Archive for March, 2009

Before I get into the details of today’s race, it’s worth mentioning my new race day breakfast concoction.  I mentioned a while back in my race prep post that I ususally make pasta the night before the race and eat the leftovers in the morning. Additionally, I like to make eggs on race day morning.  That post got me thinking, why not make eggs the night before as well?

Introducing: My race day breakfast.

Absurd as it may seem, it’s actually quite tasty.  The bottom layer consists of plain elbow macaroni.  This is topped with bits of lunch meat or some other type of meat.  The next layer is scrambled eggs, and to top it all off I add some shredded cheese that melts in the microwave the next morning.  It’s very plain on the pallatte, which is a good thing because it doesn’t upset your stomach before the race.  The main thing it lacks is some sort of glucose, but this morning I fixed that problem with a leftover slice of pie.

Anyway, the race.

Banana Belt #3, which is the second race in the series due to last week being cancelled, was held in conditions very similar to yesterday’s miserable ride.  Rain, wind, and cold.  Two miles into the race we were soaked, but luckily the racing made it bearable by getting the core temperature up.  I was feeling pretty good considering, and spent some time at the front chasing attacks and waiting to follow a move I thought might have a chance.

In the second lap, plans changed as my rear tire went flat.  I dropped back to the wheel car and got a spare wheel changed in under a minute and wasn’t particularly concerned about my situation.  I figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to make contact with the pack again.  I set about chasing the pack and worked with a couple other guys off the back due to flats, and we eventually came within several hundred yards of the field.  At this point I let them go ahead to rejoin the group while I dropped back and cruised into the parking lot.

Why would I do that, you might ask?  Well, it turns out the spare wheel I was given had a 10 speed cassette, but my bike has a 9 speed drivetrain.  This resulted in severe misalignment between my derailer and the cassette, so I only had 2-3 good gears to work with.  In most gears, the chain would simply fail to grab and hop around, leaving me spinning my legs helplessly.  I was able to chase the pack using my few good gears, but if I’d gotten back into the pack I would have needed a much better functioning bike than I had to be competitive.

Joel (my ride to/from the course) was still racing and the car was locked, so I went out and did a lap backwards on the course with my two good gears to watch the remainder of the racing and try to stay warm in my soaked state.  The day was a good workout, if nothing else.  That’s bike racing for you.

The team’s win for the day came from Lindsay in the women’s 4 race.  She flatted early on, got back in the race, and then attacked and went for a solo break the entire last lap to win.  As if that weren’t enough, she even brought us cookies.

The post-race scene was mostly marked by a bunch of us huddling under a tent in the parking lot trying to stay dry out of the pouring rain.

tent party!

This morning I got up and looked out the window at rain, cold, and wind and was very tempted to go back to bed.  Instead, I ventured out to the Team Oregon Saturday ride.  This was mostly due to the fact that kits are in and I wanted to get mine.

The ride, however, turned into one of the most miserable rides I’ve ever been on.  37 miles felt like an eternity as I got soaked to the bone (through wind/waterproof layers), got pushed around by gusting winds, and tried to keep my toes and fingers warm in 40 degree weather.  The suffering was only made worse when I had a flat tire that required removing my gloves to change.  I spent the next 10 miles trying to get the feeling back in my hands.  A brave group of 7 of us started and finished the ride.  Tomorrow’s race is supposed to be in similar conditions, albeit less windy due to the protected location of the course.  And most riders won’t have fenders either (see the first Banana Belt post for a sense of what road grime+rain results in).  At least there’s almost no chance this one will be cancelled due to snow.

It was incredibly satisfying to get home and get in a hot shower, eat a lot of food, and then try on my new kit.  They look really sharp!

They’ll be easy kits to spot on the road.  Now I’ll take it and go get it really dirty tomorrow.

Speaking of snacks, what could be more delicious than this?

Now to eat some more food and get packed for tomorrow.

Jessie and I set out this morning going west with the intention of finding something interesting to hike.  We had our eyes on Kings Mountain, but figured there would be snow on the trail.  We decided to forge on in spite of the snow, and I’m glad we did.  The trail is 5 miles total, but it’s 2500 feet up in 2.5 miles on the way to the top and all the way down on the way back.

Most of the trail is in the forest, but it finally opens up near the top.  A strong breeze (ok, wind) would have made it a cold day were it not for the sunshine.

The views from the top at above 3000 feet were stunning.  Looking towards the coast:

And back East towards Portland (with Mt. hood in the distance):

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Tomorrow:  Going hiking in the morning with cousin Jessie.  We’re thinking King’s Mountain Trail if the snow is gone, otherwise another trail in the area.  In the afternoon, a ride – likely some hill repeats on my bike.

Friday: Heading to Eugene in the morning where I’ll meet an aunt and uncle and finally pick up most of my worldly possessions and haul them back to Portland.  Then comes Christmas – I don’t remember half of what I’ve got since I packed it all up last July.

Saturday: Team O ride where I’ll get my team kit and take it easy before the race on Sunday.

Sunday: The race on Sunday.

Next Wednesday night: heading south to Corvallis to my aunt and uncle’s place, where I’ll be house/cat/fish sitting over spring break while they go visit my parents.  I’ll have to figure out how to keep myself entertained in Corvallis for a week and a bit.  Probably will be an unofficial one man cycling training camp to really jump-start my legs for racing season.  Maybe try to catch up with friends from Eugene who will be celebrating graduation.  Definitely will bring the camera and find interesting things to explore.

A week from Saturday: I’ll show up at UO’s host road race and time trial and be put to work doing whatever Karey/Ivar tell me to.

