Life - The Wheels Keep Turning

So recently there have been a lot of changes. I just started a new job, I have a new (to me) car, I've been getting stuff done around the house, and we're going to be changing our home schedule a bit to accommodate my job. I've also decided to stop promoting races and, in a related thing, I'll be backing of on the bike racing as well.

Dad

I guess the big thing is that I am no longer taking care of my dad. As much as it was the right thing to do, it affected the rest of my life by limiting what I could do, when I could do it. There are a lot of ways to describe the limitations, both negative and positive.

Negative words I think of right away are "shackled" or "trapped". This is because I really couldn't do much because I needed to take my dad with me. As he declined it was possible to sneak out while he was sleeping, which made things a bit easier. Toward the very this reversed itself and I stayed close by to keep an eye on him.

However, when I think of how I was able to care for him, other words come to mind. "Privileged" and "fortunate" come to mind right away. I was very, very lucky to be able to care for my dad. Even with all the tough stuff that happened, the stress and the like, I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything.

Work

In the end, though, when my dad passed, it allowed me to think of myself once again. First there was sort of this numb, decompression period, maybe a week, maybe more, where I felt just pulled along by all the things that happens when your dad dies. Then there were a couple frantic weeks of doing estate stuff, with one of my siblings handling much of it.

Then, after the dust settled for me (my sibling still doing estate stuff so not totally settled), maybe a month later, my situation became pretty clear to me. I needed to find a job that paid enough, and, if possible, a job I'd enjoy.

The latter was a bit tough. I wanted to be customer facing, I wanted to work with something that interested me (bikes, cars, not sure what else), and I had to find a position that didn't require too much specialized knowledge while offering me both a reasonable starting salary as well as opportunites for growth. Bonus would be substantially subsidized health care benefits.

Of course I've been thinking of this stuff for almost ten years now so this wasn't an idle thought. I enjoyed my time at the hardware store but the reality is that the position simply didn't offer much growth. It couldn't, much like working in a bike shop has difficulty offering growth.

After about four weeks of lots of searching on Careerbuilder and the like, I realized I was coming back to a particular position over and over. It was basically a sales position (management trainee) at various Firestone Complete Auto Care centers, all of which are (I think) wholly owned by the parent company Bridgestone.

As I pointed out in my previous post, I ended up with the position. I started a few weeks ago and it's been a steep learning curve. I am relearning stuff that I learned in my previous work lives - the car dealer, the hardware store, IT, and the shop. In the process I'm feeling like, okay, I'm starting to get it.

The thing I want to do at some point in the future is build my own team. To me that'd be the ultimate, to build and maintain a cohesive, cooperative, positive group of people into a nicely honed machine. When things go smoothly it's like a big leadout going well, all sorts of diverse elements working together toward a common goal. Just at this job this kind of stuff happens all the time. I caught a glimpse of this the other day (meaning as something based on what I initiated and did, not what others did) and I have to admit that it's extremely enticing. I'm looking forward to the day where I can make such things happen all the time.

What Else?

So what else is happening?

Our Cars

Well, for one thing, we've gotten our VW TDI "dieselgate" offers from Volkswagen. In case you don't know about it, VW cheated on emission tests with their diesel cars, to the point that some senior executives are being indicted for various crimes with senior executives told not to travel to the US. VW agreed to buy back almost half a million cars and pay some fines for a record $14 billion or so. That kind of dollar amount is a bit "otherworldly" to me because I can't think of that kind of money.

The Golf in the registration tent.

However, I can think about $10,000 or $20,000, and for us, as VW diesel owners, those are real numbers. VW not only is buying back the diesels but they're paying an additional $5-10,000 for each car as punishment. To give an idea of what our cars are worth in terms of trade in, I'd priced both cars in August 2015, just before Dieselgate hit in September 2015. I wanted to trade in one or both cars to get a more versatile tow vehicle. The dealer offered $9,000 for our Jetta Sportswagen ("JSW") and $12,000 for the Golf, a total of $21,000 for both cars.

$21,000 for both cars.

In contrast, because of Dieselgate, VW paid us $21,600 for the Golf.

Just the Golf.

Golf turned in. Tag on mirror says the car is not for sale.

They will pay us about $17,000 for the JSW.

So as far as we're concerned VW has done right by us.

I used less than half the Golf money to buy a replacement, the Sentra. We've ordered a Civic sedan for the Missus. So we'll have two completely different cars in the garage by March.

House

There's a lot of stuff going on with the house. We live in a single family home located in a condo complex. Therefore we get to have our own house but we don't deal much with outside maintenance. In the next year the condo association will be clearing our area of dead and dying trees (pretty much every large tree near the house, I'm guessing 15 or so large trees and a slew of supporting smaller trees), they'll be re-roofing our house, fixing the wood siding, and painting. It's a lot of work for sure and we're looking forward to the renewed yard/outside in the fall of 2017.

With the roof work we're looking into any roof modification so that we can sort of piggyback the work already scheduled. We'll be adding a sky tube (it's sort of like a skylight that ends in a light fixture lens in the ceiling) to brighten up a dark section of hallway. We're also contemplating having a chimney installed for a pellet stove. With some of the recent single digit temperatures a helper heating source would be a welcome addition to the home heating environment.

There are a lot of projects for inside the house as well. I've had a number of them planned or thought out and finally got around to doing them. Inertia/momentum works in two ways. When things are static it's hard to get going. However when things are in motion it's hard to stop. And now, with things in motion, I've found myself doing little things here and there all the time.

Family - The Missus and Junior

I put this down a bit lower because it's something we handle every day. It's not something like the car where we don't think about it for a bit, or it's a once in a while thing like a new roof on the house. For sure Junior occupies virtually all my free time outside of work. The Missus and I both schedule life around Junior, meaning we tend to work around his schedule. With work that's an added variable, making the intersection between the three schedules even more rare and special.

Things are going great with the Missus and her work so that's not a huge stressor, at least to me. I think for her there are both good and bad days, with seemingly very few of the latter. As a former small business owner I can relate to some things common to owning a small business, although hers is successful and mine was less so.

Once tax season is over her schedule lightens up which means my job will be the limiting factor to our family time.

