Wissahickon

Saturday afternoon, I met up with Brent to do a loop of Wissahickon park in Philly. I forgot how tough that place is. We started to ride up "belles mill" and a ranger was there taking names and giving out wrist bands, that they put on our bikes. They also wanted a small donation, but neither of us had any money. We told them we'd check out the website and the guy even gave me his card. There were a couple of cool new sections since the last time I was there. I had a good time chasing Brent around the park. He crushed me! That makes twice this week that I got crushed on a ride!

After stopping at the grocery store, I came home for our Anniversary dinner. I made some poterhouse steaks, grilled asparagus, and grilled sweet potato wedges, a ceasar's salad and a bottle a Ravenswood Zinfandel. Everything was fantastic! The wine was especially good, we ended up finishing the bottle. Which is very much out of the ordinary for us lately.

I told Kris early that I would stay up and watch a movie with her. Something I very rarely do. It was probably a combination of riding with Brent and the half a bottle of wine but I could barely keep my eyes open. We ended up watching Man on Fire(?) with Denzel Washington, boy it was pretty brutal lots of gory stuff. That dude was not messing around. He ended up killing like half of Mexico. I liked the movie, I even made it through the entire thing without falling asleep. At the end of the movie Kris says, "So, what happened?" She fell asleep! geesh!

TWENTY AND A HALF LAPS...

...or maybe it was nineteen and a half, or twenty-one and a half... I couldn't see straight let alone do the complex arithmetic needed to calculate (subtraction) how many laps I did. I think it was 19.5 because I don't remember seeing single digit laps to go. I ended up lasting 50:46. Pretty good, but I don't think many of the big guns where there. Next week I'll try to get into single digit laps to go.

The family came up to "watch" me race. The crit takes place in a pretty nice park and I always noticed quite a few little ones running around in the gigantic sand box. So, Kris brought up the kids. It was cool to see them there. Although, once I was racing I had enough trouble seeing the person in front of me let alone my family on the sideline. Apparently, every time they rang the bell for a sprint lap Jeb would go running towards the course yelling, "Daddy racing bikes!", or something like that. Then I'm sure he'd run back to the sand box and continue playing.

I'm pooped, I need to go to bed...

Hookey Day...

About once a year Derek, Cheff and myself get together and "call out" of work to do something fun, don't worry mom, we took vacation days.

This time we decided to recreate the first hookey day with a mountain bike ride from Derek's house. This year we had a rookie on our hookey day, Derek's brother-from-another-mother. Who just moved from Hoboken to High Bridge, quite a change. We met up at Derek's house Sunday night for some Play Station. Derek set up the projector and screen, it was pretty frickin cool!

We had planned on using my "multi-tap" so we could play 4 at a time, but apparently my multi-tap doesn't work with the new style PS2. Oh well. The new Medal of Honor dual player game rocks! You get to sneek around and shoot eachother! Yeah, I sucked at it. It was my first time playing. Turns out the Rookie is an expert at the game and kicked all of our asses! Little did he know that we'd get him back on the ride the next day!

and we're off...

Here we are ready to go.

I knew I would forget something. Turns out I forgot my shorts. I had to borrow a pair of Derek's shorts. I can't remember the last time I rode in shorts and boxers? Maybe in High School.

We had to climb up and over the mountain to get down to Stephen's. It is pretty much road or paved path the entire way. So, it wasn't as big a deal as it could have been. It was still a tough climb! We're cruising down the other side, trying to hit top speed. I was just kind of coasting not really letting it hang out and they got quite a ways ahead of me. Next thing I know there is a tight right hand 90 degree turn, and I'm going way too fast! Overcooked the turn and had to thread my way between a huge rock and a rather large tree into the woods. It could have been really ugly. I don't even like thinking about how close it was.

So, we are riding in Stephen's and Cheff says to Derek, "Isn't this where you flatted last time?"

Yep, he flatted about 2 seconds after Cheff makes his comment. Pretty strange...

Made it to the lake...

I don't think we could have ridden a much more direct route to Alamuchy. I was actaully a little surprised we made so "quickly". Last time we did this ride it seemed like it took forever to get up to Alamuchy.

There was a fun little downhill to the lake and I got this picture of Derek. He apparently was trying to wave and almost lost it. Maybe big guys shouldn't wave or fly?
The lake
We hung out next the lake for a while.

Apparently I had something stuck in my teeth all morning and Cheff finally told me here at the lake. Derek said, "Oh yeah, I noticed that a while ago. I just didn't want to tell you." Rookie chimes in, "I thought you just had really bad teeth. I didn't want to say anything either." Thanks guys!

ROOTS...

Tough Guy Award Goes to...

THE ROOKIE!

You see, he had a laundry list of excuses but he didn't use any of them!
-"I can't remember the last time I rode this bike.
-I forgot my shoes and I'm using Derek's "pontoons" that are 3 sizes too big.
-My seat post is fused into the frame and the dang seat is way too low.
-My saddle is loose and it keeps pointing "up".
-I'm riding a rigid bike.
-I didn't have any breakfast, I couldn't eat my breakfast burrito because...
-Can you see the size of the blisters on my hands?
-I'm a musician."
Seriously, the guy is tough as nails. Those "rose-colored" glasses must really keep the spirits up!

and Back to the House.

