Tuesday Night at the Oval (to steal subject lines from other people)

I had a good night at the Oval on Tuesday. 17th out of 32 riders. I'm pretty sure that's my best finish so far, and at no time did I feel like I was going to get dropped or lose sight of the main group.

I was a little nervous about heading down. I hadn't raced since June 24th and I was really worried that any sort of experience I had gained from the first few times racing would be long gone. I'm glad that wasn't the case.

One of the things that seemed to keep happening over the course of the race was that I would move to the outside to move up a little bit, get behind someone else, and then they would basically just stop pedaling.

At that point, I'd be stuck behind them and everyone on the inside (who I had just been trying to pass) would creep up past me. I was starting to think that there was a conspiracy afoot to keep me from advancing toward the front of the pack.

With maybe eight laps to go, I did find myself at the front of the group (not including the two or three other guys who were way further ahead of anyone else) for close to a lap, and as I expected, when we pushed through the fourth turn, and I started to get a little fatigued, almost everyone passed me by.

Even so, I was able to hang on and work my way back toward the middle of the group, which is about where I stayed for the rest of the race. I'd rate last night's race a pretty solid "pass". I never felt winded, never felt like I was going to die.

Of course, with all of this racing, I've started to wonder whether or not I should seriously consider getting an actual road bike. The Portland is a great bike, and as far as I can tell I'm not breaking any rules by racing with disc brakes (if these were UCI events, that'd be a different story), but I wonder if I'd get a tougher time with that if I ever moved up to the B races (not that there's any threat of me doing that any time soon).

I've been looking at the Felt F-75 and the Specialized Allez Elite Compact. They're essentially the same bike, as far as the build and all of that, and given that I really like the guys at Pro Bikes, I'd be more likely to get the Allez.

At the same time, it's not like I'm going to start winning races just because my bike is three or four pounds lighter. What I should probably do is just go take one for a test-ride to see if I can even feel any sort of major difference, and then go from there.

If I were to do something ridiculous like buy a new bike, where does that leave the Portland? Well, if that does happen, I'll most likely put the rack back on the Portland so that it can serve as the long-distance/utility bike.

The Portland will also be a great cyclocross bike, and cyclocross season starts in the fall. I would imagine that the Portland would also be better for the Dirty Dozen, with the granny gear and all. So it's not like I'd stop riding/using it. We'd just have to make more room in the garage somehow.

Hi. How are you?

I'm starting to wonder if I'll ever ride my bike again. I haven't been out since Monday morning before work. I wanted to race on Tuesday night, but it was just way too busy at work again. That's three weeks in a row that I haven't been down to the Oval. If I ever do make it back there, it's going to be like starting over again.

Since I couldn't get to the Oval on Tuesday, I figured I might as well at least take the bike in for some maintenance. Shifting had been getting really sloppy/slow. Pittsburgh winters can do that to you.

So yeah, we left the house on Tuesday at 7:35 or 7:40 and made it to Pro Bikes at the very last minute. After the last minute, actually. They had turned off the automatic door, but waved me inside (I had to push the door open from the side. It took me a little while to figure that out).

I got the Portland all signed up for new cables and housing to go along with a regular tune-up. It's still there now. I really hope they call tomorrow and say that it's ready for pick-up. If they do, I really hope that I can get there before they close at 6:00. I might have to send Heather to go pick it up for me.

Wow. It's been like a month since I've bother/had time to sit down and write anything. That's terrible. Let's see... since June 17th, I've not done anything too terribly exciting in terms of riding.

Actually, the week after that last post, I went to the Oval for Tuesday's C race and did (by my own low standards) pretty well. I finished 21st of 35 (full field again, as I'm sure it's been over the last few weeks, too) and didn't really have any trouble keeping up with the group.

There were times there when I was with a group of five or six guys near the front, but then we'd go around a turn and everyone I had just passed would be in front of me again. Still, I was able to hang in there, and probably could have done better than 21st if I'd been thinking about what I was doing for the entire final lap instead of just after the fourth turn.

