December 4

So, it's been a little while since the last update. Let's get caught up. First off, over the past few weeks, I've been tailoring my work-outs to be more cyclocross oriented. Yep, using the flatbar 'cross bike, and doing short, fast rides with some running thrown in for fun. In fact, this set of stairs is particularly fun, especially because there are always people walking dogs nearby, wondering what kind of lunatic would be riding towards a set of stairs at full speed, only to dismount at the last second, shoulder the bike, and run like a lumbering lumox to the top. The real strange looks come in when I hit my second or third time up.

Gary has been slowly getting more comfortable in his new home. He and Luna get along great, and the destruction has been bumped up a few notches. They tear through toys that are billed to be ultra strong. They are like furry piranha. But, the toys keep them busy and it keeps them from chewing on Jean's shins. He started obedience class and for his first time, he did fine. He did, however, vomit in the back of the Element again. Did I mention how great the rubber floors are?

I haven't taken any inspiring photos lately, but with the impending holidays, perhaps I'll document the life and times of some figgy pudding. I shot this cloud pic while I was waiting for Jean as she was being a good consumer in Target.

Last week I spent a little bit of time getting ready for winter. I got some gas (which is cheaper than I've seen in a long time) for my new snow thrower and started it up for the first time. This monster will be ready for the worst that New England can send my way. Yep, the hoses are shut off, the grill is in the garage, the deck furniture is taken in... I'm getting ready.

Another Sunrise

Mack Park, Salem, MA
Friday, 11/21/08
Canon Powershot A700
f4.0 @ 1/1000sec
Slight color manipulation with Photoshop CS3

Gary's First Week.

It's a good thing that my job has desensitized me to exposure to bodily fluids. Gary had a couple of bouts of car-sickness of epic proportions earlier this week. The rubberized floor of my Element is THE best. Personally, I don't understand why ANY car has carpeted interiors. We're constantly bringing dirt, mud, snow, rain and everything else in to the car on the bottoms of our feet. Anyway, I digress...

Other than the vomit, my life has revolved around Gary's pee and poop, essentially trying to ensure that he does none of the above in the house. To his credit, he's been VERY good about doing his business outside. In fact, aside from one accident (which in retrospect, he was pacing around quite a bit), all his #1 and #2 have been in the yard. He really likes leaf-piles. He's still mostly petrified of just about everything, but I'm working on expanding his little world. In fact, Luna is teaching him how to hop up on our bed. I had nothing to do with that, but I did have my 2MP digital camera in the Blackberry to capture the violation. The phone/camera has come in handy to capture the puppy action as I don't have one of my other cameras in hand all the time. (I'm not that much of a dork). Well, almost.

In any event, our first week of having a new puppy is going well so far. If I could just get him to stop being SO AFRAID of everything...

Here's Gary!

We've been talking about getting a second dog for quite some time. Jean trolls the Web, mostly sites like "Great Dog Rescue New England," always finding the cutest pups. We've talked abotu different dogs, but she finally found one that spoke to her across the information super-highway. His name was Gary, and he was a mix-breed stray (about 6 months old) found in Tennessee. When we called, ironically enough, he was being fostered in the next town over. He's SUPER shy and submissive, but he's been making progress. Luna's been a great role model and so far (two days), it's great to have two dogs in the house again.
See more here.

Sunrise...

From a night scene to a day break scene. Actually, I took these sunrise pics before the night pics, but who's keeping track. I woke before dawn, was fairly motivated, took the DSLR down to the Salem Willows and let that shutter go wild. See more here.

Night Scene...

Jean and I are taking a photography class together... she's got the eye for composition, I just shoot lots of pictures and hope for the best. I'm going to be bringing my Canon Powershot A700 with me much more often... I took this one night while commuting home from work. See more here.

Eye Wash

Maybe I missed that day of ophthalmic emergency treatment, but apparently, in some places, an Eye Wash station consists of some mouthwash, some toilet paper and some maxi-pads.

Sabbatical?

Has it really been almost a month since my last entry? Yep, I guess it has. Well, time flies when you're working. Here's the skinny on some of the latest...

The lovable Luna has had an appetite for seat belts. She chewed through about three pairs in Jean's old car, and over time, I got to be an expert at changing them out. It would be amazing how much damage she could do in a minute... anyway, I bought the first couple through the Ford dealer--$$OUCH$$, but then I got smart and started buying them online through used parts dealers (that's a classier way of saying junk yard).

