We sure got a lot accomplished this year, everyone is healthy and strong and ready for the new year.
I entered the lottery two weeks ago and today was the drawing and I got an email this evening to congratulate me on winning the chance to enter the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon on June 8, 2008!!!
WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!
I get to swim about 1.5 miles from Alcatraz in 55 degree water to the San Francisco waterfront, run about 1 mile from swim exit to the bike transition area, bicycle 18 miles around the hills of San Francisco finishing with an 8 mile run which includes a beach section and the famous sand stairs!
WOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!
Check it out
Last Thursday I had what I thought was surgery to remove a small bump from my neck. The doctor and nurses kept calling it a procedure. I've had this lump drained a few times over the past three years and my family doc suggested surgery to get rid of the infection completely. Basically it was an ingrown hair on the back of my neck that got infected and due to the extra tough skin on the back of your neck prevents the natural secretion of oil through the skin and the oil just collects forming a small lump. I missed running one of my favorite races, the Bellingham Jingle Bell run this weekend but I'm recovering just fine, back at work the next day. My only real problem is the bandages and sticky tape starts to annoy my neck.
So whats the difference between surgery and a surgical procedure?
Finally got out on a outdoor winter 'long' ride with Mike and friend (Jim). We met near the Vet clinic in Fairhaven and road out the interurban trail and then up, up, up Cleator road to the top. I put on two pairs of socks, leg warmers, three shirts, thick skull cap covering my ears, toasty warm gloves and I was still cold. Once underway, I was able to warm up by working hard, and boy was it hard. Climbing the 3.6 mile Cleator road we climbed about 1500 feet in the 3.6 miles, which is tough, but still a bit deceiving as about 1 mile of this is a flat section about half way up. I ended up having to walk a bit just to gather some more strength.
Once at the top Mike took a couple photos and we ate an then after getting cold, started back down. This was not nearly as fun, lots of pot holes and pretty fast going downhill so had to keep on the brakes and this was tough as I got colder and colder as we descended as I did not need to pedal, nor could I really as I was pretty much just standing and holding onto the handlebars and brakes as I rattled over the many small divots.
Back on the interurban it was nice to be able to pedal and start to warm up again. All in all a very nice 2 and half hour ride from home to top of Cleator and home again.
Road with Jacob on Sunday, we left mid morning and road to the bike jump park near the skate park. We road along some roads, but road the trails through Whatcom Falls park and really did not have much traffic to deal with, Jacob did great staying to the side and on the sidewalk when necessary. Jacob wore his fingerless bike gloves and within a mile asked for the full finger gloves I offered at the beginning.
The bike jump park wasn't really as much fun as we expected as it was quite muddy and actually the jumps were too big for Jacob and I to jump. So we tried to ride a couple of the smaller jumps but just ended up getting mud all over our shoes and tires.
The ride back home we got most the mud off our tires as it spun off and up our backsides and some onto our fronts as we gained speed on a couple downhill sections on the way home.
Great weekend of cold riding!
I went and raced another cyclocross race this weekend. This weeks race was up in Lynden racing on the fairgrounds. Ryan, from cyclocrazed.com, really setup another great course. This course felt much more like my first cyclocross race (at WWU) with lots of tight turns around trees, zig zagging back and forth over slick wet grass and under big pine trees and all the nice soft (slippery) pine needles underneath. The course also included a fast (long) descent on a gravel road transitioning (at speed) onto some long unkempt grass, with more twisting and turning under big trees. The run-up was very tough run up loose dirt with the final 15 feet or so at a much steeper pitch than the first 75 feet. Had to use a big push to get up and over the top each time.
BUT, the course include two unique sections that helped to make this course very memorable. Ryan sent us on a twisting loop with a hairpin turn at one end through some soupy mud in the grandstand area where they hold concerts and the demolition derby during the fair. This section went from soupy mud to more solid ground and back and forth until your bike was just caked in mud and dirt to a short section with a small spiral to ride into one of the barns. This was not just a way to get from one side to the other, this barn has a skateboard park setup inside and Ryan sent us up and over one of the jumps. Very fun!
This was the last event of the 2007 season for Ryan and cyclocrazed.com. I hope he can find more venues and open weekends in future seasons, cyclocross is a lot of fun, you can ride on a moutainbike if you want, so come on out and get some exercise and get a bit dirty next fall.
Drove out with good friend Mike and he took some pictures and wrote about his experience at the race too, check out his blog here: http://mcqview.blogspot.com/2007/11/tractor-cross_17.html
I also worked on a cabinet I'm making for my parents, I got most of my dado's and rabbit cuts done and was able to dry assemble the cabinet, it is looking good. It has been a lot of work, but hopefully be done before Christmas. Still need to cut slots for the sliding doors and assemble the doors themselves. I did stain up a couple scrap pieces to show my parents over thanksgiving to see what they like. I like the no stain area, this mahogany is very nice wood.
I was also able to finally get the roofing on the tree house (I'll post a blog with lots of pics soon now that I'm done). Jacob, Alex and the rest of the neighborhood seem to like the tree house. I may need to rework the ladder as the current rope ladder is tough to climb.
