The Crush of Fatigue

I have a brief posting as part of my excuse for not riding last night, keep reading for a ride report via Cap'n and kudos for keeping the fire buring, spot on!

I fear I have fallen off my wave! With work stress, a new baby, and general family chaos I have hit the largest brick wall imaginable. I am done, flat out done. The thought of a ride or run or anything physical is enough to drive me insane right now. We have about a five week break until the cross season picks up again which is plenty of time to reset the engine and get back on the horse. For now a little down time might be exactly what the body is needing. It kind of sounds like the entire group is feeling the same tug of exhaustion, as evident by the report that follows. Although I am experiencing pangs of guilt for not showing last night, I also have experienced some immediate resurgence for simply naming my exhaustion. I have done a little exploring into the periodization approach to training. When cross examined with the general FT3 race and training schedule, it seems that only one period exisits...that of 100% full tilt boogie! I don't know about the rest of you, but I am going to happily enjoy the rest of this week with the family and not think about exercise. Come Sunday, time to look at another building period to a string of CX races in November.

Racing notes I missed: I completely forgot to mention the showing by Ghost and VD at the Knickerbocker 8hrs/50miler. VD showed big improvements, finishing the Knickerbocker race well ahead of his Sierra 50 time. We will have to do a full analysis of the Garmin data to quantify his actual improvement. Ghost finished fourth in the 8hr, just off the podium but chasing hard to the end.

Cross Racing and other events:
Sat 10/17: Time to welcome in the new decade with NoHandle! Man he's getting old!
Sun 10/18: Cross practice...roll out from the bagle shop @ ?????
Enjoy the next few weekends and get the DTI up because November gets crazy:
Nov 14: San Fran Night Race
Nov 15: CX Folsom by Bike Planet
Nov 21: CX Cow Palace
Nov 22: SacCX #3 Disco Park
Nov 29: San Fran Golden Gate Park
Dec 5/6: Crank Bro Gran Prix Porland
Dec 20: SacCX #4 winery race and post race Chili party at Chez Barnes

Here is to enjoying the down time!
Until we ride,
LOtB

Wind in the Sails

The first winter ride of the 2009/10 year was noteworthy on several accounts. I arrived at the parking lot to find that riders were bowing out via text message as rapidly as the leaves were falling off the trees in the wind. As I sat alone watching the texts come in, I actually had to ponder what I would do if no riders actually showed up. Would the FT3 flag not fly on the first winter ride of the season? Alas, B showed up and we loaded up the Previa for yet another FT3 outing.

The ride prep took a bit longer than usual as we had to don our foul weather cycling attire. We rolled out along the parking lot fence, or “The Hiccup Trail,” I on the Trek 820 single speed with ghetto chain tensioner and B on the CX single. Booker was rocking his puppy oats rapidly behind. We came down the technical drop that named that trail section, crossed Sly Park Rd and took a new and different route into an equestrian compound. While exploring, I we came across a homestead that featured a rural but homemade snowboard rail. Seems even though the majority of the FT3 riders aren’t ready for winter, the local Sly Park boarders are. During the exploratory time period, it was noted by B that explorations don’t always end in glory, or something like that. A few turns off route toward the compound and we decided to try a new singletrack trail descent which turned out to be of epic proportions. Long, steep and technical is how you characterize this decent. Our explorations found the glory and this trail section will be visited again. We made our way back to MI Trail and rode the Fleming loop counterclockwise. Trail conditions were smooshy and it was wet, wet, wet. We did more walking than usual and the pace was slow, and Booker was solid all night. We opted out of the backside of Fleming and took the squishy Fireroad back to the parking lot. Rode MI Trail road to the first dam, then rode along the lake to the boat dock and back up. Oddly the automatic gate rose for me when I rode up to it, B was not so lucky. Weird.

The Knott was quiet, with only about 3 or 4 Knottheads on site. We opted to eat at the bar and were met with utter disappointment by one of the main taco bitches. She was clearly very shocked and disappointed that so many FT3 riders were made of sugar last night. Having set the bar high with the snow rides, it will take some work over the winter to bring the respect back to that level. We had to run down all the excuses for her and she passed judgement on them. B and I are sure that if NoHandle were in town he would have been there. Beyond that we collectively decided with the taco bitch that Larz, Bambi and NoCar had pretty good excuses as well. Those who didn’t chime in at all took the high road (Councilman), but Ghost and VD weren’t so lucky or wise. At some point B’s beer chugging prowess came up in conversation, and interestingly enough, one of the Knottheads at the end of the bar was the roommate of the disappointed chug contest loser. There was an older Knotthead of few words in the middle of the bar who said “It’s very seldom that you run across a hero like that,” referring to B’s chugging prowess. True, so true. A roll by of the pino loge’ resulted in a short pit stop for observation of the intriguing and entertaining local crowd.

