Scorch The Earth, or This Is The Sound Of A Paradigm Shifting Without A Clutch

I'm about to say a lot of things that all make a lot of sense, and I bet are all really obvious.

You guys, I've been doing it wrong. All wrong.

8 weeks of being really excited about cross and yet showing up and getting mercilessly beaten force doubt and introspection.

I have come up with some things.

Listen, I finished last year with dreams of glory in flatter road races and etc. Last year I was perfectly happy with being a non-traditional bike racer - "oh look at that giant dude," "who put that bear on a bicycle," etc. I had this idea in my mind - cycling is all about power/weight ratio - change the bottom half of the equation and you change the ratio.

So I went about this year with the philosophy, I guess, that if I could look more like a bike racer (be skinnier), then I would be a better bike racer. Here is the thing: trying to make that shift in a year is asking more of my body than it can handle (save for, taking a year and spending it trying to lose weight - riding bonked all the time and not eating and etc. Worked for a while during 2000km July. But you see how much top-end fitness I had coming out of that - none). I am on the path of leaning out and becoming more muscular - but in 2 years of riding my bike increasingly more, I haven't really lost any weight - just turned a bunch of fat into muscle. I am stronger and fitter now. Well, arguably.

But the point is, this is all the wrong approach! Listen. I'm never gonna be as skinny as the rest of you bros. It's just not going to happen. I have a lean body mass of like 215-220 lbs right now. I am bigger than you. The odds of me being "a real bike racer"-type in the next few years are... low. This year I have deluded myself away from playing up my own strengths, in the name of trying in vain to eliminate my weaknesses. I should, in fact, build on my strengths. That 220 lbs of muscle? TURN IT INTO AN UNMITIGATED POWERHOUSE. Focus on developing increasingly staggeringly amounts of force to put into the pedals.

This philosophy limits me, certainly - I will forsake anything with hills in it. But that was happening anyway - you see, I have to take the bar exam next summer. So my summer racing will be severely curtailed. As in, don't expect to see much of me from May through July. I have been slowly realizing (and discussing with compatriots) over the last two months that I would prefer to focus my energy on criterium racing (and cross) anyhow. If I ever make it to the damn velodrome, hold on to your hats.

So here we are. Am I going to try to be a real bike racer? Eventually I could move in that direction. Training well, for the correct thing, will gradually burn the fat off my body. But is that a priority for me? No. Should it be? No! That is what I have been lacking.

Thus begins what I am going to refer to as the "Scorched Earth" project. Primarily because I would much prefer the ability to burn the face off of anything or anyone, in a straight up sprint. All in all, there is nothing revolutionary here. Just the realization that maybe I ought to focus on getting better at what I am already good at, rather than at what I am no good at. Stop trying to be fabulous Fabian or THOR SMASH and maybe try to be more like Chris Hoy. That guy is DIESEL.

Also, I have been going to rugby practice. I'm not sorry, it's pretty fun.

DCCX was this past weekend. The course was mostly fun, but featured a number of sections in which you had to pedal your bike up steep pitches. 2 laps of this were too much for my legs, and I cracked. On the upside, I did not crash. On the downside, I got lapped. I really like racing cross! I just have been exceedingly bad at it this year. It's too bad.

MNSR intelligence suggests that Kinder CX this weekend is pretty flat. Maybe I will actually race rather than be discouraged and not race, as I am inclined. Thanks to a suggestion, I have a hilarious idea for a halloween costume to race in.

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Hyattsville CX: Something Worth Writing About

I raced at Winchester, and enjoyed myself (and particularly enjoyed the weather), but didn't come away with anything notable.

Then I got a cold the following Tuesday (ahem), and was concerned for the state of my being going into this past weekend's races.

Turned out my concern was justified - I went to Psycho Cross on Saturday and finished last (except for one DNF) in the small field - I think it had a lot to do with having my sinuses still all clogged and stuff. I like to think I'm not that systematically terrible. I did outsprint a junior at the end of the race.

Sunday I drove out to Hyattsville, took a lap to see the course, and felt pretty terrible. I didn't want to race. However, the course seemed fun, so I decided to cowboy up and give it the ol' college try. Even though it was a million degrees. Even though my head hurt. Whine whine whine whine.

WELL. Was that a good decision, or what? I started on the 4th row or so (number 47 in staging but there were some open spots, so a few of us got to move up). I had taken the time to warm up all good and well, spending about half an hour spinning on top of a couple preview laps. When the whistle blew, I was able to needle up to a top 20 spot for a little while, first time this year. From there it is a matter of "hold on as long as you can until everybody goes past." Hence my plan of "hold on a little bit longer every week until I can last the whole race."

