Sam wins!

More on today's cyclocross race later - but quick congratulations to Sam who posted his first win today - way to go man!! He's put the hurt on the rest of us C guys every time he's been out, so will be happy to see him jump up to the B's, most of whom he'll also put the hurt on....

I refuse

Here it is, the toy the girls are hoping Santa will bring this year. Couple of thoughts I've had about this:

• I overshot the mark. Spent a lot of money to put myself through college, and I'm not complaining, it's paid off nicely. But, while I admitedly have no idea what the margins are on a toy like this, I am fairly certain that whoever came up with this will make more money this year than I will. Here's what get's me bent - if you look closely, the primary features of this doll, as highlighted on the package in large purple letters, are that it takes a piss and also takes a dump - and they've marketed it well enough that my 5 and 4 year old girls want it. Here's what really get's me bent, I have to face the music that the bozo who thought of this is smarter than I am, or at least better at making money. Maybe there's still time to create a toy pony that will be fun because you have to clean it's toy stall, or a fake puppy who warns you to set it on the newspaper? Seriously - people are paying money for a doll that pretends to pinch one off? Kudo's to the brains behind this one.
• On one condition only. Maybe I'd consider buying something like this in a couple of years when the girls are old enough to understand the condition under which I might consider buying this for them. One cool thing I've loved watching with my girls is their innate sense of being motherly, they do it with their dolls and they do it with Brock. It really is amazing. But, were I to cave into this one, it will be under the pretense that they get comfortable with the idea of cleaning up human turd, and that they vow/sign a contract, to clean up mine and Annie's in the event we get dementia some day and can't or choose not to do it ourselves - I don't have much shame, but it might be embarrasing to have a stranger do it...
• I can save you some cash. If anyone else has kids who want this thing, I've got a sweet deal for you. We've talked before about how Brock is growing up. So are his poops. I'll let your kid take a run with the real thing for $5 bucks a shot. Guarantee they'll quit asking for this with no more than $10 bucks out of your pocket. All proceeds will go to figuring out a way to block "Baby Alive" commercials from coming on my tv.

Utah Cyclocross State Championships

Jumping the double log barrier at the cyclocross race this weekend. Lucky for me, unlucky for you readers, Annie didn't get a photo sequence of the previous lap here. If you look closely in the first photo, you'll see what's become my trademark layer of dirt up my left leg. Coming into these logs I'd stepped my right leg over the seat and was ready to step off into a run with the left foot, only it didn't come unclipped. I've gained some confidence dismounting so had not slowed down much, and the gut reaction when I didn't come unclipped was to hit the deck instead of run head on into the logs - so I layed it down. While Annie didn't get it on camera - the CyclingUtah photographer was right there dialed in, so am hoping he had a glare on the lens or some other mishap.
I'd qualify my riding as average on Saturday, did some things well, still lot's to work on, including riding a clean race with limited self inflicted damage/time wasting mistakes. Thanks to Annie who is cool enough to let me race at the end of an overdue anniversary get away. Although I think I had earned some marriage capital by going to the Twilight movie with her the day before (ok movie, but it drew out some kooks!! there was a chick sitting next to Annie who seriously curled up into these creepy giggles every time Edward came on screen - full on Psyhco!) I told Annie I didn't feel like I was running on a full tank and she accepted full responsibility for it - despite the performance at the race, it was a pretty good weekend to be Jason.

Below is some brief footage from the C race, more footage from the B race including some carnage at the log and a really good finish with a late pass, and the A groups first pass over the log... the guys put on another great race and Fox was even out showing some love to the C's and B's handing out some cash and blasting his techno.

Wheeler Cyclocross

With Sam and the girls after the race... Sam is fast.. finished 2nd and is ready to move up to the B's

My wife's favorite shot... I have gotten better at getting back on and yes, aside from it looking pretty unattractive, there is very high exposure with this move.

Another blast of a time at the Wheeler Cyclocross race last weekend. I spent more time flailing on the ground this week than in weeks past, went down 4 times total but had a blast nonetheless and hopefully am learning something along the way. There were reportedly 65 riders at the start line which is just fine, unless you're a hack and have about 100 yards to gain position before going into a bottleneck hairpin turn. Critical to be up front here and I was not, was not in terrible position, was ahead of the wreck that really jammed it up, but was roughly midpack which still takes a bit to cram through the turn in no more than single or double file.

The rest of the race went well when I was able to stay upright, would gain some spots, go down, chase the same spots back down plus a few extra, go down, and so on.... Stuff I learned and still need to improve..

• Off camber dismounts on the uphill side are ackward - this spot on the course accounted for two of the crashes and am pretty sure is responsible for my legs feeling like they'd been grated with barbed wire for the next few days. I heard the A guys ride it, which certainly bodes well for my technical capabilities given I couldn't step off my bike here.


• Still learning what I can get away with cornering on different surfaces, as with previous crashes this year, got caught a couple of times thinking I could hold some lines that I couldn't and ended up with some all naturel sunblock, er, mud, up my entire left side. Lost my chain on both instances so need to figure out why that's happening, or just quit crashing...


• Still missing too often when I go to clip in, this is costly in a cross race.

Positives are that I think my conditioning is getting better and I'm still having more fun with these cross races than I've had on a bike since I was a little tike.

Hardcore...

