Slow Motion with D

Well, Sea Otter has come and gone…and if I forget it soon, I won’t miss it.  This was my first big weekend with Pedro’s and also my first big race of the year.  The last 3 weeks have been really hard on my training.  I’ve been traveling more than any time in my life and most of it has been driving long days.  I think the biggest thing is that, since I got my new job, I’ve been on other people’s schedule.  Go to Florida at this time, to follow this guy’s schedule for shop visits, then fly to Mass and get stranded for 2 days at the hotel, spend time in the office, then drive straight across the country only to head to Cali 2 days later.  All in really crappy weather too!  Oh, and now I’m back to Mass for a few days before heading home.  It’s been a lot.  I’m tired, my legs are weak and I’m home sick.  A couple of weeks at home will be really nice.  Spend time with my friends and animals…ride my bike again, plan for my trips (finally on my schedule) and take care of Gf (see below).

The weekend with Pedro’s was pretty good.  I met a lot of industry people that everyone else already knows.  I started making contacts (huge props to Ralph and the Michelin crew) and interacting with our customers and mechanics.  It was a long 5 days, but a valuable experience and people seem to be embracing our philosophies.  It is funny how customers expect you to give them better deals on items that you’re selling.  It’s like they feel entitled to an even better discount (our stuff was already marked down an average of 25%).  Those people were actually few and far between, but they stand out.  I wonder if I was like that… Most loved our deals and products available.  I felt like I had little down time at the event, so I didn’t get a chance to check out many booths or comps, but that’s ok.  I felt a little bad because I didn’t feel like I could cruise around w/GF.  She was bored a lot of the time and I felt bad about it.  Props again to the guys at Michelin, Crank Bros and Camelback!  They all got me going for the weekend’s events.   

Oh racing…racing, racing… Just never had it going this weekend.  Weak legs=bad races.  I was excited for the short track because I like them and usually do well.  Got on my bike with plenty of time to warm up well.  Something I don’t usually do.  Got warm, checked out the course, practiced some lines and did a few efforts.  The excitement was building and I was feeling good.  I can usually fake my way through the semi pro stcx even if I’m not feeling great.  During the warm up, it started raining.  Raining really hard.  I couldn’t see, it was windy and the rain was causing pain as it was pelting me through my spandex!  I finished my warm up in a torrential downpour, headed to the van and got some dry clothes and gloves, then headed to the start.  They ended up announcing a delay in our start, but then moved us to 3 hours later, so they wouldn’t screw up the pro’s start times.  Made sense, but was lame.  After that it was back to the van for food and a warm up session (warming my core that is).  Finding the motivation to get ready again was pretty hard, but I managed, albeit with a much worse warm up this time.  The race was now a mud fest (dry when we started warming up), but with my sweet new Michelin wild grippers (1.75 and green!), I didn’t have a problem finding traction and the good line.  Early on I watched Country Jimmy blow the field up.  He got up to like a 15 second gap on second place, but couldn’t hold it.  He still finished a personal best 2nd!  Nice work Jimmy!  I felt good early and started working my way up to 2nd riding my way around the fools w/bad tires and skills.  It didn’t last long though, because they had faster legs.  My little bit of skill was no mach for their speed and a few late mistakes landed me in 8th.  Not too bad, but disappointing.  

The XC was next on the schedule.  Now, for those who don’t know, the Otter xc is long.  For the Semi-pro field last year I think the winning time was 2:50.  That’s long for an xc.  I knew I was in for a long one, so I was trying to mentally prepare, all the while working the booth and waiting for GF to finish her first ever expert race.  We cut it short in the morning and she didn’t get much warm up time, uh, any, but I still figured she would finish around top 5, so when they started coming in, I was getting worried.  I had hoped that she didn’t flat, or totally bonk as the minutes went by.  Then I saw her…limping over on crutches.  One of the many steep, fast descents ended up taking her out, just as she was in the top 5.  The hill sides there drain really well, but it leaves these eroded trenches that can catch you off guard.  One of those trenches along with brand new cleats meant a super bad sprained (but not broken) ankle.  She’s tough though and hopped her way out until a ride was to be had.  Just one more hiccup in a bad Friday the 13th weekend for her.  My race didn’t go much different.  Lack of warm up after helping GF and dead legs = almost dead last.  I just never had it.  No power on the many steep ups, but I had fun ripping the downs!  The small victory is that I didn’t cramp!  Used the Camelback and a bottle to accomplish that feat.  Hmm, seems like it’s back to the drawing bored for training.  I should be faster than this, but I understand the weeks and days leading into the event.  Not ideal.  After a few days in Mass again, it’s home for at least 10 days of rest, relaxation and quality rides.  Can’t wait!  Sorry, no pics from the Otter this year.  Hope ya’lls r doing well.