After that fourth turn, I crushed it as much as I could. I might have even been up out of my saddle for a little bit there. On the whole, pretty satisfying. If I can actually get myself back down there for a few weeks in a row, I might actually be able to move up a little bit further and see my name on the results sheet.

Like the Pirates finishing a season above .500, that'd be a pretty major victory. I think I have a better chance of doing that than the Pirates do of having a winning season.

Beyond that, nothing too crazy. Did the beginner ride with PORC again last Friday at Frick. I didn't really wreck and didn't hardly hurt myself at all. The bike came out unscathed. Another small victory! The nice thing about that beginner ride is that it's not really all that beginner. The ride leaders go all over the place and do all sorts of different stuff.

For example, I'm still pretty terrified of really steep downhills. I can't get my head around them. I can't convince myself that it makes sense for me to even think about doing some of them. We did a couple on Friday. The first one went really well. I just stuck my ass out, laid off of the brakes and did it.

We came up on another one not too much later, and I wasn't ready for it. I saw it and went tharn. Just stopped. And walked my bike down the hill. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Two days later, I rode through Frick on my Portland, on the general purpose trails. Although I wasn't really surprised, I was still amazed at the difference in feeling between a fully rigid road/cross bike with 28mm tires inflated to 120psi and a full-suspension mountain bike with 2.1" tires running at 32psi. Crazy!

I really need to get out again soon. Even if I'm able to get the Portland back tomorrow, I won't be able to ride tomorrow evening. We're helping my parents move some furniture around in their house while they have the living room and dining room floors refinished.

Also, my grandma's in the hospital right now after having a bad stroke yesterday, so we'll be spending some time with her over the weekend. She can't talk right now, and you can see how frustrating it is for her. We were there last night and I know she was trying to tell us stuff that we weren't able to understand from the limited gesturing she was able to do. I hope she's able to get some more functionality back.

Sunday we have a family reunion out at my uncle's place in New Kensington. I think that Heather thinks I'm joking, but I plan on riding out there. She can drive the Fit and we can throw the bike in the back of the car for the ride home. Yes, I'll take a shower and get changed out of my nasty bike clothes once I get there.

I really need to string together some days and days in a row in the saddle. I feel like it hasn't happened at all yet this year. I'm going to have to make it happen.

---

One other small piece of news/upheaval: we adopted three kittens. We'll have had them three weeks this coming Saturday, and I think they're probably about nine weeks old.

Our neighbor's mom's friend's son found them while driving home on a farm road the same night that Eve died. We heard about them two weeks after they had been caring for them. They weren't able to keep them because they were getting a new puppy, so we went to meet the people and the kitties.

At first we thought we might only get one of the three, but we told them that if any of the other potential parents backed out, we'd take any or all of them.

After the kitties passed their feline leukemia/HIV screenings, they called us to let us know that they really wanted to keep all three of them together and asked if we were still interested in taking all of them. Umm. Of course!

After three weeks, I think the kitties are really happy living with us, and I know they love being together. They play together, eat together, and sleep together. They've already had to go through a lot.

We've had to treat them for coccidia and giardia, and Mona, the smallest of the three (and the only girl) had a really tough weekend. We had to take her in to get fluids on Saturday and Monday. She seems to be doing much better now, and I hope they're all out of the woods as far as early potential perils go.

Maybe instead of just talking about bikes all the time, I'll start talking about bikes and kitties.

Got Beat Up.

Two nights in a row.

Monday night Heather and I went over to Frick Park. She to read, I to ride. I'm pretty sure she didn't have any trouble with her reading, but I had a pretty nice wreck on the Bowling Green (if that's the right name for it) trail. Basically, it starts near the Bowling Green in Point Breeze and runs down to the bottom of the Homewood Trail.

