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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Tacchino CX: Making Tradeoffs

Disclaimer: this post is mostly not really race report.

So, it is reasonably well-established that losing weight by reducing calorie intake will result in some loss of power as your body adjusts. Certainly surmountable, but takes some time.

Listen, I lost 7 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Generally, it is for the better, but it probably contributed to feeling like I couldn't generate any power today.

It's really a tradeoff. I haven't been under 250 in like 10 months! And I am again! The ball is rolling downhill, ain't no stopping it now.

Also, racing at 2 is tough, I need to eat more in the AM. Probably shouldn't start races already really hungry.

I think it would be really funny to learn to bunny hop the barriers. However, I tend to make up ground on the barriers. Quick feet.

I was thinking today. You guys know about Ferrari's "1kg = 1% over a 10k climb" or whatever the numbers are theory, right? Repeated little grades work the same. Even if it is a "power course," elevation changes (up! up! up!) sap me of energy. Rich and I were briefly talking about physics in the car. I studied physics for a while. I bet I could illustrate the difference.

Let's take an example. Today's runup was called "Hup Hup Hill." Really sucked to run up that thing. Lot of energy used. Let's make up some numbers as a stand in. Say you have a hill 30m long, at a 10% grade. 30m, punchy, right?

How much more energy does it take for me to get up that hill? It is a change of 3 meters. Potential energy is equal to mgh. Assume I am 113kg, and "racer X" is 68kg. (Reasonably accurate. Right now I am 113kg; 68kg is approximately 150lbs. Start at a height of 1 meter. g is a constant.

PE = mgh.

PEx1 = 68*1*g. PEx2 = 68*4*g
PEx1 = 68g. PEx2 = 272g.

PEme1 = 113*1*g. PEme2 = 113*4*g.
PEme1 = 113g. PEme2 = 452g.

Youll notice that racer X requires 204g (remember, g is a constant) of additional energy to climb that height. I require 339g of additional energy to fight gravity (see what I did there?). By weighing 66% more than a 150lb racer, I need to expend (proportionally) 66% more energy to climb the hill. So all the times over the course of the race that we go up those little punchy hills, in the mud, or even those long sloggy climbs, I have to expend more energy. Over and over, and over.

These are numbers to concepts we all already recognized. But think about it - I'm only human. I can only store so much glycogen for ready access.

At the end of the day, it's more motivation to slim down. So I'm working on it (Again. But making progress encourages more progress.). Say hi if you see me out riding in the mornings.

Anyway, Tacchino was fun despite the lack of energy. This year, I did not dislocate my shoulder at Tacchino, which is a victory. Promoteur Jim did a really bang-up job with the race. My teammates are all pretty great, I thought the mud was fun (I feel like I am pretty seriously improving bike handling), there were a lot of people around.

I slipped and fell a couple times while taking warm up laps, and got my shoulder all muddy. I tried those lines, they didn't work, so I went back and figured it out. Then, everybody thought I already had raced. NOPE. JUST CRASHED 3 TURNS INTO MY WARM UP LAP. IN FRONT OF A BUNCH OF PEOPLE. HOPE IT WAS HILARIOUS.

Not enough carbohydrate fuel is consistent with what the race felt like - good good good bonk recover bonk recover truck steadily along as my body switches fuel sources after 30 minutes.

YOU GUYS JUST WAIT, SOON I WILL WEIGH AS MUCH AS I DID LAST YEAR WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY FAST ON MY CX BIKE AT THE END OF OCTOBER

PROBABLY ALSO AT THE END OF OCTOBER

ALSO, DON'T WORK ON YOUR BIKE THE MORNING OF THE RACE, BECAUSE YOU WILL INEVITABLY BREAK SOMETHING (like, your expander plug in your fork).

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Mashup Thursday

1.
Video:



Audio:



2.
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Audio:



3.
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Audio: (start this clip a few seconds earlier)



Finally have the wheel/tire setup I wanted. See you at Tacchino CX.

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Pattern Recognition: Charm City CX

I want to tell you guys about some not-really-scientific analysis I have done over the last 5 minutes or so.

2010 CX Season:
Charm City day 1 (C race) - 555.99 points
Charm City day 2 (C race) - 553.45 points
Charm City day 2 (B race - 2/3/4) - 552.17 points
THEN
Ed Sander C race - 431.12 points

2011 CX Season:
Nittany Lion B race - 2/3/4 - 514.57 points
Charm City day 1 B race - 2/3/4 - 524.09 points
Charm City day 2 B race - 2/3/4 - 501.38 points
THEN
Tacchino this upcoming Sunday.