Either way, the point is, the first two laps of the race, I felt GOOD. Like, holding position, picking off dudes, win a prime (one of those luck-of-the-draw next guy through the barriers jobs), feel like I actually belong good. It wasn't to last. My cold, and the energy it takes to do an extended run such as this course featured* gradually caught up with me. I began to fade back to the mid-to-late 30s, from the late 20s. (You guys see what I did there? Haha, masters riders.)

*The giant runup and subsequent steep descent may have been "rideable," but it certainly was not worth it for me to try. Then there was that mud bog at the bottom that was eating front wheels and feet. I didn't even figure out how to not catch my foot in the mud/hit a tree or spectator with my bike until the last lap. Either way, I really enjoyed how the backside turned into a big party. All cx races should have such a feature. See also: the "back nine" at Ed Sander, the team tent section at DCCX sort of, the "alpe d'woes" at Tacchino this year.

At this point, the wheels fell off the wagon and I gave in to my tendency to crash my face.What happened was, I came through this 180 degree corner where you go up this little rise, it kills your speed, and you can throw your bike back down, and there was a course stake laying across the exit of the corner. And it was positioned so as to not be visible when you come in. So I ran it over while my bike was not perpendicular to the ground (because it was a damn corner), which caused my front wheel to immediately peace the F O and me to go sprawling down the hill.

The 60 seconds of rest I got while trying to figure out which way was up and where exactly my chain was in relation to my crankset allowed me to get up and RAGE for the fast section immediately following. So that felt good at least. But while I was down, like 20 dudes went past me! I caught up to one in the next two laps. I finished 54th. I'm not sorry. I raced surprisingly well (on a day when I just wanted to finish not last), had a real good time of it, and got to get awesomely dirty.
Photo by my titanium-spined friend. I'm going to open hand slap the next person to ask me why we got white kits for cross.

Rich and I rode the special olympics parade lap, which I thought was a really nice thing to have.

This weekend, MABRAcross is off, the MAC is headed to DE, but I am headed to sunny Cleveland, for alumni weekend at my alma mater and an Ohio cross race.

THEY DON'T EVEN USE BIKEREG

I AM GOING TO HAVE TO THROW SOME ELBOWS TO STAGE

I'm looking forward to it, though. I am going to go for a run around campus and get nostalgic for all the time I spent running my senior year, when I was beginning this process of transformation from "giant" to "less giant." In a complete contradiction to that goal, I am going to go to a wonderful place called Melt. I will watch a football game and say hello to the old coaches. Then, I will try to dominate some Brohio cross bros.

And if any of you out there are going to be in need of an inexperienced attorney beginning in mid-to-late 2012, please let me know.

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14 again - Westlife Gravity Tour, live in Hanoi

I’ve had themost amazing weekend, in which the highlight had to be the Westlife Gravity Tour Concert here in Hanoi. Not only the concert breathtakinglywonderful, but it brought back so many memories.

Westlife isan Irish band (just in case you didn’t know) that was (is?) intensely popularthroughout Asia and Europe in the early and mid 2000s. They’re on their eleventhalbum now, Gravity and are doing a world tour to promote it. Strangely enoughthey never made it to the US so hardly anyone over that side of the pondactually know them. But my friends in middle school and I really loved themback around 2002-2004, and back then we were following their moves as much as itwas possible with the technology back then :P. After a few years, the obsessionwore off a bit but Westlife songs still remained as a nostalgic memory that wewould dig out every once in a while. I still smile when I remember about bringour discmans to Art classes to listen to Westlife (back in the days when we still listened to CDs) and spending our IT periodsfurtively (or not so furtively) going on the Westlife website. 

(I don’texactly follow them anymore and I thought they might have lost popularity nowbut considering they’re on their 11^th album, they must be sellingthose albums to someone.)

[[Image and video heavy]]

So it’staken them over ten years of the band being in existence to come to Vietnam toperform. I’ll be honest, I had reservations about the concert when it was firstannounced, not concerns about the Westlife side, but about our end’s ability toorganise a concert like this and not have it end in a sham, like thenot-so-distant-past-experience of Back Street Boys concert proved.

Regardless,I got tickets for myself and my friend Trang, who got me into Westlife in thefirst place. She flew from Ho Chi Minh City out to Hanoi just to see theconcert with me and boy it was worth it!! 

 

It’ssomething about just being there among all those people all waiting for thesame thing that gives you a thrill and honestly it was most fun I’ve had inmonths.

