Almost Done! (...fingers crossed)

One week until Thanksgiving, which we are hosting. Could we possibly cut it any closer?!?

What an experience this has been. Mostly good, but also some problems and associated stress. Living in the midst of it all has been a real test of our adaptability and has certainly strained family relationships at bit. We will emerge stronger.

Since I work from home, I was able to spend lots of time with the contractors, the vast majority of whom are great people who take pride in their work. I truly appreciate their willingness to educate me and explain the nittiest grittiest details of their trades. I find myself asking, "If I knew then what I know now, would I have undertaken this job on my own?" I am not naive enough to think I could do it all myself, nor that I could complete it in any kind of reasonable time, but it would be so deeply satisfying to build with my own hands. My siblings and I are the first generation of our family who haven't built a house (or a large portion thereof) with our own hands. We're certainly not alone there in modern society; it's sad in a way that so few people do their own physical work anymore. (Pot-kettle-black... I freely admit my preference for a nice bike ride over digging trenches or lifting drywall.)

Training Week -- 11/2 - 11/8

Only group rides this week. The intensity is really painful and probably not the best idea just yet, but perhaps it's good to remember those sensations so it's not such a shock in January.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1 hr; lunchtime torture, dropped 3 times (after my pulls)
Wed: 0
Thu: 1 hr; OSM, 18:20 max effort, slight tailwind assist
Fri: 0
Sat: 2.5 hr; SB - 2nd Casitas - SB
Sun: 2.5 hr; Worlds

Total: 7 hrs

Get Your Power On

Doing just a little math, you can figure that eight riders like the ones above are generating a combined power of around 3 kW, give or take, during a one hour TTT. Cool. That would easily power your house for an hour.

So here's a thought... build up eight stationary trainers, hook them all to a DC generator with an DC-AC inverter, then plug it into your electrical service panel. Now invite that team over to your house for a TTT session on the trainers and, shazzam, free electricity!!

Well, almost free... they do need a salary I suppose. Also, they'll only ride for an hour before cracking and falling off their bikes. I guess you'll need to hire a few more teams, like maybe the entire field of the Tour de France, if you want to cover all your energy usage.

Or here's another thought... slap a few of these babies onto your roof:

They'll make power all day long and you won't even need to feed them. Sure, there will be some upfront cost, but thanks to generous state rebates (here in CA) and the forward-thinking policies of our country's CEO, you can expect to recoup your costs within 10-15 years, depending on the specifics of your situation. And if it wasn't compelling enough before, just a few weeks ago our Governator signed a bill requiring California's utilities to pay homeowners for any surplus power they generate. This is the wave of the future, for sure.

So let's bring this back around to cycling. I estimate that our photovoltaic system will generate about 20 kWh of energy a day, averaged over the year. How much is that? Well, it's roughly equivalent to the (mechanical) power I'd make doing 267 maximum-effort rides up Old San Marcos Rd., assuming I could capture it. [20 kWh / (.3 kW X .25 h)]

Full disclosure: My generous and forward-thinking parents offered to pay for our solar installation. Their offer is to each of my three siblings as well. Gina and I plan to gladly accept that gift, although we like to think we would have taken this step anyway.

Training Week -- 10/26 - 11/1

Steady mid-aerobic-zone efforts (20-60 minutes) mixed in with a bunch of easy pedaling.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1.5 hrs, OSM + Painted Cave, very windy
Wed: 0
Thu: 1.5 hrs, OSM + PC + 2/3 OSM
Fri: 1.5 hrs, Goleta and Hope Ranch
Sat: 3 hrs, Figueroa loop from Los Olivos
Sun: 2 hrs, to SB and back

Total: 9.5 hours

Okay, Where Were We?

It dawned on me last night after a dinner of Cheetos and beer in front of Monday Night Football, that perhaps it will be harder than I anticipated to get back into serious training. It's not rocket science of course. Eating right, sleeping enough, and riding a bunch--they're all pretty simple concepts. The hard part is implementing them into the routines of daily life ...every day. No matter what. Being the best bike racer you can be pretty much demands it. You can bet your competition doesn't eat chips for dinner, or stay up late to watch "Top Gun" for the 19th time, or skip a ride because his chain is dirty.

"You need to be doing it better and cleaner than the other guy. Now what is it with you?"

So here we go again. I want to race in 2010 and 2011. I remember what it feels like to be fit, and it feels a whole lot better than I feel now. I'm in a deep hole and it's time to start climbing out. As a benchmark, last week I rode a maximum effort up my favorite climb (Old San Marcos Rd.) and logged a 19:15. By next spring, I need to knock 4+ minutes off of that time.

My team has gone through some changes. The MTB and road sides are now more separated, and each is somewhat smaller. The focus on the road side will be a revamped cat 1/2 team, featuring some ex-pros, assorted speedsters from yesteryear, rising stars, plus all the same stalwarts from 2008 and 2009. If they're firing on all cylinders, they'll be competitive with any amateur team in California. Our masters team won't suck either. Follow all the action at the Platinum Performance Cycling Team website.

Training Week -- 10/19 - 10/25

Here we go again... 2010 season starts right now. Trying to remember how to pedal.

Mon: 1.5 hr; around Goleta and Hope Ranch
Tue: 1 hr; around Goleta and Farren Rd.
Wed: 1.5 hr; OSM + Painted Cave
Thu: 1 hr; OSM, max effort produced 19:15. Wow.
Fri: 0
Sat: 3 hr; Hecky ride in SY Valley
Sun: 0

Total: 8 hours

From Dirt to Dinner

My "if-money-were-no-object" fantasy is to develop and manage a small farm just outside of town along with a small co-located restaurant where nearly all the food is grown or raised on the property. Naturally the menu would be seasonal, perhaps even changing daily depending on the vagaries of farming successes and failures. This fantasy would be the ultimate in eating local and farm-fresh-to-table. For those customers who want a stronger connection with their food, I'd encourage them to tour the farm before or after they eat. Maybe we'd also have a small farm stand to sell any extra produce.

This idea is half-baked at best, but my gut tells me it's doable, although perhaps not particularly profitable. I'd guess 10-20 acres could support a 5-10 table restaurant. That's asking the land to be a lot more productive than what we see currently in our industrial-farming paradigm, where it takes about 1.5+ acres to feed each man, woman, and child in the US. That is a real problem, by the way, because it's almost precisely the amount of arable land available per capita. As the graph below shows, the trends are troubling...


...because our population is growing and our arable land is disappearing (to erosion, depletion, and urban sprawl). What happens when we cross over? Do we become a net importer of food, dependent on foreign countries for our nutrition? Even now, with most of our food grown in the US, the average meal travels 1,500 miles to reach your plate. That's just nuts. And don't even get me started on the environmental damage done by the industrial farming mega businesses. Here's an industrial dairy's manure lagoon to whet your appetite:


Yum... I bet that's some tasty groundwater coming up from those wells in nearby towns. The really crazy thing is that the manure should be a valuable asset to the local agriculture, if it just weren't so concentrated in the feed lots and not full of pharmaceuticals and hormones. For a better way, see Polyface Farms, the place made famous in the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma".

What can you do? Lots of things. Buy local, eat lower on the food chain, grow some of your own fruits and vegetables. For those blog readers here in Santa Barbara County, consider signing the online petition to urge our leaders to preserve Goleta farmland.

...

But anyway... all that stuff above is not what I really intended to write about. All I really wanted to post was the two pictures below.

First picture shows a portion of what I harvested from my backyard on Saturday. The potatoes were mostly a failure because all I got from about 40 sq. feet was a single brown bag full. Most of the plants died from pests or disease. I think next time I'll try to grow them in containers. But everything else in the picture has been wildly successful. We have enough carrots and garlic to last for a year. In fact, I've been giving away most of the garlic. The onions have done well as have the squash. Rosemary is always around.


...and so we combined all that and tossed with some olive oil and roasted it for about an hour. Paired with herb roasted chicken and a mellow merlot, and this was dinner in our makeshift kitchen on our cheapo Corelle plates:

Hello

Hi. How are you? I am fine. Sorry for not writing sooner, but things have been really busy here. Thank you for the $20 bday gift ...I will put it towards our remodeling project (more below). Also, please read this letter to Grandpa as I know his eyesight won't allow him to read it himself.

We are in-progress on our home remodel. I have been helping a little bit (abating asbestos, installing insulation, digging dirt) but the major work is being done by a group of real pros. They work hard and we are pleased so far with the results. You can see a chronology of the first three weeks in these photos here:

Despite losing functionality of half our house during the construction, we are managing fine so far. My office has become our living room with couch, TV, and multiple computers. We assembled a makeshift kitchen/dining room in the garage which has actually been very comfortable. Cozy but comfortable.

I don't bike much anymore. I have lost all my fitness but what I miss more is seeing my biking friends on the rides and at the races. I do still get out twice a week for the lunchtime group rides, but I use every ounce of energy just to hang on to the last wheel. On the Thursday climb, I am the last one to reach the top.

Earlier this month there was a bike race in Ventura and I went with Gina to watch. The criterium was right downtown on a really nice looking course with a short hill and a fast final corner. All I can say is that those racers were lucky that I wasn't competing! Haha. (Sorry for the arrogance Grandma... that was just some bike-racer bravado. We're all really fast and strong in our own minds!) Anyway, I really hope the race happens again next year because I want to do it. Maybe you and grandpa can come watch. There's a really good announcer named Dave Towle. I was invited to go onstage with him for the Masters races but I was too scared.

I did take some pictures of a couple of the races. Here are a few:

The 35+ race (that means, all the racers are over 35 years old) looked fast and many of the riders fell out of the group. Past the half way point, these two riders broke away (that means, they rode in front of the group).


This man is from England. He chased after the two riders in front but he didn't catch them. Do you wear Rock-&-Republic jeans grandma?


By the end, one man rode away from the other one. The other one almost caught him by the end, and he probably would have passed him if the finish line was just a little farther! By the way, the man who won is your age. That's why he won I think, because he has had a lot of practice. It also helps that his team picked many of the best players.


Now for the pro race. Why do people call it the "pro" race? Only two or three riders have pro licenses. Anyway, this is a young rider named Eric and he does have a pro license. He won the field sprint but only got 3rd place. Last year he won an exciting race in New York City.


This rider almost bumped my camera. Maybe I shouldn't lean out into the road. Anyway, he got 2nd.


This rider won. Surely he is the fastest.



My teammates raced too. They all did well, finishing toward the front of the pack. My teammate Ron won his race and so did my friend Jane.

