egomaniacs and cx

I've heard enough of both. Like when a man buys a speedboat or a Corvette, the more attention you draw to yourself only highlights your glaring inadequacies. The best things in life generally fly below the mainstream's radar.

1 more week 'till training starts. Mo, get me a beer.

Iceman Cometh 09

I'm not sure how long it takes for something to become a tradition, but somehow I feel that an annual trip to Michigan on the first Saturday in November will become just that for me.

This weekend, Mark, Maureen, Mark and I all loaded up and headed north for a summer-like Iceman weekend.

Our home for the weekend was this one room cabin 8 feet from the edge of the course! Saturday we made the short drive from Traverse City to Kalkaska for the start and ran into some other Kentuckians including Kiersta, Duane and Nick all of which started before me. I realized as I was warming up that I don't get nervous before races anymore. I guess the memory of last year's butterflies triggered the realization, but I liked it. For the first time, I was consciously calm and relaxed for the start.

A few details about the race - From the start, John (the winner) and I traded pulls down the road pulling away a bit until we hit dirt when about 8 or 10 of us rode together for a few miles Eventually I fell off the pace and settled into my own race. It was really cool to ride with such a clear mind... first time in a while! Just two minor issues, first someone couldn't ride singletrack with roots and fell over into me as I passed them taking me out, though thankfully at low speed. Second, I thought I was gonna run out of water and started to conserve, this lead to fading legs, but I realized it quickly enough and said screw it and went back to drinking... legs came back to life and I finished pretty strong with a few drops of water.

The course had more rolling terrain that I remembered, but I was able to ride big ring for all but about 5 short climbs. All in all, I'm quite content... I had two goals, to reduce my time by 10 minutes and to finish top 10 in my age group in Sport and both were met!

Notable results:

Mark J 1st Beginner 25-29

Maureen 10th Pro Women!!!

Mark F 18th (of 130+) Sport 47-49

Kiersta 13th Expert Women (around 37 or 38 right Rusty?)

Nick 22nd Sport/Expert Clydesdale

Me 7th Sport 19-24

And of course, I had couldn't resist joining in the fun of CX in the campground on Sunday morning and had a steady race for second in the C's before jumping back in the truck for 10 hours! Kiersta rode my Felt in the Women's B's and taught it some new tricks... including how to win a race! She even made a sign to say thanks!

Get ready Traverse City... we'll be back again in November and next time we're looking for an icy Iceman Cometh!

RJD2 W/sly and Robbie.

Well I just couldn't resist digging a little deeper in the vast cyberworld of my cycling simulator. I punched in Rowbear/Racing. and RJ/Training. Here is what I got.

click here

virtual insanity

Well I am all prepared for a long training season this winter. Got the Tacx VR trainer hooked up to the flat screen and ready to log in some good base miles. The cool thing about this trainer, that I was not aware of, is that you can type in a rider's name and it will search this rider's history and even simulate his or her's races and or training routines. I typed in Anthony Slowinski and this is what I received. Enjoy.

You can look forward to more rider simulators as I search the vast database.

USGP Derby City (TrailGuru)

Here is a GPS route of the approximate USGP course, it promises to be fun and challenging! Come on down to Champions Park at Zorn and River Road to cheer on amateur and professional racers alike!

http://www.trailguru.com/wiki/index.php/Track:9VXS?units=imperial

The route is a little choppy, but it was recorded from my phone while in my jersey pocket... See ya at the races!

Careful, that dirt will get ya!

Yep, that's right... dirt. A little over three weeks ago I had low speed wipeout on a muddy mossy cartpath down at River Road CC during a warm up lap. Sure it hurt my knee, hip and elbow, but it was my pride that took the brunt of it or so I thought.

I cleaned it with BandAid antiseptic when I got home, but didn't really scrub it and then I used my normal soap in the shower. Well, this week I learned it wasn't enough! At lunch on Monday (a federal holiday) Jeff Wine noticed the little dots ranging from mid thigh to ankle and boy am I glad he did! I had brushed it off and really not realized how bad it had gotten. Jeff is a pharmaceutical rep or something like that and I figured I'd follow his suggestion to get it checked out.

I did some research and worried it might be bad, so the next morning I saw my doctor and he immediately said, "Yep, that's a staph infection!" He went on to say that it could be MRSA, an antibiotic resistant type that's very tough to get rid of, but the only way to find out was to run a culture. So, after most of a week of wondering I got the call this afternoon that it was JUST a staph infection and that the antibiotics I've been taking (and getting an upset stomach from) are working! To be honest, I would never have predicted being so happy to find out I had staph... but wow is it better than MRSA.

Soo.... six more days of antibiotics and I should be all set!

A suggestion the doc made that I'll pass along was to use Dial Antibacterial bar soap to clean wounds. I've also learned of a product called Hibiclense that sounds promising. Be careful out there, and make sure you get those cuts clean!

it aint over yet.

That's right, since most of you have given up on the mtn bike season, I'm here to tell ya it aint over yet. Myself, Ray and Slomo are headed to Ohio for some XC racing. that's X followed by a C, not the other way around. I have heard great things about the Mohican trail system and look forward to a sweet 25 mile loop race. After that is the LBL point to point race that runs between 37 and 43 miles long depending on how the promoters run it. Follow it up with another Mohican then a Pisgah race. The fat lady aint singin' and the trainer is still idle. I can only hope for good weather to finish the season but won't mind a little mud since I will have all winter to break down the race rig.
Speaking of indoor trainers I may raise the nerd o meter up a notch and take part in some online racing leagues. Confused? Should be. I am too. Still haven't figured out how to get the Tacx trainer signed up for online racing, but with the help of my personal I.T. guy (Raybob) I should be competing with like minded geeks from all over the world.

Another sign that either it's gonna be a cold winter, or warm or maybe the apocolypse is this strange mutant pod I found hangin by my front door. If you look close notice the gold symmetrical markings. Damm Nature.