My torture test and Parks Success

Below my comments I have attached the email from Parks talking about how well Danny and he did at cross nationals. Now that I have two boys of my own I am starting to understand how cool it is that Parks pulls the trigger on a cross bike, wondering if Danny is going to like cross or even do it at all, only to find that the first race out Danny wips his old pops rear, a few short months later they are heading to Nationals. I can only immagine how cool it is to share something you are passionate about with your kids. Good job to both of you.

Now on to the good stuff. I have been considering the Excruciation Exam around the austin area for training recently but I am not totally pumped about the driving, and the fact that a lot of the ride is on the road/dirt road so I have a proposal to throw out there. The Saturday after the new year I suggest this. Meet at the starbucks at the Katy trail and knox at 8:30. Ride to OCNP and do two laps. Ride from OCNP to Boulder and do two laps. Ride home. The big challenge is having someone with a car/signifigant other who is willing to drive a bit of aid in and around this for us. I would even offer my truck as a support vehicle for someone else to drive if that would be an enticing offer. So ponder this all and let me know what you all think.

On to the great things happening with the Parks family.

It was in the 20s in the morning and the course was frozen and fast, they allowed you to pre ride at 8a till 9a. by the time I rode on Thursday it was 2 inches of greasy sloppy mud. The tires we have been using just don't cut it in the mud. The tires the real guys were using were narrower but had sharper spikyer knobs. The course had a lot of off camber turns and the hill was a little bigger than Flag pole, the speeds were slower because of the mud and more nasty obsticals that nobody could ride. Our Flag pole course had more and tighter turns.

Danny raced Friday in about the same or worse mud. The winners all used two ( some had three) bikes that alternated each lap, while the mechanic power washed the mud out of the gears and brakes, then switched bikes the next lap. Danny's race was 30 mins, but if it had been any longer the bike would not have made it. It only had one working gear for the sprint. Danny did great, the mud didn't bother him and he was passing guys all the way to the end.

Tuesday but kindof Monday

Well as many of you are aware today is really kind of a Monday or maybe a Monday afternoon as yesterday was a quasi holiday. I worked the morning Rode the MTB at lunch and then smoked ribs all afternoon which is to say the pump was primed and my legs were excited to get out of bed. Today's ride started in the dark dark as the sun was being lazy and was obscured by low clouds to boot. For that reason the first lap was a little on the steady side if you will. Well Blur B. started to wind it up up the bath house hill and wound up in this suspended state slightly off the front. Thomas the Train was not his usual self today. The Count must have tried to kill him again recently. Well anyway I took a swing up to Blur in an attempt to work with him and see if we might be able to slip away a bit and instead I brought the whole bunch to him. About that time Crozzy showed up late along with JeeP. We all know that Crozzy was flying as evidenced by the recent Thursday night show and JeeP is out on the MTB tearing faces off recently so those are two additions to the bunch for sure. Well after sitting in and relaxing a bit I noticed crozzy was easing up the road a bit in what appeared to simply be an effort to do some work. As I was watching the situation Russ-tic jumped across the gap and then Flyer Shirer. I started to see the gap increasing and I was thinking to myself, "Hey that might be the group to go with" So off I went to catch a ride. We went up the bathhouse hill with a rather large gap and off to the races we went. Well until we hit the stop sign at the spillway. We got stopped by a car and the group closed up on us. We shot out on the road and all of the sudden a car got between us and the group so we started to pour it on again. On Loving and Westshore we all climbed as well as we could together after Russ-tic bald spotted his tires doing some drift racing. At the top of Westshore Judge Roy Doooby caught up to us and shot by. Well needless to say our group of 4 became 5 and we never saw the rest of the bunch. Coming into the sprint I noticed Flyer Shirer was working to grab Russ-tic's wheel and I was cooked anyway so I got Judge Roy on my wheel and took a stab at it only to see Crozzy ripping by in a blaze of furry. He won.

Honorable mentioned today goes out to Crozzy's Scott. He will be giving back his ski poles today and putting some miles in on the Cross Bike. Also honorable mention today goes out to my bowels for not having a complete meltdown. I was so worked staying in the break that I almost pooped myself a couple of separate times. Good Times though. On an administrative note the Blog will be continueing to take some time to refresh and reboot for next year. Stay posted for updates of the cross racing series though.

Sink the Sub

Here is my report:

BS here taking a stab at the Tuesday Edition September 12, 2008 Edition of Morning Madness, as Rick was sick.

I can mostly comment from my perspective in the back of the pack. First, Tom did a lot of work at the front. Second, the pace was not too hard. Third, Herrick was there. Fourth, who is the Puerto Rican guy that jumped on, took a pull, and then blew up? Herrick seemed to know him, and was quite perturbed at our matching the pace.

I left the back of the back only twice, but for good reason, and with purpose in mind. The first time was to pull folks up to Tom, who just wouldn’t slow down for any reason whatsoever. Automaton Tom.

The second time I went to the front was to bestow the coup de grace in a Fabian Cancellara manner. I took off hard for the last minute. I got a good gap, but then Tom caught me, and won the sprint. Russ E. also came up and passed me. No one else was anywhere near. I averaged about 560 watts for that minute. Hope it hurt everyone real good!