Do you remember my little red pick-up truck? I sold it to a nice man who needed a truck. He doesn't speak much English so it was hard to communicate. The truck wasn't running and I was worried he didn't understand that. I gave him a really good deal anyway. His cousin took out the carburetor and rebuilt it and now it runs. Good for him.

I have some sad news also. Our kitty Rocky went missing a week ago. He loved exploring all the construction and he escaped one night after dark. We couldn't lure him back in so we let him stay out, thinking eventually he would come back to the door. He never did. We looked all around the neighborhood and put up signs. We checked the shelters and the vets and put a message on craigslist. Nothing worked.

We are all very sad. Brian has cried himself to sleep a few times. He and Rocky had a special bond; both young men learning about a vast and exciting world. I really miss the way Rocky would come running down the driveway to meet me when I got home from a ride. Apparently he knew the unique sounds of my bike. We all miss him at the dinner table where he would sit with us, hind feet on a chair with his torso and front feet resting on the table, while taking in all the wafting aromas of human food. I miss him following me around the garden with his fluffy tail up in the air.

Wherever you are Rocky, I hope you have a place at the dinner table and a big slice of tri-tip on your plate.

A Not-So-Brief Disruption

I have fallen off the wagon. The training-and-racing wagon mostly, but other wagons too. Obviously tumbled off the blog wagon a few weeks ago. "Wagon" ...that's a funny sounding word.

Bicycle racing is, for me anyway, part of a lifestyle that relishes healthy living, hard honest work, and both inward and outward competition. It's a symbolic thread spanning most of my life so far. My first race was 35 years ago, and I hope my last race is 35 years hence. It's also cyclical like many other things in life. Relationships, careers, hobbies,... they all wax and wane at times. Sometimes because passions and interests fade, other times because of demands on your time.

Below is a chart of the approximate number of races I've done in each of the last 35 years.



Some pretty big swings in there. I never raced in college, although I took a year off to see if I could "make it" as a bike racer. I could not ...or did not. I also had some down years when work and family were more pressing. Family is always a higher priority, but sometimes it's possible to devote yourself to both. My kids spent lots of time in feed zones, and when they were young they actually enjoyed it! I don't think that a career is always a higher priority, at least not in the broader sense of balancing it with a healthy active life. Financial responsibility is one thing, but to sacrifice your health and happiness to a career is a huge mistake in my opinion.

All that is a long way of saying that 2009 is shaping up to be a down year for bike racing. Living in half our house while it gets remodeled will be a huge disruption. Further, I hope to offset some expense by doing a portion of the work myself, and that will necessarily be on the weekends so I don't interfere with the professionals. I'm also trying to work more (as in, earning more) and my productivity is not very high after a hard three-hour training ride. My goal for the year is to get eight races so I don't get fired from my team!

Which brings me to this blog... I will continue to write occasionally but please be warned that it will be infrequent and that the bike-racing content will be less. (I say that because my impression is that most readers are from the cycling community.) Maybe I'll try using Facebook more, since it's a speedier way to keep in touch and spew out some scribbles and pics. Here, I'll continue to post the random musings related to gardening, particularly since my tract-house yard is slouching toward becoming a farm, which I find pretty amusing personally. I'll also post about our remodel. As I've said before, I believe there's a real benefit to sharing info and lessons-learned about the process.

So tune in occasionally if you wish. Or not. I really appreciate everyone who has been reading along for the last couple years. It's been a pleasure to write for you. Thanks.

Alice Waters Rocks

(If the video doesn't work for you, try here instead.)

Update

...or lack thereof, as it were. One word sums up my life in the last couple of weeks: triage. Some things get critical attention, others are deferred, and some get blown off completely. This blog has been in that last category for awhile now. Not that there's not stuff to write about. Lot's of topics rattling around in that half-empty block atop my shoulders. How about a quick shotgun blast of verbiage on a couple topics, just to keep this blog rolling along...

++++++++++++++++++++

San Dimas Stage Race:
An impressive weekend for Cody with a 2nd place in the Pro RR and a 4th in the crit, and that's against many of the best domestic riders in the US. But do you remember another SB rider to snag the silver in that San Dimas Pro RR not too long ago, getting pipped just barely by Chris Horner?

The Masters races looked interesting to this observer and I'm sure there are some stories below the surface of the results pages. In the 35+, the change from the Day-1 TT to the final g.c. results show how important time bonuses can be, and also how crucial it is to have a solid cohesive team. Chris DeMarchi won in large part because he scooped up nearly 50 seconds of bonuses. Congrats to Chris and his Amgen/Giant brethren:


Greg Leibert used a great TT and help from a solid Cynergy team to claim a well-deserved 45+ win.

++++++++++++++++++++

Training
Uhhhhhh.. next topic.

++++++++++++++++++++

Home Remodel Update
This is starting to get very real. The architect is done and we really enjoyed working with him. It cost around $12,000 but was extremely useful. He was equal parts interior designer, lighting expert, ergonomic consultant, structural whiz, and bureaucracy expediter. He will continue to consult when we start construction. We have two teams bidding for us, and we really like both of them. Unless their numbers are vastly different, we will struggle to decide which to use.

++++++++++++++++++++

Gardening Update
In this triage process of my life, I must admit that gardening is ranking above training on the importance scale. There are certain times of the year when stuff just needs to get done in the garden, and this is one of them. Seasons change and don't wait for you to get your act together.

Some pictures (apologies to those who've seen them already on Facebook):

A while back I bought a Raspberry plant in a 3-gallon pot and it was extremely root-bound and overgrown. I divided the root ball into seven parts and planted them all, figuring maybe half would take. Now, six weeks later, they're all growing and looking really healthy. Across the walkway from these, however, I planted six Asparagus crowns and unfortunately only one has survived. You win some, you lose some... but there's always next year.


I mulched my Strawberries with straw. Novel concept, eh?! Well it turns out that straw is full of wheat seeds, so now I also have a crop of wheat growing in the Strawberry patch!


I just picked seven artichokes yesterday from these thriving plants. I have a recipe for using Artichokes, Fava beans, Garlic greens, Lemon, and Thyme, all of which I can harvest from my backyard right now. By the way, I've also picked a huge crop of slugs from these same Artichoke plants, but I haven't found a recipe for those yet.


First-time potato farmer, and so far they're doing well. Companion planted with Garlic and Rosemary (not shown here because I planted after the picture). By summer I'll harvest them all together and make Mondo's famous potatoes!


Who knew greens could be so colorful?!? See the happy Fava beans along the side of these two beds.


Thinking ahead toward summer... tomato plants started inside. Roma and Brandywine.

++++++++++++++++++++

Lots more to blog about but now I think a training ride is bubbling up on the importance scale.

Random topics I'd like to pursue at some point...

1. "Retirement" is a thing of the past. Why? Prevalence of "defined contribution" plans and the woeful shortfall in people's savings. Those people with "defined benefit" plans will suffer their limited cost-of-living-adjustments in the coming era of much higher inflation. But anyway, why shouldn't people continue working at some level into their later years???

2. Paths kids choose, such as my daughter being baptized and confirmed Catholic despite no religious influence from her family. Lots to cogitate about that one.

3. Commitment-phobia -- What do you do when you see somebody who has an incredible, smart, funny, attractive, fit, and all-around awesome girlfriend, but he seems a bit frightened to take the obvious next step, as in getting married?

That is all. Time to ride.

Training Week - 3/9 - 3/15

Making every hour count.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1.5 hr; Lunchtime Hammerfest, chasing fast guys on TT bikes
Wed: 0
Thu: 1.5 hr; OSM (17:15) + 154, 4-5 really hard surges
Fri: 0
Sat: 5 hrs; Solvang Century (4:37 for the 100, inc. stops)
Sun: 0

Total: 8 hrs

Note:
- Ronde de Solvang 2009 (Bandit style again ...sorry): A fun day with near perfect weather (cool & less wind than normal). Settled into a great group of fifty or so riders, including C-Ranchers, StumpGrinders, a few SB lone rangers, and of course some of Platinum's finest. First hour was a fast blur. Second hour got a bit harder with some cross wind and false flats where half the group got popped. Third hour went through Orcutt and Santa Maria where we had a couple stops to pee and get water before the traditional start of the "real" racing. Fourth hour was the brutal slog along Foxen Canyon, a relentless false-flat up-hill into a headwind -- valiant soldiers died unceremoniously along this unforgiving battlefield. With 15 miles to go, five riders remained: Seth the Silent Slayer, Derek the Matador (called up from reserves), Chesta-san trying to blow out his last week of freedom in a blaze of glory, Moi barely surviving on two decades of Ronde muscle memory, and M-Dubb-too-early who had spent most of the day OTF in a nightmarish TdG flashback. Four against one ...the numbers favored Platinum ...barely. Not one to play defense, M-Dubb took one final solo kamikaze mission which took us 15 minutes of full-gas 4-man-TTT to extinguish. After being recaptured and realizing his fate was in our hands, the wounded warrior took a couple pulls then quietly drifted away toward the Grim Reaper. Across 154 and Chesta and I went all Butch-and-Sundance on the hill in Los Olivos, then flew down Ballard with help of a couple mercenaries (MM and Victor). 2K to go and Chesta attacked me ...so that's how it is, eh?!? I clawed back and quietly slid my switchblade up my sleeve. We traded pulls into town and through the neighborhoods. He stumbled and I should have shanked him on the spot, but just couldn't do it. Final few hundred meters in downtown Solvang and we were weaving through SUVs, dodging recumbents, and blowing by grandmas on tandems. Then Chester sprinted to a glorious victory. Or something like that.

Ventura County Stage Race

Lots of hits lately from folks Googling the Ventura County Stage Race. This is going to be a rocking great race. The movers and shakers are attending to a few final details, but you can get previews of the courses here:

Prologue

Crit

Road Race

Those babies look fun, eh?!

[Add/Edit] - In the month or so since I first posted this, the promoter has changed the prologue course. Check the race website for the latest details.

Word on the street is that some VERY GOOD amateur teams were rejected by Redlands this year, in favor of pro teams (mostly) from far-away lands. In other words, Ventura will be the marquee stage race for SoCal riders in 2009. Do it!!!

Youthful Passion

When you are young, you spend way too much energy on sex...


...to the detriment of your long-term health.


I was told this yesterday by an expert in the field.


You just know how all-consuming it can be...


...whether or not you're getting any.


I blame it on genetics.


We're all wired to propagate the species.


And it's hard to resist instant gratification...


...to hold off in anticipation of sweeter fruit in the future.


But I know in my heart it's the right thing to do.


So today, after looking lovingly at my beautiful young Blueberry, covered in hundreds of tiny delicate flowers each with just a blush of pink...


...I proceeded to cut them all off!