Here I go, the drive across country! Woo hoo! That was my first thought, but after a few days on the road, my tune had changed. I’ve decided that driving straight across the country, solo, is lame. If I would have been able to go off course and see sights, it’d be way better, but I just wanted to get home, so I could have 2 days off before leaving for Sea Otter. I didn’t even ride (even more training down the toilet). If it wasn’t 25 degrees and incredibly windy, then it was 35 and pouring rain…and incredibly windy. I didn’t have the riding clothes for that environment, so it was 12+ hour days only stopping for gas, food and sleep. Bla. I started the trip off with little recorded clips and planned to make a mini movie for ya’ll to see about my drive, but it was lame. The only thing I had to report was rain…wind…rain…wind…snow. Nothing fun, so the video clips were repetitive and boring. Maybe next time.

The ride, loaded and ready.

Send all hate mail to the above address!

Had to listen to a little Kanye while driving through Chi-Town.

I got one ride in, in Oregon outside of Ontario. It was supposed to be 3hrs, but a storm moved in and it took me 5hrs...without food. I felt worse than I look. I was starting to think someone stole the van and left me to die. Good times, but finally home that night.  Oh, yeah.  They have these stops all along the route.  Not so much truck stops, but close.  Food choices and gas.  In the mornings, all I wanted was a reliable cup of coffee.  That meant Starbucks (we're spoiled in Oregon).  The only problem was that I only drove by Starbucks at 11pm or later, never in the morning.  WTF?  Anyway, thanks for reading!

No, not the TV show, but if enough time was spent there, it might be.  Monday was spent meeting the Swix USA and Pedro’s crew.  Filling out paper work, learning the system etc.  Nothing exciting to report about that, but here’s my very own cubicle:

I thought I would only be spending a day there, then hitting the road to home, but it ended up being two days by the time everything was said and done.  We had to wait for our Sea Otter order to be filled, so I could load the trailer and drive it to Cali.  That meant not leaving until 6pm on my first day of driving.  Oh well, I’ll get home eventually.  Here’s a pic of our new POP display.  Totally recyclable and groovy.

Alex our engineer making a custom Pedro's trailer hitch tool:

After GA I hopped a flight to Massachusetts. The original plan was to be picked up Saturday afternoon by Jason in the flower van. There was one small problem with that though. On Friday driving across New York, a wild turkey flew through the windshield. Yes, a wild turkey, through the windshield and into the back of the van. This obviously caused a slight delay in their travel plans. I had a pic, but couldn’t find it, so…sorry. The mishap occurred at around 12:30pm on Friday and unfortunately the glass repair place closed at, yes, noon. So, now I’m hulled up at an airport hotel for 2 days. Sweet. Oh well, it’s Boston right? Wrong. The train wasn’t running all weekend for some unknown (to me and the hotel staff) reason, so that meant a $20 cab ride…each way. Not in the cards for me, so hanging in the hotel it was! They had good food and cute little condiments to top my burger.

By Sunday I was going a little stir crazy, so I got on the airport shuttle, to another shuttle, so another shuttle. After a while I had to ask where I was going and got some good advice from some wicked thick accented, foul mouthed Boston girls. It was either them, or the stereotypical wicked thick accented, foul-mouthed meathead Boston guys. They were annoying, so I went with the ones making fun of them. They were getting off at a cool square with eat options, so it was all good. I followed them to a bar where they were meeting up with some fellas. Good food and good Guinness was all I needed and that’s what I got. So, that was all of Boston that I got.

I guess some people would thrive being in the city by themselves, but I wasn’t feeling super motivated, so it was back to the hotel for me. I did look on the net to try and find some good music, but to no avail. It seemed like everything was happening the next weekend, or already happened. Monday, I got picked up and headed to the Pedro’s main office. Time to meet the rest of the crew. Yup.

After a few days in the wonderful state of FL we headed to Georgia. Waaaaaaaay better. Now this is a state I could spend some time in. Unfortunately, the bulk of my trip was in FL. Our original plan was to score me a mtb and go ride the Olympic course from years back. Well, no such luck. The weather was bad and time was short, so on to Athens we went. What a great town. If I would have been more adventurous coming out of high school, I could have gone to school there. Well, maybe not, I hear it gets stupid hot in the summer months and I'm kind of fragile. We had a great shop visit at The Hub. People in the, "know," may know that they sponsor the Jittery Joe's cycling team. Cool shop, good people and nice customers. We brought them pizza and beer and it was a nice change from a few of the unnamed FL shops. The shop is right across the street from:

The decline in my training continued. Oh, I don't think I mentioned the decline yet. Well, in Florida I was supposed to do a block of interval training. I figured it'd be easy 'cause they are all short workouts. Well, I was wrong. The roads suck and I couldn't get away from crazy traffic. On top of that, FL is fllllaaaaat, so there were no short hills. We all knew that though. I ended up buying a trainer so I could guarantee some intervals. I also hit up a few hotel gyms. Wow, they all pretty much sucked (the workouts, that is). I was able to do most of them, but still...the training decline had started. I was able to sneak in a short ride in GA around a pretty nice neighborhood. The houses were all brick with cool trees in the yard.

Oh, and there's lots of these in the south:

L8r Sk8trs!