So today I run over to the gym at lunch to catch a quick spin class. Sad but true, my outdoor riding is probably going to be fairly limited the remainder of the year other than the weekend cross races and the occasional road trip to keep the mountain bikes from getting lonely during the winter. I digress... So I'm a little late getting to the gym, throw on my gym shorts and a shirt and head up to the spin room. By the end of last winter they were starting to show up, but I was caught off guard seeing them this early in the offseason.... Yes, I'm talking about the dude's that show up to spin class in a full on kit/uniform. Cycling shorts, matching jersey, socks, the whole shebang. One was in a legit local team kit, one was in a kit of his favorite pro team that you'd buy from Pearl Izumi. Being fairly new to the sport, I'm not sure if I'm not cool for not getting decked out... I mean, the seats on those spin bikes have plenty of cushion - not sure the chamois is necessary? Or if I'm the more legit guy for going low key in the same clothes I lift weights in - isn't wearing my cycling shoes enough? Maybe I'll try an experiment and put on a cycling kit to go spend an hour in the free weight area and do some squats... or some back arches on a medicine ball...

I'll do a post later on the guy from last winter who wore a kit to spin class, and then proceeded to pull energy foods out of his jersey pockets for the duration of the class.... That's hardcore!!

Cross race at Wheeler farm tomorrow morning. Sam's back and I'm calling it right now - he'll win this week.

Four going on 14

We celebrated Chesney's fourth birthday yesterday - she takes this getting older thing pretty serious and now, rather than asking for us to play her Backyardigans CD, she's asking to watch Pink's "Rock Star" video. And when in play mode she's made the jump from princess to super hero princess which necessitates the blanket, er, cape she's tied around her neck for the past few days. We all really dig Chesney and her role of keeping the imagination flowing strong in the White house.

While cleaning out the bag of dirty gear from last weekend's cyclocross race, Brock started picking out items and knew exactly where they went, even put the gloves on the right hands.

The race last weekend was in Heber and it was an absolute mud bog. First time riding a bike in 4-5 inches of mud and actually had a riot riding in it. Had one section at the end of the lap where I think the best method of attack was to just hit it with as much speed as possible and let momentum carry you as far as it would assuming you could stay upright. Another section came off a corner and didn't afford the luxury of carrying any speed or momentum into it. After some trial and error for a few laps, found the right gear to pedal smoothly and maintain enough traction to keep the bike moving forward with some bite on the rear wheel. Best way to describe the mud is to tell you that when I unpacked my clothes and took them to the laundry room, I got caught with them by my wife, and was sent back outside to hose them off before I was allowed to deposit them in the laundry basket. Can't wait for the weekend to go do it again - looks to be great weather this week at Wheeler.

Christmas morning every weekend - Cyclocross

I remember how giddy I'd get as a kid, back before I figured out where Mom and Dad stashed stuff, at the antipation of the unknown - I knew the good Santa would have something fun there for us, but not having any idea what it would be certainly added to the giddiness.


Well - the latest and greatest to bring that giddiness back to this bigger kid is Cyclocross racing. I've been to four of them now, and being a rookie, it's been a riot showing up to the different venues and not having any idea what I'm getting myself into. I'm not dramatizing it either, I'm seriously having a blast! Most fun I've had on a bike since I was a kid, by a long shot - and I was having a lot of fun on the mountain bike this year.


I haven't met the guys who organize this Utah Cyclocross series yet, but I will, and I'll tell em' they rank right up there with Santa Clause.


Below are some learning curve observations and some visuals from this weekends races.


Stuff I learned at RMR:
1 - I can't ride gravel worth beans.
2 - That big hill in the video is rideable, managed just fine during warm up laps. But, you need to be clipped into your pedals, something I managed not to get done at this section every lap during the race. Yes, I'm a hack.
3 - I can make the simple task of fixing a dropped chain after laying the bike down in the gravel look agonizingly difficult and time consuming.
4 - Getting back into a race after a mechanical takes some serious hard work, a price I wasn't able/willing to pay at RMR. I have to get tougher. Yes, I'm a slow hack.


Stuff I learned at Wheeler:
1 - The highlight of the race for the kids was watching me crash when getting a little too aggresive on a corner on the first lap, true chips off the old block!
2 - Not positive if it was the crash that caused it, but had a spoke break loose later on the first lap. Had no idea what to do with it? so pulled over and just twisted it around another spoke to keep it out of the way. Rode the rest of the race having no idea what losing a spoke would mean to how the bike would work/hold up. I tried to ride really light on the back, taking extra care to pick it up over stumps, etc... but could feel it getting a little choppy as the race went on. It held up - but felt like I was having to pedal really hard the last lap. Got off after finishing to have a look, gave it a spin, and couldn't get one rotation out of it without the brake stopping it dead - think it's a bit or a bunch out of round. If anyone has tips on what to do with a busted spoke mid race, please share.
3 - Tried a lot harder to get back into the race after the mechanical (spoke) today, and ended up putting in what I felt was my best race thus far. Don't know that I placed any better, but it was by far my best effort and something I think I can build from.
4 - Bart is really fast.

Big thanks to Annie and the kids for entertaining yet another random adventure/obsession. Not only does Annie make a great cheerleader, she somehow manages to keep the reigns on the kids, shoot video, and shoot photo's, all at the same time. No one out there is married to a better woman! I think she's going to do a few of these races herself next year - I just like it when she wears biking shorts.