Everybody wanna go fast, nobody wanna train

Good training went on Wednesday night.

Myself, and two others did the damn thang.

I put a medium/large-sized hammer down from jump street and the pain began.

We did doubles on stairs, and core work at the stops.

No "mechanicals" this time around, but one rider had a "physiological".

As I've said, bonking/being dropped can give you a "growth spurt" as a rider. Just make sure you keep going to the show.

The best part was the little brainstorm that went on at the end.

Keep tuned, there may be some more cross capers in the future, perhaps with spectating/previewing options on a small tight course.

Next time you train, remember these wise phrases:

"Yeah buddy"
"Nothing but a peanut"
"Ain't nothing to it but to do it"

CX Training

Ok people.

Heres the drill

You need a helmet and a rechargeable high output light. Im using the Niterider Minewt, and consider it to be the bare minimum.

Taking off at 9:30

Looking to last an hr, maybe an hr and a half.

Hope for it to be brutal.

Well be utilizing the LBL trail between congress and mopac.

We will stop at the workout/stretch stations at auditorium shores and under mopac.

We will do core work till everyone catches up or 5 min.

We will do mount drilling somewhere with non-goat headed grass. Ive been doing it near the Barton pool.

Perhaps a le mans sprint race to the bridge at the end.

These are just ideas, yours might be better.

Another idea is beer somewhere that tolerates Lycra. Ive done the zax patio a few times.

Whoes in?

Related mojo thread: http://www.bikemojo.com/speak/showthread.php?t=78636

UPDATE:

Link to some great videos was posted on mojo.

Socializ'in / MTB'in / CX Train'in

Ok lets see where I left off.

Ah yes, I did my first night of CX training on Wednesday. The rain was awesome. Medium-sized D from thyneighborsbike.com joined my party.

We had a few mishaps, but we did get to surprise the hell out of two underweared girls jumping off the creek bridge around 10:15.

More on the refinement of my Wed. night CX training later.

Thursday had the Social cycling ride as the highlight.

Good ride and swim as usual.

The Liberty is not shabby. They had a table separate from their bar setup to serve the bikers. VERY COOL. Id say their hospitality rivals jackalope for best so far.

Also, they had some quality behind the bar.

After the two kegs attained buoyancy, I was able to get a Victory Prima Pils and a friend ordered a Brooklyn Lager. Good stuff for a relatively small bar.

Two slices of The Onion's pizza later, I was satisfied and sleepy.

Saturday:



Greenbelt time.

Teamed up with some MoJos and medium-sized D to do some riding. We did some side trails, even some bushwhacking when a trail dead ended.



Sexy pose huh?

I rolled down elephant butt on our way back.

We finished off at Taco Deli, and I topped off the 70 oz. of water with 32 oz. of Ale.

I beat the Saturday afternoon heat with a fat nap.

Sunday:

Back out to the belt. Did another MoJo ride and learned about yet another trail.

Again the elephant butt threw me off.

I smacked my elbow and did a little rolling again.



Ive also hit my thigh on my lockout switch twice. I have a tri-color bruise going. Ill spare you of the sight.

I went out again Monday morning before work,and before the SWAT situation.

I ran into a broken water main or something



Having been disrespected by the butt twice before, I busted a little session till I made it up cleanly.

Hip Hop Archaeology

Supplementary Material

Dilated Peoples put on a great show.

Today's lesson on Hip Hop

Cyclocross training

Time to get this shit going.

The Dirt Derby is starting up September 1st, and from what I understand, we should have a super wet fall/winter. I hope this cool season sees a whole lot of BD Cross Club action.

Im am thinking about starting up a weekly cyclocross training/riding/racing/drinking thing on Wednesday nights around 9-930.

Maybe do some mounting skills.

Run some stairs.

Perhaps a one lap race to end the night.

There is a book out there that has a whole lot of skill drills that I may buy.

I've tried to find drills online, but have been unsuccessful.

So.

If you read this here thing, comment with your interest/suggestions.

Since I have no idea how many people actually read this, I will see if Jason will post up too.

I will be out at the ped bridge at 9/9:15 tonight and start doing my thang round 9:30

A one hour, four hour race

I got my bag of crap all packed up Wednesday night.





I got to Mcallen Thursday evening and promptly began boozing and wrenching.



I put a fat 42/20 gear on and knocked out.

