Today Commuter Man and Idiot Racer Boy met at the crossroads of an Amtrak station.

The Great Transportation Experiment started in October of last year and yielded mostly positive results through January. The benefits of a relaxing commute and the smugness that one can only get through use of comfortable mass transit, and riding their bike to get to work, make a compelling argument. Commuter Man was in full effect.

Now the race season is starting to spool up – Hell, racing has already started, and Idiot Racer Boy is back in town.

And the question must be asked, “Can the demands of training be met while still being both fiscally and environmentally responsible through continued use of the train?” To put this in terms I can relate to, “Can my inner 'David Banner' find peace with my inner 'Incredible Hulk'?”

We shall see. Today has been frustrating already on the way home. Delayed 15min due to southbound trains and no sidling rail access further North – UP is working on the rail. Another 15min waiting for the work crews to clear the main tracks. One full hour and we are still just at Gaviota.

A general question to anyone that is reading this out there on the interwebs – Flickr or Picassa? I want to put up more photos but don't want to hog all the bandwidth here (yes, I'm that cheap plus I think it clutters things). So, which photo service to use? Is one better than the other? Is there a service I should use for a photo stream instead?

J.

January racing - really? 

Yep.  Welcome to the 2009 season kids.

Friday night was my first swing at the Friday Night series at the ADT center velodrome in LA.  We thought that Mini Phinney was going to come out - along with the rest of the U23 National team.  We got a bit of a reprieve and they didn't show.  I really kind of wish that they had been there just to get the world class beat down.

As it was, the A flight was still fast.  Good clean racing and a nice way to ease my way back into racing this year.  Motor paced scratch race, Miss-n-Out, and Points race.  I got ripped off in the miss-n-out as some jack ass refused to pull himself from the race - for FOUR laps after he was pulled.  I looked behind, saw a body hit the gas, and cleared him.  Too bad he had already been DQ'd.  My  number was up then.    By the time 16lp to go in the 60lp points race came round the engine room shut down and I was toast.  I finished the race but went a lap down.  Worst part was I forgot the Power Control and have no data from racing.  In retrospect, probably better.

Saturday I rode with John and the Team Velocity group ride.  LA riding is interesting, TONS of stop light sprints.  By the time we hit the rollers 2hrs into the ride my legs were wobbly.  When we hit the climbs I was hurting.  Second climb I got dropped, then lost, then had to navigate back to Fullerton solo - with some phone help from John.  Ended up with ~5+ hrs on the day which is cool but it wrecked my legs.

With wrecked legs I didn't make it to Mothballs Sunday.  Sat on the couch, rode easy, and watched the Superbowl.  Telling myself that's there's still plenty of racing left in the year - on the road and on the track.

J.

 

Jan 16-23 saw the return of G.S. Tenzing to Santa Barbara for their California training camp.  Privateer acted as host for the camp again.  It was a great time and Thomas and I enjoyed seeing the guys from Texas.  Mr. Steele, from wattagetraining, was able to join us for camp again too.

We finally had some decent weather for the boys this year and only fought the rain on the last day.  We did Sunday worlds, with anywhere between 7-9 pros out for the fun and games too.  It was the biggest Sunday Worlds I have seen in years.  There were easily 100 riders out and it was fast as hell.  Photos here.  We also did the obligatory Gibraltar, OSM/Painted Cave/Stagecoach rides.  Greg and I did two rides in the valley (Solvang/Figueroa Mtn. and Lompoc to Jalama beach) while the rest of the crew rode Hwy 33 on those two days.

For me, camp was a painful reminder of how hard cycling as a "hobby" can be if you don't train regularly.  Take a week of vacation from work, ride your bike up 3500'+ cols for three to four hours a day, all the while feeling like someone is pulling your lungs out through your nose using a rusty coat hangar - hell of a hobby.  I'd like to think that my crappy performance was a result of my "death" cold that I caught just before the guys got here - but I know better.  I know it's from too many beers and not enough time in the saddle, thanks for the reminder.

J.

I renewed my racing license for 2009 today.

I'm getting old.  I've had a USCF license since 1993.

Looking forward to camp - hoping that it won't dump buckets on us this year.

J.

All hail the Sun and it's triumph over the darkness!  At 12:04UT on December 21, 2008 the sun began the long march back to summer.  I can tell there's a little more light every day - I know I can.

To celebrate I drank a bottle of wine, braised a lamb shank and banged on a pot in the moonlight in the backyard.  No virgin sacrifice this year - none could be found.  Oh, yeah, there were some Judeo-Christian festivals in there too.

My training has been sketchy.  CTL still plummets after slight stagnation/upticks.  Camp is going to be brutal for me...oh well.

Mark Tokar, the newest Privateer, has sent some pictures from his new rider training day at the Encino Velodrome.




I hear he may now be going to ADT for their new rider training...evidence of the addictive nature of track racing. 

During the holidays we went to the store for groceries for the famn damily during their stay.  Biggest load on the Xtracycle yet.  I'm thinking this was somewhere in the range of 500lbs considering load+bike+meat pie for a pilot.





We even rode up on three guys out for a group ride and the comment was - "Now that's how you go to the store." 
Right on.  Power to the Xtracycle!!

Now to go find my motivation to go train....where DID I put that?

J.

It's often been said that the great tragedy of Southern cooking is that we haven't figured out how to deep fat fry salad - yet.  Turkeys we got covered though! 

Well, as is always the case, the Turkey Day shutdown didn't produce the mega-mileage it could have.

I did go 5 of 7 days though this week, with some solid efforts, so it could have been worse. (Even did two days on the CT due to the rain.)