Actually oneof the biggest concern in the days up to the concert was the typical concernfor this time of year in Vietnam: TYPHOON!! It thankfully didn’t come and the weathercouldn’t be more perfect! There were some drops of rain as the concert started,but after about a song or two it let up and it was the perfect autumn night inHanoi – cool amidst the heat of the screaming and excitement and adrenalinerush of the performance. 

Our seatswere the VIP seats so admittedly we were a bit far from the stage, but I thinkin the end we got a a decent view, it was the front row, which meant that wecould stand and our vision isn’t blocked by anything and it was right in thecentre. People standing under the stage apparently said that their neck gottired from looking up after a while, even though they admittedly got muchbetter photos of Westlife than I could have done.  

They startedoff with When You’re Looking Like That and World of Our Own. It’s incredibleand unbelievable to hear songs that my friends and I once loved and sangtogether so many years ago, now sung live. I never thought it was even possibleto be better live than in the studio! I think it was a combination of theexcitement of finally having them in Vietnam, hearing them live for the firsttime and being all around the crazy atmosphere of the stadium that made it so good. I don’t think I’ve screamed somuch…ever!

One of thehighlights has to be the screams that they got when Shane just startedprompting “An empty street, an empty house, a hole inside my heart…” I wasactually so bummed when I didn’t see My Love on the song list in the GravityTour wikipedia page at the beginning…I mean, how could they NOT sing My Love?It’s the song I love and it’s the song fans here in Vietnam love. Herein Vietnam, to think about Westlife is to think about My Love. So you cannot believehow thrilled I was to hear them start singing it and I think literally thewhole stadium was singing along. Here’s the video:  

 Excuse our kind of off-tune singing. Below is a better version and angle from youtube :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dz-EUVv-bs

The thing Ilove about Westlife concerts from videos I’ve seen is that they always have amedley break in the middle where they cover songs from other artists and it’salways slightly goofy and really fun. This time they were dressed in MickeyMouse t-shirts and singing Viva La Vida (Coldplay), Only Girl (Rihanna), TheTime (Black Eyed Peas), Bad Romance (Lady Gaga) and I Predict A Riot (KaiserChiefs). Bad Romance of course got the screams hehe. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAEbUQWYmbI

Some funmoments: They were whipping out their iPhones to take pictures and videos thewhole time, I think Nicky was even Tweeting on stage. They even took videos andphotos for the fans near the stage. I think of the few bands/artists that haveperformed here in Vietnam (there’s been very few – BSB, Super Junior, David Archulettacome to mind) only David had both made the crowd this wild and be this closeand friendly. There’s a breath-takingly beautiful moment where they asked everyoneto take out our phones and shined them up to the sky for You Raise Me Up.

Photo: Dao Nguyen

Ohyeah, there was the mid-concert crowd-control exercise for the guys, exceptthat I doubt they achieved much. Basically everyone standing by the stage waspushing up so people at the front were getting a little crushed and Markstarted off trying to get everyone to take 2 steps back. It didn’t work and hegave up :p and the rest of the guys took over. I wonder whether anyone moved atall. Haha. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOLaGTatHsk

We finishedwith an encore of What About Now and Uptown Girl, which is appropriately upbeatand really great note to end on. What I love about Westlife is that theirstrength might not be in the complicated choreography but they know how tospice up their routines so that it’s fresh and fun. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqzho4mWsq0

My only realcomplaint is that at the beginning, Mark’s microphone apparently had someproblem and that Kian got too little of the limelight. I think the only time Igot a decent photo of him on the LCD screen was when he was not singing, but talking (about his wife and new baby,and got the whole stadium to chant the baby’s nickame – Twinkle – for him torecord on his phone). 

This was the only decent shot of Kian that I got.
 

Actually, strangely the only one who I got most decent shots of was Mark and it wasn't intentional. Shane got close ups on the LCD screens a lot but somehow his shots came out either blurry or all I get is his chin...haha.

I think they should have done You Make Me Feel, onebecause I love that song :P and two because Kian actually has a solo in that. 

Anyway, here's Mark. Trang is happy though :D. 

 

I really like this photo of Nicky

Also, this is a general complaint that I’m sure everyone has: the concert wasway too short!! They started around 8h10 and ended when it wasn’t even 10 yet.It seemed even shorter when you’re actually there because you’re so focused onthem. But it was a fantastic show! All the seats were filled, and there was somuch screaming ^^

It was anamazing night. They should come back. Oh my god, they should have done morethan just one night here and I totally would go to see them again…

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