Woke up relatively early on Friday and went to the trails with my brother to run the course.

I ran into this fella while realizing my gear was wayyy to juicy.



See the red all over his face? He had been munching prickly pears.

Went home and changed the gear to 38/20 and took a nap.
Made it out there at around 7pm that night for another run.
The gear felt great on the trail.

Satisfied with my gear, I put on some new rubber and slimed some new tubes.

I woke early, and got to the race early.

I prepped comfortably.

The start was ok.

They started everyone together, and the stretch of pavement was longer than I expected. Being a SS, I didn't have the high gear and entered the single track in 15th place. In the first lap, I was able to gain 5 spots. I felt I'd be in good shape in the long run.

Well, half way into my second lap, I felt the flat coming.

No biggie, I had slimed up, and had two co2 cartridges.

I aired up and rolled out. I wasn't passed, and I caught back up in like 5 minutes.

D'oh!!!

My tire was low again!

This time i figured that maybe I put too much air the first time, so I put about half the cartridge this time.

NOPE!

No Dice.

I put the rest of the second Co2 and was hoping I would be able to limp into the pits where I could do a tire check and tube change.

I didn't happen.

It didn't hold, and I walked back to the pits.

At least I got a little dirty

Lesson learned: Run a tubeless 1x9 Hard tail or maybe the cross bike.



During my walk I figured I'd try and salvage this weekend with a jaunt out to South Padre Island, which is about an hour from my parents house.

I talked to a buddy who has a place and boat out there and we threw together some spontaneous beach action.

We chilled, drank, fished, and ended the night the SPI Brewery. Their home brew was pretty good, and they fill their pitchers to the max.

This guy came along too:



More pics:

Moutain biking

Did about 3.5 hours yesterday.

I did that weekly BSS ride again. Learned about 2 new trails. One of them leads to a neighborhood park complete with a life sustaining water fountain. Man did I need it at that point.

One of the MoJoS joined the ride and put on an exhibition of single speed awesomeness.
Not only that, he was full rigid and a nice guy.
He guides a single speed trail ride on Mondays. I cant wait for my first day of class!

Yesterday, an old fashion Internet fight on Mojo spawned a Wednesday morning ride call.

Did a little out and back action at 7. What a morning.

BiKe Mojo is a local MTB forum that has jerks, conservatives, liberals, racers, slackers, wanna bes, nice people, atheists, christians, random crap, and occasionally some bike related stuff like ride calls.

Check it out!

Song in the brain:

It's not De la Souls best song by far, but this version is live and has a nice twist.
I hope they can still bust, they will be at Emo's on August 1st.

Monday Fitness Ride

http://www.facebook.com/events.php?ref=sb#/event.php?eid=99513288774


'Twas a great time.

We had a good pace going. The hills were attacked. It was a good showing.

At an hour and a half, this feels like a great training ride for cross (I road my cx bike). The hills are demanding like an attack or run-up would be.

So get your ass out there. BD is hinting at a phat cross race during the BFF.

Big ups to Brad and Keith who murdered on their duce-quad cruisers.

The drop ratio was a little more than half I think.

Drops are important. I hope those that got dropped understand that.

Ive been dropped MTBing, Road riding and cyclo-crossing many times.

You only get better by riding with better people.

So long as you go out there next time, you will grow as a cyclist.

Oh ya, Jackalope hooked it up very nice.

I split a half-priced, enormous and delicious pie with a friend.

Free beer flowed.

I plan on going to the next one.

And just so you know; Ride the Lightning is Metallica's best album, Fight Fire with Fire is their best song and the guitar solo(s) between 2:29 and 3:25 in that song are the best.

Today's lesson on Hip Hop

Leaders Of the New School:

Iz got a race

This weekend I will be going to "El Valle" for a 4 hour "endurance" MTB race.

It is pretty interesting going to bike events down there. When I was growing up, there was almost no adult cycling going on. Now, there are road races, time trials, and MTB races. Commuting is still very sketching, and a "culture" does not exist like it does here.

The trails down there are not technical like terrain here. I was there this past weekend to preview the course.

The trail does test handling skills with many sharp and frequent turns. The drought has created some serious dust on the track edge. There is a steep price to pay if you washout on the single track lined with cactus.

The winner will be the one that knows the edge of his tires best.

Honestly, I think I would do better on my cross bike, but I'm sure that would ruffle some feathers or make for an excuse fest.


