More misc ramblings

Yup-its Monday and hitting the deck HARD Saturday has its lingering effects. But thinking back I have to put something away in the data banks!! How could I have not crashed the first time up the hill? Well believe it or not I actually practice stopping and lifting my rear wheel and placing it to the side. My goal is to have the control to ride, stop, lift my rear wheel and rotate 90 degrees and start riding. Then once that is mastered, move to 180 degree spin. I am at about 5 degrees so far...haha...okay maybe 15 degrees on a good day.

So I could have hopped my rear wheel possibly so my foot cleared the stick then rolled down the hill. Hopefully its committed to memory now.

Its probably no surprise I am always looking for a great deal on trick bike supplies. I am a bit of a weight weenie (except not a very well funded one) as you all know. Searching the swap and sells is much easier and a lot less hassle than ebay so I try to be diligent and check often.

I usually see what I want mid day and find out its already sold or realize I hadnt checked in a day or two and same thing. Back on page 3 or 4 is a deal of the century on something I need. But today sitting on top of page 1 was a new add for a 10 speed DA cassette and the DA chain (both new when started and lightly used together) for $75 shipped. That my friends is what I am talking about!! Now I have a dedicated 11-23 cassette for my disc wheel and can LEAVE this 11-23DA cassette on my best road race wheel. I PM'd the guy, he sent a Paypal invoice and even said Congrats!! yeah-he knew this wasnt going to last. Booyah!!

And last, what started out as a "building" year for cyclocross has started out as being better than I could have imagined. I started the year with no desire to race for position. Sure i am being naive to think I wouldn't race hard, but I really just wanted to get better. But now that the season has started I feel as engaged and focused on cross as my road racing. I am not training like I should due ot all these spills and schedule conflicts that keep me off the bike mid-week, but the racing seems to be keeping me in shape. But as one of my fav old sayings goes: "once the green flag drops, the bullshit stops".

I'm having a blast out there. I am anxiously anticipating when we hit the mud and singletrack, snow and ice how badly I will fade. If there's one thing I hate is training in wet AND cold. So going out to find mud to train on and gain valuable slip and slide skills is not happening. Got to get that experience in the races. I only want to clean my bike and shoes once a week!! What I am Trying to say is the weather is playing in my favor right now. But I will enjoy those nasty races in that sick kind of way too.

It was always a bit of a dream or "whats it like" for cross. Sort of like cross country skiing too. Always wanted to do them. Both have exceeded expectations. Sure makes a blah Cleveland Winter a lot more fun.