So, a couple of weeks ago, when Luna chewed through the seat belts in Jean's father's van, I figured that I'd be able to fix the situation without too much trouble. I was able to get the seat belts online with much trouble, and they arrived in about a week--a duration of time that had Jean's father driving around with his seat belts tied in knots. I was so confident in my skills, that I offered to install the new seat belts after work one day. Hah. My first obstacle was the fact that I'd have to remove the seats to get the interior molding out. Hmmmm... fun. Well, removing seats is only loosening some bolts. I can do that. Two seats, eight bolts.

Seven of the eight were cooperative, although not totally. I had to do some contortionist maneuvers to get a couple of them off, but they yielded to my ratchet wrench. And then there was one. The last nut was a collection of rust atoms loosely held together by moisture. With the first turn of the socket, I felt the nut go round, and I poured pure rust on to the ground. After much swearing, more contortionist moves, longer ratchet arms, and a smaller socket that was hammered on, victory was mine.

That "simple" project took almost 3hrs. Fun. And all the while, Luna watched with a smirk.

Sound the Alarms!

Well, I don't cook. I shouldn't cook. I'm not going to cook ever again... I tried getting some food together last night for my lovely wife and I... it was just some sausages... and, well, the fire alarm went off. ADT called right away, but the alarm went off again, and that disconnected me from the ADT service center. In the minute it took me to grab the number from the drawer and grab my cell phone, the fire department had already been mobilized. ADT was able to convey a message that we were NOT being toasted, but the fire truck was already down the street (yep, I could hear the sirens), so they still had to come to the house to make sure everything was okay. The whole neighborhood came out to see what the commotion was, and sure enough, it was just me, cooking. I'm now only authorized to use the coffee maker and the microwave, and even those are only with a probationary period.

Kingdom Trails....

Ah, KT. Sadly, I've only been up to the North East Kingdom a couple of times this year--way too few. Perhaps it was the $4.00+ gas, perhaps it was my schedule, but gas prices dropped and I had a free weekend, so when Ron proposed another trip up, I jumped on the chance. I was going to race a 'cross race in Maine on Saturday and then head over to VT in the afternoon, but a closer look at the map had the 'cross race in Maine farther up than I really felt like driving, so I did some "stuff" around the house and shot straight up to VT Saturday afternoon.

Luna and I stayed at our friend Jo's house. She's got a great B&B pretty close to the trails and over years we've become friends (I stayed there for 6 weeks while in PA school). Anyway, Saturday night involved pizza and beer and then I was asleep. I awoke Sunday morning to temps in the low 20's... 21 degrees F to be exact. DAMN, that's cold.

Fortunately, Ron and Todd were running a bit late so the temps warmed up to perhaps the 40's by the time we hit the trail.

The group consisted of me, Ron Salb, Todd Roberts, and Rob & Renee Bousquet. We started off down near East Burke Sports--that would give us a killer climb in the beginning, rather than at the end. We climbed up the road and hit all the good stuff--Coronary Bypass, Tap & Die, Webs, Old Webs, SideWinder, Heaven's Bench... and I got lots of it on video! I'm going to process the video later on and post 'em on YouTube. For now, take this footage of Webs...

Thule?

I think I saw a new prototype Thule roof rack while on my drive up to Vermont. Looks slick, and it looks like it will work with any bike, regardless of frame design or fork type. Way to go!

Gloucester Cyclocross...

Gloucester's BIG cyclocross race took place this weekend, and I was there to suffer with the rest of the Tim Johnson "wanna-be"s. I was originally working Saturday the 11th, but my colleague needed me to work a day for her, so we made a switch. By the time I did this, registration was PACKED and rather than race with the Cat4's where I belong, I could only get a spot with the Cat3/4 Masters. Fast. AND, we were staged in roughly the order of registration so my buddy Dan and I were in the back of the pack of more than 100 in the 90's somewhere. Anyway, I just wanted to have fun. As you can see from the post below this one, I had a problem with a crash last week that left me with much less skin on my palms. I *could* hold handlebars, but on rough terrain it was painful. So, going into this race, my goals were:

1. 1. NOT fall on the hands
2. 2. Get a good work-out in
3. 3. Finish higher than the place I started in

I don't know the final results, but I did well on the first two. I ran a technically clean race with no falls. And as for the work-out, I raced for 45 minutes with an average heart rate of 175 with a max of 185 bpm with a total of about 1200ft of climbing for the just over 9 mile course. That's 45 minutes of max effort!