Junior is doing well too. I'm constantly amazed by the things he does. He remembers stuff so well he's been keeping me on my toes. He's great around people, inquisitive, talkative, energetic, and will even admit defeat if he's tired and go upstairs for nap or bedtime.

Junior enjoys unscrewing the quick release skewer from the wheel.

August 2016.

Note lower profile front wheel, the Stinger 4. It must have been windy that day.

We had to pull Junior out of Pre-K because of my job. He's returned to what is officially a daycare center. The reality is that it's a super effective educational place based on how well prepared he was for Pre-K. A lot of it is him, of course, he learned a lot of stuff sort of on his own, and it's not like we sit down and do vocabulary drills or whatnot. He seems to pick stuff up on his own, with the help of some YouTube clips, Einstein DVDs, Cat in the Hat, and some other educational entertainment. Lately he's gotten into Star Wars stuff so of course he's learning and memorizing all sorts of stuff that doesn't necessarily translate to "education".

Part of our play at Pre-K pick up.

Here we're taking shelter in the doorway to a different part of the school.

Running the Yellow Line.

I told him to stay on the line so he wouldn't veer toward the curb.

Saying hi to the daycare bus driver (a teacher also) and telling her all about his day.

My job will mean a few late nights a week so I'll miss his bedtimes regularly. I think, honestly, that this will be harder for me than him. I knew underneath that eventually it would happen at some point. It's just that it's happening now.

Other Things

One thing I've wanted to do since late 2015 is to get back in some gasoline powered karts. Connecticut has two locations which run gas karts on tracks which suit gas engine characteristics. Gas karts have very little low end torque, requiring a bit of time to build power. Such karts reward smooth driving, good lines, and longer "full throttle" sections of track. On Track Karting (OTK) has two locations with well laid out courses for gas karts.

Back in 2015 I went to each track one time, Wallingford in November, Brookfield in December.

I was hooked.

I bought a helmet (it was a $100 Bell helmet) and an inexpensive action camera. Then life intruded and I could only dream about karting. I watched clips people made of their OTK outings, watching the better drivers over and over again. I memorized the layouts, I knew when to get on the gas, when to ease, leaving just a few areas of doubt ("do I brake here or just coast?" or "how does he initiate turn in here?"). I'd have to get to the track to figure that out.

Recently I went back to Brookfield. I wanted to catch a full evening of driving ("all you can drive from 6 pm until 11 pm"). I got there a bit late but drove for about 4 hours straight, missing only a few heats during that time. Significantly for me I qualified for Pro Karts, based on dropping below a certain minimum lap time for multiple heats. This was my holy grail goal and I managed to hit my marks in the first four or so heats.

43.062 seconds.

I needed to break 43.75 seconds I think.

On seeing my reports on karting a (bike) racing friend reached out to me and offered me a ride in his karts. I have yet to take him up on it (it was 1 deg F outside the next morning) but I hope that I'll be able to experience karts outside later in 2017. Indoors I don't think we go much faster than 30-35 mph in the 6.5 hp regular karts, but outside he says his slow kart (similar to an indoor 9 hp Pro Kart) will hit 50+ mph. His fast kart will apparently hit the 70+ mph range.

After my solo outing to Brookfield I got in touch with my friend that first introduced me to OTK with a bunch of car nuts. We made plans for a repeat night out at the Wallingford track. It was sort of like a "group kart" experience, versus a group ride, with a 7 of us meeting up to kart. Five of us were Pro Kart qualified so for two heats we blitzed the course in the fast karts. It was my first time in them and it was eye opening. They were so much faster in certain sections that I had to relearn how to approach them.

2nd heat in the Pro Karts, top of the leaderboard.

"Frank", a regular, said that "mid-37s are respectable".

The best time in December at that time was in the 35.xxx range. That's fast!

I look forward to doing Brookfield in the Pro Karts. I hope one day to do the actual racing. It won't happen soon I think but there are some pretty long races. In a 10 minute heat I got in 15 laps at Wallingford. I did 16 minutes in Brookfield, two 8 minute heats back to back, and that was a bit fatiguing. In contrast the long kart races are 100 laps long!

Cycling

One conspicuous absence in all of this is anything bike related. The reason for this blog is cycling, of course, and my main interest for 35 years has been cycling. With an almost off year in 2016, with just several Tuesday Night races checked off, 2017 doesn't seem to offer much more. For me, as a promoter, racing has always had two sides: promoting and racing. There's a third bit, maintenance, and I'll kick off with that.

Maintenance

For the last two years I put literally zero dollars into my bike. I rewrapped the same tape around my bars a few times. I think I glued one tire on, a tire I had "in stock". I still have maybe 10 or 12 new tubular tires, ready to be mounted. I even have a few rolls of tape but I was jealously hoarding them for when I really needed new tape.

With the new job (as well as an economical car purchase) I've gotten to the point where I can think about spending some money on the bike. I need to overhaul my two SRMs, both of which are not working. I want to get a second stem so the black bike can be fitted like my red bike. I bought two new training clinchers for if I start training outside again. It's maybe six or seven hundred dollars but that's more than I felt comfortable spending in the last two years. Now, though, I feel like I can do it. Not just yet, but in the near future.

As a last bit I may try and get a second set of new-style 10 speed levers, Centaur I think, so the cockpits on both bikes match.

I did go and get one new cassette and a slew of used ones, from a good friend of mine. I hope that this gets me through the next year or three in terms of drivetrain maintenance.

Promoting or Lack Thereof

A big bike thing for me is promoting. With my new job I need to work Sundays from February through mid-April.

This means no Spring Series.

That's 100%. No giving it a shot, no trying, for me I'm done.

I've been on the fence about ending my promotion work, promising myself not to promote "next year". I've thought about my exit strategy, if you will. There are two significant investments in Carpe Diem Racing that I have - the trailer (legally it's Carpe Diem Racing property) and the tow vehicle (legally just a personal vehicle), both of which I wouldn't own except that I promoted races. Selling the trailer first, then the Expedition tow vehicle second, would seal the "no more promoting" decision. Even though I promoted races before I had them, if I sold them then mentally I'd be done.

I was telling someone about this stuff the other day and the one thing I'd want to get is a pick up, van, or minivan large enough to haul around a snowblower or a couch or something. With just two compact cars we can't carry much of anything if we didn't have the Expedition or the trailer.

