It was cold this morning!

I got up to ride in the morning again, I was a little psyched about an earlier sunrise. Man, was it cold, and I'm sure it is only going to get colder. It has been quite some time since I actually rode/trained in the cold. Yeah, I think I'm getting old and soft.

I rode the road bike with the new 10 speed for the first time outside. It's nice. I ended up putting the wheels that came on the fuji cross bike on my road bike as "training wheels", complete with 25c tires. The bike felt like a total PIG! Oh well.

Did anyone read the "At the back" section of the latest Velonews? Man did that start the wheels spinning! (like that is hard to do for me)
Here's some highlights of the resulting thought process:
- I could do that, how much training do you need for a 10 minute hillclimb?
- an am and pm hillclimb
- held in between mtb/road season and cross season (September)
- short climb less than 10 minutes
- around tinicum park
- "picnic" in the park between races
- possibly on dirt roads
- open to any type of bike (fixed gear)
Who's in?

or could be done in Manyunk? more bars in manyunk, some sick climbs too ("koppenburg"?)

School update.

I walked into class last night and BAM! A QUIZ! The professor is not messing around! He gave an quiz right after we took the mid-term. I guess he figured people would be slacking after the mid-term. I got my mid-term exam back. Boy was I nervous about looking at it. I didn't even open it until I was out of class and in a quiet area...

I got an A. A 97 out of 100. I missed 1 point off of the last three questions I answered. I guess I was getting tired.

Friends and Family

If I had to describe the past few days with two word then "friends" and "family" would have to be it. Started the weekend off by heading down to Granogue Cross. This race is put on by a bunch of my friends from back when I was living in Delaware. I drove down with my Dad, he was ok with going as long as he was back home for the Rutgers game. I did the Masters B class, or the "old slow guys" class. I had a fun race, I was really flying through the fast technical stuff. My problem was and is anytime fitness was needed as opposed to skill I was a hurting pup. (Ended up 22 out of 40 something, I think.) After the race, Terry met up with us, I was going to swap his Marin (which used to be mine) for the Specialized I got at T-town. I figured it would fit him perfectly. I guess he is not as tall as I thought, it didn't fit. Oh well. It was cool to hang out with Terry for a while. He is now a lawyer! I never would have guessed back in the college days.

Got to see the whole DCC of D crew and my friend Marc:


thanks to velophotos.net for the picture.

Got to see Brent and Alice as I was leaving. One thing missing from cross was having Brent (Ty Domi of cross) racing, I was looking forward to lining up with him in the old man's class, but he jacked up his foot or ankle. I wouldn't consider it racing with him because he'd smoke me as usual! I think in all the years racing with Brent, I maybe beat him once, only once. (DNF's don't count)

After the race Dad and I drove up to Pete and Amy's. Spent the night at Amy and Pete's. It was almost like a mini-vacation. Thanks for the hospitality. I only had about a five minute drive to the race, so, I got to hang out for the morning. They came up to watch the race, Pete and Scott have never been to a cross race. Amy is a seasoned cross spectator. When she was living in Boston we would crash at her house and go to the Super Cups and Nationals at Fort Devens, yeah it was a while ago. I think they all had a good time, especially since there was free beer. Scott made the comment, "They're selling water for $2 but the beer is free!" NICE!

Monday night, was the first night in a long time I could get together with the Jersey boys. We ended up going to a bar down the street from Allamuchy, I think we may hit this place after a ride in Allamuchy? Clams and a huge NY strip later and I was ready to get home.

While I was sitting at the bar a get a call on my cellular from a strange number. Pick it up and it is Michel from France! "Dave, I am in town, when can we get together?"

So, Michel came over Tuesday night. It was great to see him!



All in all I had a pretty busy few days and got to spend time with a lot of good friends and family.

Life is good, although I'm a little pooped...

Hey, you're in second place!

I had just gotten lapped in the "spiral of death" and on the run up my brother-in-law Pete says something like, "Go Dave you're in second place!"

Yeah, I'm cracking up in the picture.

droopy didn't stress ... david's a mess

droopy never stressed about exams, but boy David was a mess yesterday! I was a nervous wreck! Usually on the way to class I drink a coke or coffee, yesterday I couldn't drink anything for fear of it coming back up. The exam went ok, 20 essay questions, 2 and a half hours and one filled out blue book later, I was out of there with a sore hand! I can't remember the last blue book exam I took.

Big plans this weekend, racing granogue cross saturday, saturday night to Pete and Amy's for the Rutgers-Pittsburgh football game. (My father is a Rutgers alum, my father-in-law is a Pitt alum) Needless to say I'll be pulling for Rutgers, sorry pappy, I grew up going to Rutgers football games. I even know the cheers: HOO-RA, HOO-RA, RUTGERS RA, UPSTREAM RED TEAM, RED TEAM UPSTREAM, RA, RA, RUTGERS RA! Some things you never forget.
Sunday I'm racing the Wissahickon cross, which is right up the street from Pete and Amy's. It'll be a nice commute to the race. Hopefully I'll have some photos to share.

(I haven't been updating as much because my work connection sucks for updating on my lunch hour.)

Busy, busy...

I've been pretty busy. So, here's a quick update:
-took a vacation day last Wed.
-made pancakes and bacon
-went for a hike at Lake Nockamixon
-drove to Henry's to finish my cross bike
-barely finished the cross bike
-went to DCC of D cross practice, and got my arse handed to me, those boys and girls are fast
-picked up a Granogue Cross shirt that they are selling at the race (my design)
(Here's the "poster" design. T-shirt has less information)


-Thurs worked from home and went to class
-Friday my alarm didn't go off, found out on the way to work that we were moving the office to the new town hall
-Friday night had baby Luke over for a couple of hours
-Saturday bagged the race in Hagerstown, I started thinking about spending 6 hours in the car for a 45 minute race
-made french toast and bacon for breakfast
-Saturday went to the T-Town swap meet with Jeb.
-bought a frame to use as a time-trial bike, too big (measured wrong!)
-bought some vision tech integrated aero bars for said tt bike.
-bought seatpost for said tt bike.
-anyone want to buy a 58cm Specialized Allez, cheap?
-Sat pm rode the cross bike over to Lake Nockamixon, had a good ride
-went to 5:00 pm mass
-thought about going out, but don't remember what we ended up doing for dinner, Sophie was cranky (she's getting her teeth)
-Sunday am homefires, eggs and toast for breakfast
-Pumpkin picking with the family


-picked up pork bbq and wings
-went to Buba and Pappy's for the Eagles game (they have HD TV) Pete and Amy met us there.
-watched the Eagles game! E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!! EAGLES!!!!
-Kristen drove home
-couldn't sleep, had boo-boo belly until 3:00 am

What day is it anyway?

The other night...

Jacob was playing, something, not really sure what he was, I guess some sort of super hero. I remembered to take a picture...