Life - Event Services for Silk City Cross and stuff

With my current life's "non-schedule" I tend to think in terms of macro cycles, to use a training term, instead of micro cycles. In training a micro cycle would be your weekly schedule, your daily routine. You'd think about intervals on Tuesday, the long ride Wednesday, the hill repeats Thursday. The fact that I'm listing Eddy B's standard schedule automatically, almost 30 years later, tells you how long it's been since I've trained in any kind of structured way. If you want to compare it, moving two analogies away from my life schedule, it's like doing reps of a weight lifting workout. "10 curls".

Anyway that's a micro cycle. A macro cycle revolves around a set of micro cycles, like 4 or 6 weeks of training. In cycling it may consist of pushing really hard at the end of a 4 week training block, doing 25 or 30 hours in a furious week of training, then taking a few days off before starting the next macro cycle. It's sort of the whole "off season" thing also - the off season splits your annual macro cycles. In weight lifting it's like a set. "5 sets of 10 curls".

So in my life I'm more macro oriented now. Whereas I used to focus on a few days ahead - "Tuesday night is the race"; "Wednesday is my day off"; "Saturday I can do stuff in the yard"; etc - I now focus on more widely spaced events. My summer consisted of thinking of upcoming races, a trip, and the event services gigs I had.

Earlier this summer my schedule tailed off so I fell into this scheduling limbo. It got to the point where the Missus would ask me what I was going to do while Junior was at day care and I'd realize only at that moment that it was Tuesday.

As far as how macro I went... To put things in perspective I abandoned my goals of doing a good Bethel early this year when I got sick. I thought about what I might be able to accomplish in 2013. That process is sort of like imagining macro cycles into the future, understanding what I can and can't accomplish in each cycle. It's like trying to think about future moves in chess - if I move my bishop here then they can move their knight there.

I concluded that based on a year and change of not-super-productive macro cycles that it would take a tremendous amount of work to return to any kind of racing shape. It was bad enough that I went into March 2013 with my focus on March of 2014.

Yeah.

This summer progressed with my focus on everything except racing. I mean, okay, I'd think about a race in the days leading up to it, but all the races I did were a "take it or leave it" sort, meaning if I missed one it wasn't a big deal. I never thought about a race more than a couple weeks ahead of time, instead just doing whatever I needed to do day to day, hour to hour. In my head I was thinking of 2014 so a race on some random summer day in 2013 wasn't really critical.

I mention all this because my next macro cycle is coming to an end, and I have a lot of stuff focused into less than a week of days.

It started earlier this week with an all-day (after dropping Junior off at day care at 1 PM) road trip to meet up with some people. I knew I'd be back long after Junior fell asleep (his standard time is 8 PM) but I didn't think I'd be arriving home well past 1 AM.

This weekend is a double header - Silk City Cross on Saturday and the Hartford Cycling Festival on Sunday. I'll be working registration at Silk City and hopefully be racing in Hartford.

Working registration for the third time at Silk City (in the three years Expo has held it) has taught me a few things about cross. One, your start position actually matters. Two, to keep bullies from bullying their way up to the front of the line, cross racers get lined up based on rank. Racers want their ranks updated if they do well, so the top finishers at a cross race want their results as fast as possible.

This means leveraging the system we developed for the Bethel Spring Series to get results up as soon as possible. My minimum expectation is to upload everything before I leave the venue. The best case scenario is that the results go up while the next race is going on.

That doesn't come for free. There is some back end stuff I need to set up. Even though we've built the basic system I still need to customize it for each race. This has occupied me for a bit and will be my main non-Junior focus for the next two days, basically until I drive to the cross race.

I also need to prepare the Event Services vehicle, aka "The Expedition". Each race requires a slightly different load out. For example I won't need to bring extra black and white duct tape for a cross race finishline. When working a pavement race I'll bring the tape.

 Expedition, back when we got it in May

I'm debating using one of the VWs instead but I'm not sure. I don't want the Expedition to sit too much - I last drove it to the Tokeneke RR (and I realize now I never posted about that race) - and the next time I'll drive it is either to Bethel in March or to do some maintenance (plugs, tires, some touch up paint, and possibly brakes).

Since I need to be able to drive to/from the storage unit without a babyseat I have to accomplish this today while Junior is at day care (he only goes two half days a week, and I sacrificed the other day to do my road trip).