Trailer at the 2016 Aetna Silk City Cross race.

To be clear I didn't promote the race, I only helped with registration.

Credit for the race goes to Jon, David, and the rest of the Expo crew.

So... If you're a promoter looking for a trailer and tow vehicle, let me know. Heh.

(For reference I spent $23k to buy them and I'd sell them for significantly less. Emphasis on the word "significantly". Trailer is a 8.5'x20' car hauler, 3500 lbs axles so 7000 lbs gross weight, about 3600 lbs load capacity as it's about 3400 lbs empty. Expedition is rated at 8900 lbs towing, give or take. I was thinking the trailer could act as a portable garage if it came down to it. Or a portable, heatable, miniature garage where I could work on my car. Waitaminute. Hm.)

Racing

For the actual racing bit I don't foresee much improvement in my schedule from 2016. I hope I'll make some races, but with my work schedule in flux typically week by week, I have absolutely no idea if I can race a week in the future, even a Tuesday night (there are some nights I'm at work until 8 or 9 PM or even later). This makes planning on doing any races sort of pointless. Pre-reg is no longer a thought. Targeting a peak or "A Race" is simply impossible. I'm okay with that, although with no real goals in mind it's hard to motivate to get on the bike.

June 2016.

Bike as I have it set up now.

I did make a "racer gambit" at the beginning of my current job. When they asked me pants size I gave them my 160 lbs waist size. I was already pushing about 168 lbs, and now I'm over 170 lbs. I literally cannot gain much more weight else I won't fit my pants.

Since they've given me eleven pairs of pants I'm sort of committed to that waist size. This means losing some weight and keeping it off. I managed to get down a few pounds in the last three weeks. If nothing else this will help with my racing.

So that's what's going on so far. Hopefully I'll have more updates a bit quicker in the future.

Promoting - Hours, or What It Takes

I recently answered a question about promoting, and one of the follow up questions was about the kind of hours I claimed to have put into putting on the Bethel Spring Series. I made a step-by-step list of hours, starting with the "before there's officially a race" to "now we have permission" to "just before the race" to "okay it's race time!"

I expanded on some of the thoughts and also included some pictures.

Keep in mind that other than some help setting up and breaking down, marshals, and officials, I did virtually everything myself. Not really ideal but this way I could only blame myself.

Carpe Diem Racing.

That's the name of the promoting company.

It started out as the club/team name back in 1990, with the name decided at my house between four proposed names in 1989. I suggested CDR, taking inspiration for the name from a trinket catalog which had a sweatshirt with the saying on it. It became a bit more well known when an Olympic team member was interviewed wearing a similar/same sweatshirt.

October:
10-20 hours: My time would start in October when I started to piece together changes/improvements for the races the following year. Permission from the town (possibly attend meetings, talk on phone, etc). Lining up officials (my favorite officials lived close by, they were reliable, consistent, and helped create a good race environment so I'd book their time as early as possible). I'd rough out any registration spreadsheet changes, something that's evolved over about 10-12 years. It saves a ton of time/energy on race day but I keep breaking it when I try and improve it.
Running total: 10-20 hours

December:
10-20 hours: December I was getting into the groove. Renew various legal entities (LLC, liability, workman's comp, debate doing it another year, etc). Start ordering stuff like numbers, set up infrastructure, etc.
Running total: 20-40 hours

January:
20 hours: January would be mostly virtual work. BikeReg. Permits. Lining up volunteers, employees. For legal reasons I had to have employees because I was paying them and I was telling them what to do. With an accountant wife I had to play 100% by the rules, it's like a pro cyclist being married to a WADA person, no hint of anything possible. One year I had 9 or 10 employees, toward the end more like 6. I would spend time fixing stuff I broke on the spreadsheet. I have to finalize any changes with categories/classes, etc. There was always very vocal feedback on that stuff and I tried to accommodate the racing community (because I'm one of them).
Running total: 40-60 hours

The van was parked here over the winter of 2011-2012.

February:
50? hours: February I was in full race promotion swing. I almost never trained much in February, there were some years where I'd ride 2-3 times during the whole month. I'd go to the venue at least once or twice to check on things. Sometimes I'd sweep or break up ice or what not. For a number of years I'd clear snow off areas for start/finish and portapotties; one year I dragged my quite-ill mom along so she could get out of the house. I think she sat in the car (running, with the heat on) for about 3 hours while I cleared what I could.

A February trip to get rid of snow on the inside/sprint line.

I seeded the snow/ice with lots of salt, in preparation for clearing it another day.

For Bethel, for many years, it was a 3.5-4 hour round trip just to get to the course. With the trailer it was more like 4.5-5 hours round trip. I'd go pick up trophies at some point (35-45 minutes from Bethel). Every now and then I'd train new staff, where I'd drive to their house, set up the camera and laptop, train them in the basics, go over stuff, break down, and return home. I'd check/test the equipment. Organize bib numbers. Order stuff I forgot to order or that got used up or that disappeared. Make lots of lists.

Pretty much every employer has allowed me to work on the race during the day. Even in a retail store I was probably working as much as 4-6 hours a day checking/answering emails. When I did IT I just dedicated one screen to race stuff, leaving two other screens for work. I'd crank through the race stuff, alt-tabbing between work and race as work allowed. For my running time I'm not counting that. I spent all my free time after work doing race stuff. I'd ride when I could because I had to, for my mental health.
Running total: 90-110 hours

March-April
March/April are race weeks. Killer. Thing though was that it was less trying to figure out how to do things at a theoretical level and much more "do this now". For example in January I'd be honing registration processes, trying to think through how things would work. At the first race the registration line was real and whatever I had to do I had to do. Things become very clear when it's "right now!"

My one escape was that I usually raced one race. Earlier in the life of the Series I'd do two races, because I didn't have to do results and such. Back then the officials handled all of that, and we didn't have to upload results because no one expected results to be online for a week or, before the internet wasn't just AOL, ever.

My bike at a 2014 Bethel. I'd race once that day, winning the field sprint behind a break.

The bleak weather probably meant a not-so-great day in terms of dollars/numbers.

