!!!!!!! Mr. MISANTHROPIC !!!!!

…and it includes one of these:

For real - Jan 15th!

Looking forward to a long vacation from the mind-eraser. Almost 9 days straight that I get to work on my allotted 10 lb weight gain before Feb. All the beer and X-mas cookies seem to be doing the job nicely.

Its been wierd being off the bike for almost a week now. I think I’m almost recovered from the past few months of double-header races, and then the final nut-kick at nationals. Pretty soon I will start my “cross-training” plan (not cross in the cyclocross sense).

I have a totally new off-season strategy this year. I am going to have some fun playing basketball with the dudes here at work, and hopefully do some XC skiing (if it ever snows). I don’t think I’m going to lift weights like I’ve done in the past few years. I hate hanging around the work gym at lunch. Anyhow, I think racing mountain bikes gives you upper body strength aplenty to get the job done the rest of the year. All the road base training usually kills it by May in any event.

So fun cross-training, and I’ll throw in a few “fun” mountain bike rides, until I start the slow, cold road rides in Feb. or so. I wonder who I can get to go riding with me next week?

So my wife managed to kill our pet praying mantis yesterday. I guess you could say she over-loved him. Too much petting and poking is probably not so good for such a solitary insect like that. We only had him in captivity for a few weeks, but he was a swell pet. Now we have a big tank full of crickets in our dining room. Oh well, so that’s that.

So this weekend was cross nationals. Good thing I raced sick all weekend. Poor results Friday due to a crash and a mechanical. Lackluster results on Sunday- I should have been much further up than I was. I am full of excuses, but I won’t bore you with that now. At least Trebon won the championship on Saturday, so we can all stop wondering about all that.

No fuckin’ stupid pictures of myself riding on this blog entry!

I’m glad I don’t have to ride my bike for a few weeks now. Time to play some hoops and drink some cold ones.

Past weekend in a nutshell:

Saturday I completely buried it, so that I might get a top 10 in the Steadman grassy drag-race. I would have to settle for 13th. Think I may have over-done it though.

Sunday there was nothing left in the tanks, and the more technical Warwick course made me ride like a pussy. Finished WAY back without caring too much. I was pretty much done after the 2nd lap.

So thats a wrap for the regular CX season! All done this weekend after the Big Dance.

Also, Brian P. took these sick pics of Matt and I. I’m not usually vain enough that I would want people to look at pictures of me on a bike, but these are the shit. He puts all the other “sports photographers” that cover the CX races to shame.

1. Eat a big plate of pasta and bread the night before. Cram it in, eat more than want. The more buttery the bread, the better. Avoid the cheese though.

2. Morning of the race, eat a big bowl of whole grain cereal and a banana with soy milk. Eat at least 3.5-4 hours before the race. It has to be timed right.

3. Warm up on your bike, but avoid the trainer. Get out on the course as much as possible. Ride at least 30 minutes and do a few hard pulls on the road. You want a sweat going when you get to the line.

4. Depending on your size, drink 2-3 cups of coffee the morning of the race. Save the last one for 1/2 hour before the race. Do a shot of Espresso Hammer Gel before you head to staging. You want to be buzzing on the line. This will help get you up to the front on the first lap.

If you do this and have a heart siezure, don’t sue me.

I just realized today, that I don’t have to do another hard bike workout until at least March. No more intervals. No more god damn running. No more stupid training videos in the basement. Just race and rest.

Almost time to cash in on all the misery…

I wonder how the first day of slow drip went?

You can be jealous of this:

I have 4 cross races coming up this week in Ye Olde Little Rhody.

The two Verge series races this weekend are only 20 minutes from my house. Then, the national CX championships next weekend are 5 minutes from my house.

I’m having a party at my house that you’re probably not invited to.

You know how I said in my last post that my cross bike was having trouble staying in gear?

Matt and I raced on a big pasture up in the Wrentham A race on a fine Sunday afternoon. My bike wouldn’t stay in gear, but I still managed to ride it pretty hard. I think the chain is clapped out - will replace it this week. Also my back was killing me.

I didn’t get lapped in an Elite race, so I guess that could be considered progress.