Plants

This is what my diet consists of this week.  Came down with a little sinus infection at the studio this week and with the first race weekend this weekend I'm pulling out all the stops.  Drank nearly 3 gallons of water today on the trip back from Charlottesville.  Antioxidants are on the loose in this body.  I'm waaay out of shape heading into this weekend, but I'm too stupid to be worried. 

So I've been reading a lot about food and cancer and animal products and all that stuff and I'm moving toward the plants.  Plants are where it's at.  This is what I bought today at Trader Joes, much of it organic, none of it cheap, but I imagine I'll be feeling pretty good by week's end:

Power Plant Green Juice
Cranberry Raspberry Juice
Vegetable Broth
Rice Milk
Dozen Free Range Eggs
Broccoli
Carrots
Celery
Almond Butter
Kidney Beans
White Beans
Pinto Beans
Hummus
Bananas
Raisins
Prewashed Greens Mix
Sprouted Wheat Bread
Simpler Times Lager
Apples

Add some oats, a little granola, coffee, a bunch of quinoa and you've got an idea what I'm eating this week.  Hopefully this will leave me feeling great by Saturday.

Speaking of Saturday, Saturday is the first race of my season.  Last weekend a bunch of the local heroes duked it out in epic conditions at Beat the Freak.  Last year I notched my first win in this race, here's some footage.


Find more videos like this on Freak Adventures


I'm chomping at the bit to get out and hurt.  I'm behind in training, but that's what the CX1/2, 60 minute race followed by the 30 minute Single Speed race is for.  Last season I started out getting banged up in the 4's and finished winning the 3 races ahead of the 2's in January.  Maybe I'll have that kind of luck this year.  I'm definitely in better shape now than I was when I started in November last year so I've got faith and that's all you can really have when you're racing cyclocross.

It's Coming

Less than two weeks till my first races of the season.  All but two days of it I'll be in Charlottesville working on the new Stringdusters record.  Fortunately the bike's going with me and we're staying away from town in a nice wooded area with some hills and country roads.  Unfortunately I had a run-in with a banjo case on the bus night before last and tore off the tip of one of my toes and it hurts.  To walk.  So it'll be interesting to see if I can get in the right kind of workouts this week with the limitations. 

Cross the Way Series

Real Practice

Yesterday's practice was mostly a little barrier hopping and some bullshitting. I like to bullshit, but you can't shit a shitter and I wanted to ride, so today I went to the hardware store, bought some rebar, some eye hooks, a 4 lb. sledge, and some spray paint and built some barriers. I also picked up a mess of those little orange flags and headed over to Charlotte Park for some real rehearsal. It had been raining all night and all day so the course was thoroughly soaked. It was a little like last January in Knoxville; water everywhere. I set up the barriers, layed out the flags and ripped off 6 laps in 53 minutes. I was basically whipped by then from riding with that much resistance (deep grass and deep water) but with the flags out it made bike handling an issue and I think I've got a really difficult course. The barriers are a little small, however, so I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board and find some 1x18's and really make something to jump over. I took a picture of the spray paint phase but it didn't come out and it was raining too hard to show off the course so you'll have to wait for next time (a few weeks from now...)

Anyway, I'm headed out of town tomorrow, won't even have time to golf before I leave town, but hopefully I'll get into a little riding when I'm over in Charlottesville. Season kicks off in 17 days, hard to know what my fitness is like. There were some fast guys at practice last night but they weren't really showing me anything so it's hard to say... At least I weigh less than I did at the beginning of last season, of course I was racing the 4's last year and I opted to upgrade to 2's at the end of last season. 1 full hour plus the SS race should whip this old boy into shape...

Cyclocross Practice Tonight

The folks at Uphill Grind, purveyors of fine cyclocross races in the Nashville area (Cross the Way Series) are putting on their weekly practice session just down the street from my house in West Park. I'm a little bummed we aren't using my personal practice course just around the corner in Charlotte Park, but such is life. I'm hoping to drag them over there sometime and show them just how great it is.

This week I've done a few days on the mountain bike with mixed results. Sunday I headed to Montgomery Bell with the intention of riding a few hours and just got bored. Weird, huh? I guess it's just that time of year... But I will say that riding around aimlessly in a 100 acre park is losing it's appeal. I think it's time to move back to CO, home of the all day epic. That's the plan, at least, in the next few years, to relocate to my homeland.

Headed out for a lap or two around Percy Warner with my boy Jeremy prior to cross practice, hopefully it'll be rainy and miserable. I know no one reads this thing, but if you do, if you find yourself with nothing to do tonight at 5:30, head over to West Park and catch the fever!! It'll hurt.

Long Ride

3 hours on the Mountain Bike yesterday at Lock 4 just about killed me. The cramps are back. I don't know if I've gone soft, if all my running has left my legs ill-prepared for the SS or if this is just what happens now, but the last three times I've really put it down on the Mountain Bike, I've battle serious cramps. My intention was to do four laps at a 6 lap pace to determine if I could ride 8 laps in 6 hours for the inaugural 6hr race at Lock 4 on October 10. I did, missing the mark by only 1:35, but I battled some serious cramps early on that sent me to the car midway through lap 3. So, 6 hours of riding aren't necessarily the best preparation for 'cross season, but it came up on the calendar, on a weekend I'm home, and it's 45 minutes from the house and I don't know if I can do it, so I think I'll try, though, after yesterday I'm having my doubts. I'm going out again on Wednesday, the day before I leave for two weeks, to give it another go, hopefully do 5 laps at the same pace and see how I feel. David told me yesterday he's considering dropping the price to $50 for a week to encourage pre-registration. If he does that, he'll probably seal my fate. So three hours seems to be my limit right now, I'm praying I can do nearly 4 by next week. It shouldn't be so hard, Lock 4 has virtually no climbing, but I've got the runner's quads going on right now and there's not a whole lot I can do about it.

Bloggggg

So, it's been awhile. A long while. I've entered a few races this summer, had some success, some vast failure (my explosion at Stanky Creek for example) and now, as I return home from another long and beautiful tour, I greet the fall season. cyclocross. So the question then is, Can I keep this blog up? I've been blogging consistently for the band on our Tumblr blog, the Infamous Word and I dig the interface but the aesthetics blow so I suppose I'll stick with One Speed. For those of you who follow (both of you) this blog should indicate a return to blogging dominance. If I can figure out how to do this from my phone, you can count on some riveting content. If not, well, dear reader, you will still be bombarded with random thoughts and ride recounts... anyway, as I prepare for season two on the cross bike, it's time to go ride, then tear that old boy down and recable the entire apparatus. Headed out the door for another warm weather afternoon ride, but soon the air will crisp, the leaves will fall, and I'll line up for my 7-10 races before the glorious ski season begins. It's all cycles, people, and finding the balance is always difficult, but always rewarding. Until next time (or later today) adios.