That horny little plant better focus it's energy on long-term growth. For now.

In a few years, Blueberry orgy time!!! Hopefully all five get in on it. Three O'Neil, one Misty, and one Southmoon.



(ps. I wonder if this blog post will get a lot of hits for some reason??)

Training Week -- 3/2 - 3/8

This is embarrassing...

Mon: 0; Lazy
Tue: 0; Busy
Wed: 0; Rainy
Thu: 3 hrs; OSM (15:55) + Painted Cave + SB & Goleta
Fri: 0; Busy
Sat: 3 hrs; warm-up + two crits at Research Park
Sun: 0; Lazy and Busy

Total: 6 hrs

Notes:

- I've said before that I don't think people can train effectively when they don't have their head together and/or their stress under control. This is applying to me currently. The economy --in particular, the stock market-- is a source of stress right now, along with some uncertainty about a work project. Actually, my only work project. And still we're going full steam ahead towards an expensive house remodel. It feels like the makings of a Perfect Storm of Financial Doom. Spending 20-30 hours a week in the Bike Game just seems a bit too frivolous at the moment. For me.

- Given the above, there is something appealing about the way triathletes and marathon runners approach their respective sports. They do not race too often, and they accept the concept of "training through" the few events they do leading up to their goal race(s). The emotionally-healthy athletes don't get caught up in their results in each little competition either. Instead they keep their eyes on the prize off in the future. An Ironman tri, or the Boston Marathon, ...or the Tour de France I suppose. I may take that approach this year. I'm thinking of three biggies to target: (1) the Ventura Stage Race in May; (2) the SoCal district RR championships (Elite and Masters) in June; and (3) the Cascade Classic (Masters) and the Elite RR Nationals in late July in Bend, Oregon. I don't know... it feels like it takes the pressure off for some reason. Maybe only because it gets easier to procrastinate the start of hard training... Sigh.

Island View (from the back) Crit

Sometimes team boss Todd lifts verbiage from my blog's race reports and submits it to sponsors and media. This won't be one of those times.

I think I can speak for all of us Team Platinum riders in the P/1/2/3 Island View Crit when I say we collectively blew it today. We lined up in the back, and a break went from the gun including Cody O'Reilly and some other speedsters from Rock Racing and Team NOW/MS Society. By the time I noticed Cody's absence, they were out of sight. Ten minutes later they appeared from behind having lapped us in record time. Brilliant.

From that point forward, NOW/MS and Rock kept the speed sufficiently high that nobody seemed too interested in trying to to un-lap themselves. We took a couple of shots, including Seth soloing for a lap, but nothing materialized. Choo-choo pulled Cookie up to the front at the end, and Brian got 10th, which is a little bit of consolation.

Cody won so easily that he fell asleep on his bike five minutes after the finish. He was at the Bissell training camp during Mothballs, but other than that, Cody is three-for-three in winning the local crits this year and last. Can anyone challenge him?


And here are the USCF results for your viewing pleasure (since the race was in my backyard, it's only fair that I scoop those "real" news sites like SoCalCycling and SCNCA!)

P/1/2/3 Results. Cool to see some speedy juniors in there, like Sam Simmons from Ventura. No, he didn't take his hands off the bars.


35+ Results. We tried to get organized at the end but couldn't quite swing it. Then our sprinter Brian flatted. Mark Noble is looking really quick. If he can uncork a decent TT at San Dimas, I don't see him getting beat as he'll gather up RR and crit time bonuses like Easter eggs. And he'll have some strong teammates to help. Rock on.


Cat-4 Results. Derek continues to roll!! TnA and Bill Lupo up there too.


Cat-5 Results. Way to go C-Ranchers! And Echelon and UCSB too. But look at that name in 13th place... Aulden Diaz... Aulden Dais... Olden Days... That was Chris "Genghis" Hahn, taking out a one-day license and putting his toe into the water. Will he get hooked? Word on the street is he's notching up lots of vees at the BMX track, so clearly those competitive juices are flowing again. Bike racing -- the addiction that won't ever die.

Tea Time

Corey Welles can ride a bike very fast, but he is also one smart cookie when it comes to organic horticulture. He's in charge of plant health at Ganna Walska Lotusland, which is home to some very rare and beautiful botanical specimens. Some are literally priceless, with genealogy traceable back to prehistoric times. It's Corey's job to keep those babies alive and thriving ...without using any chemicals. When Corey talks plants, I listen carefully.

And so it was a month or two ago on the Sunday group ride, that Corey told me about the Compost Tea Maker he just acquired for Lotusland. He told me about the beneficial effect on plant health, how the billions of microbes in the tea help suppress plant diseases and discourage insect pests. The plants at Lotusland are thriving and Corey says that Compost Tea is a cornerstone of their operation.

I decided I needed some of this magical brew too. For my plants. So I raced home and jumped on Google and probably spent an extra hour of chamois time researching Compost Tea. Sure enough, the organic gardening community raves about it. The only problem was that the equipment to brew the tea is not cheap. Even the units made for the home gardener ran a hundred dollars or more.

So after a bit more research, I concluded that the key component was really nothing more complicated than an aquarium aerator pump. You see, the crucial aspect of brewing Compost Tea is to oxygenate the water to breed a booming population of microorganisms. So off to the pet store I went, dropped $30 for the pump, and came home to brew Compost Tea. That was a week ago, and my backyard garden seems to have responded nicely, so I made another batch and documented it for your consumption...

Start with water in a five-gallon bucket. If the water is fresh, like from rain or a stream or directly from an underground well, then you're ready to go. Otherwise if it's from a municipal source, then you should run the pump in the water for a while to evaporate off the chlorine.


Next, take a shovel full of compost --about a quart or so-- and pile it on a piece of mesh fabric. You want the fabric to be permeable to water, but you want the compost material to stay inside when you enclose it. It is important that the compost be fully aged, preferably from a hot pile, so that it's free of diseases and pathogens. You want that dark and rich mix that smells like a forest after a rainstorm.


With a piece of twine or string, tie up the edges of the fabric so the compost is inside just like a tea bag. Leave enough extra string so you can hook it to something else so that you can hang the bag in the bucket. A couple other ingredients are helpful. Add a tablespoon or two of unsulphured molasses. This will feed the microbes. You can also add a tablespoon or two of a fish-emulsion/kelp fertilizer as a good nitrogen source for the plants.


Now hang the bag into the bucket and get about your day. The concoction needs 12-24 hours to fully brew.


By the next morning, the liquid has turned the color of your favorite dark beer, and it should have a rich, vaguely sweet and yeasty smell. You'll almost be tempted to drink it! Or not.

Dilute it with some additional de-chlorinated water and use it as a foliar spray, or pour it directly into the soil around your plants' roots. It's important to use it within a few hours because without the aeration, the microbes will begin to die.


So there you go. Homemade organic fertilizer, plus disease control and pest repellent.

Oh Snap!

Please learn from my mistake...

When --not if-- you break your rear derailleur cable inside your brake/shift lever, do not continue to use the lever. Under no circumstances should you click the lever all the way over (as if moving to your largest cog) because that stupid little nub with the frayed cable strands will drop down into the guts of the mechanism. I just spent an hour doing surgery on that lever to remove it. Shame on me of course, because my shifting was feeling a little ragged last week and I suspected the cable might be fraying but I was too lazy to fix it.

Training Week -- 2/23 - 3/1

Got some great intensity on each ride.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1 hr; lunchtime hammertime
Wed: 1 hr; Hope Ranch Hell'ervals
Thu: 1 hr; OSM, 17:10, yucky headwind
Fri: 0
Sat: 4.5 hrs; early w/ Gina, then 8:00 roco to/from 2nd Casitas
Sun: 3.5 hrs; Worlds, hard 'til cable broke

Total: 11 hrs

Klunkerz

In case you missed this cool flick at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival a couple years ago, you've got a second chance because it will play Saturday March 7th at the SLO International Film Festival.

Check it out...

Bad Mulch?

What happens to all that green waste we put out each week? What about all the debris from commercial tree trimming? Turns out that Santa Barbara County turns most of it into composted garden mulch and offers it for free back to the community. Check out the details here. I gathered some and put it around a couple of trees and they seem much happier, especially my semi-dwarf avocado. I'm sure y'all know the advantages to putting a layer of mulch on the ground... helps retain moisture, adds organic matter and improves soil structure, keeps the nearby roots cool, and suppresses weeds. Good stuff, that mulch.

So yesterday when I saw some city workers trimming the Brazilian Pepper trees on our street, and subsequently feeding them into the mother of all chipper/shredders, I asked if they could dump a bunch into my driveway. Sure thing, they said...

Thirty-seven wheelbarrow loads later, I had it spread around my yard on some bare spots and weedy areas. I was careful not to put this mulch too close to any plants because it was too fresh. As it begins to decay, it will suck nitrogen from the soil underneath, so it could harm the plants initially. It should be fine within a month or two.

Then later, on a whim, I googled "Mulching with Brazilian Pepper trees" and discovered that this particular species is hated in some places (especially Florida) because it's extremely invasive and hard to kill off. A couple sources recommended never making it into mulch. Seems it can propagate from the pieces and if you aren't careful, you'll end up with a forest growing from the mulch. Now you tell me!

Oh yeah, and on my ride yesterday a rabbit ran across the bike path and got decapitated in the spokes of the guy next to me, and blood and guts splashed up on me. It was gross.

Ontario Speedwagon Pics

Here ...from John Goodman. Excellent as always. Looks like Cat 3s (HeyRon 2nd), 30+ 1/2/3/4, and Pro/1/2/3. Maybe one more... Did Big Derek Johnson win another race already??

Training Week -- 2/16 - 2/22

Getting back into a routine...

Mon: 0
Tue: 0.5 hr; rollers
Wed: 1.5 hr; Hope Ranch hurt'ervals
Thu: 1.5 hr; OSM, 15:53, dropped by Ben and M-Dub
Fri: 0
Sat: 5 hr; out early w/ Gina, then roco ride to Casitas & back
Sun: 1 hr; OSM, easy

Total: 9.5 hrs

Solvang TT Pictures

The vibe in Solvang was great. Thousands and thousands of fans, cheering these world class bike racers. Like Rock Stars. We wandered around soaking it up. Then I noticed this guy, the one on the right of the picture with white curly hair. Odds are you don't know who this is unless you've been around cycling for a very long time (or you live in San Diego).

