Monthly Archives: January 2012

It’s Always Something

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Cyclocross has always been an energy intensive endeavor off the bike. It doesn’t matter if you have your own mechanic, there is a ton of stuff to do that you don’t have to do for road racing or MTB racing. It probably has to do with the fact that you have to have so much equipment. And things go wrong.

The night before we were leaving to go to Plymouth, MA, where I won my first cyclocross National Championship, we were packing gathering up everything to go into the van and someone noticed that the lug on the head tube of one of my 753 Raleigh cross bikes had a small crack in it. I wasn’t too concerned because we had spare frames and there were mechanics there to change over the equipment. Upon closer inspection, we saw that nearly everyone of our bikes had cracks. It was a complete disaster. I should have know, because I had broken off the head tube of a 753 frame the year before at Nationals in California.

Then the next year, I was racing the Sorrento Valley Cyclocross at the UCSD campus in San Diego the week before Nationals in Santa Cruz. There was a huge dip, something that you had to hit with an enormous amount of speed to get up the other side, on the course. We had custom built Raleigh frames built by Marinoni, from Canada. I won the race and was feeling pretty great afterwards, having good form for the Nationals the next weekend. Then I looked at my frame and both the head tube and down tube had big cripples in them. It wasn’t as bad as the year before because I had a week to get a 2nd replacement frame. I ended up with an Alan aluminum frame, which was the cross frame of choice in the 80’s. It had a flat top tube for shouldering and was way lighter than a steel frame. (I have it down the basement still. I bet it is more whippy than a wet noodle.)

Anyway, nothing like this has happened so far this trip. But, I haven’t left the driveway yet. Okay. That’s all I got this morning. It is super cold and windy this morning. North wind. It seems like I’m always driving against headwind for some reason. I can’t figure that out. Along with a ton of other things.

Psychotic????

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I can hardly wait for the next week and a half to be over. And there is only one reason, I hate constantly doing system checks on my body. If there is one aspect of being an athlete that I could remove from the equation, that would be it. It really would. I love racing big races and everything that it involves, but the systems check thing is something I could do without.

It starts even before I wake up. When Bromont does a lap on the bed, I wake for an instant and usually do a leg stretch or something, just checking on my feelings. For sure when I am awake, but before I get out of bed, I do a full system check. I’m not exactly sure what the check list is for that, since it’s not a conscious act, but it definitely covers my legs, back, shoulders, neck, stuffy nose, sometimes even a skin fold check on my stomach.

I have been taking a shower in the morning recently. I usually don’t. But I’ve been showering to loosen up some for the rest of the day. I do a couple hamstring and shoulder things that are supposed to be therapeutic, but I haven’t noticed much of a difference. But, I do a system check in the shower comparing my feelings to the previous days.

It keeps going all day. Going down/or up the stairs is a big one. How much I feel like napping after breakfast. It goes on and on. And it doesn’t really matter until I actually get on my bike. And, of course, that starts a whole new process of evaluating how I’m going.

The funny thing is that I intellectually realize that none of this matters very much. Once in a blue moon one, one my thousands of system checks actually benefits me for the race and has some merit. I guess that is the reason I’m doing them.

Most of my system checks have been going pretty great recently. That starts a whole new set of worries,. How long can I keep the feeling going and should I rest or just keep the same intensity or what.

The mental aspect of the sport is very important, especially in cyclocross where you have to constantly keep on top of it. And the weird thing is that you really don’t know until you clip in when the gun goes off how you are physically. And sometimes not even then. I know instantly whether I’m good, but if I’m not, sometimes I can fool myself into being good, mainly because of all the positive system checks I’ve done the over the past weeks. I guess they are good for something after all.

The van yesterday morning. 7 bikes, plus 4 people's stuff inside.

This is a parking lot outside Starbucks in Delavan Wisconsin. Man, they use a lot of salt here.

I saw this van in Kansas City of all places. It is the most rust rotted vehicle I've ever since. The photo doesn't do it justice. The whole van is painted with rust inhibitor, but it looks more like Swiss cheese everywhere. I can't believe that it's legal to drive it.