60 hours, give or take, for the first week alone. First week is the hardest. 2-4 hours after registration closes Thursday (each week) organizing the registration spreadsheet, figuring out numbers, etc. I print releases at Staples because it's cheaper by a lot. For me I use $35 of toner plus paper if I print myself, it's about $25 if I have Staples do it. Plus they use nice paper. Drawback is that the Staples thing adds 1 hour of driving time to pick up the print job. 5-8 hours on Friday getting stuff packed/etc, 18 hours Sat 6 AM final pack and head down to the course for Sweep Day, and finish up at maybe 1 AM answering emails etc. Then 5 AM - 5 PM for the race. Another 2.5 hours to get home, unpack the most valuable stuff (laptop, etc), then upload results, make registration fixes, etc. With travel before, emails continuously, fix whatever I broke on the spreadsheet, upload results to my website, to USAC, work until maybe 11 PM (if not much later), call it 18 hours.
Running total: 150-170 hours

The trailer at one of the Bethels in 2014.

30-32 hours x 5-6 weeks, i.e. each week after that. 2-4 hours after registration. 2 hours emails every day (that's a very kind number), say 10 hours a week. 2 hours to break stuff down in house and pack. Race day is always about 18 hours (5 AM - 11 PM).

Bare trailer when I picked it up.

Trailer before I finished the inside, end of 2014 Bethel Spring Series.

After finishing the inside, before the shelf/hook/etc.

Brighter, which was my goal.

Trailer during a quiet bit of registration at the club's cross race in 2015.

There are plexiglass shields for the windows for cold/wet weather, built in tables, storage stuff on walls, shelf up front, drawers, heaters, microwave, even a fridge.

Not counting any emergency sweep days although I've spent 8-16-24 hours a week clearing courses some years (3-5 hours per trip, plus drive time, multiple trips some years). Also emergency meetings with angry tenants, meeting with town, etc. Not counting any of that.

Birthing room, 2012. Round table under window has registration laptop for Bethel stuff.

Yes I worked on registration on and off during the whole process.

When my son was born it was the 2nd week of Bethel in 2012. Went to the hospital Thursday evening. Was answering questions about registration and Cat 5 stuff on the way to the hospital. Set up laptop, wireless modem, and cranked through emails and calls while wife was induced. Nothing happened (we went through this the prior week as well, before the first week of racing). Went home Friday evening. Fri night her water broke. Went to hospital. I tried to answer some emails/questions but I was exhausted because we were up from 11 PM until my son was born at 9:33 AM. Wonder and joy and all that. Then back to the laptop. 3 PM wife kicked me out, told me I had to leave to get ready for the races because everyone was depending on me. I was really tired the next day.
Running total: 300 - 360 hours

Conservatively speaking I'll say that I put in 300-350 hours annually for the Bethel Spring Series.

Addendum time

The thing is that my number is pretty conservative. A busy year I'm guessing another 100 hours minimum, if I counted all the various stuff that I don't count because it doesn't happen every year, like making proposals and attending meetings to secure a venue. For example I secured 3 venues in 2015, used only two, made 3? 4? site visits, all for a venue we never used.

When I was searching for new venues, between 2014 and 2015, I probably spent 20-30 hours on that alone, during the summer. 4-5 hours at a time, couple times a month. Some emails, calls, stuff like that, tracking down legal land owners, then asking about holding events there.

I do payroll in there somewhere. Well technically the Missus does that, but I write the checks and pay the people that work for the race. I have to buy misc stuff, heaters for example, or get propane tanks filled for said heaters. Then replacements for heaters that broke or don't work. Adapters to use big propane tanks on little heaters. Fans. Fabricate some stuff like lap card stuff or tables or platforms. I've bought two wheeled leaf blowers. 5 or 6 generators. I've had to go get extension cords, cones of various sizes, bins, binder clips, pends, drawers, chairs, tables, tents (and fix tents), etc etc. I'm not counting the time to buy any of that stuff.

Website stuff is nutty. I did it all by hand early on, before stuff like Wordpress existed. Now I use Wordpress with the help of one of the guys that does the races. I can get lost for 4-5 hours when I start doing site stuff. Getting the sites up and running took a bit of time and effort. Not counting any of that.

The last week of the Series there are more things for me to do but generally within the same time frame. In other words I do more stuff, like doing podium pictures, but since those are between races it's just part of the day. I usually put off unpacking stuff for a month or three, usually until I have to clear out the trailer (or the van before that). Unpacking is usually quick, just a few hours once I drive everything home. I once left my van at the venue for 3 months, returning in late July to drive it home. Admittedly I made a day of it, rode 5 hours there, did the Wed night crit, then drove the van away.

Unpacking the van in September (Labor Day) one year.

I was totally burnt out on race promotion stuff by the time mid-April showed up.

Each year it seems like I spend 3-5 full days working on stuff for the trailer. I'd disappear for an entire Saturday and/or Sunday, 8-10 hours each day, to fix things up.

I also spent considerable time figuring out camera stuff. I'm on our 5th or 6th camera, each one requiring some learning, set up, testing, etc.

Still from a 1080p@30fps camera test. Car was going 35 mph.

I spend time organizing stuff in our storage bay (we rent it to store stuff for the races) or my basement (we have to keep release forms for 10 years now, plus I have all sorts of delicate/weather sensitive promoting stuff down there) or the garage (most of the gas powered stuff like leaf blowers, generators, etc). Nowadays I have to keep track of the trailer which is not parked at home and the tow vehicle which is parked in the storage bay. I pull out the tow vehicle every now because the year I didn't drive it from April until sometime deep in the winter the battery was dead and it just wasn't happy. At first we put just 1000 miles annually on the tow vehicle. The van also - one year I think I put about 450 miles on it. For the entire year! I got rid of it because it started having random problems, probably due the fact that I almost never drove it and it was never indoors (doesn't fit in a garage).

So that's it.

I tell racers to go thank the promoters whenever they race. Thank the marshals, registration people, everyone involved. I don't think I'm unique in the kind of effort I put into a race. Every promoter ends up living the race for a while, way beyond anything they expected when they first got into it. I was lucky in that I could ease my way into it. In the "old days" promoting was a bit less formal, a bit less structured. Now it's pretty tough to start up a race, and for someone actually closing blocks of roads in a city or doing a rolling closure for a road race... yeah, I can't imagine doing that.

Promoting - Revisiting The Trailer

Trailer. It looks big until it's next to an 18 wheeler.