A week from Sunday: I’ll show up at OSU’s collegiate criterium since I’ll be in Corvallis anyway.  Maybe take some pictures.

Eventually: back to Portland.

The following is a lengthy post on my personal job hunt, my perspective on the job market, and some other general thoughts.

It’s now been three months since I began my job hunt.  I’m a better job hunter than when I began without a doubt.  I’m faster, more focused, can identify jobs by position title alone, and have a better idea of exactly what I want to be doing.  The bad news is that as horrendous as the job market was when I began, it’s much, much worse now.

Let’s recap:

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I woke up, finished my carbo-loading for the race, put on my bib shorts and base layer, got dressed and packed, and was about ready to head out the door when I got notice the race had been canceled.  This wasn’t completely unexpected, as there was a chance of snow in the forecast.  Watching emails on the OBRA email list soon made it clear exactly what the conditions were like at Haag lake this morning.

The photo is thanks to Kevin over at Bike Dreams.

Probably a good idea to cancel the race.  And it’s been rescheduled for two weeks from now, when hopefully it’ll be 60 and sunny instead of 30 and snowing.

The problem I was then faced with was that it was before 7AM, my body thought it was before 6AM thanks to daylight savings time, and I was wearing bib shorts… what to do next?

It wasn’t a particularly hard problem to solve.  I went back to sleep.

The rest of the day was spent in a fairly productive manner.  I spent a while sanding the sides of my uncle’s utility trailer to remove flaking paint, and then decided to go on a ride.

It must have just been one of those days that’s not condusive to cycling, because even though it was nearly 50 degrees out, I was hit by hail from three separate storms in less than two hours.  I would have preferred snow – much less stinging.

Then I started on repainting the utility trailer and got three coats on one side of the boards.

After dinner, I won a close game of Scrabble with my aunt and uncle.  After forfeiting my first turn to exchange some horrendous tiles, I laid down trainee(s) for a modest 77 points and never gave up the lead from there.

Now I’m going to finish reading Watchmen, the graphic novel that the movie in theaters currently is based on.  I figured I needed to experience the story in its original form before seeing it in theaters.

No matter whether it’s rain, snow, sleet, or hail, it’s almost guarenteed there will be precipitation tonight into tomorrow morning.  Plus, it’s going to be near freezing.

This wouldn’t be that notable except that I’m racing again tomorrow.  They won’t cancel unless there’s snow/ice actually sticking on the road surface, but mentally I’m prepared to be cold and wet – and prepared to immediately change into dry clothes after the race.  Report to follow.

For the last month or so my website has been up, I’ve known that it had issues with certain browsers, namely the one that begins with Internet and ends with Explorer, AKA browser from Hell.  Thanks to a link from Joey a little while back, I was able to figure out exactly what different browsers were displaying on my site using browsershots.org.

A call from Uncle Bruce this morning reminded me about the browser from Hell’s insistance upon incorrectly displaying my site, so I decided to set about figuring it out once and for all.  After some searching, I figured out the problem.  Besides the fact that the browser from Hell itself is a problem, I found a couple tiny little div tags surrounding non-link text overlying shapes that seemed suspicious.  I removed them, changed the references for the text alignment in some cases, and the problem would appear to be solved!  The offending div tags:

Of course this never would have been an issue had the browser from Hell simply decided to cooperate.

After an interview yesterday, I talked cycling briefly with a fellow cyclist who was one of the interviewers.  It brought up an interesting subject that I’ve always been aware of and have discussed occasionally with other cyclists, but have never really fully thought out – so cyclists, runners, athletes in general, give me your feedback:

I’ve participated in a great variety of sports throughout my life.  That includes everything from rec soccer as a kid to fencing in high school.  While cycling is without a doubt the sport I’ve been most drawn to and involved in, it’s also the only sport I’ve experienced withdrawals from.  I think mental withdrawal is a part of it – staring out the window at snow and ice on the road wishing you could be on your bike is understandable, but there’s a physical aspect of it that I’ve noticed as well.  If I’m on a regular training schedule (riding at least 3-4 times per week) and then skip a period of 4 or 5 days, I find myself becoming anxious, moody, and more easily flustered.

I first noticed this in college, but didn’t immediately recognize the correlation with cycling.  I confused my normally upbeat and happy self by being more down than normal without a good reason to be.  Then it’d pass and I wondered what the slump was all about.  Eventually I found myself anxious physically and mentally wishing I was on my bike at the same time, and wondered if that might be the root cause.  I polled numerous friends from the cycling team and many of them eperienced the same sort of thing. We came to the conclusion that your body does actually go through withdrawals physically from not biking.

My best conclusion is that it’s an actual chemical/hormonal imbalance created by a lack of cycling that results in the downer.  While a cycling high is definitely a little different from the ethereal runner’s high that I’ve experienced several times, cycling definitely boosts the body’s happy hormones (endorphins would probably be a little more scientifically accurate).

I think this could explain a lot.  It would explain why cyclists crash and suffer road rash and get back on their bike to race the next day.  Or why someone will break bones yet count the days until they can get back to training.  Basically, cycling is an addiction.  You don’t see me complaining.

So now time for your feedback:  If you’re a cyclist, have your experienced this same thing?  How about endurance athletes in general?  Or perhaps it’s the case for all serious athletes in their respective sports?

Looking outside there’s no ice or snow on the road.  In fact, it’s not even raining.  I think I’m going to boost my endorphins and maybe do some hill repeats while I’m at it.

Why?  Because you don’t have to go anywhere to find subjects!