Thank god I am racing????

I haven't raced in over a month. I know disgusting, but hey shit happens and has it been happening to me!!!

Let me see the last time I raced was October 20th. I went into the race feeling good and wrecked. Fucked up my shoulder, out for the rest of the week. That same day the fires started in O.C. and stopped me from riding all week long. Finally air clears up 10-29, Monday and I end up with not one, not two but four Cornial Ulcers in my right eye. Well that takes me off the bike for two weeks. Considering the first week I was stuck at home with the lights off due to the massive migrains strong light gave me, I say it was pretty serious. I also had to put drops and an ointment in my eye for two weeks. Yes I said ointment. This stuff had the consistancy of Neosporin and would blur my vision in my right eye for an hour.

So once that is all over with and I can start wearing contacts again now that it is now November. Infact it is the week of the 11th-17th. I decide on Thursday the 15th that it would be a good idea to go ride offroad since my optometrist says it is okay. I am feeling good and am pushing right along. I am almost done with the loop and at the top of the Luge. I am following Hugo (bad move I later fnd out) and we are gaining speed. I am spinning out on a 48-11 on a 29er. I go off the first little step off and fly to the left side of the trail. I then go off the next step off and sail right along to stick my front wheel in a rut. I go OTB (Over The Bars) and demolish the bike, as well as my self.

So I figure give it a week and I should be good. I figure I will go race the 25th of November. Eeeeghghghghghgh!!!! Nope I go ride the morning of my birthday (23rd for those of you who don't know). It is a nice easy 42 miles at about 22mph down to Sunset Beach and back. Somehow I pulled my IT band. Put me in so much pain that I had to spend the whole next day, hungover as well, icing it so I could walk. Sunday it still hurt and I did a nice easy ride around town to stretch it. About 30 mile to Cal Poly and back. It felt okay but jumping and or running on it out of the question.

So this week I gear up for the weekend. Start back up the old training regiment. I put in 80-90 miles on Monday,Lincoln to Batavia, to Taft, to Cannon, to Santiago Canyon, to the 133 to PCH, to the River trail, to home. Did it in about five hours. Tuesday spent an hour on the rollers to get the acid out of the legs. Wedensday a relax day. Today going to go ride the Loop. But hey hold on the race this week is in Bakersfield. Fuck that I am not going to drive to Spracktown. No fucking way in hell.
A.) It is Bakersfield
B) It is Bakersfield
C) I ain't got the cash for that gas
D) it is Bakersfield
I hate that town and I will not drive there. If I wanted to race in Sprack alley I would go to Costa Mesa and race up and down Hamilton.
So Maybe I will get to race next week.

Cut it short.

So the old lady says to me "I like your writing style, you go blah blah blah I had a bad week, oh yeah the boys at the shop now call me Bobke. Just cut it off at the end, no explanation nothing just Bobke."

So here is the explanation of the Bobke name, we are sitting there at the shop watching the crash video with Bob Roll narrating, when Cheddar turns to me and says "hey you look like him." To which my girlfriend says "oh my god you really do." So now all the boys call me Bobke. So there is the story not that exciting really. That is why I cut it short.

On a positive note I got to finally put miles on my new road bike.(Look 595 pro team with Chorus kit, Easton EA90 SL rims, Easton EA90 stem and bars) It is awesome. Put about 130 miles on in three days. I know not that much but still a blast. The damn thing is so responsive. It just wants to go, and in corners it tracks like it was on rails. No effort leaning it over, you actually have to kind of pull yourself back. I have to say that the only thing I do not like about the bike is the ass hatchet for a seat that it has. The seat is really only good for 45 miles before it started to tear up my t'aint. I did about 60 miles on Monday and when I got done it felt like someone hit my taint with an aluminum baseball bat. I am going to give it another two weeks to see if it needs significant break in time, after that it is going to the dumpster gods and I am going back to a Fizik Aireone.

Cyclists Down????