I think I could drive my whole rig onto an 18 wheeler trailer.

This isn't a revisiting like "Should I have bought the trailer?" kind of revisiting. It was actually me visiting the trailer. I don't see or step into it that often and this year I think I was there three, maybe four times. All but one time was having to deal with a tire that went flat (ends up a bad valve, but once a tire is flat it's hard to troubleshoot a tiny leak off the side of a bad valve).

The last time I went there was to pick up one of the home fans that I'd moved over to the trailer for air circulation. We actually used the fans for cold weather, if I recall correctly, because the heaters we used didn't really distribute the heat well. And of course we used them for warm weather, for a little bit of air movement in the shade and shelter of the interior of the trailer.

I don't visit the trailer much because, honestly, I've felt sort of burnt out on the promoting gig. It's at best a break even thing, usually a money loser, so it's not really satisfying in that respect. Of course on the other hand promoting races is sort of my identity in the local cycling world, and in that respect promoting has given me back a lot of intangibles.

I bought the trailer a couple years back with the idea that I'd be promoting Bethel races for forever. Of course that's the year when the trampoline place opened, literally hundreds of cars drove around the course during race day, and the venue became essentially unusable for bike races.

Then over the winter of 2015-2016 the bit with my dad came up so I couldn't commit to promoting races at all, even working them. Nowadays I have a very small window of time available if the Missus covers for me, but otherwise it's basically impossible for me to be away from the house for more than an hour or three at a time, including driving time. That makes promoting a day of racing pretty much impossible. Therefore 2016 became the first year in over 20 years that I didn't promote a race.

It meant that I no longer needed to visit the trailer, the pitiful sight of the flat tire notwithstanding. Since I park it at a local business (one added benefit: security cameras) the flat tire looked kind of bad so I felt some internal pressure to fix it.

I was there at the trailer with Junior so he was pretty excited about the visit. For him visiting the trailer is a special event. He gets to run around inside this room-on-wheels he doesn't get to explore often, he gets to jump out of the door, and there's all sorts of neat things he discovers on each visit.

For this visit it was safety pins. Picking up stray safety pins kept him plenty busy while I unstrapped the stuff inside the trailer in order to extract the fan.

The whole process of unlatching the tie down straps, of moving around the inside of the trailer, it brought me back that promoting feeling, like I was getting ready to work a race. At that point I realized something.

I missed it.

I felt like I belonged in that trailer. It's where I was meant to be, if that makes any sense.

Others have joked about the trailer.

"If you get a bathroom installed you could live there."
"You know, if something happened at home you could live in here."

Stuff like that.

The reality is that the trailer is actually a nice spot to hang out, at least once I did some work to the inside. It's relatively warm in the winter, it's usually pretty cool in the summer, it's about as big as one of those tiny houses or maybe a small RV (it is about 20'x8' inside so about 160 SF).

Inside of the trailer when I finished the floor and walls.

It's a good set up, in terms of infrastructure for a race. It has a generator set up, regular plugs, lots of built in interior lights, the two big windows for registration (and clear windows with teller-like-openings for cold weather), a space to store stuff, tables, chairs, a spot for finish line tape, One Day and Annual Forms, two sets of drawers for numbers and such, so on and so forth.

Trailer at the 2015 Silk City Cross Race.

It's a bit messier here.

I do wish I'd had a vent installed in the roof, or even an AC unit mount, something to put a closeable hole in the roof. This would have given me an opening to either run out a video cable (vent) or do a direct mount in a turret-like structure for the finish line camera (AC mount). With a semi-permanently mounted camera I'd realistically put one of the two monitors on the wall - we could do photo finish reviews inside the trailer without any problems, even in inclement weather. At this point our finish line camera system is a camera on a tripod, which works but isn't wind proof nor water proof.

At any rate I looked around the trailer while I wrestled with the straps and such. It was cool inside, even though it was pretty hot outside. I took the opportunity to clean up a bit, to put the newly fixed tire/wheel unit onto the spare tire mount. I looked through some bins to see if there was anything I should keep at home, electronics and such. I think I grabbed one of the 2014 purple t-shirts.

(A tip: don't get more t-shirts than you think you need, and in fact divide what you think you'll need by half and get that many t-shirts max.)

The trailer reminded me it isn't all fun and games. The big metal plate that bridges the gap between the trailer floor and the ramp fell only my leg, scraping the skin off a solid part of my calf. If it was road rash I'd have needed one of those 4"x4" pieces of Tegaderm to cover it.

Metal plate - that black strip - doesn't look heavy but it really is.

About 8' wide, about 15-18" long, and definitely thick enough to support a car.

I grunted in pain and made some kind of face. Junior tuned into that and asked me if I was hurt. I told him I was okay but that I hurt myself on the "black metal piece".

I loaded the fan into the car while Junior played in the trailer, carefully staying toward the front of the trailer, away from that "black metal piece".

I walked around the trailer as I usually do when I leave it. Tires were all good, the spare looked fine. The rest of it looked okay, no wasps flying around.

Junior did a couple final flying leaps out of the trailer before I closed the door and locked up. He wanted to play in the sand in the parking lot so I watched while he moved sand from here to there and back again.

Junior playing in the parking lot.

It was getting time to go. We were about 8 or so minutes from the house but we'd burned a lot of time at the trailer. I wanted to get back to relieve the Missus of her watch-over-Pops duties.

As we pulled out of the lot Junior piped up.

"Can you play Uncle Gene's song? The one with the drums?"

I thumbed the control on the steering wheel.

I found URT's "I Erase"

"That one?"

"No, the one with the drums."

URT "Not Just One"

"This one?"

"No..."

I clicked again.

URT "Sea Monster"

"This?"

"No."

URT "Deepest Knife"

"This.."

"Yes! This is the one!"

URT "Deepest Knife"

We drove home in the warm sun. I thought about the trailer and realized there was something I had forgotten to do. I got home and pulled up an email. It was from the guys that promote the Silk City Cross race, my teammates. They'd asked me if I could help with registration this year. They knew about my situation at home, they'd been super supportive about the Spring Series (which I eventually had to cancel), but it never hurts to ask, right?

I clicked on Reply All.

I told them I'd be able to help out.

Aetna Silk City Cross.

