well, here i sit at the daily grind reading some articles about more layoffs within our company. i've been through this several times and it's always the same. first at twa, then at united. thought united airines was gonna be the job to end all jobs, but nowadays, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of jobs that one can make a career at. lots of talk and speculation, seems like months, and then next thing you know you've got your layoff notice. thus is life in the airline industry. with gas prices the way they are, it doesn't seem like an end is in sight anytime soon. oh well, i'll just play it out and see where i end uponce again. i could use a career change anyways.
as for the bike, not much to talk about there either. although i've still been getting the miles in, i haven't gotten much racing in other then the thursday short tracks. my ankles had been giving me problems also, my surgically repaired right ankle is actually the better one, but after tearing ligaments in my left ankle a couple years ago, i've gotten a case of tendonitis. needless to say it's been a quiet month and half. i didn't even feel the need to go up to wisconsin for superweek. i've actually even thought about breaking out the old cleveland golf clubs and hit the links. with gas prices the way they are, layoff rumors, the thought of moving in a couple days, and my tendonitis i haven't really had the urge to go out of town for any races. the last third of the season is coming up with plenty of more local races, so should have more race reports soon enough. yaaaaaaaaawwwwnn!!!!!!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
My dilemna......
As I sit here at the grind with a little time on my hands I think about the dilemna I'm in. My dilemna is this. I had planned on doing a couple of races at Superweek up in Wisconsin to get in some races, but do I really want to spend $300-$400 for a couple of races? That is my burning question at the moment. They are great races to attend, but with the STXC series going on here I'm actually looking forward to doing a little off-road racing even if it is short track. I'm still getting a great workout and if I do both races like I did last week then it's definetly worth staying here and saving some dough.
The seasons got about two and a half months left in it and I'd say I've accomplished about 3/4's of my races that I've wanted to do. I wish I'd done more mt. bike racing as was the goal at the beginning of the season, but priorities have changed. There's still a lot of racing to be done in these next couple of months though.
This past Saturday I took a VO2 max test. I'm not sure how accurate it was though. two hours prior I had just gotten done doing a hard 60 mile ride out to St. Albans from my apartment. It was with the Ghisallo group. It was a good turnout, they always are, about 30-40 riders. It was pretty tame as usual until I got to the ossenfort climb, which, of course I had to hammer. It was pretty high tempo from there into St. Albans for a five minute break and a little regrouping. We headed out tame once again until the climb up melrose. I think I was first or second up the climb and then to Ossenfort before a few more riders latched on. It was full throttle the rest of the way back. It was about four of us, and we caught another Dogfish rider David. He made it with us for part of the way back before hitting another climb and then it was the four of us again. These are some of the hardest 12 mile stretches back to Ghisallo. I'd say it's safe to say average over 26 or 27 mph for that stretch. That was my first Ghisallo ride for the year and I'll hopefully make more. Needless to say, I didn't have much left for my VO2 test. I'll have a better report on my next test, good thing it was free.
I've gotten a little off track, but back to my dilemna, I think I'll stay in town and save some money. The STXC race is a blast anyways.
The seasons got about two and a half months left in it and I'd say I've accomplished about 3/4's of my races that I've wanted to do. I wish I'd done more mt. bike racing as was the goal at the beginning of the season, but priorities have changed. There's still a lot of racing to be done in these next couple of months though.
This past Saturday I took a VO2 max test. I'm not sure how accurate it was though. two hours prior I had just gotten done doing a hard 60 mile ride out to St. Albans from my apartment. It was with the Ghisallo group. It was a good turnout, they always are, about 30-40 riders. It was pretty tame as usual until I got to the ossenfort climb, which, of course I had to hammer. It was pretty high tempo from there into St. Albans for a five minute break and a little regrouping. We headed out tame once again until the climb up melrose. I think I was first or second up the climb and then to Ossenfort before a few more riders latched on. It was full throttle the rest of the way back. It was about four of us, and we caught another Dogfish rider David. He made it with us for part of the way back before hitting another climb and then it was the four of us again. These are some of the hardest 12 mile stretches back to Ghisallo. I'd say it's safe to say average over 26 or 27 mph for that stretch. That was my first Ghisallo ride for the year and I'll hopefully make more. Needless to say, I didn't have much left for my VO2 test. I'll have a better report on my next test, good thing it was free.
I've gotten a little off track, but back to my dilemna, I think I'll stay in town and save some money. The STXC race is a blast anyways.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Castlewood STXC #3...
i've got to say that i was looking forward to tonights race. after doing a short 15 mile road ride in the morning i came home to try my luck on the computer playing a little ghost recon. i put the flight sim on hiatus for a little ghost recon to kill the time on my weekend. after a couple hours of getting killed about 15 times i proceded to take a nap for a couple hours and almost didn't wake up in time, not to mention taking 50 minutes to make it 12 miles to the wood. as usual making it just in time to make it to the line. the race had a lot of heavy hitters today, not to mention a few more then last week. i'm not very good starting out these races full throttle so the goal was just to hold my own and then just settle in. we had the dogfish train going for a few laps with myself, brett, and jeff. it was good to have us all riding together. myself and brett flipflopped taking pulls before finishing together with jeff just behind us.
after a little break, jeff was planning to do both races and with myself needing the extra training i decided to have another go in the b race. it started with quite a few racers lined up. my plan was just to sit in and get in the miles. well, the b race start was a little more tame then the a race and i found myself up towards the front. i saw jeff take a pretty good lead and i just tried to keep the pace high. slowly i picked off guys and road together with a christian(iccc, i think). on the last lap i saw jeff about 20 yards in front with plans of catching him, but as the exhaustion started to set in i started to make mistakes and just about went over the handlebars after hitting a root right before the riverbed crossing. the wind was let out of the sails and i was just trying to stay with the christian. i finished behind him. i guess jeff got 1st and think i was 3rd.
once again a great turnout. props go out to all the organizers. the one bad thing about this is that it ends in a couple more weeks.
after a little break, jeff was planning to do both races and with myself needing the extra training i decided to have another go in the b race. it started with quite a few racers lined up. my plan was just to sit in and get in the miles. well, the b race start was a little more tame then the a race and i found myself up towards the front. i saw jeff take a pretty good lead and i just tried to keep the pace high. slowly i picked off guys and road together with a christian(iccc, i think). on the last lap i saw jeff about 20 yards in front with plans of catching him, but as the exhaustion started to set in i started to make mistakes and just about went over the handlebars after hitting a root right before the riverbed crossing. the wind was let out of the sails and i was just trying to stay with the christian. i finished behind him. i guess jeff got 1st and think i was 3rd.
once again a great turnout. props go out to all the organizers. the one bad thing about this is that it ends in a couple more weeks.
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