I also wanted to shoot some helmet cam video footage, which I did, however, the point of view didn't come out so well. I knew how to position the camera perfectly on my other helmet, but I didn't even think that I'd have a problem with a different helmet. I didn't have a problem per se, but I had to position the mount a little differently. I thought I had adjusted the angle of the camera appropriately, but as you can see, it was pointed down a tad too much. Oh well. Practice makes perfect. This video is the first lap of the race...You may be able to hear me wheezing over the music...

Crash.

Riding home from work Thursday night, I had an issue. I know what happened, but I'm not sure why. If you're not interested in details about bike mechanics, you don't need to bother reading anything after this following paragraph.

Here's the deal for me... I flew over the bars, slid on my hands and elbows on the pavement for a bit (no gloves!), and decided to bleed for a bit. I limped the final mile home, and thanks to Jean's urging, made sure not to bleed on anything in the house. Oy! We cleaned and dressed my wounds and the next morning the wonderful nurses at Beverly Hospital finished the job. I've been dutiful in my wound care, keeping them clean, covered, and moist, all to promote healing and reduce the risk of infection. In fact, with my hands wrapped correctly, and covered in good gloves, I can even hold handlebars!

Okay, so here's what happened. Somehow, the lockring on the rear cassette backed out/loosened up, allowing the smallest cogs to come off the splined freehub body of the rear hub. Unfortunately, this didn't happen slowly... it happened SUDDENLY, and while I was cranking up a short hill in the big ring. The sudden loss of resistance from the rear wheel flung my weight forward and put me off balance enough to result in my graceful splat. C'mon epidermis, grow!

I'm going flat...

I decided that drop bars are NOT for me. With about 30yrs of bike riding experience, and the VAST majority of that with BMX or mountain bike handlebars, I'm going with a flat bar on the 'cross bike. I tried the drop bars, and I just didn't like the hoods, and riding on the flats was too narrow. I can deal with it on my road bike, but I didn't feel that I could be aggressive enough on the 'cross bike.

Spoiled Dog

With my new job, I'm able to greatly reduce the amount of driving I do. I love the fact that I get to ride my bike! I've been working on using my bike as transportation for more and more of life's obligations, including revitalizing my cargo trailer (thanks to the ability to use B.O.B. components with a discontinued Yakima trailer). Of course, as a dog owner, I still need to occasionally transport the mutt to the vet, the groomers (I'll gladly pay to have someone cut her nails), or to some of Luna's favorite beaches and parks. I had, at one time, tried to convert a baby bicycle trailer for dog use, but it didn't work very well, and I sold it to someone with a human baby. I was thinking about tackling that project again, but a quick Google search helped me find that there were actually several products specifically designed for dog trailers. I located a DoggyRide trailer, and after a long wait, it finally arrived last week. I haven't had time to take Luna very far, only a quick inaugural ride around the block. But, it seemed like she liked it, or at least tolerated it without freaking out.

After a few more short rides I'll start taking her to the park and what not, and then she'll associate the trailer with fun just like she associates the car with fun. And the best part is that this will mean less dog hair in my car!

New England Velo Cross Challenge

So I had my first cyclocross race of the season this past weekend. I sufferred for a bit but it was fun. And I do love the fact that there are plenty of races within an hour or so from home. That means I can get a race in and usually be home around noon... Much different from the all-day committments of most mountain bike races (although, I do love mtb racing).

This race was in Londonderry, NH, and it was a mix of pavement, grass and trails. Here's how it went down: The race started with a half lap on a paved oval track followed by a hard left turn with a short little uphill that lead into the woods. This small hill had good line in the middle but was soft on the sides. It was rideable with a good approach but would be a run-up if congested. You then had another left turn, a short downhill trail, then a hard right turn up a steep hill that would definitely need to be run. At the top of that hill, there was a longer trail section that was fairly fast with very little in the way of techincal obstacles. After a short rise, the trail turned right and went down a steep hill with a near hairpin turn at the bottom, followed by a soft uphill that again would need to be run up. At the top, the trail was slightly off-camber but easily rideable. A few twists and turns and you were out of the woods and on to some flat grass areas riddled with caution tape and 180-degree turns.

We were then directed up a short, steep, soft hill that again had to be run up. At the top, we were greeted with a short stretch of sand that was also best to be run. After that, we crossed the pavement and went into the infield of the track. A couple of twists and turns, and two sets of barriers later and we were back at the start and ready for another lap.

