How is it that I can sleep for 8 hours and still feel so tired. It is not that I have been doing tons of training. I rode for 3 hours on the weekend. Rode an hour yesterday. Ran for an hour the day before that....

I suppose I am still catching up from my lack of sleep over the weekend when I drove out to Utah with my oldest son Ryan. Good trip. Not much sleep.

Am I just getting old?

Portland Blues

Or maybe it should be the Portland "greys" with the near constant cloud cover the past months.

I was in Utah over the weekend for just a quick trip to pick up some stuff of ours. While there I went for a ride with Dave and Fish. It was marvelous. In three hours I got a nice burn on my legs. I had put sunblock on my arms, face and neck. I have been riding all year in Oregon and I was totally white up until Saturday. And now that I am back I am ready for some better weather in Portland. I think I saw the sun for about 5 minutes when the clouds got lazy. Yesterday, I ran at lunch and admittedly the cloud cover was a good thing, it made for a nicer time. But right now it is raining. Sick of this wet stuff.

In about 10 days Bridget and I are doing the 100+ mile Reach the Beach ride. I haven't been able to spend longer than 3 hours in the saddle yet this year. I am not sure that is going to happen anytime soon. Oh, well. I am good at suffering, I am sure I will be fine. My butt my not be.

I crashed pretty good a couple of weeks ago and I feel pretty much back to normal now. I am glad to be back at it because I gained some weight back. Most of it was probably driving to and back from Utah. I eat like crap when I travel. Plus, while in Utah I had to eat at In N Out Burger now that they are there. I felt good that I only ate a single...in the past I have been known to eat more than a Double Double. I can pound that stuff. I am drooling just thinking about it.

In two weeks I officially start my Ironman training plan. I wish I could say that I was excited.

Time to start again.

Life has just gotten in the way of keeping up this blog. I am busier than ever and so cuts had to be made. One of casualties was this blog. I am trying to balance life with a wife and four kids (2 of them have substantial activities), my job at the firm, training (soon for an Ironman) and my wife's training for this and that. There just isn't enough time in the day.

Nevertheless, I feel it important to start writing again both here and on our family blog.

First a few updates.

I am a fatty again. Not horribly so, but a good 10 pounds over the maximum I'd like to weigh and about 15 pounds over what I would like to weigh.

I am riding quite a bit, but mainly to work and back. I have started leaving home earlier in the morning and lengthing my ride. I have been able to take off on a few lunchtime rides which as been awesome. However, our weather here in Portland has been colder and wetter than I think Spring conditions should be so these rides haven't happened as often as I would like. Brianero and I went on a killer 75 minute ride through the West Hills near Portland. Nearly 2000 feet of climbing during that time. A great ride it was.

My training for the Ironman officially starts the end of May when I have 6 months until the triathlon begins. I have not been in the pool much. And I am dreading it. My running has been off and on. I am not as worried about the running because odds are that I will be so toasted by the time I get off the bike that I will end up walking at least half the 26.2 miles. I have been running up to an hour at a time once or twice per week. I will add more running miles at the months progress. In the end, my goal is simply to do the damn thing in under 17 hours.

In the short term I am doing the 100 mile Reach the Beach ride next month with Bridget. That will be a nice no stress ride. In July I am going to check off the ultimate "Fred" ride around here, the STP or Seattle to Portland. I will be doing the one day option. That will hurt. Mainly my rear end, but it will still hurt. 200 miles is a long way in a day.

With regard to bikes, I have a new one coming down the pipe from Neil at Cernitz bikes. But I won't talk about that one just yet. As a result my Lapierre carbon cross frame will be going bye-bye. It just didn't fit me the way I like. Neil has my likes dialed in now, and I expect it will be a stellar frame as usual.

Well that's it for now. More to come soon.

First Race of the Cyclocross Season

At least me first race of the season.

I've ridden a bit the past couple of days and so I am certain that my legs won't be too fresh tomorrow. But, I don't really care. I mainly want the workout, to get dirty, and to continue to get a bit more fit.