I wonder what he thinks about all this. That's John Howard. He was the best bike racer in the US from the late 1960's to the mid 1970's. A three-time Olympian, four times US Road Champion, and one of the first Hawaii Ironman winners. But even in his prime, he would walk the streets in total anonymity. Nobody knew about bike racing back then. He was the best in the US, yet he barely eeked out a subsistence living racing his bike, sleeping on floors in dorms and youth hostels. Did he ever think his sport would get to this place, where thousands of fans would line a California street to watch a time trial?!


...or that a mass of humanity would crowd around a team bus as if Bon Jovi was inside?!


This sport has come a long way since I first started.

I brought my camera. First set of pictures is of the local amateur riders doing the same TT as the pros (pics of them further down). Each rider raised (or was sponsored) $1,000 to support the event and its causes. Fun to see how the amateur times measure up.

Mike Hecker starts. Mike lives near Solvang and has been leading a popular group ride up there. He raced road twenty years ago and is getting back into it.


Cookie LOVES time trials and jumped at the opportunity to ride, thanks to the generous sponsorship from Platinum Performance.


Gary D'Velo is going to win the 30+ National TT Championships this year. He decided to warm up with the Tour of California TT. He rocked a 33:47 time, which would have slotted him in at 72nd place in the Pros, just ahead of Tom Boonen.


Blingerman did the event for the second year in a row.


...as did Matt "Chicken Ranch" Benko, a clear favorite of announcer Dave Towle!


...and just a few minutes later, they were back!

Platinum boys went really fast.

Picture by Goodman Graphic


Mikey flying in.


Blinger was too fast for me to get the right exposure.


Matt powers through the final 300 meters.


Kisses on the podium! Gary wins, Cookie 2nd, Brent Kay 3rd. Congrats all!

credit: Steve D'Velo, Gary's Dad ...or... Todd Booth?

++++++++++++++++++++

Now some pictures of the GC contenders and a few others...

Some kooky fans on the hill...


Especially these crazy fanatics...


BJM rides by thinking, "Hey, I remember those guys... I can't wait 'til I retire and sit around watching bike races!"


Oscar Sevilla looks like a little kid.


Mancebo.


Chris Horner is one of my favorite riders.


I'm not much of a photographer, and the crowd went crazy when Lance came up the hill. Somehow my one shot was not blocked and I got a decent picture for once. I used the flash, which was a tip given to me by Mark Johnson, whose awesome pictures can be seen on cyclingnews.com and elsewhere on the internet.


DZ is also one of my favorite riders.


What is inside Michael Rogers' skinsuit?


Last to start, Levi...


By the time we walked across Solvang to the final km flame rouge (sp?) they were already back...








For the record, Levi won.

For Drea....

Re your last comment in the post below: Don't quit your day job just yet.

:)

Food Not Lawns ...Not Bikes

As you might expect based on the banner at the top of the page, this blog has been predominantly about bicycle racing, albeit with a few other topics thrown up from time to time. It's been a true reflection of my activities and impressions, and my posting frequency is usually a good indicator of how much I'm thinking about bike racing.

Or how little, as it were. Last week I did not use those few precious blocks of clear-weather time to crank out VO2Max intervals or climb tempo pace up the mountains. Instead I planted food. Lots of food. Blueberries, raspberries, asparagus, potatoes, garlic, onions, lettuce ...LOTS OF LETTUCE..., Fava beans, spinach, chard, cauliflower, soy beans (edamame), peas, and basil. My mind was in the garden and not in the saddle. Wait, that didn't sound right...

And it's not completely true either. I have watched most of the Tour of California, and marveled at the Pros' ability to race in horrible conditions. I've also been enjoying the race reports from SB riders who've been ripping apart pelotons all over California. Chesta-san taking a Cat-3 Vee at the UCLA RR in the desert, and C-Walk taking 2nd in P/1/2. Great placings from Chicken Ranchers John, Bob, Matt, and Danny up at the Velo Promo races, along with Derek Johnson and Steve Weixel, with the latter doing three races and bagging two top-10s. Finally, HeyRon, Chesta, and Brandon raced a crit in Brea this weekend, with Ron sprinting to a Bronze. Congrats to all.

I included all those links so you could read about bike racing, because the rest of this post is about gardening...

It's been three or four years since I dug up our back lawn and started a mini-farm. Gina rolled her eyes but went along with it because of the good supportive wife that she is. Besides, the lawn had died by that point and was being overrun by weeds. How much worse could it be? As the picture here shows, I planted crops in the rows-and-furrows style of a real farm. When the plants were mature, it was both productive and attractive.

But it wasn't the best approach. After every crop, I'd need to cultivate the soil and re-form the planting rows. That's pretty harsh on the soil life, and soil life is crucial to healthy plants. Watering was more difficult and wasteful, especially when the plants were young and their roots hadn't yet reached the furrows. Walking down the rows compacted the soil more than the plants like.

Last year I built a bunch of raised beds, shown in the picture here. Each bed has a drip irrigation system on its own valve. Lots of advantages to this approach. First, the soil fertility and life can flourish right where the plants need it, and you need not walk on it or disturb it after every crop. The size of the beds allows easy access so you can plant densely, in the so-called "French Gardening" technique. The drip system allows very efficient watering, and the drainage is good if it rains a lot (like lately).

One of the most exciting (haha) things about gardening is how dynamic it can be. Day-to-day and season-to-season. Californians can grow food year round, especially true here in Santa Barbara. The picture here is from this morning. Mostly greens and root crops are growing now.

Not visible in this picture, but I recently added a few new beds around the sides of the yard and house. Slowly but surely, this farm is taking over my entire 0.2-acre lot! Now if you think that doesn't sound like much room, check out what these good folks have done with the same sized tract-house lot.

Anyway, a few more pics with some details of what's growing now...

Collard Greens, a southern favorite, first time I ever tried growing these. Leaves are tough as leather but get tasty and tender with 20-30 minutes of steaming. I cooked these last week with garlic and onions, topped with bits of bacon. Served with cornbread and pork roast.


Hard neck garlic. Supposed to be a lot stronger taste than the grocery-store varieties which are mostly soft-neck. I'll let you know in a few months. The yellowing leaf tips are a sign that the soil is a bit too wet.


Chard is sure happy though!


Fava beans grow like crazy in the winter. Lots of biomass for green manure and also nitrogen-fixing roots. A great plant to grow. I hope to find a good Chianti soon.


I planted some Blueberries in a special bed that I'd prepared months ahead of time. Added lots of peat moss and some elemental sulfur to get the soil pH down to around 5.0. Blueberries need very acidic soil. If all goes well, they'll make a beautiful six-foot-tall hedge.


Compost is the real black gold. Early results of my son's science experiment shown in this picture. Equal number of spinach seeds planted three weeks ago. The soil on the right has been amended with our homemade compost, a very rich brew of kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, and Azomite. The soil on the left was amended a year ago with garden-variety store-bought potting mix. The results are dramatic, both the number of seeds germinating and the size and health of the young plants. We'll see over the next few weeks if the healthiest plants avoid bug problems.


One challenge with food gardening is getting the timing right. Sometimes you want to leave an area fallow, to give the soil a rest, but usually you want the ground to be productive. How to avoid long stretches with barren dirt in the vegetable beds? Easy! Plant seeds in flats and time it so they're ready to transplant as soon as the previous crop is finished. In fact, plant extra and give the "starts" to your friends and neighbors. Then later you can share the bounty.


OK, if you've read this far, perhaps you're interested in building a garden or expanding one you've already got going. Need motivation and/or ideas? Find a copy of "Food Not Lawns". The author is a grass-roots (haha) activist and she's been the inspiration for a growing movement. In Santa Barbara and want local help and advice? Check out the local chapter of Food Not Lawns. Looks like they'll even help you with installation!

This is the wave of the future.

Training Week(s) -- 2/2 - 2/15

Lots of zeros. Lots of excuses. Rain, sickness, and motivationally challenged. Sigh... A troubling trend: two years ago, I raced my bike when the Tour of California was going on. Last year, I did intervals on my trainer while watching ToC coverage. Yesterday, I sat on my butt to watch nearly an entire stage start to finish.

Mon: 1 hr; recovery pace
Tue: 2 hrs; Lunchtime hammerhood + OSM
Wed: 2.5 hrs; 5X OSM, mostly tempo
Thu: 0.5 hrs; run in the rain
Fri: 0
Sat: 0
Sun: 0
Mon: 0
Tue: 0
Wed: 0
Thu: 1 hr; OSM, slow
Fri: 0
Sat: 2 hrs; SB and back
Sun: 1 hr; OSM, tempo

Total: 10 hrs

Bobke and DZ

Darn it!! Shut out of the raffle prizes once again! Would have loved that pound-o'-Peet's a month for a year! At least Gina and some dork got their picture taken with Zabriskie:

Mothballs Race Report and Apology

I've been carrying some guilt and unease since the 45+ crit at Mothballs last Sunday, so perhaps a brief race-report blog post will serve as therapy. The competition was typical for Mothballs: a field of around fifty with the usual speedsters (e.g., CBlackRide, Steve Gregorios, Carlos Soto, and Dave Lettieri) and a good collection of all-around fit riders (e.g., Mike Gourley, David Larsen, Kim Bleth, Bill Lupo). Our Platinum squad was the same as last year: Mark BeLukie, TnA, Choo-Choo Brown, and me. Oh yeah, almost forgot... and C-Walker.

We rolled out and within a lap C-Walk suggested we start throwing guys off the front. My thoughts exactly ...you go first! So he does. Naturally everyone reacted, and he didn't get much leash and he was brought back within a lap. Thus began 30 minutes of textbook team attack/cover/counter-attack in which we all play a role. I was proud of our team. Unfortunately, none of our moves ever got more than 10-15 seconds. With 6 laps to go, I made one final attempt with Kim Bleth, but my legs were screaming in agony just trying to roll 27 mph. Back in the field with 3-to-go.

Now here is where I blew it. You see, our field had one other noteworthy rider, a guy by the name of Bert Glennon. I had never heard of him but he was wearing a rainbow-striped jersey signifying a world championship title. Turns out he's the 45+ Scratch Race champion on the track. In other words, he's very fast. I have a closet full of 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths from Mothballs, all "earned" by surfing the wakes of fast guys like him on the final lap. I figured, why not follow that recipe one more time.

What a selfish bastard!

My legs were toast, and I knew that two of my teammates (TnA and Choo-Choo) had good speed. And yet still, with three laps to go, I told C-Walk I was going to hunt for Bert's back wheel and go for the sprint. I found it with 2-to-go... or should I say, I found Dave L. occupying it. Hmmm.... should I try to barge in? Would Dave hold his ground? Best not to find out... not only would that not be cool to do to a friend, worldly ol' Dave could flick me with ease if he so desired. So I settled in on Dave's wheel. Bell lap, and I looked up to see my two teammates Choo-Choo and TnA on the front, driving this train fast. Last lap chaos --as per normal-- and I lost Dave (and thus Bert) in traffic, so I called an audible and tried to squeeze through up the gutter. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn't. This time it didn't. Around the final corner and Choo-Choo lost his steam, TnA was bogging, and I'm sprinting from 30 guys back. What a dork. 19th, our top placing.