Looks like ill be doing some testing with my wall of gears this week.



Right now I'm looking at a 42/18 since the course has no lengthy climbs.

Damn Son!!!!

Did a relatively epic MTB ride yesterday.

Soon after I left work early, a buddy told me of this new weekly MTB ride hosted by the Austin Flyers (BSS club/race team).

From their website:

"Weekly Mountain Bike Rides

Join us for our weekly intermediate to advanced mountain bike rides every Tuesday evening, July 7th through August 25th.

Meet Austin Flyer’s Pro/Cat 1 racer, Brian Kuehl at Bicycle Sport Shop on south Lamar at 5:30pm for training rides on the Greenbelt.

Rides will be about 2 hours long. Helmets are required. Be sure to bring plenty of water. Energy snacks will be available complements of the Austin Flyers Cycling Club.

Yup that's right, Homeboy is Pro/Cat 1.

I am admittedly a "lone wolf" and have done a lot of my road and MTB'ing alone or with a friend. Lately though, I've realized that I had reached a limit of progress in doing so. In the past few months I started riding the various group road rides, but yesterday was my first MTB group ride."

Wow.

Brian and the other guy (a bss wrench) have mad skill and are FAST. Its one thing to clear stuff, its another to do it with grace and flow.

I didn't disappoint, I hung in there with my SS. Though, I need to change my gearing now that I am riding more back trails. I'm thinkin' between 34/20 or 32/20 will work out.

We did some awesome technical back trails climbing and gnarly descents with a few good ledges. All stuff I had never ridden.

There is this view from a ridge that is AMAZING.

I feel like a grew alot as a rider yesterday. I needed to ride with people better than me to continue progressing. I would not have attempted some of those obstacles if they were not leading.

I also cleared (quite cleanly) the elephant butt again and got props from the fellas.

Total ride time was about three hours. I went though all three of my bottles and could have drank another.

Special Pint Night

Wednesday at Zax. 6pm. Assorted Belgians!!!!!!!

Bike Shop Days - Part 11

Found that guy behind the work bench.

The voodoo refers to used bikes that were to be refurbished. The bottom half is some study material.

Did a little photo shoot with a selection of my tools after rastafarification of the chain whip and lock ring tool.





These are the tools I started on and used for more than four years. Hand me a different cassette lock ring tool, crank bolt spanner or Allen wrench, and I probably wouldn't be able to torque components accurately. I am glad I was able to keep these tools.

See you nerds at the Mellow Johnny's Tour Launch Thingy

http://atxbs.com/?q=node/1840

Bike Shop Days - Part 10

Took it off my key chain today.

It is now taped amongst other pieces of flair on my office door.

I've also realized how much I miss my lunch time visits. I would often go and eat there or simply hang out.

Having a key to a bike shop was a great privilege. I had some great times with friends there.

I remember how the door would act up when the sun would hit it right. I would have to push on the handle a certain way to get it locked.

I loved having the front door propped open during the cooler part of the year. I would also open the back door to get a good flow of air moving through the shop.

Plus an open front door lends its self to fun entries/exits. The shop had a few stairs just in front of the door. While not spectacular, it was fun busting up those stairs and squeezing in the door frame. Flying through the door and over the steps was another cheap thrill and a fitting departure.

Furthermore, the removal of glass and burglar bars from my line of sight made evaluation of the ladies passing by just that much better. Man did that street have some great sights...

Cross machine pretty much complete

I bonktowned myself a race face cadence crank.

It is the last major component that I will be changing on the presidio.

Installing it was the first major bike work I've had to do at home.

A quality stand will be on my radar next frankenbike....

I cleaned the hell out of my ride. Hopefully it will cause a rainstorm and a race announcement.

People Under The Stairs

My roomate, John, tuned me onto People Under The Stairs.

They are going to be at Red 7 on Saturday.

Im a big A Tribe Called Quest listener, and these fellers have similar production quality and complimentary/contrasting vocal stylings.

I will most likely be there.

Bike Shop Days - Part 9

Yesterday was the last, last day.

I took my tools home.

Helped clear out remaining valuables.

Helped AJ and Ron load a bunch of stuff they took off our hands.

I took artifacts from the shop. One of the coolest being the ceiling tile with a bike dremeled into it.

Got a few more pics.

First, I'd like to endorse The Peddler. Those guys are cool. I haven't been to their shop, but will soon.