I'll be there.

Promoting Races - Trailer Stuff Again

Although it's been cold and icy out we used the trailer to move some stuff into the Missus's office. I got to the office just ahead of everyone else so I had time to walk around inside the trailer and take a few pictures. I felt pretty good about all the stuff I'd done to make the trailer a better "race event" trailer.

Trailer backed up to the front doors of the office.

One big thing is that I'm much more at ease driving the trailer around. I'd like some lights down low so I can see how much clearance I have when, say, taking a slow turn with a snow bank on the inside, but otherwise I'm much more relaxed when pulling the trailer. I used to be a nervous wreck but now it's actually very soothing and comforting.

I do want to buy a stabilizer / weight distribution thing for the hitch. What it does is basically put a lever on the tow vehicle so the trailer doesn't pull down on just the ball, it pushes down on a long "bar" if you will so the tow vehicle gets loaded more equally front and rear. This would keep the rear of the tow vehicle from getting pulled down (and the front from being pulled up).

It also helps prevent the trailer from swaying in windy situations, typically when a semi passes me on the highway.

On this day, with a lot of running water freezing on the much colder ground, I also thought that getting snow tires for the trailer might be good. It'll be less prone to sliding on snow and in the summer it wouldn't make much of a difference. I run snows on the tow vehicle year round since I only put 1000-2000 miles on it a year and I wanted tires for the worst conditions, aka snow/ice.

One Day Licenses and Annual Renewals go in those bins.

I always lose track of the One Day and Annuals so I got an inexpensive bin set up to hold them. I keep blank forms in two pockets and put the filled in forms in the third. Makes it super easy to keep track of them, and since they're wall mounted it's hard to drop the folder or whatever.

The drawers are for the different categories, for numbers and releases. Put in a filled in release, pull out a number. It's easier to find a release if you need to get it. It's also neater than tossing all the releases into one box or bin.

Tables fold up but I leave them down. Legs unscrew when the tables are up.

Power outlet - the trailer is wired for 110v.

The circle is a little vent. There's one down low in the back, one up high in front. It's for air circulation.

The fuzzy thing hanging is a duster.

Carpe Diem Racing banner.

Carpe Diem Racing has a new site, revamped if you will. This will become the new central site for the events that CDR promotes or works.

Tape.

I have white duct tape for finish lines. The black duct tape is to border the while, but often it's not necessary. It's nice for a deluxe finish line though.

The blue painter's tape is for posting results. It makes it much easier to pull down all the tape at the end of the day. We also post any notes/signs/etc using the blue tape.

Yellow caution ribbon is for marking areas off-limits and such. I have a bundle of 50 cyclocross type stakes for staking out such areas.

Notes for registration folks from the last event we did, the 2014 Silk City Cross.

People inevitably ask about start times and such. We post that stuff between the two side windows so we have a copy and we don't waste 200 pages of paper printing out flyers that get tossed after a few views.

Tie down straps.

There's a bunch of stuff tied down in the trailer. I have more straps ready to go.

Note the lights? There are 12v dome lights, which I had on. There's also four 4' long 110v fluorescent lights which are not on - they're hooked to the 110v circuit.

Poster from the old days.

I wanted to put up a poster or two. This one is real, it was really signed by local star Mark McCormack and his teammate Bart Bowen. Ironically Mark's brother Frank didn't sign it but I've actually raced against him on a day I had the trailer at the race in 2014. I'll have to get him to sign the post if I can get him and the trailer in the same location.

Tables, sewer grate covers, cones, toilet paper.

Promoters can never have enough toilet paper. The day that you think you don't need more is the day that the portapotties weren't restocked and it's 77 degrees and sunny and 200 extra racers show up unexpectedly.

And there's no toilet paper.

I have 3 or 4 or 5 such packages strewn around the trailer and the tow vehicle.

You can see the top of one of the stacks of large cones. There are 10 or 12 in one stack, 13 or 15 in another.

Other things include a camera tripod, ladder, tall step stool, chairs, some other stuff.

Two tents.

Both have a couple broken pieces so I need to fix them up.

We moved a super heavy desk (visible) and two file cabinets on this trip. We stayed well below the trailer's 3500 lbs load limit, and I put the desk stuff over the rear axles. The trailer handled well.

Small cones, gas can, and a fire extinguisher.

After a minor engine fire back in the day I've been a fire extinguisher nut. The trailer has a dedicated fire extinguisher mounted to the wall. Go in the side door, look down and right, and it's there.

Small cones for minor things. I have about 6 or 8 left of the 20 or so original. I have about 6 or 8 left of the 20 or so old large cones. I have 25 new large cones.

I have to get a couple more things for the whole set up. Every year there's a refinement or two that I can do and this year is just like the others.

I'm starting to ramp up stuff for the new Aetna Nutmeg Spring Series. Stay tuned and hope to see you out there!

Life - Stuff or "Not Dead Yet"

So it's been forever since I've written a post, and honestly it's been hard to motivate to even finish one of the 190 or so draft posts I have.

Some of the last few have been clip type posts, where I post clips from the prior season. I have two more in the works, almost ready. One is on its 4th revision, the other is on its 5th. When they are 99% done I'll put them up. I say 99% because they're never 100% - after they go live I inevitably think, "Oh, I should have done xyz".

For now life is intruding a bit on stuff, and the blog is pretty low on the priority list. It illustrates pretty vividly how much time I had before, or, conversely, how much more important other stuff is compared to the blog.

Some of that "stuff" includes:

 - First, and most importantly, Junior is much more interactive and involved, with me, with his environment, other people, everything. Before he could play with cars for a while, or the train, or whatever. Now he enjoys interaction, typically with me (since I'm around). It might be anything from telling me about what happened at school or maybe something he heard or even just narrating what he's doing while he's doing it.

Taking a breather before getting in the car.
Picking Junior up from daycare can take 60-90 minutes as he plays all over before we leave.

He also seems to need about 45-60+ minutes of running (or other exercise) a day. When it's cold it means shopping trips take an extra hour or so as we run around either in bigger stores or out on sidewalks and such. When it's warm it means heading over to the playground, where he can easily burn through an hour of time, and more recently, until it got cold, he could do two hours before asking to go home.

