A Quiet Monday

It's been pretty well established than I'm an insufferable racerhead, but with a 24 hour race last weekend and a 24 hour race this coming weekend, even I could figure out that maybe I shouldn't race on Sunday. Judging from what I heard it sounds like I picked a good one to skip, not that I don't like "40 minute climbs" and "rail trails" in my mountain bike race.

What to do on a raceless weekend, then? Oh, the plans I had. I was gonna log some "serious hours" and some "cx practice" and some "Wompatuck recon," oh yeah, three rides in two days. Then Linnea and I headed out Saturday on what should have been an easy 40 miler and I could barely pedal, it was like my legs had never even been flexed before, I started to understand why to the average couch-dweller a 100-miler sounds like a big deal, riding a bike is HARD. Now that gas is down to $3.65 a gallon I might just buy an SUV instead.

So that was it for "serious miles." Got up Sunday to head to CX practice with Mr. HUP East, it only took me 20 extra minutes I didn't have to convert my cross bike out of road mode. Added bonus: dragging brakes build fitness.

We eventually had five attendees, my legs were still shot but I was on my first ever tubular ride so it was a grassripping good time. A single "hot lap" put me back in the hurt box for good but I was able to fake competitiveness for two minutes.

I thought I would finish up by being a total badass and preriding the 25 mile Wompatuck race course, well, I broke a spoke after five miles and brilliantly dislodged my rim tape removing it, breaking the tubeless seal. A CO2 later it had failed to seal back up (WTF), and that was the end of my day. I got to do more cross training on the walk back.

Now today my throat is sore, so maybe I'm working on some sickness to go with my stupid riding habits.

Not to finish with negativity though, there's two pieces of good news for the readers tough enough to make it this far. Man, what do people blog about when they don't race??

1) The Root 66 Expert 19-29 season standings have me in second place over Sean Daley by a mere 3 points with 2 races to go. Why is this a good thing, you ask? Because we're effectively tied, we both dropped three races already, so the last two will be a proper showdown with the winner taking home $225. Not that I need help getting up for a bike race, I would just rather have to "beat someone" than "show up" to get 2nd. Suffice to say I'll be packing an extra tube in the coming weeks.

2) I have a personal aversion to August cyclocross, but I don't hold it against anyone who indulges -- so I quit feeling sorry for myself after that stupid Wompy ride and made the crossresults.com Race Prognosticator aka "The Competition Stalker." I already wrote a bunch of crap about it over there so I won't get into here -- the bottom line is, I am gonna use the shit outta that thing this year, so fellow number junkies should probably click that link.

On the other hand, if you're like anonymous internet poster 'jan' then you might agree, "man do they have a lot of numbers....jeez.. too much."

If I remember correctly, Alex's boyfriend Ed was the guy who suggested this feature, as a greasemonkey script. Which would have been even nerdier. Thanks Ed!