So, what was wrong with that picture? I'll tell you. C-Walk, Mark L., and I should have been on the front grunting out every last ounce of speed going into that final lap. TnA and Choo-Choo should have had support up there. They could have closed the deal with a just little help from their friends. Perhaps not a Vee, but a podium for sure. I know this, yet I failed to execute on Sunday. At a minimum I should have gotten C-Walk up there. He knows how to race, but he's new to our team and was probably a bit baffled at my selfish attempt to sprint.

So, let me close by saying, "I'm sorry" ...and let's do it right next chance we get.

He's Nuts and DZ Nuts

Arguably the two funniest characters in US pro cycling will be on stage together this Saturday at the Amgen Conference Center Auditorium in Thousand Oaks. Bob Roll will be your MC for an evening with Garmin-Chipotle Pro Cyclist David Zabriskie. Whenever somebody puts a mic in front of Dave, you're gonna be entertained. He's hilarious. We can only hope Dave's more ...ahem... suitably attired than here:

Bob and DZ will preview the upcoming Amgen Tour of California and will discuss Dave's 2009 Team Garmin/Chipotle.

Look here for more information and follow the link to purchase tickets online up to Saturday. (No tickets available at the door.) Proceeds from the event will benefit the Breakaway from Cancer Initiative.

Then on Sunday, you can roll with Team Columbia on a fundraising ride in Thousand Oaks.

------

BTW, a credible rumor swirls that Team Saxo Bank may appear in mass at the Saturday evening event. Will we hear some pre-AToC smack talk between them and Dave??

Mothballs Crit Pics

Sometimes I just need to shut up and let the pictures do the talking.

Enjoy these beauties from John Goodman...

...and check out Carson Blume's magnifico Mothballs Crit Gallery...

...and these great shots from Kim Weixel, and these great shots from Steve. And still more pictures!

You guys are awesome!

Training Week -- 1/26 - 2/1

Lacking motivation. Whah, whah, whah...

Mon: 0
Tue: 1 hr; lunchtime HammerHell
Wed: 0
Thu: 1 hr; OSM, tempo
Fri: 0
Sat: 3 hr; College Kids RR, All In from the gun
Sun: 1 hr; Mothballs crit 45+, tired legs, pack finish

Total: 6 hrs

Good Old Poor College Kids Firestone Santa Ynez RR

Off and on road race over the years, has gone by a lot of names, today's edition used some subset of those words in the title. What a venue. You wonder why Pro teams come here for training camps? Nearly pristine roads and typically awesome weather. Like today. Those of you waiting until Blvd RR to start 2009, hey, check the weather forecast!

But seriously, the UCSB Cycling Team did a terrific job promoting this race and hopefully they raised some good money for their season. Judging by the (mostly) large fields, I'd say they banked a few grand. Nice.

I will start with my own race, because, well, this is my blog. More categories and pictures will follow below, including a stacked pro/1/2 race, but you need to read every word of my race report or else my blog will take control of your computer and then send non-stop love letters from your email account to Britney Spears. [Note to self: don't blog after drinking wine on empty stomach]

You know you're not focused for the race when you: forget your race license, forget your race wheels, and forget to arrange a feed. Fortunately, I remedied the first two before the start. The feed issue didn't dawn on me until my bottles were empty. Doh!

40+, 2 laps for 67 miles, ~45 starters
From the gun, Greg Leibert from Cynergy rolled pretty hard and, shockingly, there was no reaction from the field. Obviously many of these guys are not SoCal regulars. I wasn't about to let him TT away so I scooted on up with two others attached. Couple rotations and we already had a thirty second gap. Hmmm... 67 miles rotating with four guys? Why not? Over the little bump of a hill and we looked back to see Todd Darley (Cynergy), Joe Wenninger (Cynergy), and Dave Gonyer (CA Pools) motoring up. Greeeat, now Leibert had two teammates. Our gap stayed at about one minute for the entire lap. At both turn-arounds, we could see the field was still motivated (with dudes like Mike Hecker and David Larsen pulling hard) so we never let off the gas. Going into lap #2 we were seven, but we dropped two quickly, the numbers really favored Cynergy (3 out of 5). At the far turn-around, with 16 miles left to race, we saw that the field finally cracked and that our gap was safe. On the return leg, Greg was strong and one of his surges popped his two teammates plus Gonyer. Lucky for me, so I started pulling hard and within a few minutes we were totally clear. I was dying of thirst and totally fixated on Greg's half-full bottles. Refreshing water sloshing around... I almost conceded the race in exchange for a swig! (Then I thought about C-Walk and his 90-mile training rides on a single bottle.) Final time up the little bump and I pushed hard enough so Greg didn't try any funny business. If he got a gap on me over the top, with 5 miles of false-flat descending, it would be all over. Fortunately he didn't, and we rotated together until about the final KM, upon which he jumped me after my pull. It was all I could do to pull him back, and then I locked on and he was stuck in front. I jumped at ~200 M and came by to win by half a bike.

30+, 67 miles, only about 25 starters
Small field but stacked. The rumors about Jamie Paolinetti's return are true. He won. We will probably be saying that a lot this year.

Sorry, no pictures of this race other than a hard-to-read list of hand-written results.


Cat 5, one lap 34 miles, 50 riders (full)
I arrived at the hill in time to see the final surge up the hill, led by Chicken Ranch and Team Platinum Performance.


A group reassembled over the other side, but big bad Derek Johnson easily won the gallop to the lime. Congrats Derek!

Photo courtesy of Goodman Graphic.



Here are the rest of the results from that race. Lots of SB locals high up in the placings!


Cat 4, one lap 34 miles, 100 starters (full)
A burner of a race. My Platinum mates rode strong as a team and snagged the silver (Tom Anhalt) and bronze (Doug Urbach). Key work done by Steve Weixel to make it fast into the finale. Crucial for a narrow, one-lane finish.

Photo courtesy of Goodman Graphic.



More SB'ers in the top-10: Ray Turon (Chicken Ranch) and Bill Lupo (Echelon)


Cat 3, two laps 67 miles, big field (not sure of number)
World's strongest Cat 3 --Chesta-san Gillmore-- pounding the hill toward the end of the first lap.


...with Matt "Chicken-Ranch" Benko nipping at his heals. A group of 10-15 formed down the other side and that was that.


A long sprint, with Matt as the highest SB finisher in 4th. HeyRon in 9th and Chesta in 11th. See him smiling back there? [Actually, I forgot to mention that a VERY STRONG rider soloed away from the break and won by a comfortable margin. Not sure who he is, but he was a horse out there! So the picture here is the sprint for 2nd.]

Photo courtesy of Goodman Graphic.



Read for yourself.


OK, until earlier this week, I had planned to do the Pro/1/2 race. Some things happened, including getting a bit of intel that the entire Team Type 1 pro squad would be racing. I wasn't in the mood for that kind of suffering. Throw in a few more random pros, like Aaron Olson and Ted King, and you could pretty much guarantee it would be fast.

The biggest shock of the day was to see M-Dubb lined up to race. No I did not photoshop in a picture of him. He really did it. Hairy legs and out-dated McGuire kit and everything! Very cool to see actually. He should be racing --for fun now-- because he is absurdly strong.


Great to see C-Walk in the new kit and rocking the Specialized bike! Nice to see AO do the local race too.


The boys from SLO (L-R): hardman Ozzie Olmos, wiley old vet Craig Nunes, and Pro Tour rider (!!) Brian Vanborg of Liquigas.


As expected, Team Type 1 dictated the race, and after lots of attacks, they established a select front group which they drove all the way to the line. C-Walk bridged up and rising star Vinny Owens got in there too. I think they were the only amateurs. In the final few km's, TT1 tried to keep the speed high but Aaron attacked them and messed up their plan. Well, not completely, since they still took first and second. Gritty ol' C-Walk hung on for 4th, a damn fine result in that crowd!

Photo courtesy of Goodman Graphic.



Cool to see Cookie rip off a good sprint in the next group. Any sprint in which you nip speedster Aram is a good sprint! Seth was right up there too, an awesome result for his first ever pro/1/2 race.

Photo courtesy of Goodman Graphic.



Yoza... that's a good field for January 31st!


The women's 3/4 race had a great turn-out and Susie Willett popped off a nice 2nd place. Sorry no pic, but here are the results. Cool to see lots of SB riders in there. Good job!


...and Women 1/2/3.

I don't mean to short-change the women's races but I didn't gather any stories or pictures. Hopefully some of our awesome-local-women-bike-racer-bloggers will scribble down some notes for us to read!



For more of John Goodman's incredible pictures, visit his gallery. Thanks for being there, John!

'til after Mothballs.

Oh Cry Me a River!

Wall Street bonuses under fire...

I about barfed a couple years ago when I first heard about the size of the average bonus paid to people working in finance. And when I say average, I mean across everyone in the business, from mail-room clerks all the way up to CEOs and top rain-makers. Nearly $200,000! And you just know that it's top heavy. I think that's disgusting, and way out of whack with their contribution to society, no matter how you define it.

Time to push the reset button on those folks!

Historical data from the NY Comptroller's office:

Too Old School....

...for facebook? I was just about the last person in the world to get a cell phone, and I was on the same path for facebook. Long time hold out. Not completely sure why but maybe because I nag my way-too-cool daughter for spending sooo much time on it.

Last night I broke down.

Today I spent, oh, maybe 8 hours wandering and searching. Oy vey!

Hey Alicia, do as I say, not as I do.

So now I'm wondering, does facebooking replace blogging?

And also, if we are facebook friends, please don't be offended if do some horrendous breach of etiquette. I'll likely be as socially klutzy on there as I am in real life!

Training Week -- 1/19 - 1/25

Hmmmm. One week 'til racing starts. Not ready yet but still excited to get it on.

Mon: 1 hr; recovery
Tue: 2 hr; OSM-PC-ECC, tempo
Wed: 0
Thu: 1.5 hr; OSM (15:24) +
Fri: 0
Sat: 2.5 hr; Team ride in SY valley (rain)
Sun: 4 hr; early w/ Gina, then Worlds, then w/ Gina

Total: 11 hrs

RX for Stress: 170 bpm

The worry wort wakes in the dark and squints to see 2:13 AM. Third night in a row, wide awake. He takes slow deliberate breaths but finds forced relaxation is not helpful. Wife slumbers deep; he's envious. Her shallow breaths metronome like a clock. Thinking of clocks is not helpful. Muffle the sounds by wrapping his head in the pillows. Now the only noise is his own slow steady heartbeat. An internal, inescapable metronome. Another clock.