Had a busy weekend, it all started out with the Cyclocrazed cycle cross event at Cornwall Park in Bellingham. I had lots of fun, great weather, one mechanical issue (twig from a tree got stuck in my derailleur and had to stop and get off to 'fix' my wheel so I could pedal), one crash (complete endo over the front handle bars as I attempted to ride over one of the log barriers - needless to say I ran and carried the bike every other time).
I raced in the Mens C category and we did five laps all around Cornwall park, including a large circle of death on the big grass field where we spiralled around and around getting closer to the center to a hairpin turn at the center to spiral all the way back out. This was very cool, we had maybe 20 - 30 riders in this same spiral on the first lap and was neat having riders going both in and out at the same time. Kind of an optical illusion, some riders passing you but were really still behind or in front of you.
The course went through a lot of underbrush under all the tall evergreens. Not much underbrush, but more tons of pine needles, small tree twigs, some big twigs, but this soft surface also caused the twigs and such to kick up and I got some in my derailleur a couple times. One worked itself out and another was big enough to cause my chain to not even move, which made it tough to pedal, had to stop for that one.
One run up which you could ride if you had a lead up ride to get some momentum, but the course creator forces you up the side of the hill, hitting the pathway used for the run up about a quarter of the way up. By doing it this way, made it tough to start riding your bike in the middle of a pretty steep hill. I ran/pushed my bike every time, my friend Mike rode up a couple times, but it worked out to be about the same.
After the race I made my way out to the soccer fields for Jacobs game. We stopped on the way back to get a couple birthday gifts (Jacob had two parties this weekend) and home in time to eat and wrap gifts and finally relax a bit.
Sunday morning I ran with the trail runners, we had a great run, about 15+ miles just under 3 hours of moving time. We ran out past Lost Lake, which made me wish I had brought my camera, it was perfectly still, not a ripple, very black looking. I wonder how deep it is. After running past Lost Lake we got to our destination, a trail called 'So Easy', well it is not much of a run at this point because it is pretty much straight up.
We wait for each other at major intersections, or key locations and at the top of 'So Easy' we regrouped and decided to complete the loop around Chuckanut by running down past Fragrance Lake and the $2 (two dollar) trail, dumping out onto Cleator road and down to the Interurban back to the Vet and our cars. My knee started hurting, so started getting farther and farther behind the group. We met up on Cleator road I doing more of the down hill stuff it kept on hurting, but once on the flat Interurban I was able to run. It hurt some at the beginning, but towards the final mile or so was able to run without much pain. I did take a shortcut as I was pretty far off the back and actually finished a bit a head of half the group.
Halloween costumes were part of Jacobs birthday party today, so after ice on my knee and lunch helped Jacob and Alex get all dressed up. Man was I glad to just have to drop them off, 10-15 kids all dressed up with no place to go, it was quite hectic over at Jimmy's house.
This is the third time I've done this event and first time we had no rain, there was still a bit o mud up on some of the trail but it was a great day.
As always I arrived quite early to pickup my packet and shirt. Got settled, road one lap around the lake to warm up and then setup my transition, great spot near the entry/exit. Lots of friends do this race so it is a great time chatting and releasing the pre race tension.
The race starts with one lap running around the lake, then we mountain bike followed by another run around the lake. They changed the bike loop from two laps of the 'beginner' course to one lap of the 'expert' course. The expert course adds some serious hills, some pretty easy switchbacks and then hooks up onto the beginner course and doing only one lap makes this a slightly shorter event than in the past.
Lance was being Lance at the start and held up the starting gun and yelled 'GO', then about 10 seconds into the run he fired the starting gun, put a big smile on my face at least. I always seem to start my runs a bit fast, but with a bike and then another run, I wanted to go a bit slower than a fast run, maybe tempo pace. Thought I was in pretty good company and felt good throughout, carried my bike gloves and during the final quarter mile or so, ate a gel and put on my gloves.
My mountain biking shoes are just my running shoes so quickly put on the helmet and was off, nice quick transition. This was maybe my 5th ride on my new bike (well new to me) and I think it's great. I was able to climb and coming back down hardly felt the drops and bumps. very nice, very quick. I did get passed by more than a few going up, but was not passed on the way back down. I did catch up with someone and was happy to stay a bit behind as I was also thinking about the run after.
Back into transition I again had a 20 second stop to park bike, take off helmet and grab my running hat. I think I gained ground in the transition area on more than a few competitors.
The second run is the opposite way around the lake and starts with a bit of a hill (not really anything to talk about) making the transition from biking to running a bit of work, but once at the top of the crest starting feeling like running. Shortly after though my stomach started saying when are you going to stop running, so I slowed a bit, took the better part of the lake before I felt like really running fast again. Coming around the lake past the play structure (about a quarter mile from the finish) I see Debbie and Alex and Alex was ready for a high five, but after the high five he wanted to run with me, so I slowed (a bit) and he kept up for the final quarter mile and got lots of cheers.
About an hour after the adult race they do a kids duathlon and Jacob did it again for the third time, he did the 'long course' with about a half mile run, bike around the lake and then the same half mile run. He did great. I think he could bike faster, but completed everything with a look of determination and trademark tongue stickin out, working hard!
Great event and great day.
Great race and event overall