Seeing that I am new to cycling. I am more sensitive to stories about cyclists getting hit or killed by vehicles, out of their own fault or not. I read on the old Drunk Cyclist page everyday it seems about another person, mother, father, child, sibling etc;, dieing. I am not sure but it seems, in the last two years, to be gaining speed. Now is it because more people due to economical pressure are riding bikes, or that it has been deemed more environmental friendly? Is it due to the fact that cyclists are acting as if they own the road and breaking laws all the time? Is it because we as a society are becoming less patient of others and expect people to give us respect? Not sure.
I ride about 150 miles a week on a bicycle, sometimes more. I have been pushed off the road, yelled at, and had shit thrown at me. This got me wondering if my own friends are ones who do this to others? I have a bunch of friends that do not ride or understand the mentality of riding. I wonder if they remember that they have a friend (me) that rides everyday he can on the road, or trail, and try's to obey all laws. I have pondered if everone of my friends realizes that their vehicle could end a cyclists life in a second just by stopping in front of that person. That when they are making the quick right turn in front of a cyclist and cutting him off while he is moving along at 20 miles an hour that he could snap him neck by hitting the back of a car. When they won't pass in the left lane and try and squeeze around him in the lane with cars parked on the right he could eat a mirror or door, be out of work for awhile or dead. I would just like my friends that do not ride to try and remember that. Try and think about me or your other friends that may ride every time you think "damn biker/cyclist" and want to do something rash.
Also remember that by law we as cyclists are supposed to be in the road. I am only saying this because I really do not want to have to go to a funeral for one of my friends that do ride, or attend my own, or attend one of my friends court hearing for vehicular manslaughter.
As for you cyclists as I have always said braking the laws intentionally is not going to make motorists respect us anymore. Cutting people off, riding against traffic, going extremely slow so you can talk (which by the way I found I can do at higher speeds just as easily), running stop signs when there are cars waiting, or no lights. These things tend to anger others, just as if you were driving and had to avoid a car with no lights or coming at you. I am only saying this because I really do not want to have to go to a funeral for one of my friends that do ride, or attend my own, or attend one of my friends court hearing for vehicular manslaughter.

What a fuck'd weekend

So yeah woke up Saturday morning about 6am to get ready to go race at Hansen Dam. Oh yeah I race, or I should say try to race cyclocross. Felt like shit and of course my kit was dirty, so now I stink. I then load up the old lady all my gear, the old lady's sister and my buddy Mikey. Oh yeah the dog Jake. Well, we get on the road after a stop for gas, and Del Taco at 825am. Race is at 10am. We get there and I am in a piss poor mood from the lack of sleep and energy. I get my number take a cold lap of the course and then proceed to warm up the old thunder thighs. I am starting to feel better. Race starts and I am staying with the pack. We go through the first run up and I pass a few people, go through the next section I hit the barriers and pass one more guy. I am feeling like a god, a fat slow and retarded god, but still a god. The course then goes up hill, I am trying to pass two more guys and they both go down on the inside of an uphill, right, turn. I swing to the outside so not to be part of the pile and I end up going up a steeper section pulling the bike out from under myself and falling straight armed onto my palm. This causes me to fuck up my shoulder. I try to push through the pain but after almost another full lap I realize that I can not control the front of my bike and am having a damn time trying to turn right. You know all that counter-steering stuff depends on the the ability to lean on the inside arm, well when it buckles you lose ya turn. So for my safety and the safety of the others I pulled out. This pissed me off and the first one to get the brunt of my anger is the old lady. Which I know she will read this so I am saying once again for the 5th time sorry sweetheart.

Sunday I get the bright idea that since I injured myself Saturday I should go for a team ride with the old Higher Cadence. It is a faster ride than I was ready for. We go up Brea Canyon and I get dropped, We then make a left on Brea Canyon Cutoff, I get dropped half way up. That is the whole ride. Me by myself, in pain (shoulder), trying to find the pack of 16 or so. We do East West, Turnbull Canyon, and back out Colima to Grand to D.B. Blvd and then back to Brea Canyon. Well I hook up with them around Nogales and Colima. We hit the Canyon, with a awesome pace line cooking along at about 33 miles an hour. I am playing gate keeper, cause I am weak, like Britney's defense about being a good mother. I then flat. No chance, they are gone I didn't whistle loud enough, nor did I want to fuck up their fun of the pace line. I fix it in about a minute and a half. Get going again and now I have the fun of pushing through the canyon as fast as I can (22 mph) to try and catch them. I don't,so like a true idiot instead of taking the easy way out I climb Lemon. I get back to the shop and about fall over. Did mention how much fun it is to try and climb out of the saddle with a fucked shoulder. It looked like the cycling version of the Ministry of Silly Walks.
So yeah just to say this was a really bummed fucking weekend. And with the heat and all the fires here in Socal you know it is just going to be a better week since I would rather go smoke a hundred cigarettes than ride in this air.