His mind wanders. And worries. Stupid stuff. ...termites eating away at his house... ...Brian's late science project... ...Alicia driving on Friday nights... ...401K tumbling... ...he should work more... ...which contractor to choose.... ...garage needs cleaning... ...Gina's Achilles tendon... ...kids' college expense... ...should he get up to pee... ...weeds and bugs... ...computer problems... ...oil needs changing... ...Alicia's boyfriend... ...cat barf... ...Brian plays too much XBox...

Repeat.

He lifts the pillow and squints again. 4:48 AM.

Repeat.

Then, finally, sleep. Thirty minutes later he wakes when wife gets up to shower. She makes coffee. He needs coffee. Paper screams bad news in large font. Will BofA be taken over by the government? He paid 50 for BAC; now it trades in the single digits. Sell? Hold? Buy more?

Late morning. Slouching in front of two computers. Despite headache, he's written copious amount of new code. He finally tries to run the program. Crash. Access violation. Who owns this pointer? He looks back at his code from previous day. It doesn't make sense. It might as well be written in ancient Inca script.

Lunchtime. Time to ride uphill.

Small turn-out, pavement is wet. He follows the hairy-legged former pros. They start fast. His legs protest painfully at the rude shock. He considers quitting. The pain subsides, then retreats, mind over menace. He focuses on pedal strokes and breathing. Metronomes. He holds that wheel as if survival itself depends on it. He feels better and better ...alive, rejuvenated. He decides he will beat the hairy-legged tormentor in front, the same one who cracked him last week. Gather the energy, focus inward, hold it, hold it, hold it... Now, Go. He pounds the pedals with fury. No response, no contest.

Back home just as the rain starts falling. Body and mind abuzz and warm. Relaxed for the first time today. He thinks about how fortunate he is. Family is healthy and safe, kids are smart and resourceful. He's glad to have a house that termites can eat, a garden for weeds and bugs to grow, and a job. He feels for those who don't.

Then he thinks how things would be if all the world's people spent some time every day with their heart rate at 170 bpm. An entire population high on endorphins and dopamine. What a world that would be.

Tonight. ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thurbo..... Turbo..... Per-turbo.....

All means the same thing ...Pain... especially if he's in your race ...which is highly likely since he's out there every weekend, and often does three races a day!!

Read Mark Johnson's excellent article about the legend himself written for Competitor SoCal Magazine. Mark is a pro writer and photog and one of those great folks --like Lyne Lamoureux and Mike Hernandez-- who shine the media light on bike racing here in the US. Our obscure sport has a million stories below the surface, and these guys do the telling with their superb pictures and eloquent words. Grazie!

So... not much to add to the article other than perhaps this. To observe Thurlow at the races, you might wonder whether or not he's really having fun. You could call it a look of indifference ...or perhaps aloofness ...sometimes you'd even have to call it a scowl. But I ask you this, when doing an activity that you've been doing for consistently for 30 years ...take breathing for example... how much visible enthusiasm do you show? I hesitate to guess at the total number of races the man has done, but it's got to be well into the thousands. Think about that for a minute. Is he having fun? The proof is inside the pudding, and maybe doesn't always show on the surface.

But every now and then he lets a bit of the emotion out. Elite Nationals RR, 2008, up against 130 Gggg-gnarly Cat 1's from all around the USA. Super fast race on a windy, hot-n-dry, cranky afternoon. Half way in Turbo scoots across to the big break and, no doubt, goes pull for pull with the big motors up in first class. 'round about 100 miles in, the break starts cracking so Turbo goes off again, this time with just two others, each a hardened NRC thoroughbred ...who happen to be teammates. Do they work T over? Can they? I don't know, it's hard to see first class from the back of coach. Anyway, with the sun setting and 120 fast miles in the bank, the trio sprints for the prestigious Stars-n-Bars jersey. Thurlow gets the bronze.

3rd at the Elite Nationals. Is that a good result? Compared to what? Top-shelf Euro pro victories, top-10 in the Olympics, buckets of major US professional wins, ...Masters 45+ vee at the Ontario Industrial Park merry-go-round?

Well, his non-stop beaming smile after the race left no doubt...



...he's still having lots of fun.

Training Week -- 1/12 - 1/18

Slapped myself in the face and went out six days this week.

Mon: 1.5 hrs; recovery around Goleta
Tue: 2 hr; roco morning ride, tempo pace
Wed: 2 hr; OSM-Painted Cave-Repeater tempo, around Goleta
Thu: 2 hr; Warm-up + OSM (15:20) + half Painted Cave
Fri: 0
Sat: 3.5 hr; 8:00 roco to 2nd Casitas hill, hard on hills
Sun: 3 hr; OSM-PC-ECC-Arroyo Burro saddle + up/down Stagecoach, tempo

Total: 14 hrs

Roller Wars Continue...

First there was Fabio...


...followed by some dufus who thought it didn't look so hard...


...which caused some hipster fixie dude to show some truly wicked skills...


...and now this latest volley...



Next? How about a wheelie? Or bunny hopping off onto the floor at full speed?

You Go Girl!

Seems the nice weather has awakened my seasonal workers a bit early!

Paradiso Perfetto

Indomitable Spirit of Youth

This inspires me.

...and makes me laugh.

I neeed some of what he's having!

ps. Hey Chesta-san, look what came in my mail ...30 years ago!

Training Week -- 1/5 - 1/11

Pretty timed constrained this week so only 4 riding days, but each had some really hard intensity. Too hard perhaps -- my lungs are burning.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1.5 hrs; warm-up + lunchtime hammerfun
Wed: 0
Thu: 1 hr; OSM, 15:57
Fri: 0
Sat: 4 hr; Gibraltar HC TT, 35:04 to the intersection, 2nd place, + around SB
Sun: 3 hr; Worlds

Total: 9.5 hrs

Notes:
- I've always found that the most accurate indicator of my motivation is how much I ride solo versus how much I do the group rides. I may say I'm fired up to race ...rah, rah, rah!!... but the truth is that if I don't get out 6-7 days a week with a lot of solo time in the wind or on rides with 10 kft of climbing, then I'm fooling myself. Actions speak way louder than words when it comes to motivation. And so it is with some concern that I look back on my training the last few months and notice that 90+ percent of my riding is with groups. We're in for a spell of nice weather it seems, 70-degree days and no rain in sight. Do or die time ...absolutely no excuses now.

2008 Race Winners From Santa Barbara

Reflecting back a bit on the 2008 road season and it dawned on me how many Santa Barbara locals won a race. I can't remember a year with this many. We have a great community of riders and the results show it. Savor those victories y'all... you earned them.

Let's review...

The Southern Nevada Stage Race was the first event of the season and a few locals hit the jackpot in Las Vegas. In the P/1/2 race, Gary Douville won the crit ...barely... over teammate Brian Cook. The great picture was taken by the talented photog duo of Kim and Steve Weixel.

The following day's road race saw two more Santa Barbara winners, with Corey Welles taking the Cat 3 road race and Chris Walker winning the Pro/1/2 RR and taking GC too.

A week later and the World Crit Championships, i.e., the Mothballs Criterium, SB's favorite son Cody O'Reilly blew away the Pro/1/2 field for his first of two local victories. The second was even more impressive, as Cody bested a bunch of speedy pros at the Island View crit. The picture is from John Goodman of Goodman Graphic. Cody also found the podium in the only other local'ish races, with a 2nd at Sisquoc RR and 3rd at the exciting downtown SLO crit. I'd say he won the local B.A.R. hands down ...err, hands up I mean.


2008 also saw the return of Johnny "O" Orach to the peloton. John started racing as a youngun from Santa Maria in the late-80s/early-90s, and quickly moved up to a Cat 2. I recall him having a real knack for getting in the right breakaways, justifying his reputation as a smart rider. After a few years though, he gave up the bike for a pair of running shoes. The bike-racing bug lay dormant until 2007 but, like herpes, it never went away. When big bad Johnny O signed up for the Cat 4 race at Mothballs, those punks never stood a chance. Nice way to start the year -- a vee at Mothballs!

Other local Mothballs champs include Echelon's Ben Barthel in the juniors 15/16 and ageless wonder Carlos Soto in the Masters 55+. By the way, Carlos probably won between 5 and 10 races this year ...and that's not even counting all his glorious Polo Fields victories!

A bunch of locals headed north to race over the Presidents' Day weekend, starting with the Cantua Creek RR by Coalinga. (BTW, did you know that Coalinga got its name because it was Coaling Station "A" for the railroad? ...who says you never learn anything from this blog!) Anyway, Cookie was loaded up with enough coal to ride damn near the entire Pro/1/2 race solo off the front. Cantua Creek is an out and back course, so each lap Cookie could see his pursuers, and vice versa, as the picture shows (from Bo Hebenstreit).

We SB amateur hacks are very fortunate to have so many talented professional bike racers in our midst. And they're all nice people ready and willing to offer help and advice. I took a picture of three of them resting at the top of Bates on some random Sunday. We've already discussed Cody. (BTW, did you know Cody got his name because he was a Code-Blue birth? ...hey, that's the second factoid you learned by reading this blog!) On the right is Kim Anderson, one of the best women racers in the world and widely known as a selfless and dedicated teammate on Columbia, which also happens to be the #1 ranked womens team in the world. Kim won the San Dimas Stage Race in 2008.

On the left in that picture above is Ken Hanson. A year ago, I predicted Ken would win 5-10 races in 2008. I don't know if he made it or not, but considering the magnitude of a couple of his victories, he had arguably the most successful season of anybody hailing from SB. Early in the year, he won the Pro/1/2 event at the Pine Flat RR, proving that he can climb despite being a sprinter. Look at the casual victory celebration in the picture. Later in the year he won a stage in the big-time Tour of Ireland. In August Ken won the hotly contested San Ardo RR.

But unquestionably, Ken's biggest win of the year was at the National Crit Championships in Downers Grove, IL, where he beat the fastest Cat 1s in the USA. Ironically, since he's back on a Pro team for 2009, he won't be allowed to race in his Starz-n-Bars jersey. He'll be gunning for the Pro version in 2009.


Continuing with the SB Pro theme... it was nice to see hard-working nice guy Aaron Olson win the NRC Tour de Nez this summer up in Northern California. All the stages were held around Truckee and the Northstar ski area in the high Sierra, where oxygen is at a premium. Not a problem for hardman AO. At right, another beautiful shot from Lyne Lamoureux.


