This morning has been weird. First, we're in bed and I set my cellphone alarm to give me another 15 minutes of sleep. Kelly is up, getting ready. The phone goes off and I hit snooze, putting it under the pillow on my left side. Kelly comes back and gets into bed, but I warn her to watch out for the phone since she's about to lay down on it. A few minutes later it goes off again, but now it's sitting on top of the blanket on my right side. Hmm.
Later, at a coffee shop I overhear someone sitting with a man who must have been his lawyer, talking about how he was thinking about turning himself in, but "she sure wouldn't get that $20,000 out of me if I were in jail," and the lawyer agreeing that jail would do nobody any good.
Last weekend Kelly and I did the Sadie Hawkins alleycat in Chicago, and this past weekend was the Angell Park cross race in Sun Prairie. Both of those left a pretty bad taste in my mouth, but that's a blog for another time perhaps.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Ride the tiger
The last couple of racing weekends have gone about the same on Saturday as they go on Sunday. Rewind to Whitewater and Gibbs Lake: not feeling great but still rode away with Casey. Nine impressively hung in there at Whitewater until I put in a hard dig with 2 to go, and at Gibbs I reluctantly wound up similar endgame effort (despite a foreboding sense of dread the entire day), looked back, and just saw Casey. In both cases he finished stronger and took the win.
After that came the Washington Park Halloween race. Another fun course. This time it had a tombstone bunnyhop obstacle. A few hard efforts had the lead changing around and eventually Casey and Chris Hurst got a gap (with Casey taking the sprint), with me dropping into survival mode while I held off a hard-chasing Shawn Meinke for third.
This weekend came on the heels of a job change, not much riding, poor diet, and too much drinking. Saturday: Kletsch Park in Milwaukee. Team Polska put together a fun, tough course with a steep dirt climb with a barrier on top. Lots of tech sections and almost nowhere to recover very much. Due to the twisty opening sections and technical nature I figured the race would split up right from the start, but a lap into it there was still a stream of riders behind. Eventually a crash severed ties between the pack and our lead group of about four, and the gap quickly opened up. Lance Niles bridged up at some point. I wasn't feeling nearly as strong as I had the last few weeks and my riding showed it. We traded pulls for a while and with about 5 to go Casey put in an effort to shake things up. I was second wheel and didn't have much more in me and nobody else came around to chase, so he rode away to victory. I sat on Lance and Brian (who was looking strong), they gapped me at some point, and I didn't put much heart into the chase. My right calf cramped after the race and a stream of beers did nothing to relax it.
Sunday: Estabrook Park, MKE. A fairly straightforward course, fun, and fast. Light rain early in the day promised to make the leaf-strewn corners interesting. My right leg still knotted from Saturday, I wasn't feeling super. Plans were put into place to try and snag the victory for once. The start went much like yesterday's; a big group with people jostling for positions. After a lap or two the high tempo eventually broke the elastic and a lead group was whittled down to Casey, Chris Hurst (Baraboo Sharks), Maciej (Polska), Brian (Brown Bear), Lance Niles, and myself. Again, I was frustrated to feel like I was just hanging on. The race was unusually aggressive, which definitely made it interesting. Several attacks were made, but all were short-lived. I made my bid for glory midway through, but after getting a few seconds on the group I looked back and realized I didn't have the legs to make it stick. I was slow through the technical sections, wasn't accellerating well out of the chicanes, and eventually Casey, Lance, and Chris got a gap I couldn't close. Maciej and I went back and forth and Brian was chasing behind us. After mentally defeating myself before the finish yesterday I made sure I stayed sharp for the finish, jumping with a couple of turns to go and winding up the big gear as Maciej couldn't quite get past me in time. Another 4th.
At this point in the season, it's less about series points for me and more about pride. With two weeks until Angell Park and the state championships the week after that, I need to get focused and be ready to close the deal.
Nice racing, everyone!
Photo: Kat
After that came the Washington Park Halloween race. Another fun course. This time it had a tombstone bunnyhop obstacle. A few hard efforts had the lead changing around and eventually Casey and Chris Hurst got a gap (with Casey taking the sprint), with me dropping into survival mode while I held off a hard-chasing Shawn Meinke for third.
This weekend came on the heels of a job change, not much riding, poor diet, and too much drinking. Saturday: Kletsch Park in Milwaukee. Team Polska put together a fun, tough course with a steep dirt climb with a barrier on top. Lots of tech sections and almost nowhere to recover very much. Due to the twisty opening sections and technical nature I figured the race would split up right from the start, but a lap into it there was still a stream of riders behind. Eventually a crash severed ties between the pack and our lead group of about four, and the gap quickly opened up. Lance Niles bridged up at some point. I wasn't feeling nearly as strong as I had the last few weeks and my riding showed it. We traded pulls for a while and with about 5 to go Casey put in an effort to shake things up. I was second wheel and didn't have much more in me and nobody else came around to chase, so he rode away to victory. I sat on Lance and Brian (who was looking strong), they gapped me at some point, and I didn't put much heart into the chase. My right calf cramped after the race and a stream of beers did nothing to relax it.
Sunday: Estabrook Park, MKE. A fairly straightforward course, fun, and fast. Light rain early in the day promised to make the leaf-strewn corners interesting. My right leg still knotted from Saturday, I wasn't feeling super. Plans were put into place to try and snag the victory for once. The start went much like yesterday's; a big group with people jostling for positions. After a lap or two the high tempo eventually broke the elastic and a lead group was whittled down to Casey, Chris Hurst (Baraboo Sharks), Maciej (Polska), Brian (Brown Bear), Lance Niles, and myself. Again, I was frustrated to feel like I was just hanging on. The race was unusually aggressive, which definitely made it interesting. Several attacks were made, but all were short-lived. I made my bid for glory midway through, but after getting a few seconds on the group I looked back and realized I didn't have the legs to make it stick. I was slow through the technical sections, wasn't accellerating well out of the chicanes, and eventually Casey, Lance, and Chris got a gap I couldn't close. Maciej and I went back and forth and Brian was chasing behind us. After mentally defeating myself before the finish yesterday I made sure I stayed sharp for the finish, jumping with a couple of turns to go and winding up the big gear as Maciej couldn't quite get past me in time. Another 4th.
At this point in the season, it's less about series points for me and more about pride. With two weeks until Angell Park and the state championships the week after that, I need to get focused and be ready to close the deal.
Nice racing, everyone!
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