One incident in particular helped me realize just how my priorities have changed. A couple weeks ago the Missus heard the forecast on a Saturday or Sunday that it would get warm out. She typically announces unusual weather like this and typically I'll ask back, "Do you mind if I go for a ride?"

Of course you know what happened instead.

Missus: "It's going to be 50 today!"
Me: "Junior, let's go to the playground!"
Junior, gleefully: "Playground!"

And we went to the playground.

 - Been looking for a job. Junior is getting older, I'm running out of savings, and it's about time to start working again. I'm looking to leverage my skills and passion in cycling but there's a cusp I need to reach to be able to put Junior in daycare full time as well as do things like cover health insurance.

 - Been working on a couple event services jobs. One is short term, ending Dec 7th, the other is longer term, scheduled for June 6th. I work for other people in both of these.

During the process I confirmed event work next year on June 7th (White Plains) as well as August something (Tokeneke).

Fortunately the company Carpe Diem Racing made money this year, barely, after taking a bath at Bethel once again. The extra event service gigs I did after Bethel ended up making up the difference because they're basically all profit. Those gigs have no real expenses so I'm paid for my time and knowledge. Bethel costs a lot of money to run (well over $40k for 2014 - I figure at some point I'll do a post on some of the broad numbers) and doesn't take as much money in as it spends.

With Bethel going by the wayside, due to the venue loss (traffic and such, not anything to do with racer misbehaviors), I hope to reduce overall gross numbers but increase profit. I hope that'll be straightforward - with a huge negative out of the way it makes sense that profit will go up.

 - My free times during the week are Tuesday and Thursday mornings while Junior is at daycare, meaning times where I don't have to keep an eye out on Junior. It's times like these that I can put the snow tires on the cars, do a real trainer ride, or work on projects and such. Unfortunately recently they've been taken with various time-sensitive things, leaving me with little/no time to do longer term stuff.

Daycare, I should mention, has been really good for Junior. He learns stuff there, he interacts with other kids, and we can reinforce that stuff when he's back at home. The opposite works too, where we'll teach him stuff and he gets reinforcement at school. For example we let him learn how to do puzzles, then at school the staff reported that he happily plays with puzzles which frustrate most of the other kids. So it's good overall and we're really happy with the balance of playing and learning at the daycare.

 - Been working on the Spring Series, a Bethel race, and one, two, or three other venues.

 - Trying to winterize the house. Things keep popping up, we get a reprieve with another warm day or two, but each time something seems to pop up. This last warm spell I couldn't use, and there's still some stuff to do. I did get some trailer stuff done, and used it to move some big equipment stuff to/from our storage unit.

Trailer at the bottom of the driveway.

I need a weight distribution / sway control unit for the hitch.

So that's the external stuff.

As far as stuff for me goes, as far as cycling goes, my big thing this year is to lose weight and get back to 2010 weight. I've never returned to that weight, gaining steadily each year, and I really notice the additional mass. It's interesting to relive and remember how riding felt when I was 25 pounds lighter (than I was 3 weeks ago).

At Bethel, on the non-aggressive laps, I was climbing the hill while lightly dragging my brakes. I didn't want people to think I was doping, if you can believe that, and I needed so much less power to climb the hill (300-400w versus 600-800w) that I had the luxury to do that.

Even in the flat races I could accelerate much easier out of the corners. Yes, my legs got heavy when the lactic acid built up, but until then I felt like my whole body was made out of super light styrofoam or something.

Therefore I want to lose weight, get back to a lean me, and then do whatever training I can do with whatever my schedule might be at the time. I started about 2 weeks ago, maintaining sub-1800 cal daily intake even over Thanksgiving. I found that I could get by with about 1450 cal a day, with three seemingly big meals a day. I was pretty proud of myself and I'd carefully eat a bit extra in the evening to make up the deficit.

Recently, when I recalculated my diet numbers using my new, lower weight, I got a much lower 1260 cal/day recommendation. That was a shock but I'll see if I can do it. I'm looking at 8 more weeks of loss, give or take, if I can manage things.

So that's my violin story. You can get your world's smallest violin and play it a bit for me. I'll wait.

(Pause)

Okay, that's it.

In the meantime I still have those two clips to upload. I'll have event announcements. And I might even have some thoughts on the racing and tactics I observed over the last summer, with some tips and hints and such.

Racing - RI Masters Olympic Games, M45-49, Shelled

Ninigret Park, Rhode Island. For us now it's about a 2 hour drive, about the furthest I'll go for a bike race. Last year I didn't do well here, a small field, marginal fitness. This year, with less fitness and only five pre-registered riders, I actually contemplated not going to the race. In the end we did, partially because we planned on visiting family (that were visiting the area) after the race.

I felt a bit of optimism when I saw what had to be 50 or 60 racers line up for the M50+ races (it was actually closer to 35, according to the Missus). However when I lined up and there wasn't even a full row of riders…

The whole starting field, minus one guy way off to my left.

Although we got there sort of early I still managed to do only a marginal warm up. I didn't feel much like doing any efforts anyway and the typically ferocious wind kept my motivation down. The tailwind leg of the warm up loop (the parking lot) felt not-that-fast and the headwind leg felt really slow.

On the nice side the bathrooms have been redone. New walls, ceiling, the stall, I think the toilet was new, sink, hand dryer instead of paper towels, the entry door to each side, everything is really nice. I don't have a before picture so I didn't bother with an after one but, yeah, much nicer now.

Tip: if the little windows are open up top then it's probably open. If they're closed then it's probably locked.

Backstretch, heavy wind from right-front.

On doing the first lap I realized that the backstretch would have the most wind and therefore the most shelter. The last stretch before the sprint would be the weird one, the one with pretty high brush on both sides making the stretch a swirly wind thing. The main stretch would be a tailwind and therefore ideal for attacking or for shelling marginally fit riders.

The first attack, going into the tailwind bit.

The first attack happened as we entered said tailwind section and it seemed fine. Everyone responded and I thought, okay, this is good, it seems not quite so frantic.

Goaded into pulling on the last bit before the tailwind main stretch.

A short while later, it might have been a lap, maybe two,  I ended up near the front and obligingly took a pull. No one came around when I eased and instead of sitting up I kept going.