It's nice when local racers win local races, and look how the Chicken Ranchers dominated the finish of the Cat 4 Island View Crit. Ken Doyle took the victory here, but just in case he faltered, Gabe Garcia was just behind in 2nd!

Gabe got his 2008 victory a few weeks prior by winning the road stage of the San Dimas Stage Race. He was so excited crossing the line first that he let out a blood-curdling yell, the echos of which are still reverberating around Bonelli Park to this day!

Also very nice to see victories by two new SB riders, Seth Zaleski and Steve Weixel. Seth earned his win at the always tough San Luis Rey RR where he soloed the final lap off the front of the Cat 4 field, and just held them off. Steve used a full season's-worth of lessons to earn a smart victory in the Cat 4 field at the San Ardo RR. Mark my words, both Seth and Steve will be very strong in 2009, along with the indomitable teammate Chester Gillmore. A third local champion at San Ardo was Eric Knight from Team Chicken Ranch making his return to racing with a win in the Cat 5 event. Congrats!

The last race of the season, a high-profile pro/1/2 night crit in downtown San Francisco, was won impressively by Daniel Ramsey. I include him as a local because he grew up here before moving south to Ventura. Daniel also won a tough circuit race in Aliso Viejo as well as a couple races back in North Carolina. Big time, Daniel!


Finally, although not a road event per se, it deserves a mention because of how impressive it was. Matt "Chicken Ranch" Benko won the Santa Barbara long-course duathlon in 2008. Even with his big manly physique (see pic at right--Matt, you should totally buy that...$12 at SantaBarbaraPix!), he's able to scoot fast enough on his feet to keep the real runners in range, and then he crushes them on the TT bike. This win was not a gimme by any stretch as 2nd place was a very strong Carl Legleiter who is an accomplished runner and also no slouch on the bike. Good win Matt!

Am I forgetting anybody? If so, drop me a note or comment so I can add him or her for posterity.

Give yourself a hand SB! And congratulations to all the local 2008 race winners and their teams! Here's hoping for good luck and more vees in the 2009 season.

What Else You Gonna Do Saturday?

It may only be January, but this weekend's weather forecast looks great. Do something different and ride in the Gibraltar Hill Climb TT, promoted by the UCSB Triathlon team.

Register online by Thursday to save ten bucks.

Training Week -- 12/29 - 1/4

Trying to get back on the horse.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1.5 hrs; warm-up + lunchtime sufferfest
Wed: 0
Thu: 3.5 hrs; Gibraltar Loop w/ Chris + SB and back.
Fri: 0
Sat: 5 hrs; Casitas loop with 8:00 roco group
Sun: 4 hrs; Early w/ Gina, Gary, Steve, Mariann + Worlds

Total: 14 hrs

Proposal for Polo Fields Sprint

Over the years I've done many of the biggest, baddest group rides in California. River Ride in Sacto, Noon Ride in Palo Alto, Spectrum Ride, Swamis, etc... and I've seen my share of crashes and crazy behavior. I don't mean to be sanctimonious with the following rant because I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to group-ride-induced-stupidity...

...but last week's Sunday Worlds really freaked me out, and I've been replaying a scary scene over and over in my mind. I was in the back of the bunch going into the Polo Fields sprint, and since the pace was too slow, the group (~50 riders) was spread 4-5 wide across the lane. Pretty much clogged. I considered moving up but that would have meant crossing the center line, and since a large SUV was heading towards us in the other lane, I did a quick Physics calculation and determined I'd better sit out the sprint instead. I guess ten or so riders weren't so adept at Physics though, because they had no problem playing chicken with the oncoming SUV to move up a few spots in the sprint. (And just to reiterate, this is an unofficial, artificial line in the road and the rider that crosses it first DOES NOT WIN ANYTHING because IT IS NOT A RACE.) So anyway, predictable carnage ensued when the riders moved back into the clogged bunch to avoid the SUV. Result: four riders down, multiple broken clavicles and ribs among them. But what still freaks me out was seeing the Echelon rider's body sliding along the pavement on the center-line just as the SUV passed by. There was no daylight between him and the vehicle, and I thought he was a goner. That he wasn't squished and escaped with only a broken collarbone is by pure random luck. I wish him and the others a speedy recovery.

Here's my proposal to make it safer: Any rider who finds himself (or herself) in the front within the last mile or so should just bury himself (or herself) to keep the speed high. If you're on the front in that last mile, then it's not your day to sprint. Don't sit up and look for a wheel, instead be a lead-out motor for all your friends behind. Get the speed well over 30 mph and when you fade, just get out of the way. Same thing for the next rider. And the next. All the way into the final few hundred meters at which point only the front 5 or 6 riders should have a chance anyway because at 30+ mph it will be single file. This is basic stuff. Fast sprints are safe sprints. What goes around comes around. You find yourself with lead-out duty one week, and the next week you are in the sweet spot and you can sprint and you don't need to cross the center-line and play chicken with an SUV.

A more drastic proposal would be to neutralize the sprint anytime there's an oncoming vehicle, but that's probably just crazy talk. After all, there is no cure for group-ride-induced-stupidity... you just try to control its worst symptoms.

News Flash... C-Walk Signs with Platinum!

2009 will be an interesting season, that is for sure.

ps. Anyone want to buy an immaculate top-o-the-line Time road bike?

New Linkage

New Year, slightly new look, and new linkage over on the right. I loves me some good blogs, and I'm sure there are tons more out there, so please -PLEASE- send me links if you know of good ones to add. I will be looking for more too.

A few comments about the new ones so far, starting with the locals...

bicicorsa -- So fun to see pics from the local group rides! Thanks Carlos and Bill.

Meh-wee-uhn, aka, Marian -- One of two (?) local Velo Bellas (THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!!) She's made the mistake of joining our Tuesday lunchtime love fest a few times. That should cure her of any humor and good cheer ...but until that happens, check out her blog.

KK, aka, Kathleen King -- an artist with a cycling problem.

Chuckie V -- The one and (hopefully) only. Love his style and I strongly resonate with his ideas about training, despite his triathlon bent. I moved the link to the locals because he spends the winters in the Santa Ynez valley. He is a motor, as I witnessed him go pull-for-pull with Aaron Olsen last year at the annual Ronde de Solvang Century, until an urgent matter forced him to stop.

Drea, aka, Andrea McLarty -- a speedy local runner who also rides bikes and dabbles in triathlon ...but we won't hold that against her. She balances life as a Mom and as an elite athlete, and you never know what you'll get when you peek into her great blog.

Stuart Sato -- A local, lifestyle triathlete with a healthy perspective on endurance sports. I've never met Stuart, but we share a love of making fun of Brian Cook. Plus my wife knows his wife, and they make fun of us behind our backs.

SB Tri club -- These people always seem to be having fun ...maybe us stuck-up, socially-awkward roadies could learn something from them! (BTW, that's a joke so don't send me nasty emails...)

Moving beyond the South Coast of SB...

Pizza Man, aka, Chris Phipps -- A runner turned cyclist who's now a billy-goat beast, climbing about as fast as anyone in California. Wanna know what it's like at the front of M35+ road races?? ...read his blog.

Paul Mach dot Com, aka, Paul Mach dot Com -- Just another Math PhD candidate racing in the domestic professional peloton (as Bissell teammate of Cody). I wish everyone took cycling as seriously (ha-ha) as Mr. Mach.

The Manley Report, aka, Todd Manley -- His blog is your #1 go-to source for everything you ever wanted to know about being a 6'9" former basketball player transformed mid-life to bike-racing addict. Trust me, of all the web sites out there on this topic, Todd's is the best.

B.L.O.G., aka, Tracy Nelson -- While not a new link (just a name change), she is so freakin' funny that I had to list it here.

BJM, aka, Ben Jacques-Maynes -- A top domestic professional racer, playing the bike game and being a Daddy at the same time.

Podium Cafe -- A good thoughtful source for news domestic and euro. Lots of readers and lots of comments.

Bike Snob NYC -- An all-star blog if ever there was one. Who knew there was cycling in New York City?

Smithers in Minneapolis, aka, Chris Smith -- An industry insider with lots of (good) opinions about things cycling, politic, and life.

Blog on Vacation...

...for a little while. Have a happy holiday.

Training Week -- 12/15 - 12/21

Weak week due to rain and work.

Mon: 0
Tue: 0
Wed: 0
Thu: 2 hr; OSM easy, then to SB and back.
Fri: 0
Sat: 4 hr; 8:00 roco, rode hard to 2nd climb
Sun: 3 hr; Sunday worlds, hard around Goob and Bates

Total: 9 hrs

How About You?

Nothing like an approaching storm to sort out the hardcore riders from the fluff. If you look at this picture and think, "What the hell, my bike needs cleaning anyway ...might as well ride", then you are hardcore and I respect your dedication. You deserve to win bike races. This sport, more than any other, rewards those who stay motivated and train consistently no matter how much discomfort it entails. People who win bike races are people who know how to suffer.

I type this while enjoying a steaming hot mocha, and my bike sits clean and dry in the garage. Fluff.

Disaster Averted

Do you regularly back up your computer? Neither do I. But when my laptop started acting flaky recently, I was uncharacteristically on-the-ball and copied everything over to an external hard drive. 'twas my first back up in the two-year life of that computer. Good thing too, because it finally died on the weekend. A premature death if you ask me. I've bought five Hewlett-Packard machines (3 PCs & 2 printers) in the last few years and this laptop was the third one to die young. Yet still, as a long-term stockholder and fan of the HP story, I gave the company a final chance and got another one yesterday.

Back up your stuff!

ps. I'm going to try to give this blog a face lift sometime in the next few days. If it disappears or otherwise gets ruined, you'll know I screwed it up.

Training Week -- 12/8 - 12/14

Nothing but group rides. That's too lazy and needs to stop! Less than 50 days 'til Santa Barbara World Crit Championships, i.e., Mothballs

Mon: 0
Tue: 1.5 hr, lunchtime hammerfest
Wed: 0
Thu: 1 hr; lunchtime OSM, comfortable tempo - 18:00
Fri: 0
Sat: 4 hr; 8:00 roco ride to 2nd pass, 3X big-gear seated climb
Sun: 3.5 hr; Sunday worlds, some effort around Goob and Bates

Total: 10 hrs

Danger ...From Us and From Them

I try not to dwell on the dangerous aspects of riding and racing, but really, they're never very far from my mind. Over my lifetime I've descended roads like Gibraltar, Painted Cave, OSM, Figueroa Mountain, and Mt. Hamilton, surely a thousand times or more. Often I find myself really railing the corners and enjoying the thrill of speed, only to think later about the catastrophic consequences of an ill-timed tire blowout or unseen patch of gravel. Or an oily road! Mostly though, I feel in control and tend not to obsess over those low-probability situations.

