DH on the lowdown

Almost forgot about the weblog until I was sitting in the hotel room after Day 1 of 2010 Winter Training Camp. BadMF and I drove down so we could start riding at noon:30. We did a fast loop out to Kayenta and back and met up with the rest of the Canyon Crew back in St. George. It was good times with a group of 28 heading out to the Sand Hollow loop near Hurricane. There was a super-hefty crosswind blowing from the north on the loop which resulted in a pretty deluxe tail wind pushing us back to St. George. In the end, 79 miles of solid 50+ degrees or thereabouts and a great time had by all I’m pretty sure. We had a couple of flats but nothing that really held us up.

Then the fun was on. We met as a group at Golden Corral for dinner. Buffet is definitely the choice when you’re rolling with a group this big. Everyone can get something they like and quick. We’ve got some great guys and we had a blast joking around about eating but mostly listening to stories from Bruce and Mike about previous training camp evenings. They have way too much fun. I don’t know how they have that much energy because I just want to do feet up back at the room. Right now I’m anxiously awaiting Lori’s arrival. She’s almost here for the rest of the weekend riding.

Hopefully I’ll have an update on Day 2 of Winter Training Camp tomorrow. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll try and snap a picture or two.

I wonder what T$ is doing right now…

While Johnny Cash had his struggles, he was quite profound. Find it and take a listen and hear the sincerity of where he’s coming from. While this song was written quite some time ago, it sure seems to apply to our time as well.

Man in Black, by Johnny Cash

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen’ that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen’ that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.

A few weeks ago at the Saltair TT a friend gave me some ribbing about my tire choice. Since I know he’s up-to-date on the latest and greatest I took some advice. I have been struggling with the time trial for a few years now. I pretty much ride the bike at Saltair and at the few stage races that have TT’s during the year. It’s been quite a few years since I approached the discipline seriously and I know it would make a difference, but I have posted decent times and have just not found the big motivation.

I peeled off the old offending tires and glued up Vittoria Corsa CX 21’s. If you’ve ever ridden these tires you know they have a great ride. Apparently these bad boys were going to save me 20-23 watts. That sounded pretty good. The only problem was I didn’t get a new glued to the disc and the tire on that is crap. So when I got things rolling out at the Saltair this past Thursday I decided to go without the disc and roll the 66’s with the new Vittorias. I ended up posting a 14:22, the same time I posted 2 weeks prior with a 66/disc combo and crappy tires. I’m going to get the Vittoria glued on the disc this week so I can rip the State Champ TT…well, maybe finish 4th.

On a non-testing note, always pin #13 upside down! Previously when I’ve worn #13 I’ve had good luck. Yesterday at Garden Creek Gap it didn’t go so well. I told Lori that #13 is lucky for me. I should have just pinned it upside down and been done with it. The second time up the climb I was feeling great and actually made it with a split of 9 or 10 with the Krieg drilling things on the front. We’re going along and out of nowhere Booth and Hageman were hitting the deck and I was locked up skidding into Booth. I flew over the handlebars and was headed for a landing on my left shoulder (broken collarbone from last CX season). Somehow I barely scuffed the elbox and landed hard on the scapula. Not too bad. The bike took a few to get rolling again and I had the pleasure of chasing for 20 miles until I caught the group about 2 miles from the climb. Fortunately Jesse the Body was up in the break and he finished things up in 3rd.

To stress me out more, when I crossed the finish line someone told me that Lori had crashed badly and was ripped up. What?!?!?! I tracked her down to find out that she had been taken down on the final climb of her race. She said she felt great all day and was ready for the finale smackdown. Bummer. I think we got all the previous #13 luck in one day. The good news is we’ve had some great training leading up to Masters Nationals at the end of June and neither of us were hurt badly and the bikes are OK.

It’s time for a week off. Normally I would continue on with what’s left of my training and planned to race the cross race Saturday. Fortunately for how I’m feeling I am out of town without a bike. Back in May I scheduled myself to be at the Olympic Training Center for the USA Cycling Coaching Summit. It couldn’t have fallen at a better time on the schedule. Racing cyclocross is super fun. I’ve taken the approach of cyclocross this year and last as a good way to entertain myself on the bike without a lot of pressure so that I don’t totally freak out that I’m not on a bike and not training. Fun stuff.

I’m excited to see Rico and Crispy lighting things up out on the cyclocross bikes. I’m disappointed to miss this weekend to watch them tear it up. Crispy is all excited about Crosstoberfest in Sun Valley in a few weeks. I’m sure Rico will be making the trip as well. Sounds tempting, but it’s just a bit too much time out of town for me and I’d feel like I actually needed to warm up for a cross race if I traveled that far.

Tip of the week: make sure it’s under 40F if you are going to use Qoleum Extra Hot Embrocation and don’t do yoga later in the afternoon.