We put so much into it

As athletes we put so much into our chosen discipline.  Time, energy, money.  We train in the freezing rain while our friends are at happy hour only so we can come home, clean a bike, grab a quick bite to eat and hop in bed so we can do it all over again.  We sacrifice time with loved ones yet they understand this is important to us so we try to make the most of the time we have together.  They even put up with us dragging them to races and stand in the rain for hours while we completely ignore them while we obsess over tire pressure and the perfect line, all so they can watch us ride by eight times before we get back into the car and go home.  As athletes we put an incredible amount of pressure on ourselves.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a 500+ lbs. man trying to lose weight, a seasoned PRO or an amateur balancing a career and engagement with just a dream of one day being called “pro,” we all put an enormous amount of pressure on ourselves to perform and make our team, friends, family and even sponsors proud to say “I know that guy.”

Oh So True...

Some truth found on the internet this past week.  First, I will start with a quote from Bike Snob NYC: "For a romantic fall getaway, take that special someone to a cyclocross race and ignore her for 48 hours as you obsess over tire pressure."

...and I'm back

I'm not even going to attempt to make excuses about my total absence over the past few months.  Let's just say I stopped consistently training in March, rode my fitness through April and promptly lost it all in the middle of May.

This upcoming season has a huge question mark written all over it.  I really wanted to go to Cross Vegas this year, both for the experience and to race on the national level again but just a few weeks ago the organizer dealt us all a surprise:  this year's event would be invite-only.  With no UCI points to draw from I have a better chance of beating Ryan Trebon in a slam dunk contest than I do of gaining a spot on that star-studded start line.  Oh well, maybe one day.  

After that "snub" I'd planned on just keeping it simple, staying close to home and having fun.  The last few weeks of training have changed that.  This year I feel fast.  On almost no training.  Maybe there's something to this whole 'don't overtrain' thing.



There have been a few hiccups over the past few months but I'm happy to say I'll be out there for a full cx season.  My schedule isn't completely set in stone yet but I'm aiming for at least two USGP weekends but with no Cross Vegas or Starcrossed (not UCI this year) it's going to be tough to pick up any UCI points.  Anyone want to fly me to Japan or New Zealand?

Reflections on road racing

After re-reading yesterday's post about the Keller Rohrback/Eatonville Circuit race I realize that I came off like I knew what I was doing and that everything went exactly as we'd planned it.

yesterday's hard man (Adam E.) finishing in the snow
(photo courtesy of Catherine Cooper)

Let me tell you, when I came across that line ahead of the field, and in fifth place no less, I was as surprised as anyone.  I'd always been the racer that would throw in a few halfhearted attacks, yet always be content with sitting in the field and letting someone else go off the front.  In the lower categories I could get away with this because teams never really worked together (or understood the tactics of team racing) and I was smart, and strong, enough to get myself into a "good enough" spot for the finish.

Cyclocross

As a true crosser I feel an obligation to share this with all.  Enjoy.

stolen from Cyclingdirt.org 's facebook page

Those of you that are out there traveling and racing every weekend from September through December will fully appreciate this.

and the season is upon us

Seems like we just wrapped up cross season and here we are, a week away from the first road races.  We've been doing some huge rides lately (see below) and hopefully it all pays off.  That said, this year is all about balance, both on and off the bike.  Somehow I'm still managing to put in almost the same amount of hours I did last year but I'm both happier and stronger when it comes to it.  I've heard so many people talk about FTP numbers and TSS scores but they rarely remember to factor in one thing:  life.



Some may be wondering why all this talk about this thing called 'life' and why I'm taking a more laid back approach to things this year.  Well, I'll tell you, this happened.

courtesy of Katie Doyle Photography

Bikes are awesome and all but they only last so long.

That said, here's to another awesome season with one of the best teams around.  2012 road season, here we come.  2013 cyclocross season, hurry up and get here already.

Post-USGP Shenanigans

After the USGP I spent a few extra days in Fort Collins before heading back to Portland.  Below are some pictures of things we did in the sunshine before heading back to the rain.

visited the historic/haunted Stanley Hotel; Stephen King's
inspiration for The Shining

Reflections on cyclocross

First of all, if you haven't seen the video below and have been even remotely following the state of our economy it's worth your time.  There is quite a bit of language in this.  You've been warned.



Ok, cultural quota filled.  I'm currently in Fort Collins, Colorado for the USGP New Belgium Cup this weekend.  I really wanted to do this race last year but logistically it just didn't work out; this year it did.

Cross Crusade-Alpenrose
(photo credit to Matthew Lasala)

what 'PRO' means to me

yes, I've actually seen people
riding around before like this
(sans frame number, of course)

This week a Twitter post caught my eye.  mrjoestaples: "Let me tell you how PRO @stevencxracer is.... He is willing to do boring rides when it's the right thing to do..."  With this I began thinking back to what the definition of PRO means to me.

Gainful Employment!