I thought I blew the pack apart, but it’s my understanding that someone didn’t jump when I took off. But, that is not what I saw in my rear-view

Dodgeball

So today's efforts were made interesting by ourselves and others in soo many ways. We started our usual roll out down the smooth side when a lady with a extenda-killyourdog-leash let her small dog go after a rather large dog. Cool! Then..... We were rolling just fine with the Tabinator, Matt and Flyer Shirer decided to make sure this was a ride to remember. the Tabinator was not so much launching attacks as cranking the pace up to 30 and holding it there till everyone screamed uncle. FS kept launching attacks as some form of bike Yoga...or yoyo. What got funny though is after one of FS's intervals it appears that the tabinator was a little bugged and he pinned it and almost dropped FS. Anyhow the ride was good and quality up to the final lap when our ambassadorship really took a hit. The lady we forced into the barricade at the bath house could be consider happy customer number 1, then the cop we went head on into at 30 on the bike path might be our 2nd taker of the fun, our third happy recipient of the bronze shammy has to be the old lady we swarmed on westshore, and our MVP for patience is also the volvo we ran the stop sign in front of to get back on. But the sprint did happen and Flyer Shirer took the prize. So I will have video up tonight to take a look at and incriminate ourselves!!

A day late a bike chain short

Went to head out for the thursday ride and my chain broke on the way out the door. Me stay home!!

It was thursday though so lets get busy. Today we have the fond chance to catch up with one of the construction cones at the lake regarding his temporary relationship with the cyclist.

MRM: Mr. Conestez, thanks for stopping in with us today. How would you say your stay with us at the lake has been lately?

MrC. Yo essee. I don't know what you gringos think you are doing on bikes at the lake.... but dude this place sucks now that the open container law hit these parts.

MRM: True but how has your relationship been with the cyclist?

MrC. Its alright man but you will see I have been trying my darndest to sneek slowly over to the lane some hopeing I can catch a bar or a pedal or something. I think that would be funn yu kno.

MRM: So the times we have seen the cones knocked down or in the lane have really not been accidental but a purposefull attempt to knock pedestrians down?

MrC: Man sure, all that money this city is putting into improving the lake we gotta get some satisfaction out of it, and the fat cops on bikes out here don't make them much fun to knock over.

MRM: How much longer will you be with us?

MrC: I am never leaving the city did the low bid process on this and we have all jacked up the pricing so high, they don't have the funds to finish!!!!!!!! That's funny ey!!! Gotta go. Concrete truck in the bike lane. I gotta move in his way.

Fall Cometh, Time to go to School!

So fall is coming. Time to prime the lights and get ready for a dose of bug protein at the lake now. This mornings race report will be somewhat brief as was my involvement. With The Count back in his tomb by 7 now, the ride started a bit confused. As we overheard the Casket door close it was time to roll out. After a few slow brief moments though Thomas the train worked his way to the front to take his position of leadership and all was suddenly kindof right in this world. Our Celebrity appearances today are as follows. CroZzy was in full force. Big Legged Mirage was back for more. Flyer Shirer showed up on the fixie. Chainknee was out, back on the road bike. ClarkO was also out sporting some very impressive summer fitness. So the fun rolled on. Well we blew the stop sign coming off Mockingbird, and sure enough if someone was coming the opposite direction, time to dip and dive, only to find that someone else had set his bike in the road on a kickstand for us to play some more dodge ball with. I THOUGHT ALL THE HOTTERNHELL HACKS WERE NURSING SADDLE SORES STILL. Anyway Jeep hit it hard up the first hill and started a small bit of fragmentation in the bunch. I moved to the front to take some complimentary pulls and earn my fluids at which point Brandman, Matt of Few Words, Big legged Mirage, and Thomas the Train were on the front rotating. Well coming down the path behind the arboretum my light battery came off of my seatbag. This is not a good thing. As a result I got the battery loose and stuffed it in my jersey pocket. So now I have this battery cable dangling in my rear wheel. I tucked it in my seat bag strap and we hit loving. the group was working pretty hard and fighting together but no one individual was ripping at the legs yet. Well we hit the bottom of the second hill, and darn it if my light cable did not pop loose and wedge itself in the rear brake of my rear wheel. I got to stop. Fixed the light and started rolling backwards to get back together. Well I got back on around the arboretum. Again we hit about 30 mph down the path which was interesting. Heading into Loving a second time, CroZzy was pulling, and setting some wood screws while pulling out the 18 volt dewalt. About this point Judge Roy Dobi hit the gas and started to move up the left. I decided, although I had not done the whole ride it was time to earn my fluids again. Well Judge Roy Dobi and I pinned it and after some BMX turning hit the second hill solo. At this point I thought my efforts were going to make me poop my britches. So I sat on JR Dobi up the second climb. Brian came across and started hitting the front to make our efforts even greater. I took one pull only to realize that Russtic was pulling us back with the group in tow. I burned my matches and I was done. I think CroZzy took the group took the group to the line and it looked like either Pretty Boy Boyd or Russtic took the sprint. Good clean fun had by all.

Honorable mention. Russtic for really taking a personal interest in the real estate known as white rock/well... and Mockingbird. Good to see someone take such interest at the grass roots level of our fair city. A good example to all. Also honorable mention is the dogwood tree for uprooting itself and moving two feet before someone we know hit it.