I think it took me longer to type all that out than to come up with the theory that the 4th race of the season is where I learn how to race some CX.

Sunday was more fun than Saturday, as racing goes. Saturday was very slippery. Sunday I managed to at least feel like I was sticking my bike through corners. Saturday we had some solid team support though.

I'm still out of shape. I'm not that worried about it. It's gonna be a long season. I should finally have my tire/wheel situation sorted out this upcoming weekend.

LOOK AT THIS HILARIOUS PICTURE. I MIGHT EAT YOUR FACE.I've said it before - I can carry the bike by any point, no form required. I carried it up the stairs by the headtube one day.

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Nittany CX: I Am My Own Worst Enemy

Ah, 'cross. I remember why I love/hate you.

Well, the "hate" mostly just comes from the fact that if you're doing it right, there is just pain.

Nittany CX was really fun, even though my finish was unremarkable. It's all about metrics!

Cross-results predhcted I would finish 79th, based on my points. I actually finished 67th. OUTCOME = SUCCESS.

Last time I did the B race at a UCI race (so, a 2/3/4) I finished a lap down in 93rd, which didn't happen this time. OUTCOME = SUCCESS.

I only crashed my bike once. OUTCOME = SUCCESS.

All in all, I rode well and had fun. I staged wayyyyyy at the back (which is my own fault for signing up late), which led to me being in a severely disadvantageous position when some bro put his bike down in the very first corner, right in front of me. I found myself immediately off the back after avoiding hitting him, stirring echoes of dropping my chain in the first k of the B race at Charm City last year and ending up last as a result. However, this time I caught back up and started making up ground. I had made up about 20 places (and was feeling really good about how I was riding), when I hit a root in a slippery mud section. The root knocked my front wheel out from under me, and I was down quicker than I could let go of the handlebars. Fast as I got up, a bunch of dudes went by me. Trying to recover from that put me way in the red.

I started picking off dudes in front of me, with reasonable success. Next lap I took the same line (I thought it was the best one, I guess), hit the same root, and ALMOST WENT DOWN AGAIN IN THE SAME WAY. After that I learned my lesson.

After 2 weeks of rain, it was super muddy! 5 big mud sections, 2 of which were unrideable. Well, one of those was probably rideable but not worth the trouble.

Look at these pictures! So muddy!Pictures by Mrs. Wynnyk.

Oh, also, I'm now representing the moneynstuff-Wheels4Life bicycle racing concern. Sweet white kits for 'cross season, bro.

ARE YOU GUYS PSYCHED FOR NEXT WEEK? I AM. I'm still pretty fat, but I have been riding my bike a lot, so I feel strong.

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TOMORROW IS CROSS

YOU GUYS TOMORROW IS CROSS AND I AM REALLY EXCITED

I AM PRETTY SURE I HAVE THE RAGE

For a while this year, I lost sight of why I do this, with all the riding of bikes in circles. Sure, I really like riding bikes, and the freedom, and the wind in my face, and the meditation, and all that, but I forgot for a while that I REALLY WANT TO WIN.

Many dudes are faster than I am, and that is just a fact, but it means that if I want to win (and I do), I have to work harder than them, so that I can be faster than them.

Let me tell you something, internet: blogging doesn't make you any faster. But it can be entertaining, so I will continue looking for opportunities. There haven't been many lately. You guys really want to hear about my boring rides and the time I spend looking for jobs for next year?

I had a lot of fun at the Tour de Millersburg even though they gave me a ticket for riding my bike the wrong way on a one way street (I thought it was closed). A rider got out, opened, and drank a red bull halfway through the road race, which was hilarious. I attacked a lot, and they let me sit off the front by myself, which is always a good time. Racing in the rain was bizarrely fun.

I got a new bike, it is a singlespeed commuter and it is not finished yet because I still need a chainring. It is a pretty red color.

It is September, which means there is football on TV again. I like football.

I want to work harder than everyone else for the next three months, leading up to collegiate cx nats. The challenge is that I also have real-life responsibilities.


CAN I DO IT? STAY TUNED

This:

is what is on the headtube of my cross bike, by the way, in case you are wondering. It is not directed at anyone in particular. I have been riding around with a picture of a gold AK-47 on my road bike for a month and it reminds me to fire all of the bullets!

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