removed from my knee with a little flap left to cover it, looking like some sort of pathetic epidermis comb-over. Then in no specific order elbow, shoulder, hip, tricep, shin and best for last, the palms of my hands. Thanks to Gloria for cleaning me up after.

I was bummed out, because for once our team was actually very evenly matched and i know we would have had a good time. Brandon said we had "27 high" for an average at that point. Norm was the wisest, "Hey remember the most important thing here, you didn't crash me!"

The crash didn't seem to affect Brian too much who won the Cat 4 road race on Sunday. Since then i've been walking around like Edward frickin Scissorhands unable to grasp most things. NICE.

Oh yeah, and never ever use this liquid bandage crap. Amy put some on my hands and i haven't had a burn that bad since using a stiptic pencil as a teenager. Later i read the instructions and wasn't suprised to see BOTTLED IN MORDOR hidden tactfully on the bottom of the box. DON'T DO IT!

Friday, September 15, 2006

blog blog blog blog blog blog

too much to write about

as if this weren't enough, clearly this is the sign that the end of days is among us for they are surely the front-runners of the four riders of the apocalypse

Get Fuzzy's take on Floyd

i haven't paid so little attention to a stage race in years, but the Vuelta has definitely been hot over the past few days with the Kazakh's rolling and Tommy D. coming correct

Our runs lately with Jenny have been tough, last Saturday was a 6 mile run containing 3 pick up miles within it. I chose the wrong (or maybe the right) partners in Robbie and Sam and they drug me around faster than i've been in a while. We did the first pick up with an uphill finish around 6:55, jogged for maybe 200 meters and hit the second one at 6:35 which hurt. I licked my wounds and got the last one done around 6:50 or so while my partners went 6:30. It hurt.

Sunday, i rode with Brian, Darren, Kristen and Keith down to Bayou Paul road which i'd never been on before. It is super nice, best pavement in town without a doubt, until you reach the gravel section which eventually connects you back to Bluff.

Monday's run was sadistic, 440, 220, 110 repeats on Hillsdale. The last 150 or so are uphill so they seem to just get harder. For an added challenge i pushed the boy, he liked it.

Our ttt squad is set for tomorrow with Norm, Brandon and Brian so it should be fun and painful. I took Erik Espade out last night with the race wheels just to make sure all was well, i rode in the group for a while then picked it up around the ferry. Darren, Steve and Yoni came with, but Darren was just flying. I started it by pulling around 32 or so in the tailwind, but Darren finished it, geez he is flying. I'm glad i'm not on his team!

Packed up the bike while talking to Steve and who should magically appear but the Aussie! Yep, Troy is in town, i guess we'll see him Saturday morning for a little while at least.

Friday, September 08, 2006

speaking of glitter gleam gloss floss

i hit the ground running like Santana Moss

ok that doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same as Randy,
but he was as good as i could do in our Fantasy Football draft.

i don't really watch the nfl, but i get really addicted to fantasy football. As far as i can tell, my squad The Usual Suspects did pretty well in the draft and on paper appear to be the highest point team based on pre-season numbers, we'll see.

I got Plaxico which is one of my favorite names, as well as Leveranues. With my last pick i did get the Southern University Jaguars Defense, which i'm not too sure about, but who knows.

With no Fantasy Vuelta (sniff, sniff) this is the only game in town.

last night

Caught my first training race in a few weeks. Endless thunder storms, eye maladies, and then the Utah trip all have kept me from the pancake lasso-shaped slice of pain that we do over and over and over again. It was fun, with a light turnout we compressed the A and B groups to make one AB group. Got some more great feedback on the pimped-out Polar from Dr. Brian W W (* more on that later). There was a bit of sir sketchiness going on, enough to make Tom keep the pace high. Then we picked up Darren and Steve and it got very fast at this point.

That's really as good as i can do b/c i was sans-cycling computer, with no tv to watch, i had to use my advanced jedi-hearing to determine our speed, so it was somewhere between 24 and 48 mph +-20 mph. Anyway, after yacking all over myself i had a good time, in the end a few turned off at Gardere, effectively gapping the group and that left Yoni and me in the a small group off the front. Tim D. and i kept the pace high, setting up Yoni with a Fassa B caliber leadout, well maybe not that good but he did win.

* W W comes from the Vuelta riders who have the same name in their names twice, like David Alexander de la Randy Moss Alexander. I think Budweiser could do a Real Men of Genius on that.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Parrish Place B and B

Some shots from our beloved B&B from last week. Corinne and Jeff were great hosts and we're really missing those baskets on the doorstep, let me tell ya.




frickin cool

Check out these mormon aerobic studs i caught on the tube in SLC. That is one helluva ponytail.


Magical Inscriptions


Some see the Virgin Mary in a nacho chip, others Jimi Hendrix on a hamburger, in my office it's crazy stuff coming out of T-Ham's mouth.