The descent down to the Homewood Trail is the part that gets me every time. It's really steep (at least to me) and even though I know that I'd be a lot better off to just keep moving and lay off of the brakes, I can't convince my body to actually DO that.

What happens is that I'm on this really steep angle, braking way more than I should be, and of course my back end decides that it really wants to be going a lot faster than my front end. In order to accomplish this, back end goes up over me. Needless to say, physics and gravity and all sorts of other things of science don't look too fondly on that, and the bike and I end up on the ground in a heap.

Looking at the bruises, it appears that I landed on my left forearm, right thumb, chest, both knees, and somehow my right ankle. But not my head. We can all be thankful for that.

Looking at my bike, it seems to have landed pretty heavily on the rear derailleur. After I picked myself up, brushed off all of the dirt, and climbed back on the bike (oh, and no, I didn't try to go down the hill at that point. I just decided to go a different way), it was immediately apparent that the shifting was all kinds of wrong. The chain was jumping all over the place in the back, especially under load. I looked back at the chain, and the cage was definitely not running even to the rear cogs. Great stuff. At least it was still rideable, and I was able to make my way back to where Heather was camped out without too much trouble.

I took the bike to Pro Bikes at lunch today. They confirmed that, yes, I did, in fact, bend the derailleur. Or the hanger. They're not sure which. They'll check it out and let me know. They know me by name there. First and last. It's a little scary. I probably spend too much time (and money) there.

That was Monday night.

Last night (being Tuesday night) was another night at the Oval for the Cat C race. Heather came with me again so that she could watch. Before the race, there was a little class about treating yourself in the event of a wreck. Foreshadowing?

I didn't feel especially awesome before the race. I probably should have eaten more before we left. I had a Clif bar and some goo before the race, but that was about it since 3:00, I think. I joked to Heather that I would be finishing 35th of 35.

Everything started out fine. I got a little nervous when they said we'd be doing 35 laps this week, instead of the 32 that I was used to, but really, what's another mile and a half among friends.

I was doing pretty well for the first few laps. I noticed pretty early that I was far back in the field, so I shifted to the right and started moving up. I was probably somewhere in the top fifteen by the 10th lap or so.

I'm not sure what happened after that. I can point to a few things as probable causes, though: As I was going through the third and fourth turns on one of the ensuing laps, I drifted pretty far to the top of the track and totally lost the wheel in front of me. Right as I realized I was going to be in trouble if I didn't get my butt back on someone else's butt real soon, I heard a wreck to my left.

I don't know if that spooked me or what, but I didn't end up getting back on anyone's wheel, and I saw the whole field starting to move along without me. Amazingly, there was one other guy who was having some sort of similar (but probably entirely unrelated) problems. I pulled up behind him, and we trudge along for a number of laps (I don't know how many) before the group finally lapped us. During this time, it became pretty evident how windy it was coming up the last stretch toward the finish line.

Once the group came back around, get on someone's wheel and stay there. With that taken care of, the last eleven laps were pretty easy going. I still can't believe what a difference it makes to have someone in front of you doing the job of cutting through the wind.

The one really great thing about being 34th of 35 (the guy who wrecked was down for at least a lap or two before he was able to get back into the race) is that I missed the wreck right at the finish. I can't personally verify this, but from what I heard, it sounded like the winner decided to slow down as soon as he crossed the line and celebrate his victory. Of course, someone else ran into him, and I think someone else ran into that guy. Celebrating because you won a C race? Come on. Get a grip.

Regardless of my result, I'm glad I finished the race. For a while there, I thought about just pulling off and giving up. Those laps where it was just me and the other guy were rough, but at the very least it was good exercise.

A few things to take away:

• Don't try to move too far ahead. When you follow the guys who are moving up on the right, chances are they're going to be faster than you. If you can't keep up when they break, you'd better have a good plan to get back in with the rest of the field.
  
• Pay better attention on the turns. I still don't know how I drifted so far up the track on the fourth turn, but it killed me. I was out on my own, and there was no way to get back in. I was screwed.
  