My brother came down from Berkeley and brought a buddy, and the guy's dad, to Thanksgiving dinner.  I am always embarrassed to say this but deep fried turkey is the best turkey I've ever eaten.  Moist, juicy, tender and delicious.  Besides, nothing says redneck fun like the ability to deep fry a Snickers bar when the turkey is done - not that I'm saying we did - but you could....

Tomorrow it's back to the work grind.  Time to get another monthly train ticket, and return to the rails after the week off.  It's been nice.  I'm fully sure I'm never getting up on time in the A. M. this week.  I slip into the vampire circadian rhythm astonishingly fast. 

I'm also set to try the new gym in town this week.  I know weight lifting is counter productive to being an endurance cyclist.  I don't care anymore.  I like to pick things up and put them down.  It has a simple finality that few things can provide.  Besides, have you seen how bad sunken chest chicken boy cyclists look with their shirts off?  It's not a pretty sight. 

J.

Slowly getting back at training.  Inertia not as bad now.

Starting to remember why I like hurting myself riding a bike.

I have a week long shutdown at work coming up for Thanksgiving.  I hate to over commit and under deliver so I'm not making training camp like plans but., I do hope to take advantage of the week off as much as possible and get some good long high volume rides in over the break.  We'll see.

Coaching Chester again this season.  Hope to help him earn his 2 upgrade before the end of the season. 

Speaking of training camp...dates for the G.S. Tenzing training camp have been finalized.  The Texas Mafia returns Jan 16-23, 2009.  Time to start racking up the miles!! (or they'll rip my legs off. )

Commuting has been tough.  Lots of weirdness at work = long days, late meetings.  In addition I've somehow developed a 45min cutoff on train lateness.  Any more than 45min out and I bail and drive home.  Really tweaks me that they can't seem to figure out how to make that whole "single track" thing workout.

J.

Need volume. 

It's been six weeks since I've done any structured training.  Inertia is a bitch.  Can't seem to get moving again.

Last week was tough on commuter man.  3/5 days early in the office for work.  The office lost flexibility last week.  This week is better, although, I'll only ride the train for the next two weeks due to the office shut down over Turkey Day.

Need to hit the rack to start early tomorrow.

J.

Normally this blog is about bikes, or racing, or racing bikes.  I try to keep politics out of here as it sort of represents a the activities of the Team and not just me.  Today is an exception, today my country needed me.

"Rosa sat,
So Martin could walk,
So Barack could run,
So our children can fly."

So to keep it on topic - I rode my bike to the polling place this morning.  This is significant, and interesting, because I met up cycling friend in town that also rode his bike to the polling station.  Now, I can't say with 100% certainty but, I'm pretty sure our votes canceled each other out today.  That's cool, this is America, I'm allowed to be an asshole and so are you. 

What's even more cool, to me at least, is that we both showed up and left to got to work - on our bikes.  Hmmm, now I'm worried he didn't vote for Measure A.

J.

This weekend was the SCNCA race schedule meeting and picnic.  Normally this wouldn't be news except that I was invited to attend and be recognized as the Second place Overall Endurance Track racer in Cat 3/4 for the SCNCA SoCal Cup.  Whew, that's a mouth full. 

Anyhow, it was cool to see that I had finished second in the Endurance series, and sixth overall - not too bad for not doing a single "sprint" event in the cup.

We didn't go to the picnic however because Jenelle found a bike she wanted!!  We went Saturday AM and bought her an Electra Amsterdam.  It's the "Tulip" model.  Bright yellow paint, red tulip accents, full wrap chain guard, generator lights, fenders w/mudflaps, rear rack and skirt guard.   It's the bomb of a city bike.  Except for it's price, it's everything that Copehagen Cycle Chic would approve of - "Style over speed," indeed.

This is all part of my "Commuter Man" plan.  Here I am formulating the beginning of my plan while at Interbike in Las Vegas this year, while coming back from the Crit finals.  Photo courtesy of Dave Lettieri.



In trying to reach full Commuter Man Nirvana, in addition to riding my bike to the train station and then bi-modaling it to the office, I did some research on how to carry as much stuff on a bike as is safely possible.  Racks, panniers, BOB trailers....

The answer: Xtracycle Free Radical.  Here's the Free Radical with the Free Loader kit filled after a run to the grocery store with a full week of food.  Both side panniers are chocked full.  It's a fairly stable operation - about like riding a tandem with a well behaved stoker.

Here's an unsolicited product endorsement: if you want to try and live and do more on your bicycle in your daily life, buy an Xtracycle Free Radical.  It will breathe new life back into that old hard tail mountain bike you've got taking up space in the stable not being ridden.



Later in the day I went to Home Depot for some 4x4's for a project.  I never thought I'd haul lumber home on my bike, but today I did.  I got some crazy looks from people on the way home.  Other hardware was loaded in the pannier opposite.



Yes, that's right, those are three full length 8', 4"x4"s lashed to the side of my bike using the Long Loader kit.  This was MUCH less stable than having the panniers fully loaded with the grocery run earlier.  Frankly, this is not something I'd necessarily advise an inexperienced cyclist to attempt.  Handling was squirrely, especially in right hand turns.

Both loaded runs today pointed out something very important to a good Xtracycle set up - bomber wheels.  As soon as I can I'm getting a set of 36h high flange hubs with the gnarliest free-ride/DH rims I can find to put on the bike.  The corollary to this is the Xtracycle performs better with 26" wheels.  If you want to carry big loads don't waste your time with the 700c kit.  In addition, tires that are symmetric (read: round with very little, if any, run out) will improve handling stability. 

Tomorrow starts the fourth week of the bike/train Great Transportation Experiement.  Let's just say I like it enough that come Friday, I'll need to go back to the SB station to get another mothly ride pass.

J.