This summer has not gone as planned really. I got in about half the miles that I had planned. I had some great excuses in August when I was working between 60 and 80 hours per week. But still, it has been sort of frustrating. Plus, having 4 kids makes it really tough to get riding in that is anything other than going to and from work.

Speaking of work, my weekends are free now. At least free from work. There are all sorts of other activities demanding my attention. Kids have soccer. Church. Family stuff of varying sorts. But Bridget is very understanding and has not argued with my desire to race a bit this fall. She is very patient with us boys... ;)

Anyway, back to the race, going to race the singlespeed class. My choice comes down to a couple things. I know I am going to place near the back and that is OK. There isn't a singlespeed category to downgrade to, so I don't mind racing with the Cat A guys. I would like to spend some time pumping up Cernitz Bikes, and riding them seems to be a good way to do so. And one last reason is that I refuse to downgrade to Master C and I don't feel like getting shelled in Master B's quite yet.

Give me some more time commuting with my 600 foot climb to work and 1000 foot climb home and I will get there pretty quick I think. A bonus at the law firm is my ability to take long lunches. An hour is normal. Longer can be arranged too by the looks of it. I will probably start doing a bit of running at lunch. I need to start running sometime since I have verbally committed to doing an Ironman next year. I've done a couple of 70.3 Ironman events and that training sucked. Next year is really going to suck. But that will be checked off the bucket list.

Anyway...I will report back about how tomorrow goes. It is going to be rainy. And that is a good thing.

Zsa Zsa Gabor and Cyclocross.

Sorry, going to go on a bit of a cycling rant here.

Here in Oregon we have this wonderful little organization, the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association or OBRA. It has a wonderful little e-mail list that anyone can get on which allows us to complain, ask questions, learn about events and especially sell our excess biking related stuff. It is a spectacular service that I have used often over the past few years. It is free, unlike Ebay. And because it only goes to mostly serious cyclists I tend not to get a bunch of stupid questions unlike posting on Craigslist.

Often, especially this time of year as summer starts to get a little long in the tooth I start to see posts like this:

" Dura Ace 7800 shifters. Dented, scratched, work great, perfect for cross, $40 "

Works great, sure. I doubt for long. And I can't imagine using something on its last legs for cyclocross. Unless you like having excuses for sucking. Well, I guess I have my excuse, but it is more gut-related than anything else.

Anyway, I don't get it. I mean, I get it, but I subscribe to this view at all--Hanging all of the crappiest parts on your cyclocross bike.

I want my stuff to work, especially my drivetrain. If I wanted to race crap..., well, actually I would never want to race crap. And I absolutely hate it when in a race I start missing shifts and my chain can't seem to find and stay in a gear. Absolutely frustrating for me. It takes my mind out of the race.

Maybe it is the cost? $40, no big deal right? If the shifters break...rather make that when the shifters break you are only out a fraction of the cost of new. Fine. But until then continue to be frustrated during the race and bemoan the fact that cyclocross kills your equipment. Despite the fact that what you are doing is probably akin to putting present day Zsa Zsa Gabor in a beauty pagent.

Sure she was hot once, but why are you putting her out there now? Ridiculousness! Her time is past. She is probably lucky to get around the block a time or two. And that is exactly what should be done with that old dented up Dura Ace shifter. Time to retire that thing. Let it spent its last days in peace going to the store, or on your commuter or whatever. But don't spend money on race fees riding a bike with that shifter. Folly!

Meanwhile if you just had something nice and took care of it it would probably last a long time and you'd actually be able to find a gear. And I don't necessarily mean nice and expensive.

So here is my recommendation to those who are trying to race on the cheap: Just buy thumb or bar-end shifters and new mid-lever derailleurs and chains. Forget about buying the well-used Dura Ace that is in worse shape and has swapped more times that a West Virginia trailer park harlot (I've lived in West Virginia, there's some scary stuff going on out there, yikes). Seriously, retire that old stuff. Just go with what works, simple stuff that is difficult to break becuase there are only a couple of moving parts instead of dozens.

You may think to yourself, "Oh easy for him to say now that he has Di2..."

