I agree with Peter Suderman. We watched the season premiere of Lost last night, and I am underwhelmed. That’s not say we won’t watch the final season (thanks, ABC, for releasing the episodes online), but I can’t help but wonder if the writers and producers are headed toward a Matrix-like finish–the show started so strongly, you can’t help but wonder if they’ve already laid their cards on the table, and if things are still incomprehensible at the end of the season, they can simply say “you didn’t get it? Tsk, tsk.”
1. There is a segment where the spotters are tied but the climber is not. Only in England.
2. Initially, during the first clip of Gaia, I wondered what the belayer was doing off to the right. Later, I found out. The fall rivals the infamous introduction to the film Hard Grit.
The biggest change for 2010 will be my return to (mostly) full time rock climbing. Last year was my attempt to be a “real” bike racer, and that didn’t quite work out as planned. It’s easy to say I just didn’t train hard enough, but I found that by the end of the season, road racing just wasn’t any fun. Combine that with an increasing desire to climb on the weekends (putting a serious dent in bike time), and riding motivation was seriously lacking (it’s worth noting, too, that climbing is very much a family activity for us, very much unlike bike racing). Of course, I haven’t given up the bike–I’m still commuting every day (even in the snow) and riding the mountain bike in Frick. But this year, my focus will be getting back to where I was with climbing. Part of this is spurred by our planning for a long-ish road trip out west in the spring (possible destinations are Hueco Tanks, Maple Canyon, and Rifle). And, of course, there will be many weekends spent at the New River Gorge, too.
That’s not say I won’t race this year. It may be difficult in the short term seeing as I don’t actually own a road bike, and if we’re gone most of April or May, I’ll start the season at a disadvantage with few miles in my legs. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll show up at the C races at some point (assuming a bike), and I’d like to try a mountain bike race or two this year as well.
As for climbing, I don’t have any concrete goals at this point. There are routes I’d like to do at the New River Gorge, but only time will tell if they will be season-long projects. I’m trying to work out some sort of training plan that only involves the gym one or two days a week. I happened upon these British gents and their hangboard training plans. Their commitment to the fine British tradition of focusing on board training rather than actually climbing is impressive. The hangboard training will be particularly useful, as my finger strength is lacking at the moment.
I never read as much as I should. My reading habits are also cyclical–I’ll read something very quickly, then not pick up anything for weeks after that. I need to change that. Anyway, here’s some stuff that I read in 2009:
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan. This wasn’t much of a lifestyle-changer for us, as we had already started moving in the direction of being local-vores, but still great reading.
Tools for Conviviality, Ivan Illich. This book, like most of Illich’s work, has done much to shape my view of how society should be structured.
Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew Crawford. In a sense, a postmodern meditation on Tools for Conviviality.
Any number of essays by Joel Salatin. I consider ourselves lucky to have found a local grass farmer in Joe Rush.
The Road, Cormac McCarthy. No, we haven’t seen the movie yet.
Mommy’s Doing Pull-ups in the Basement Again, Jenifer Hemphill.
A few weeks ago, I sold the trusty Cannondale and replaced it with a used Bianchi BuSS single speed. Road racing, and even to a certain extent, road riding, had become a bit stale for me, so I figured a mountain bike would be a fun replacement. The BuSS is an older model (pics coming, really), complete with bling-y gold components, including Paul hubs (which were a big selling point for me). The bike is fun to ride, and much more maneuverable than the Redline 29er I had last year. I’ve not noticed the drawbacks of the smaller wheels yet, either.
Last night, I did my first night ride in Frick Park with Robbie. I was woefully under-lit (Dan had loaned me a good LED, but wiring issues kept me from using it), so the bike was festooned with every low output commuter light I had, plus my climbing headlamp on my helmet. Robbie loaned me a high output LED flashlight, and that helped considerably. I was a bit hesitant on our first run down Iron Grate, but once I got used to the lighting (or, lack thereof), I didn’t have any problems. We rode back up the hill via the Fire Road trail and Rollercoaster, came down a switchback-y trail to the Nature Center trail, then came back down Bradema. We finished by riding back up Iron Grate, which went better than expected. It was certainly a hard effort, especially with the Bianchi’s steep 36×18 gearing, but I managed to make it to the tippy-top, only dabbing on the steep, rooted trail above the iron grate itself.
I really like the bike. It’s perfect for Frick, I think, perhaps even a bit better than the 29er, since the smaller wheels handle the tighter turns better. It climbs pretty well, too. I’d like to swap out the stock bars with the Titec H-bars on the commuter, but that will probably require longer brake cables, and I’m not ready for that much work.
Yes, muddy. Much warmer than last year, though, which was a good thing. I went into this race without much actual fitness, since I’ve not raced since July, and haven’t done any real “training” since August. At least I had commuting miles in my legs. A pre-ride of the course revealed that the course changed a bit from last year, with a nasty little climb on the backside of the course, as well as some re-routing around the playground, with the double barriers also becoming more of a factor, with a tight uphill corner just after them. The course was very wet, but only muddy in spots–but those spots promised to get muddier as the race went on. On particular section was basically unridable, even during the pre-ride, which meant three dismounts per lap. Hopefully my legs were up for it.
I managed to squeeze into the second row for the start, and this made all the difference. I hit the first grass section in about sixth place, and gaps formed almost immediately. I pulled into fifth at the run-up, but could never close the gap on the leaders. Alan was trading places with another riding just behind me, and I was cautious to maintain that gap best that I could. At the end of the first lap, I closed the gap to the fourth place rider on the tarmac, and we exchanged positions for the remainder of the race. It was interesting–he was clearly stronger on the technical sections, powering out of the turns and gapping me, but I routinely closed the gap and passed him on the tarmac. We did a good job holding our pace, gapping Alan.
I sat on his wheel entering the grass on the last lap, hoping to save some energy, but in retrospect, this was a bad idea. I should have tried to get a gap on the tarmac. I stayed with him through the climb (again, probably should have made a move), but he dropped the hammer on the techy bit, and I couldn’t pick it up. He even went down, but I could not summon my legs to attack. Such is life, I guess. I finished fifth without any problem. I’m pretty happy with that, again, given my fitness.
This was a good reminder that cyclocross is about 100 times more fun than road racing. Despite not being at the front, it was still a good race, exchanging places with another rider (and laughing about it afterward) and riding hard. In the road racing world, this would be an epic fail (of course, in the road racing world, we would sat in the pack for 39 minutes then had one minute of extreme effort). Perhaps next year should be experimentation with MTB racing and ‘cross, and avoidance of the rat race that is road racing….