After three turns I decided that I would encourage the others to pull by putting them in the gutter (the unsheltered side of a crosswind section of course). I attacked out of the second turn of the course, intent on stringing out the field into the cross-headwind backstretch.

Exiting Turn Two.

Steady effort on the backstretch, on the left side of the course.

You might be able to see that I'm doing a quite unsustainable 700+ watt effort on the backstretch. I didn't know it, I wasn't looking at the computer, but I knew I was going way too hard. When I looked back everyone was strung out, there were gaps, and I knew that no one was benefitting from being behind me. After I sat up and they all regrouped someone took a pull.

Of course I'd gone deep into the red also but that was a different problem.

I never quite recovered from that effort and started getting in trouble first on the hidden wall-of-bushes last bit and then in the front stretch in the tailwind.

Trouble, wall-of-bushes section.

I chased back onto the small field on the main stretch after the first minor crisis I had, but I knew that the group hadn't been attacking as much as just "riding hard". I started hoping that the guys would ease up a bit.

Trouble again.

The next bit of trouble came on the tailwind section, when my legs wouldn't turn over fast enough and lacked the power to push a bigger gear. My heart rate wasn't high so the whole thing puzzled me but basically it's caused by something called "you blew yourself up and you haven't recovered".

I chased desperately into the wind and managed to latch back on, but I knew that I had very few efforts left before I really had to ease.

Trouble, the third time, this time on the main stretch.

The third time I got gapped happened on the main stretch, even before we got to the start/finish. I focused on getting back to the guy in light blue but when we came out of Turn Two I realized that he, too, was gapped. I tried to pass him after Turn Three, going into that backstretch bit, but by then the gap was too big for me.

Oops.

When I saw the gap I almost immediately sat up. I had been redlined from the beginning of the main stretch, I already closed one gap (to the rider in blue), and now to close another?

Of course the group sat up just as I did so the gap didn't grow much for a few turns, and in fact I think the rider in blue got back on at about the start/finish.

The group opposite me, fragmented.

The group fragmented a bit after I'd dropped way back. I think the eventual winners were in the second group. Even if I'd made it back I think I'd have had problems with the group splitting and such, so my getting shelled was appropriate.

"I'm stopping this lap"

The Missus and Junior watched from the other side of the backstretch. I'd done one half lap of effort, then about one quarter, and now I was rolling around on the tops. Obviously I wasn't chasing hard but the Missus had to be a bit confused on what I was doing.

The race had two "finishes", the 20km and the 40km. I knew that if I finished 20km I'd get some kind of place because there weren't that many riders in the field. This pushed me to do a few laps on my own.

Plus I could do a practice sprint.

When I saw the Missus I was on my last lap, my 20km finish lap. I was reasonably recovered, I decided I'd sit up even harder just before the sprint, and I'd try to do a good sprint.

She said something back to me but I couldn't hear with the wind and such, but she pointed over to the car so I figured she was saying "I'll meet you back at the car".

With that I did my sprint. Ultimately the numbers were good but my starting speed was too low to make it an actual fast sprint. I did a 1200w jump and sustained 900 watts average for 20 seconds. This compares favorably with the best "race" sprints I've done, with a 1250w jump and 1100w sustained for 18-19 seconds.

My very low starting speed, about 22 mph, meant that I spent virtually my whole sprint getting up to speed - my power dropped off a cliff as I hit 37 mph and it was all I could do to maintain something close to that to the line.

Bike throw.

Note how I'm down to 755w in the picture. The screen doesn't update super quickly - I've learned not to try and correlate points on the download to images I capture on the helmet cam - but 755w is the end of a sprint. I'm actually applying zero power since I'm not pedaling at that moment. I don't know how the SRM figures that out, if I throw the bike and complete the pedal revolution a half second later.

The Missus, with Junior looking back.

When the Missus heard me say I'm doing one more lap she figured it would be at the same pace as when I talked to her, i.e. on the tops and such. She got the spare wheels (that's what she told me she would do, not meet me at the car). As she leisurely started to cross the course she heard me barreling down the straight and hustled a curious Junior off the course.

I did half a lap to cool down and went back to get my wheels. When I saw the wheels weren't there I realized that the Missus had picked them up.

I rolled by the trailer rig used by the finish line folks. I thought it pretty funny because their tow vehicle is about the same year as the Expedition (based on the similar color) and their trailer looked pretty new as well. It was like a 2/3 scale version of the set up I ended up with.

Compact trailer set up.

I thought about my trailer, if maybe I'd been over eager to get a big trailer. After some mulling I realized that having two registration windows makes sense and that by itself required at least 14' of trailer (the windows are 6' long). Once at that size the larger trailer, except for navigating narrow driveways (ahem), becomes almost the default choice based on virtually identical costs and weights.

The barn doors in the rear make a lot of sense. I got the ramp so I could get the leaf blowers and snow blower in/out easily as well as to increase resale value. The ramp is heavier, added a few hundred dollars to the cost, but my thought was that if I had to sell the trailer it would be much easier selling it as a car hauler than a registration trailer, and car haulers need the heavy duty (5000 lbs rated) ramp. For registration and finish line stuff, though, the barn doors are fine. The big advantage with barn doors is that you can close just one door, leaving you room to tape results and such, and helping keep the wind/chill down inside.

The trailer had mosquito netting hanging in the window, that makes a lot of sense to Mister Mosquito Magnet me.

With the race out of the way I got to change and take pictures of the finish. I thought the guy in purple would win based on my limited time in the field, and I thought he did, but then I realized later that I'd watched him win the 20km race from atop my bike. The 40km finish he got second.

The Missus was chuckling over stuff she overheard the racers say as they rode by. Apparently when I got shelled for real one of the riders told the others, "Hey, we just dropped one of the better sprinters, let's keep it that way."

The next lap, with me noodling around way back there on my tops, the rider concluded, "Yeah, he's done."

I'd had some recent discussions with others about various riders, talent, and such. Based on the sound thrashings I've received from really good sprinters I consider myself about an 80% sprinter. In comparison I'd rate myself as the bottom 1-5% in time trialing and climbing, so there's that. At any rate I understand my place in the world, and although I can sprint okay, I know many who can really trounce me.

But still, to hear that I was a threat, that was nice.

Apparently I'm one of the better sprinters.

Let's keep it that way.

My number that day.