Are you made of sugar?

Dust be gone and hard fast tacky trails reign! Its going to be wet all day and into tonight. Who is the hardest amongst the FT3 clan? Who will show on this night of wind and rain. In a crazy twist of tradition I am going to post last weeks ride report as tonight's call out. Even though last week was S2FT3 this may be another gearless night. The 24hr race sure spooked me about riding the geared bike in the rain.

Mosquito at 5:45...Exit 54?

October's SSFT3 was a nearly standard affair. B, Ghostrider, VD, NoCar, Councilman and Rock God convened at Mosquito road at the usual time. We were met by LOtB in full cross gear, and for a second we thought he might join the festivities. Turns out he was in not-so-secret, post-work training mode for this weekend. Cheers for the proper sendoff, and good luck on Sunday!

The rest of the crew met Xteric at the Knot parking lot and we kicked the event off with a tall PBR. We weren't yet buckled in our shoes before the first of several references to homoeroticism were thrown about. After a long absence, it's nice to see the FT3 vocabulary continues to evolve. In place of the venerable but ususal suspects, Ghostrider stepped up to lead the ride. His route of choice took us further afield than most nights. I think I saw lights from Hwy 50, but I'm told that was just aliens or Rednecks out for hunting practice. Anyhoo, we combined qualifier, to Park Creek, then the 'Centerline' route that Ghost discovered which proved to be nice CX loop as B can attest. This dropped us onto Hazel Creek and back up to 'Rock Spot' at Park Creek Junction, we back tracked PC and came down the wedding march, over rock garden 1a where Xteric and Councilman both met terra firma - I thought those 29ers helped prevent OTB excursions; hold that order! . Not quite game for an entire lake loop we spiced it up with an Xteric led 1st class single track above North Lake Road and reversed our way home past the main entrance to the lake. VD's stats will bear it out, but it was a solid ride with a handful of stops, no violations, and a fair bit of climbing.

The taco portion was highlighted by Xteric's quick grab of the firepit. Seems the aliens and Frenchies were on hiatus , and with the Knot tables full up, we opted for outside dining. As more serious discussions of ceagles and mandangles commenced, we noted an odd glow emanating from VD. Seems he fancies a certain local, and having seen her inside the Knot, he was positively giddy. Once the beers arrived, something spectacular, yet entirely suspicious occured. Not 1, not 2, but 3 bottlecaps turned up Aces for young VD. Maybe an inside job, maybe a ploy to win his affections, but VD was on fire. B was wishing he had rode a fixie so he could have back peddled the promise he made VD if he un-capped that 3rd ace; the first time I recall him being lost for words. Subsequent beers rendered no winners, but we were convinced this was the night to hit the Redhawk. A mid taco session fire pit appearence was made by a couple colorful smoky locals; probably to listen in on our first draft bylaws. The tacos were better than average, and the sauce selection was light but consistent. Given the darkness, I can't be sure what combinations were had, but there were no complaints save the need for a bit of Boa Vista to cool things down.

As promised, the Councilman previewed a rough draft of the FT3 charter. Mostly an assemblage of bylaws from existing cycling clubs, with some FT3 specific language, it proved an entertaining addition to the taco portion. The best laughs were over our brain storm of rider dispute resolution methods; the 'Lady and the Tramp Taco Munch' won the nod, inspired by the tone B set early on. Most agreed there is work to be done, and contributions from all members would result in a better and more accurate document.

Cheers to all in attendance. Until next time.


Until we ride
LOtB

Podiums Galore

All right, before I get to the required trash talking, I have to take my hat off. Cap'n not only won the B 35+ yesterday, he blew away the field. I think he turned lots of heads by racing off the front from the gun and then stretching that lead every lap, spot on mate!

I stuck in a workshop all day, so I will post more later on. I do have an update from last week thanks to councilman and will get that posted as well.

I am pretty sure that Rock God was on the podium as well. Green Fro and Xteric rounded out the field in the 35+ field. Racing was fast and hard and dusty, really dusty.

As for my race, only one chick got by, and yes there were two again at the start line. I was pretty spent on energy and the loose dirt took its toll. All in all I suffered greatly! Still hurting a fair deal today.

Chick Bike on craigslist for $650 if anyone knows anyone looking for a bike.

Until we ride,
LOtB