Umm, yeah, it is easy to say. But I ran a 9 speed Shimano drive train with bar-end shifter for about 3 years when I started racing cross because I didn't want anyone's sloppy seconds or thirds or whatever and because it just freakin' works just about all the freakin' time. Sure the shifting isn't as quick, but at least you can find a gear. And when it absolutely hits the fan, one can always switch that bar-end shifter to friction mode and find your gears in the worst situations sans busted gear. And that three season old friction shifter has been on my Cernitz Mule commuter bike that has over 1100 miles this year. All I ever have to do to it is occasionally switch cables and housing. Booyah Brothers and Sisters!

Anyway, enough. Most of you don't care. But I at least feel better.

Another Broken Carbon Crankset

I have broken the following in order over the past several years.

Ritchey WCS ISIS splined Crankset
FSA K Force ISIS splined Crankset
FSA K Force 2nd generation Crankset
Easton EC90 Crankset
FSA K Force 2nd generation Crankset
Easton EC90 Crankset

All are carbon. The interesting thing is that only the Ritchey had a carbon failure. All of the others is was a bond or some metal piece that failed. This time the Easton EC90 Crankset spindle came loose from the driveside arm where it is bonded. It doesn't spin totally free, it just moves a bit as you go through a crankarm revolution. It is very noticable on the road, but off road because of all the bumps it is not nearly so. This is why I raced with it on my Cernitz Buttercup singlespeed without realizing that there was an issue. And then when I did notice, I thought it was the Crank Brothers Eggbeaters which also have a reputation for breaking. (Speaking of that, I broke an Eggbeater pedal last night at cyclocross practice)

Anyway, a little research on the web and I found that this has become a common problem for these cranksets. In fact, Easton is not selling them anymore. And instead of giving me a new one, they are sending me a check for what I paid for them. Cool. So I am getting another Shimano Dura Ace crankset, which is pretty much exactly what I am getting back from Easton. That leaves me with only a 3 year old Campagnolo Record carbon crankset that was actually last produced about 5 years ago. It has an old style square taper bottom bracket. It currently resides on my commutter bike. It get more abuse than all of my other cranksets and has more miles on it than all of my other cranksets combined and multiplied by 2.

The FSA cranksets each lasted about 1500 miles. The Eastons each made it about 150 miles total. The first one was improperly manufactured so that one couldn't torque down adequately and I have already stated what went wrong this time.

Sigh....

No carbon cranks for me. I am not sure what I do, but I am Kryptonite to them. Maybe I should get a job doing product testing for these companies, because if there is a flaw, I'll find it.

FAAAAAAAAAAAT!

Finished next to last in the singlespeed class. Yes, it was an off night. Yeah, I was lifting heavy boxes half of the day. But really, I am fat. Look at the picture... Faaaaaat. Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!


See the formation of man-boobs aka moobs to highlight that gut? Oh yeah, I am screaming Clydesdale here folks. I need to go on a diet like my sister...who incidentally doesn't even need to be on one at all. She's is going on the HCG diet...the one where you have to give injections or some such ridiculousness. Nah, I will just ride my way to fitness thank you very much. Or at least attempt to do so.

Right now I am 12 pounds heavier than my lightest weight last Fall and about 9 pounds heavier than my average cyclocross race weight last year. It really could be worse. These past 12 months or so have been a little sort of difficult. Dad died last summer. Found out Bridget was pregnant with a surprise baby. Professional disappointments came several times as well. I didn't do any longer distance triathlons or long distance rides this year either so motivation to train was decidedly lacking. And finally we had some of the wettest weather in Portland's history, including the wettest June on record. In all, I should be happy that I only gained that much weight. But they just seem like lame excuses. I just eat too much crap and don't ride enough.

Well, actually come to think of it I am down about 5 or 6 pounds already. So I really it was worse.



I am not a self hater, I just have goals. And being fat isn't one of them. Or at least a little overweight. I have said many times how I used to weigh near 240 pounds back around 2003 or so. Thankfully that isn't even close to my weight currently. I am 40 lbs under that. But still. I need to be healthier. I feel better when I do. But when I are depressed and frustrated those burgers and fries just call my name. Anyway, time to go ride.

