Mellencamp-town races

When I was a young boy
Said put away those young boy ways
Now that I'm gettin' older
So much older
I love all those young boy days
With a girl like you
With a girl like you
Lord knows there are things we can do, baby
Just me and you
Come on and make it dirt...
Picked up a book the other day, "1000 Excuses So You Don't Have To Do Shit", it's a crappy read but it lets you come up with reason to avoid doing stuff you know you should be doing but aren't, It's a NY Times best seller. I should be racing these races instead of making excuses not to, to be honest though the last few years my prep work and training just hasn't been nearly what it was or should be when I was racing more... I think that's excuse # 205 in the book if you're keeping track. Any way... Psycowpath had their first race of the season today, didn't race it but did volunteer to help out...




...and cook an ass load of bacon, 9 lbs to be exact. The apartment still smells like bacon, I may have destroyed a kitchen and I pretty much felt like I absorbed one of these jars full of bacon grease through my skin. but man was it worth it, it is bacon after all.


Got up early and took my loot to Swanson to get ready for the race.


7:15 in the morning and all is calm and quiet for the moment, not sure what the total racer count was on the day but there seemed to be a really good turn out.


Water, bacon, good tunes and cowbell, lots more cowbell, what else could you possibly need for a bacon hand up station halfway through a lap?


Good help is always needed and this guy was here to lend a hand.... er, paw in any way he could.


The Feagan's were even kind enough to provide some pit stick just in case someone didn't feel fresh halfway through their lap?!? Naw, it was just in the bag with the cups but now that the idea is out there just wait, in a year or two pit stick handups will be the norm. Just you wait.

Trail seemed to be in really good shape despite the rain we had on Thursday, wish I would have had more time today so I could have ridden a few laps after the race.


New this year was a running race prior to the MTB race, seemed like a really good concept and everyone I talked to was having a good time and a few of them ran and then rode, I call those people insane but you might have your own word for them.

I was only able to stay until noon so didn't get a chance to see the category 1 or 2 racers but the marathoners and the beginners are always fun to watch and it seemed like almost everyone had a great time.

I say almost because there is one dude out there that should really take a close look at himself in the mirror and make a few changes in his life. About the only negative on the day was the one Jr. racer who showed up at the bacon station almost in tears and ready to quit. She was dead last by a long ways but that wasn't what had her upset, one of the marathon racers decided that they needed to curse at this young girl of about 10-12 because she was "riding too slow and was in the way"... really dude, you should be ashamed of yourself. Guys like that aren't the future of our sport, or at least I hope they aren't, that little girl and her friends are the future of the sport and to yell at her because she was naturally not going as fast as the much more experienced riders seemed more than a little uncalled for. Luckily after a few pieces of bacon, some water and a pep talk from those of us up there, to include her mother, the girl decided to get back on the bike and finish the lap... despite knowing that the "really scary hill" (decent section) was coming up. I truly hope that the encouragement that she was able to get at the halfway point was enough to keep her going in future races and she can block out the bad seed who decided it was more important to Strava the section than to encourage a fellow racer. Fortunately those kinds of people seem to be the exception rather than the norm at these races... deep breaths, rant over... hope everyone who participated had as good a time out there today as I did volunteering. 

It's coming....

Riding, racing and a sort of DFL...

First race of the Psycowpath series was this last weekend and for all intents and purposes it went fairly well. Bike performed almost flawlessly, almost because the front brake is in some serious need of servicing. I am not sure what happened, air bubble in the hydro fluid or a leak or whatever but it soft and squishy and goes almost all the way to the handlebars before it gets any grip... not that I am going to blame that on my race results because if anything no brakes should have made me faster right. Actually though I am not all that surprised or disappointed in the results, first season stepping up to Cat 2 and it's a huge step in talent and speed, plus to be honest I don't train, I ride but I don't really train.



As it turns out I didn't actually finish DFL, I technically only finished DFL in the 40-49 subcategory. Sure that might be only semantics but I'll take it.



Amazingly for feeling like I was going to die on Sunday by Monday I was feeling almost normal and by Tuesday I even felt good enough for a spin through Wilderness Park. Everything is already green and starting to become overgrown and it's only the beginning of April!




With the new hubs and rims the Cog is riding sweeter than ever, it could just be my imagination but it just feels faster, lighter and more responsive in the corners. Warm weather, races in the future and smooth riding bikes... live is pretty good right about now.

It's coming... the sound of bike chains, sweat and good old fashioned dirty fun!!

Psycowpath you know you wanna look! If you build it they will come! I have been racing the series for about 3 years now, haven't really made it to every race yet but who knows maybe this is the year... then again maybe not, life can sometimes get in the way of play. The series has been getting more popular every year and now it looks like they are finally breaking off from the Nebraska cycling news site and starting up one of their own, now I am all for biking in any way, shape or form but I am all about the dirt.  I am really psyched for the site since it will be all single track rather than needing to sift through the roadie things, no news about criteriums, no skinny tires a new site all about the fat tires and the people who love them. This is my site, it is almost better then porn... almost!

River City Shoot Out...

The second race of the season is officially in the books and I gotta tell you the day was absolutely perfect for racing, I am so glad they waited that extra day because yesterday was cold and overcast… who wants to race in that? I finished 6^th again which seems to be my spot since that is two races in a row. Whenever I start to think that 6^th is not all that good, that it is middle of the pack I stop and realize that it is a top ten finish and that the other five guys that beat me are not your average Huffy riding folks on the street they are guys just like me, guys that ride for the love of it, guys that put in the hours and miles during the week guys that share a similar passion. In that perspective 6^th place is actually pretty good, especially when you consider that I am not 20 something anymore, hell there are people who are my age working on their first heart attack, some working on their second heart attack, sitting on the couch eating, drinking and smoking themselves to death… me I’m trying to kill my self on a bike, not a whole lot of different except it leaves a much better looking corpse. I have friends a lot younger then me who won’t even ride with me because they think I will try to kill them, I won’t but you might wish that you were dead since riding works a few different muscle groups then what they are probably used to giving a good work out to.

I guess there is always room for improvement in everything I just got to figure out how to get out of the number 6 slot and by that I mean upwards because 7th place would not be 6th but it also isn't the right direction. 

Got a lot of great pictures... look here to see if your mug is one of the lucky ones.

"To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe."

~Anatole France~

Sometimes it really is up hill both ways...

Flat it was not, 800 feet of climbing is what it was, 70 it was not, 50 if you were lucky is what it was, sunny it was not, windy and over cast is what it was; one lie always seems to turn into another and another and another. The kick off to the Psycowpath season was today at Maskenthine Lake and other then the fact that I was out on the bike doing what I love to do it sucked; but a crappy day on a bike is better then a good day off of it. Over all the whole experience was great, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip as it got me out of Lincoln, I got to spend time with good friends and I got to leave my sweat on a new and strange soil… what more could you ask for? Remember when your parents or grandparents used to spin the yarns about how they had to walk everywhere and it was always uphill? Well other than the walking part the course seemed to be all uphill, not sure how that is possible one would surmise that what goes up must go down but it just never happened, there were little sections of downwardish hills but nothing compared to the uphill, the course was either bumpy as hell, wet and tacky or tight and twisty; it seemed like every time you started to maybe gain some speed one of the afore mentioned obstacles would get in the way causing a rapid and complete loss of speed. This definitely was a challenging course that probably would have been better suited for later in the season. It did however point out that I need to work harder.

The trip up was good and we got a few funny stories from the whole event (that I may share later), memories that will last a life time… and free shit, you gotta love the free shit.

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose."

From The Wonder Years