Night two at the track.

Bad.

That's the race report.

Well, to be specific, bad legs, bad riders, bad placings. The good news? I'll be racing two crits this Sunday and track again next Tuesday. Hopefully my legs won't be so tired next Tuesday. I just couldn't get them to go last night. Oh well. That's racing, right? Sometimes you feel good, sometimes not.

Here's a video of a crazy crash up at the Alpenrose Velodrome in Portland, Oregon.

Krackatoa!!!

And a pic of my buddy BB (Ben Barsi-Rhyne) out at the velodrome. Not last night, but a couple years ago. He's a good kid. Photo by Garrett Lau.

Wow, I gotta get on top of this!

Ok, so I've now done three crits, two mtb races, and a night of track racing since my last entry. Results were: 9th, DNF, 2nd, 2nd, and I haven't checked the results for track yet.
More important results? Getting fit and having lots of fun doing it!

Last weekend was a super fun ride up at Nisene Marks with seven of my friends. We had a blast, then I went out a played soccer for the first time in months and my legs were hella sore on Monday. Today, out for a short run, some stretching, now to get ready for another night of track racing. Between school, work, training, racing and working on my own business, I'm quite busy. Nevertheless, I will make it a priority to start posting weekly.

In other news, if anyone hasn't heard, I'm getting all "I can change the world" on you guys. So here are some good links to check out.

http://www.freethechildren.com/

http://www.fouryearsgo.org/

Also, if you haven't heard about the new Nissan Leaf, you should check it out. Note bene: Nissan is working on a full line of completely electric vehicles, now we just need to get switched over to solar power and we'll really be making progress.

More race updates and Save the Earth propaganda coming next week!

Until then, a pic of me and some friends on the lift at North Star last summer. Woot!

Back in the saddle.

Well, I managed to completely burn myself out. I kept trying to get it together and just ended up stressing myself out. So I took a couple months off from racing, road my bike for fun and enjoyed some mellow time.

About six weeks ago I got back on a training program, and signed up for a cross country (XC) mountain bike race. Well, I didn't have an mtb to do it on, so I set up one of my cross bikes and headed out to the race. It was the TBF Racing Kick Start race. I love the course and the guys that put it on are just great. I've done a bunch of their races over the last eight or so years and have always enjoyed racing with them. This time proved to be no different.

Being a low key event held in late January on a drizzly Sunday there weren't a ton of racers out there. I managed to get the hole shot (thank you CX for teaching me how to start fast) and held the lead for about one mile. I was about third at the top of the first climb, 2 miles in, but my legs were burning. I guess a ten minute warm up for my first race in over two months wasn't enough. Oh well. I was a little rusty on my bike handling and made a few fumbles here and there.

About halfway through the lap I got hung up on some rocks and came to a complete stop. This would've been fine, if someone hadn't run into the back of me. Luckily no one was injured so I started racing again.

Halfway through lap two I started to question my fitness and motivation. Did I want to do the third and final lap? Did I have enough water? Did I have the fitness? Coming through the turn around for the final lap a guy behind me made an astute observation.

"Dude, your rear wheel is f*d."

I looked back to see that indeed it was. Well, that ended my race. I didn't feel comfortable risking my wheel collapsing on a rocky descent. So I pulled out. Covered in sand and mud, legs in pain, I rolled back to the start/finish to let the promoter know I wasn't going to finish.

My first race back, a DNF (Did Not Finish). But I was happy. I had had fun, and lots of it.

Surf City #2!!! First race of a double race weekend.

Surf City, back from the near-dead, but just as good as ever. And Halloween, to boot!
Well, Surf City has used the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds as a race venue many a time over the years, and it's always a good course. This year was no different. I was excited to see another great course laid out in a way I hadn't yet seen at this location, especially as a follow up to the BASP #2 that was so much fun to ride. The cats and kittens at SCCCC put together a great course with some flat power sections, some fast straights, some tricky turns and a fun ride/run-up! I love these NorCal CX events! The organizers do a great job of laying out courses that combine speed, technique, and handling ability perfect for cross.

This weekend I had my girlfriend with me to help do race support, which is always awesome because it makes it easier to get ready for and focus on racing. So she helped me port my newly built B bike and spare wheels to the pit, while I headed out to warm up on my freshly glued carbon wheels.

Let me take a moment to just say a couple things about carbon wheels. First, Cane Creek made some badass wheels, and still do, only they have limited themselves to track wheels only, much to my sadness. Second, if you haven't ever used a set of nice carbon tubies, do it. They are amazing. Light, stiff, aero. VERY FAST. Unfortunately, it's the rider, not the bike, that determines the placing.

So I warmed up, having paid much better attention to my hydration and eating this Saturday than I had the previous Sunday, and got to the line feeling pretty good, and very happy to be racing. I started about third row (top 18) and had a decent first 1/4 lap, staying around 17th. After about a half lap I started to drift back. I slid back two spots or so before the end of lap one. I found myself continuing to slide back for about three laps when I realized I just wasn't making my legs hurt. So I started to visualize how I rode on my last hard training day and started pedaling harder. It felt kinda good, so I kept pedaling hard.

Well, it was a good call, because not only did I stop drifting back, but I started moving forward! I managed to move myself up around four places over the last half of the race to 23rd. I was pretty happy with that and was looking forward to the next days race. Me and my gal packed up my 'Yota wagon and headed home.

I gotta catch up on race reports! This one is for BASP #2

First of all, let me just say the guys at Pilarcitos put on an excellent race, with a new twist on an old favorite. The race was held at Coyote Point near Burlingame, CA on October 25.

It was a beautiful fall day in NorCal (as in mid to high 70s and sunny) and the course was fantastic. I mean great! It was wide, with lots of places to pass, it had some road, some loamy dirt, some sand, a sand pit, grass, short climbs and descents, lots of turns (some of them very tricky, loose and offcamber), a short run up and a set of barriers. The course essentially stradled the top of a hill mostly covered in eucalyptus trees. It took advantage of the existing bike/pedestrian paths as well as the sand pit, grassy fields, and large parking lot. A well done cross course!

So I warmed up, pre road the course, and went to line up for the start feeling pretty good, and actually happy to be racing. After a week of soul searching I felt like I had started to rediscover my love of racing. They called up the top 20 from the first race, which did not include me, and so I ended up starting in about 30th place or so. Unfortunately, only about five local guys can start faster than me if we line up on the same row. So at the gun I ended up getting pushed back temporarily by a couple slower starters that had beat me at the first race. But I was thinking happy thoughts like I was Peter Pan and immediately started being agressive and moving forward! It was great! I moved up to around 15th in the first two laps and was feeling good riding with Aaron O'Dell and another dude who both usually whoop my ass. So I was pretty stoked to be up there and feeling comfortable and confident.

Right about half way through lap three I decided it was time to put in an attack and see what happened. So just at the top of the run-up, where most crossers suffer most, I remounted and launched my attack on my two fellow racers. It was very effective, playing to my strengths as a runner, and their weaknesses as cyclists. Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

About a minute after that effort my legs lost all power. I mean, from feeling strong to feeling feable in two pedal strokes. What was going on? I decided it would be best to go tempo and try to limit my losses. Well, I spent the next 30 minutes limiting my losses, realizing that I had not fed myself enough and was dehydrated. I managed to put in a solid last lap and a half to catch three other racers, but still finished a lap down in 28th or so.

I've never been so happy with getting lapped! I realized that had I fed and watered myself correctly I could have done much better. So, knowing that I was coming back into some decent fitness, I was encouraged to keep up the good work and be better the following weekend with nutrition and hydration.