• Always pay attention at the end of the race. If someone is going to slow down so they can shoot some "V"s at their friends, you'd better be ready for it.
  

Better luck next Tuesday, maybe.

We love you, Eve.

Last Wednesday, June 10th, our little kitty cat, Eve, died. We had taken her to the vet in the morning to have her teeth cleaned. They called us around 2:00 in the afternoon to let us know that they were going to have to pull her top left fang. That really wasn't very surprising to us, because in the past few months it had started to get a little lower, to the point where she had a bit of a snaggletooth.

We waited for them to call back to let us know that they were all finished and we could come and pick her up. The whole day in the house was pretty lonely without her. The vet called at 4:30 and asked to speak to Heather. I told her that I was Eve's other parent and she could let me know whatever. She got a little bit quiet, and then she told me that Eve had died.

Eve's physical that morning had gone fine. She had no problems with the anesthesia. The extraction of the tooth went really well, as did sewing everything back up. The tooth was really infected. The vet told us she came up out of the anesthesia without any trouble, but when they went to remove her catheter she got really fussy and kicky. When they did get the catheter out, Eve passed out and then she was gone.

They tried doing CPR for twenty minutes and tried to get another line in to give her emergency fluids, but she had no blood pressure and it was almost impossible to get into a vein. They tried, but they just weren't able to help her.

The vet told me that she thought that Eve might have had a surge of adrenaline that was just too much for her little heart to handle. She had never had this happen to her before, and she was really upset on the phone. She asked if we wanted to come get Eve to take her home. I said yes and asked if she'd still be there when we got there. She said she would wait for us to get there before she went anywhere else.

Heather and I drove to the vet, each of us a mess. We thought Eve was just getting her teeth cleaned. We knew that tooth was going to have to go, but lots of cats get their teeth pulled. It wasn't like this was some new experimental treatment. And she was only eight! And (to the best of our knowledge) really healthy! Like I said, we were both really upset.

When we got there, one of the vet techs led us to an exam room. Heather and I sat and waited. After a few minutes, our vet came in carrying Eve. Eve was just laying there, not moving. She handed her to me, and I looked at our little kitty and just started crying. It was so awful to see her like that. Not moving, not doing anything. Just there. I was cradling her, and if she had been alive, she'd have never let me hold her like that (she loved to be held, but not like that). It was terrible.

The vet talked to us again and tried to explain everything that had happened. She was crying as she told us how sorry she was. I know that she was genuinely upset and that they did everything they could. I have no bad feelings toward her or the practice.

We took Eve back home and buried her in our backyard. We wrapped her up with a towel and gave her her two favorite mice, two crinkly foil balls, and some primroses. Laying her in the ground was really hard. We both gave her little kisses and pet her one last time.

These past few days have been tough. The first time we came home from being away from the house, she didn't come to meet us at the door between the garage and the basement. When I sit at my desk to work, she doesn't come up behind me, reach up, and scratch the back of my chair. That was her way of letting me know that it was time to give her a little attention, which I was always happy to do.

She doesn't come up behind me, but every little randomly occurring noise from the house makes me think she's on her way in to see me. Heather is just as upset as I am. We both just can't believe that she's gone and she'll never be back.

---

Eve was the best little kitty cat. She owned our house and let us live there. That's how it was from the moment we brought her into the house and let her out of her carrier. She was comfortable from day one and she seemed happy to let us take care of her.

Over the five years that we had her, Eve amazed us in so many ways. She was always there to greet us when we got home. When we were upset about something, she would come around and let us pet her (I think she regarded this as a win-win situation).

Eve slept on our bed with us every night. She would curl up next to me and just rest against my side. It was one of my favorite things. Although she wasn't always as cuddly with Heather, Eve took care of her when I went to Florida for two weeks for work. During that time, Heather said Eve would lay with her anytime she was on the couch and slept next to her every night when she went to sleep.

Eve was the Best Little Kitty Cat. We will love her and miss her always.