And thanks to Dave Condon's wife, Robin I believe her name is, for taking these pictures last week. The Cernitz bike rides spectacularly by the way. More on that in the days to come.

First Short Track Race

The start of the P.I.R. Short Track mtb race, Cat 3's. I am second row sort of in the middle of the photo (blue and white helmet, blue and white jersey with a red collar--identical kit to the guy in the lead row, Dylan)

I was a bad son and made my mother go to the airport early so that I could try my first short track mtb race out at Portland International Raceway. I've never done any sort of short track race. It was fun...in a miserable sort of way.

Ok, so I really didn't have to drop my mom off early, but truth be told I was considering doing so in order to race. As it was I dropped her off about 90 minutes before her flight and then raced to get to the race. I ended up getting there in time to sign up and then get a decent position on the starting line. I had very little idea what the course was going to be like. With no warm up lap I was going in with a big disadvantage, especially since I'd never done this sort of race before.

Dylan Cernitz, also a Team Buttercup member, was front row and I lined up just a bit behind him. He was an old hand at this race now...this was his 4th race this year. He tried to tell me a few pointers which I appreciated. I rode my Lapierre carbon cyclocross bike while most of the bikes were of the fatter tired variety. I had a cheap tubular wheel in the rear with a Tufo Flexus Dry Plus (700x34) with a file tread pattern and a slightly knobby Tufo Flexus Primus front tire (also a 700x34) glued to a front wheel that Brian Spears and I are calling the Chi-Bons. Generic Chinese-made carbon rims purchased on Ebay mated to American Classic hubs. According to one local bike shop these wheels are pretty much destined to blow up one way or another. The rear wheel isn't glued up yet and so I only used the front. Even the guy that built the wheels was suspicious of their durability. In fact when I told Neil Cernitz, the builder of my new singlespeed frame that I used them I think he thought I was crazy for doing so on that course. But I figured that I might as well use them, despite not being the ideal terrain. If they are going to fail then so be it. I would rather that it happen now than in the middle of cross season.

The race started and I had no idea where we were going. I was in the middle of the pack and I just sort of followed along at a brisk pace. I immediately missed having big fat tires. Oh, if I could only have gone back in time to when I had my Dean titanium 29er...I would have really kicked some butt without the pain, sometimes intense pain in my back and kidney area. Riding on that course was just plain hurtful on those little narrow tires. The course was full of sharp turns, short steep ascents and short steep drop-ins. Much of the course weaved through a motocross course. There was not one smooth part on the entire course that I can remember. After all, this is a mountain bike race, so I would not expect it to be so. But still the advantage I gained from having a stupid-light bike was totally cancelled by the fact that I could not pedal though some of the choppy stuff at speed. Guys with bigger tires passed me at times. On straight aways I could get them back but again...as with the entire evening...it just plain hurt.

My lungs hurt from the dust. My back hurt from being bounced around while riding a cross bike with skinny tires. My legs hurt from being having to push my fat gut around. But all in all, I didn't do horribly. I raced the Cat 3's and managed to place 23rd out of 62. Could have been worse, and when I finished the question I asked was, "How close to last was I?" I really thought I had only placed ahead of 4 or 5 guys. That is how ugly I felt out there. If I had known what the course was like I would have certainly picked up a few places as well.

Anyway, I checked my equipment after the race. Di2 drive train: perfect. Chi-Bon front wheel: still perfectly true. Semi-slick rear tire and minimal knobby front tire: hooked up great. Only sketchy in the pea gravel. My equipment did a great job despite being sort of over-burdened. This really gives me confidence going into cross season with the Lapierre. I was somewhat worried early on this year. But as I have put more time on it I don't think about it at all anymore, which is the best thing that can happen to me. I am pretty used to it. I still prefer the geometry of the Cernitz singlespeed, but it really is a rocket.

Hopefully I can get out for the race next week. Short track is a cool thing and I recommend it. Sure it hurts, but it is over quick.