I got a good start but I was NOT comfortable with the speed and closeness of the other riders as we were rocketing from the pavement into the woods. We were "criterium" racer close and that's not something I'm accustomed to. That's not really come up for me in other 'cross races I've done and it's certainly not something I'm used to from mountain bike races. I backed off and that put me back many places. Once in the woods, I was further hampered by a small stick that caught a ride in my derailleur. I knew I had abandoned derailleurs on my other bikes for a reason! I lost probably almost a full minute as I unwound the vine-like stick from my cogs and derailleur, and I'm pretty sure I was at the back of the pack. Damn. From there, the rest of my race was uneventful, and I slowly worked at moving back up through the ranks.

I think I finished around 15th out of nearly 30. Not great, but that's racing. Thanks to Tom Merrill for the pics!

Take Down that Wall!

We recently had our retaining wall totally re-done, and it came out awesome. Our mason was Brian Rodriguez, who took LONGER than expected, but he did a really good job. The next phase is to start working on the walkway to the front and back doors. As with EVERYTHING with our house, this is a much bigger project than anyone would anticipate. Our mason had a really tough time breaking up the concrete wall that was there previously, so I took it upon myself to remove the walkway.

I recruited my good friend, Mike Lawless, who has access to truly manly tools, and Doug Salb, who likes to be around manly tools. Mike rolled up with a giant compressor/trailer on the back of his truck with a 90-lb jack hammer and a 60-lb jack hammer. He also brought the rain, because as soon as we got everything plugged in, the precipitation started to fall. With safety glasses and gloves in place, we started the laborious process of chipping away at the bomb-shelter quality concrete.

Tragedy struck when Doug stepped wrong on the air compressor hose and rolled his ankle. I administered a quick evaluation using the Ottawa Ankle Rule, and decided that an X-ray was not needed. Ice, elevation, compression and NSAIDs were also quickly administered and Mike and I got back to hammering. It was slow-going, but we eventually got the job done and Mike was even kind enough to let me fill the back of his truck with as much concrete debris as would fit.

We now have a massive pit that welcomes people to our home… let’s hope the walkway gets done soon!

Willowdale State Forest Rocks!

I'm really impressed with the amount of singletrack in Willowdale State Forest. It seems like each time I go out there I find more and more. I thought I had a pretty good handle on most of it when I took Doug on a convoluted tour this past Friday, however, we found our way on to a killer, long, twisty climb followed by smooth, rolling singletrack. Hell yeah! My mission now is to ride every trail I can find with my GPS, and then superimpose the digital trail data onto the park trail map (which does NOT have most of the good stuff shown). Of course, this is just an excuse for me to "geek-out" with the techno-gadgets, but I will have a cool map when I'm done!

Ouch.

This *could* have been painful... my carbon fiber seatpost broke off, at the frame, while seated and going over a bump (actually a pot-hole). Fortunately, I caught myself as soon as I had the falling sensation, and fortunately there were no sharp protrusions, and fortunately I was able to remove the stub from the frame, and fortunately I had a good, reliable Thomson post that I could use as a replacement. Whew.

Check out this little story from Cyclingnews.com to see why I used the word "fortunately" so much:

Czech triathlete and Olympic bronze medallist, Jan Rehula, suffered one of the worst possible consequences of a seat breakage after a training accident in Sydney recently. 27 year old Rehula hit a pothole, snapped his seat, was gouged in the rear by his seat post and lost two litres of blood.

He has so far had two operations and has internal damage in his lower back. His start in the Hawaii Ironman triathlon in October is in doubt, but his spokesman said that he was quite positive that he will be able to resume his career.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/results/2001/feb01/feb09news.shtml

Yikes! I'll stick to metals...

The 29'er Revolution

Plenty of people have strong opinions about 29'er mountain bikes. Personally, I'm a convert. I may never ride a 26-inch wheeled mountain bike again. Heck, I even got some brake post converters that enable me to run 29'er wheels (700c) on a standard mountain bike frame (only with cyclocross tires because of clearance issues, but that's okay with me)--With that conversion complete, I've only got one other 26-inch mtb in my stable, and that's been collecting dust--partly because of the small wheels and partly because it's encumbered with 26 more gears than I really want to deal with. There are plenty of reasons to love or hate 29-inch mtb wheels, but when I ran across this photo of me riding a standard 26-inch mountain bike (with a 20-inch frame no less), I realized that I could never go back... it looks like I'm riding a BMX bike!