Lucky 13

Tonight was my first race at the Washington Boulevard Cycling Oval. I registered for the Class C race in an effort to see where I might fall amongst other people. Thanks to Brian for pointing me in the right direction.

I didn't do as badly as I thought I might have. I finished 13th in a field of 18, and I think I stuck with the group pretty well throughout the race.

I did get some help from one of the marshals. At one point I lost the guy in front of me and I was having trouble getting back up, so someone planted a hand on my back and helped push me back into the group. If not for that, I probably would have been completely out of reach of the rest of the field.

There are at least two things I need to improve:

• I need to be a lot better at holding my line through the turns. I'm pretty sure I made a lot of the other riders fairly nervous (actually, probably pissed off) on at least a few occasions, and the marshals told me a few times to do a better job. At one point someone told me to relax my elbows a little bit, and I think that helped.
  

• I should probably downshift as we approach the slope at the end of the lap, and then shift back up once we get to the top. It wasn't so much that I was really having trouble staying with people going up the slope, but I might be able to make it a little easier on myself if I don't have to hammer so hard to do so.
  

There are other things, I'm sure, but those are probably the big ones. As time goes on, I can think about moving up and stuff like that.

At one point I grabbed the wheel of someone who was moving up. It turns out he was moving to the front of the pack (I think he ended up finishing first or second). I was able to stay with him for close to a lap, but then he was gone and I was in the middle of nowhere trying to keep the momentum on my own. It didn't take long for the rest of the group to catch me and spit back toward the end.

Apart from that, I felt pretty good. Definitely good enough to want to go back next week and do it again. I need to go back down to the oval on my own, or better yet, with someone else, to practice the turns with a rider on my right. I don't want to cause undue anxiety, or worse yet, a wreck.

The weather outside...

It's supposed to be 35° in the morning. On May 18th. WTF?

Them's the brakes.

I had a good ride this morning. I'd have ridden at lunch, but I had to mow the lawn since it was supposed to rain this evening. Not wanting to disappoint me, it did rain this evening. It's been raining a lot. Really.

I was going to ride last night after I finished up with work. I got all dressed, headed downstairs, and went to check my tire pressure. Front tire was fine; topped it off. Rear tire was... really low.

I didn't feel like going through the hassle of taking off the tire, checking tube and tire and then reinflating, so I figured I'd just throw on the other wheelset. This was a good decision. As I was dropping the front wheel into place, the rotor clipped one of the brake pads and... the pad came right off of the piece that holds it in place and fell on the floor.

I couldn't believe it. I took the wheel back out and tapped the brake pad on the opposite side. Fell right off. Apparently, they were pretty well shot. I feel extremely fortunate that they decided to wait until just then to crap out, as having that happen while I was riding would probably have been fairly unpleasant.

I checked the rear brakes, but they still look to have plenty of life. Makes sense, as I do most of my braking with the front brake.

Obviously, I wasn't going to be doing any riding. I called REI to see if they had the brake pads in stock (I'd have gone to Pro Bikes, but they close at 6:00 on Mondays). They confirmed that they had plenty, so after Heather and I had dinner (tomato-garlic chickpea pancakes with salsa spread and some corn), I headed over to the Southside Works.

I picked up the brake pads, some degreaser, shot bloks, and Camelbak drink tab things. Lots of stuff on sale right now. I forgot to look for water bottle cages that won't rub paint/metal onto my bottles and make my fingers all silvery every time I take a drink. There was something else I forgot, but already it's slipped my mind. Again.

Installing the new brake pads was a piece of cake. Take out the old ones, snap in the new ones. Adjust them so that they're close, but not too close, to the rotors. Verify that when you apply the brake the wheel does, in fact, stop. That's about it.

No problems with the brakes this morning. I have to remember to check the rear tire on the other wheelset to see if that tire has deflated again. I don't want to forget about it until I want to use that wheelset again. But that's probably what will happen.