Of course it helps to keep your equipment in good shape. Don't ride worn tires, and fercrissakes, tighten your skewers properly. Years ago I was in a three-man rotation coming down the 101 at 25 mph when the guy in front decided to bunny-hop a little lip in the pavement at the Refugio bridge. His front wheel came off. Can you imagine the terror in that split second between seeing the wheel come out and planting your fork into the pavement?! His face and teeth got the worst of it. I also remember a local rider losing his front wheel when trying to hop a cattle guard coming down Figueroa Mtn. He got beat up pretty badly. Personally, I don't file off the nubs on my fork-tips because of those incidents.

Racing is a bit different. We all rely on each other in the pack, and whether it be benevolence or self-preservation, 99% of the time things run smoothly. Pretty remarkable when you think about the physics of it. All those bikes, with their sharp metal parts, moving fast in such close proximity ...each piloted by an independent-thinking rider whose primary objective is to force his front wheel ahead of all the other independent-thinking riders trying to do the same thing. All this with near non-existent communication.

But 99% is not 100%, and when things go wrong it can be disastrous. Earlier this year, a rider from Schroeder Iron crashed in a mid-week training crit and a finger was severed off of his hand. Just a random and unfortunate placement of a body part in all that metal and mass. Sometimes the results are more tragic, as was the case with a young rider from Santa Barbara named Barrett Holmen.

Bicycle racing is risky and I think in some twisted way, that's part of the appeal to many riders. We knowingly take those risks and experience some level of exhilaration when we survive.

It's an altogether different risk we take when training out on open roads with vehicle traffic. Indeed the vast majority of drivers are courteous to cyclists and they exercise appropriate caution when encountering us. But make no mistake, drivers do not share the "we're-all-in-this-together" mentality that fellow racers have in a pack. Drivers do not risk injury or death if something goes wrong or if they use poor judgment in the presence of a cyclist. There have been a couple tragic incidents recently that show how one-sided the danger is, with cyclists being run over and killed by inattentive drivers.

Worse yet are the sociopath drivers whose behavior is egregiously irresponsible and dangerous. Long time SB riders remember the horrific tragedy when six of our fellow cyclists were mowed down by an intoxicated driver up by Gaviota. One was killed, and another literally had his leg ripped off his body. I'm still haunted by what I saw a few days later at the scene. Police markings along the highway showing where bikes and bodies and been thrown, including a chalked outline of a detached leg. Every visit to the Albertson's on Calle Real is a grim reminder because the widow of the rider killed manages the produce department.

So I have no tolerance of idiot drivers who like to harass cyclists with their vehicles. Anybody who's been riding long enough knows the split-second terror you experience when a fast moving vehicle passes by deliberately close, literally threatening your life. Sometimes it's a bunch of high school kids who think it's funny; other times it's an old codger with deep-seeded prejudice of people in colorful lycra clothing. It doesn't really matter who they are, if they misjudge the distance between you, their 6,000 pounds of glass and steel means you're dead.

I'm sorry to write such a downer blog post. My lunch ride yesterday had some bad-mojo vehicle incidents, leaving me too depressed to ride today. First a huge black truck drove unnecessarily close by me, and then felt the need to gun its absurdly loud, gas-guzzling engine. Next I get the finger from some middle-aged loser for absolutely no reason. Hey, I'll admit if I do something stupid on the bike and interfere with traffic, but in this case all I was doing was innocently using the same road, well to the right of the white line. Then while riding with the group, a car full of high school kids must have thought we were poor because they threw a handful of coins at us. What other reason could there be?!

Please ride safely out there.

Training Week -- 12/1 - 12/7

Time was a bit limited by work, but still feeling some gains in high aerobic zone.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1.5 hrs; lunchtime hammer ride +
Wed: 0
Thu: 1.5 hrs; 2X OSM, near max on 2nd one (15:38)
Fri: 0
Sat: 3.5 hrs; Ca BikeFest, good tempo ride
Sun: 3.5 hrs; Sunday worlds

Total: 10 hrs

Ca BikeFest Ride

100+ riders rolled out for the long loop of the Ca BikeFest ride. Beautiful clear morning with just enough crisp to remind us that it's Winter in Southern California. The Amgen/Giant Masters set a spirited pace along PCH up to Rincon, and then they picked it up a notch on the Casitas climbs. By the top we had a ~15 rider front group, ten of whom were Amgen/Giant, including a few of their recent recruits (KB, Chris DeMarchi, and Antony Galvan). They are unquestionably the team to beat in 2009. Also in the bunch was Fast Freddie Rodriquez, who I think was Sherpa'ing for Mike Gourley (as if he needed a Sherpa!) Garmin/Chipotle rider Peter Stetina also joined us, and didn't appear the least bit homesick for his Boulder, CO weather. Other than a blistering sprint into Santa Paula, the group rode a nice tempo all the way back to Ventura. A perfect winter group ride!

Really Random

Missed it by That Much!

I had it all worked out. I'm riding the California BikeFest 100km route on Saturday, and I had a plan to win! Money in the bank, baby. Sure it's just a charity ride and all, but since I began 2008 with a glorious victory in the Solvang Century, I figured why not end 2008 on the same note? Bookends to an otherwise mediocre season. Just to be sure though, I needed a domestique. A super domestique. I needed a top roadie ...one with big-time international experience.

So I placed my bid on Kim Anderson. I've ridden with her enough times to know she is a motor. We would TTT those 60 miles in like 2:20, leaving everyone else in our dust. Nearing the end, our DS ...me... would choreograph the finish such that I crossed the line first. Yes, that's how it was going to unfold.

Until somebody snuck in at the last minute and out-bid me!!! Grrrr....

Now all I can do is hope the 8:00 roco ride crosses our path and I can hop on that train along hwy 150. We leave Ventura at 8:00 also, and the hwy 150 / hwy 192 intersection is almost precisely in the middle!

++++++++++++++++++++

All I Can do is Laugh!

Guess what! The City of Goleta raised the remodel permit fee from $380 to $1,490. They say the new fee better reflects the amount of work required to review the architectural drawings and inspect the construction. The change took effect on December 1st. I learned all this yesterday, December 3rd, when I turned in my permit application and wrote a $1,490 check. Sigh...

++++++++++++++++++++

Recession? What Recession?

That's what my 13-year-old son says. He signed up with Google to show ads on a few of his videos on his Youtube page and now every month he gets a check. And look, the amounts are going up. His October check arrived yesterday and it's $266! The amazing thing is that he hasn't made any new videos in months. He barely even looks at his page any more. But obviously a lot of other people do!

Disclosure: the account is actually in Gina's name, since my son is below the minimum age. I guess that means we'll do his taxes for him next April.

++++++++++++++++++++

Got Data?


TnA's dashboard. At one point he had a fourth device.

++++++++++++++++++++

The Hammer Is Back!!!

So now we know how to motivate Ben "The Hammer" Haldeman. Bet him a burrito that he can't do something. Actually, the bet can't be with just anybody... no, I think it only works if the bet is with Matt "needs a nickname" Dubberley.

Take today for example. Normal lunchtime ride up Old San Marcos. Only this time, a burrito was on the line between those two hairy-legged former professional bike racers. For Ben to win, he needed to: (1) beat Matt to the top; and (2) break 15:00. Now, no offense to Matt, but I was pretty sure Ben would beat him. Matt's got a huge anaerobic tank, which is why he's so fast for 2-5 minutes, but OSM is about aerobic W/kg and Ben's got that in abundance. But sub-15:00?? In December???

We start fast. Ben's got three teammates for support. Matt's got none--we should change that, btw--but he's locked on like a Sidewinder missile, not letting more than a centimeter of air between his front and Ben's rear tire. I'm on the point and shoot my wad to reach the first mile at 4:20. I peel off and Ben bolts. Only Matt can match the acceleration, so now they're mano-y-mano. We watch from behind as Ben eats up the road. His form is not pretty--head bobbing up and down, torso skewed left--but the power is undeniable. Ben doesn't ask Matt to pull through because, of course, he wouldn't. Matt's best tactic would be a slow cruise to the top and then a furious sprint which he'd undoubtedly win. But really, I don't think he could have pulled through even if he wanted to.

At the big left bend, it appears that Matt's on the ropes. He's off Ben's wheel by a couple feet. You've heard of the Seinfeld "close talkers"? Well, Matt's a "close wheelsucker", frequently buzzing the tire in front of him, getting maximum draft. If he's off by just a couple feet, it pretty much means he's cracked.

We lose sight of the combatants as they round the big left-hand bend. A minute later and we're around the turn also, but see no sign of them ahead. A few tense moments. Then, up beyond, through a clearing in the trees, we see a lone figure emerge. White jersey, unmistakably unique form, flying fast uphill... a solo Ben. A quick check of my watch shows he's on pace to smash the 15:00 barrier. As he enters the switchbacks, we won't see him again until it's over.

Our attention turns to Matt. Oh how sweet it would be if we three could catch and drop him, teach him a lesson for diss'ing our teammate. He's a wounded animal up there and we smell blood. Trouble is, he smelled us too. He would not be our prey today.

I finish off the climb in 15:38, my best time since the summer. As I roll up to the hairy-legged former pros, I see a look of content in Ben's eyes. The look of a person who knows he'll be enjoying a big fat burrito for lunch.

14:35

++++++++++++++++++++

And Speaking of Food...


Gina and I saw the movie Our Daily Bread last night at UCSB. Oh man, was it ever powerful. The viewer is immersed in the sights and sounds of industrial food production, and there is literally no dialogue at all. It doesn't need any. A DVD release is scheduled for January and anybody in the developed world who eats food should see it.

Rouge d'Hiver

This is an heirloom variety of lettuce (or Lactuca sativa for you botany nerds) from France that dates back to the 1800's. Of all the varieties I've grown, it's the most robust and problem-free, and coincidentally enough, is also one of our favorites to eat. Pick a bunch of these along with some other, more-crinkly loose-leaf lettuce and you've got yourself the basis for an awesome salad.

Add toasted walnuts, sliced apples, and feta cheese and top with a tasty Walnut-oil Vinaigrette:

2 Tbl. Apple cider vinegar
2 Tbl. Maple syrup
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 Tbl. Walnut oil
1/8 tsp. Salt
1/8 tsp. Cayenne pepper

Yum-yum!