On the final leg we decided we'd skip the Hot Dog cart, good thing because it wasn't there, and Derek would run to the grocery store to grab some steaks for the grill. Well we got home and this is what Derek decided to do:

Actually he only laid there for a half an hour, OK, more like 10 minutes tops. Thanks for going to get the steaks! Of course, Cheffery cooked the steaks and boy were they good!
I think we ended up with 4.5 hours "chamios time". I think we probably rode for about 3.5-4 hour though. Which will probably be my long ride of the year. Unless Jeff and I actually do the century we keep talking about...

It was a great day! Can't wait for the next "hookey day"!

Oh yeah, Derek and I had to move the cars around on Sunday night. FYI, Cheff's jeep doesn't get great traction on leaves, especially when you're trying to drive up a 10' bank!

TWELVE AND A HALF LAPS!

I went to the crit again. This time I hung in there for 32 minutes and 12.5 laps! I'm almost halfway there! This week I left work with plenty of time to get there. You'd think with all the extra time I wouldn't have to jump out of the car and rush around. Well, last week I had to jump out of the car to register and get ready, this week I had to jump out of the car to stand in line for the pot-a-jon. Man, did I have to go (#2), I was getting the "sweats" as I was pulling into the parking lot. I guess Rob was correct is saying I was #2.

Earlier in the day we went to lunch and on the way back we saw Rob in his H2 Hummer. Well I always kid him about the FUH2, how people "bag" H2's by giving them the finger. So, as we were driving by, in a Township vehicle mind you, I decided I'd give him the H2 salute. I wonder if any of the cars next to him are going to report to our "boss" that someone in the back of a township vehicle is flipping people off? Later, Rob thanked me for thinking he was #1, and he said I was #2... Little did I know that I'd have a #2 incident later in the day.

Back to the crit, turns out the race is not a Cat 1,2,3,4 it is a PRO,1,2,3,4. Yep, PRO, and even Olypmic Gold medalist. So, at the front of the race are PROs and Olympic gold medalist, while I'm at the back giving everything just to hang on as long as I can! This week there was a UNITED rider, I thought "Oh great, this is going to be fun." Well as I was coming off the back of the pack, seeing stars, I saw the UNITED guy just cruising at the back. I guess he was waiting until the end to "throw down".

Sophie's Christening

Sophie's Christening was this past Sunday and everything went wonderfully. Tom and Lynn came down from Maine, Tom was Sophie's godfather. Sophie's godmother was JJ, Kris' friend from high school. At one point we were up on the altar and looking out into the crowd, we saw Jeb running around the church. I guess we are a little more strict when it comes to running around in church! At least it wasn't very full.

We went back to Buba and Pappy's for a catered dinner, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for that! I thought because it was catered it was going to be "easy", not so. In fact, I was exhausted by the end of the day!

Kris's cousins and Aunt came out from Lancaster. Doug and Eileen brought there two kids, which was great because Jeb had someone to play with! Poor Jeb was also exhausted by the end of the day. He was way over-tired! He missed naps on both Saturday and Sunday. He's back to usual now.

Thanks to everyone for everything! Especially, Grandma and Grandpa for taking care of the caterer, and Buba and Pappy for allowing us to party at their house!

Gotta go Sophie's crying and Kris is at the gym...

NINE LAPS!

I went to the T-town training crit this afternoon, and I lasted 9 laps of a 30 lap race. Only 21 to go, I'm hoping by the end of the summer I'm able to last the entire race. It may be a bit ambitious, considering it is a Cat 1,2,3,4 race, but we'll see.

On my way to the crit I decided I should stop and get gas while I'm still in Jersey (gas is cheaper in Jersey, at least where I am driving). This proved to add more stress to my evening. You see, I remember getting to the crit with plenty of time for a warm up. In order to get there that early I must have left work really early. I'm driving on 78 about 15 minutes from the velodrome and it is 5:55, the crit starts about 6:10... I'm cutting it close! I pull up to the guy doing registration, throw my hazards on, jump out of the car, and the guy says "I guess getting changed is enough of a warm-up?" Yeah, thanks, fill out the registration form pay the $4 entry fee and the $2 for my number, I have to reuse it or else they charge $3 for a replacment. I jump back in the car drive to a parking space, dam! It is now 6:05. Where are all the parking spaces!?!? Crap!?!?!?!? Pin my number on only with 4 pins, yep, I had a bit of a rookie parachute going. Pump up the tires, shoes helmet, Oh man why does my helmet fit funny?!?!? Oh, there's a CO2 cartridge stuck in my helmet!?!?! Ride over to the start... dam mis-shift! Quick gear adjustment! to the starting line and everyone is lining up, I made it!!! Whew!! What??? GO???

Needless to say, I rode pretty well considering. As I was "cracking" I noticed not many people had been passing me. I thought for sure there would be a ton of people behind me but there wasn't! I wonder how many laps I did as the last wheel?

It was a lot of fun! Next time I'll do better, at least at arriving early, not sure about how I'll ride though...