Someone recently told me that the average college graduate must send out 38 resumes/applications before obtaining their first job.  I don't know if I refused to believe this because in my mind that was an obscene number or because I didn't want to admit that I was fast approaching that number.  SRAM, Acumed, Stryker, Johnson & Johnson, Biomet, Miosek, Specialized, Trek, Nike, Oakley, Intel (just to name a few); they all had my resume and all I'd received were polite emails (read: form letters) explaining that although my skills and background (I have no background) were impressive they've chosen to go with another candidate.  And then out of nowhere I receive an email from a teammate essentially say "send this guy your resume."  End of message.  After a blind email thinking I was throwing my resume into yet another abyss I received a prompt reply and an interview the following day.

Shortish story even shorter:  I'll be working at Renovo Bicycles as a design and test engineer.  I had to choose between working at a bike shop mindlessly adjusting derailleurs and building kids bikes and a real, honest-to-God engineering job.  No contest.  Work starts Monday.  Welcome to the good life.

Life at Mach 3

The last few weeks have been kind of hectic.

Update

So, it's been a while and I've neglected this again--here's the shortest, most complete update I can come up with.

Since returning from Colorado I broke the Scott yet again.  You know how something bad is going to happen even though you really don't want it to?  Yeah.  That's my relationship with that bike.  I was tired of messing around with it so I dropped it off with the guys at Veloce Bikes in Hawthorne and let them work their magic.  And magic they did work.  2 weeks and $30 later I had a bike with a replaceable hanger!!  Let's just say this has been a huge relief knowing that if/when I break that sucker again I can fix it in 15 minutes, not 15 weeks.

broken bike. Again.

So remember back in July when I broke my bike?  Well it happened again.  Same thing, Shimano chain failed, wound up in the spokes and took the derailleur and  non replaceable hanger with it.  Rather than fix it with the same part that could fail (again) I looked into other options.  Long story short:  no other options.

The dilemma:  I need a rain bike.  My rain bike is broken.
Possible solutions:
1)  buy a new frame
2)  have Ruckus Components fix the dropout again and hope I don't break another chain

Nope, not spending money this time.  Going to try and fix it myself.  Below is a short photo diary of the fixing process.

road trip: Spokane, WA to Fort Collins, CO

December 17th:

-wake up at 3:30am and head to Shari's with CB

-get on a plane at some ungodly hour for the flight to Spokane.  Side note:  I really like flying, especially in the morning.  I witnessed one of the greatest sunrises in my memory:  the sun rising over a set of altostratus clouds and I got to watch it seemingly ripple away from the plane.  Think about this image but only seeing it from the air.  Pretty rad.

cleanliness

Eh, while I'm up, why not another one.

back on the bike

I just came to the realization that almost all of these posts are written/posted after midnight/1am; looks like this one will be no different.

So after a solid 2-3 weeks off the bike I'm back on it, this time cranking out the boring winter miles.  When I got back on I know I'd want to immediately jump back to the fitness I was in August but alas, it wasn't too be.

2010 racing in review

So, my "rookie year," looking back on it I accomplished a lot.  57 races in 44 weeks!

photo credit:  Jose Sandoval

Cross Crusade-Barton Park: Bad day on the bike

Instead of a race report this post is more of an open letter to my teammates, friends and everyone else supports me both on and off the bike.

Why we wear helmets

One of my rides takes me down a steep little hill then dumps me into a wide, open left hand turn.  Monday that was covered with wet leaves.  No big deal, my tires always unhook on the corner and I usually just take it wide and slide both wheels through.  That wasn't the case on Monday.  Down the hill, tires started to slide like normal, bike leaned a little more than normal but was able to correct it, something happens and I'm kind of tangled in the bike going down.  On the way down I thought, "hey this isn't going to be that bad, I'll slide a little and continue my ride."  And that's pretty much exactly what happened.  I remember hitting the back of my head on the ground and hearing a noise but hey, we all hear stuff when we crash right?  I laid there for about 5 seconds, thought, "hmm, well that sucked."  Got up, put my glasses back together and continued my ride.

I didn't realize how "bad" the crash was until I caught a glimpse of my helmet laying on the floor that afternoon.  I counted 3 major cracks in the back, one in the main body and another in the front, all completely through the material.

Well, I guess helmets are worth it after all.  I was able to ride away without a headache or any injury whatsoever.  Had I not been wearing it circumstances would be a little different.

WEAR YOUR DAMN HELMET WHENEVER YOU'RE ON A BIKE!!!

Astoria weekend (aka Halloween s***-show)

As with the best plans, this one was devised at the very last minute.  My original plan was to head to Astoria Friday evening after a test which is supposed to cover every engineering topic I learned sophomore year.  Thursday morning I learned that plan wasn’t going to happen.  After a huge flurry of emails and phone calls the perfect plan worked out:  I would skip work, bio class and that huge test and head out to Astoria Friday morning, giving me the chance to hang out, pre-ride in the gorgeous weather and just generally enjoy not being in school.  I never really took a fall break so this was going to be it for me.  And that it was. 

yay, sponsors!