Weekly Update: Lance, Buckethead, Commuting, and 'Cross

Those of you that follow Lance on Twitter saw that he went to a Buckethead show. I covered Buckethead in a previous post. Very Cool.
Commuting: Went 5 for 5 last week, 180miles, about 10 hours. Gas saved, about 10 gallons. That put me at 47 days for the year.
Cross: Getting there. Getting everything dialed in, including me. Made some good progress over the last couple weeks. Trying not to "kill it" this year.

Heading to Lake Tahoe this coming Labor Day weekend for some R&R with family. Taking the 'cross bike just in case. May rent a Vespa and do some motor-pacing around the lake. Maybe some high-altitude run-ups?

Tuesday Night Crit: The ticking time bomb!

Another fast one last night. Super hot and sticky. Commuted to work both Monday and yesterday so the legs were a bit rubbery by the time I got out there, but hung in OK never-the-less. Only took a couple laps before the first crash took out or involved several 360 riders. It was no surprise to anyone who caused it, so it will go without saying here. Hint: same guy that caused crashes at Tour of KC, and definately has reputation for sketchy riding every Tuesday nite, and no it was not one of the 360 guys caught up in it. At least with him taking himself out in the process, the remaining laps went smoothly. With Brian Jensen making an appearance again, the first 20-25 minutes seemed to click off around 29 avg. After that, there was a slowing for a bit before the final windup. Hung in and did my usually pull off coming down the hill on the bell lap as to not to clog the sprint.

Funny Video

This is funny, very "redneck" looking. I was a bit surprised that this is in Belgium. Sorta expected this to be Arkansas, Missouri, or maybe even Florida.... but Belgium? I'm sure a huge amount of beer (in cans) is comsumed at these events!

Tuesday Nite Crit

Perfect weather and small but quality turnout. Didn't take long for Brian Jenson to light things up. The pace for the first 30 minutes was pretty quick. I felt great up until about 6 laps to go. Jenson and a few other had a small gap and it looked like a small group was bridging across. I had maybe one more hard effort left so I jumped across to that chase group coming down the hill. Right before I got to them, them seem to sit up and spread out. I should have hesitated, but instead I shot through that group and ended up in no-man's land. Oops. I knew I messed up so I pulled off to the left and got out of the way, a bit too gassed to try and blend back into the group and try to get set back up with 5 to go. Good effort though. Pack behavior was great tonite. Everybody seemed really smooth and controlled. No spazzy Crash-o-vita's to mess up a good thing.

Training, RIM, Rain, Rain, Rain..........

Won't see any MTB trails for a while. Little too wet yesterday to ride in to work, but I made the ride today. Didn't ride at all on Saturday while most of the local MTB community was contesting the RIM 6/12 race. Didn't really feel that good. Got in a good week so I took the day off. Went to a dog show in Topeka in the afternoon, then celebrated Kristine's B-Day in the evening. Had dinner at Brio on the Plaza right around the time the rain was coming down and the race was being called. Got in some 'cross stuff on Sunday. No run-ups just yet. Want to take a little slower approach to the season than last year. Last year I timed it to perfection with an eye-opening first race at Hermann Under the Lights, but I hit my peak too soon and what followed was a roller-coaster of off-and-on form, and both mental and physical ups-and-downs. This year I plan to keep my head together even if the legs are not there.

Weekly Update - Tuesday night Crit, Hill Ride, ect

I realized Tuesday that I had ridden 31 days in a row. Wasn't really "training" some of those days. Even my training days off involved 2hrs of commuting. Throw in 4 Tuesday night crits, 1 Wednesday Hill Ride, 1 MTB race (which I won by the way), Bunch of hot laps at SMP, couple rides out at Landahl, and 18 days of commutting (about 648miles or about 36hrs), it was a productive 31 days. Still did the Crit Tuesday night (after the 2hr commute of course)and felt OK considering. I've already started some of my 'cross stuff and wanted to a good test, so I did a few digs early on, and things seemed as they should. Felt good but was in the wrong position coming down the hill with 2 turns to go. Group lined out in the gutter and I was on the left catching too much wind, so I called it a day. Plus a Colivita guy got back in front of me, so the safest thing to do is get as far away as possible, quickly, which I was happy to do. I hadn't done the Hill Ride in a while (Trails were dry most of those days so I was doing hot dirt laps), So I did it last week. Went OK considering I'd been absent from doing those hills for while. Felt good but still had to ease up near the top (of every hill), take a minute to get my breath back, then get back on it. I got back in the front group over the top of each climb, albeit not very pretty, but it worked. Of course I live right at the top of the 3rd climb (Praire Star) so I need to shut it down early and spin a little before hitting my driveway. Didn't do the Hill Ride this week and didn't ride at all Wednesday. 31 straight days was enough. Got back on it Thursday with commuting day #38 and some secret 'cross stuff aftwards. Felt like 10 different kinds of ass. Only commuting today, saving up for the weekend.

Tuesday Night Crit, Commuting, ect

Big turnout last night. Everybody getting the final prep before Tour of KC. Spent the better part of 45 minutes just trying to stay away from the Colavita guys. That's harder than it sounds, as they seem to be moving from one end of the group to the other all the time and from one side to the other. Based on comments made over the last few weeks and from the races, my opinion is shared by most. Anyway.... with the rain yesterday morning, I didn't ride to work (and back) so I had fresher legs out there than I typically do, and got some itchy feet so I went for it. Had perfect position with 2 turns to go but ended up in 2nd going into the last turn. The front guy sorta sat up just as Shadd and company blew though the inside, leaving me to swing WAY wide and start my sprint from the other side of the road. Thanks to Mark Cole for hunting me down in the last 100 feet to keep from a top 5, but 6th is still good for me. Not that I have much of a sprint anyway and that 20+lb $500 road bike has it's limitations you know :-)

Commuting: today was number #33, mileage YTD 1,188 miles, total time spent on bike commuting YTD: 60.5 hours