Hartford is a bit simpler - it's just a race for me. I want to go and hang out a bit too, but a number of things may prevent some of that. The main thing is the forecast - it's supposed to rain. The forecast has been improving daily so I'm hoping that the storm ends up hitting the area late Sunday.

In the old days I'd do a rainy race because I figured that a lot of guys wouldn't show up, a bunch of the ones that did show up would fall, and I'd have a better chance. Back then I was reasonably fit so I could stay near the front of a race, even a figure 8 race on a 1/2 mile loop (like at Tour of Michigan).

Nowadays I'm not that fit, I'm more risk averse, and I tend not to do well in rainy races. Plus if I hit the deck then it compromises my ability to parent. Typing at a desk is one thing. Catching Junior as he tears around a corner and starts clambering up a chair... that takes some physical agility.

Where does that leave me?

Playing with Junior.

I let Junior play with his chair for the first time today


Cutting oranges in the kitchen, preparing Junior's food for day care.

Learned a trick about cutting oranges to keep the white stuff off.

Then after I drop him off it's on to getting some prep work done for the cross race Saturday.

Promoting - 2012 Aetna Silk City Cross (Sept 22 2012)

(Disclaimer: I am not the promoter, I just did the registration bit, but since I didn't race I couldn't put "Racing" like I did for White Plains or the CCNS Kermis; therefore I put "Promoting" since it has to do more with promoting.)

Note: after I wrote the post I went looking for the post from last year so I could link to the post. I made the same disclaimer at the beginning of that post. I didn't remember writing that but I guess my thought process is the same.

This race would be the third race in three weeks where I helped in running the race. The first was the CCNS Kermis, where I helped with the finish camera. The second was White Plains where I handled both registration as well as the finish camera. The third would be the Aetna Silk City Cross race where I had been tasked with handling registration.

I had a number of goals for myself for this race, four of them really.

First off, since I wasn't racing, I could focus solely on registration. Racing, I have to admit, came second in the other two events - I brought my bike, my gear, even spare wheels, but I went with the knowledge that at any moment my racing would have to be scrapped. That makes for a non-committal approach to racing which had led me to sitting up before the finish.

(As a side note I do the same at Bethel - although I contest the Cat 3-4 race I've almost never contested the P-1-2-3 race because I'm already thinking about all the post-race tasks in front of me.)

With the cross race it would be a bit different. Not only have I never done a cross race, I don't even own a cross bike. Therefore I was absolutely committed to staying at the registration desk the whole day.

So that was Goal One.

Another goal was to continue what I will call The Spreadsheet Evolution. Ever since we started using laptops at Bethel we've been using this ever evolving spreadsheet. It comes from weeks of saying "Oh, hey, we should have the spreadsheet do this next time" every year.

I feel lucky that I have the Bethel Spring Series. It gives me many weeks of race promotion practice. When people ask why it runs (relatively) smoothly I respond that I get a lot of practice. Most one-race clubs hold one race a year. They fumble through the day, relearn all the things they learned the year before, and by the time they get into their groove the day is over.

They're done.

Then next year it's the same story all over again.

At Bethel we also have our first week fumbles. But then we have five weeks to follow up, to improve, to fix, to modify. Then, at the end of the year, after five weeks of changes, everything goes into hibernation.

The following year, although we'll inevitably fumble something, it usually goes off pretty smoothly.

Multiply that by 20 years, maybe 120 races (for about 10 years we had 7 races a year, then 6, but we often had a race a year called due to snow/ice), and there's a lot of practice, a lot of refinement.

This year, with six Bethels, CCNS, and finally White Plains, I (and Expo's Aetna Silk City Cross race) would benefit from a lot of prior experience.

Every race for the last couple years I swear that I'm going to upload results to USAC before we pack up at the end of the day. Almost every race I can't do it for one reason or another. White Plains was close - I couldn't upload simply because I didn't have an internet connection but the file, generated by The Spreadsheet, was ready to go.

For Silk City I had the MiFi modem (thanks to the Missus, who located it shortly after White Plains), I had a spreadsheet that I knew would generate the upload file, and I finally felt like I could fulfill my "upload before we go home" goal.

A third goal, one that I've been semi-working on for several years, is to reduce the "race promotion package" to as small as possible. I used to fully load (overload?) a car to get to the races. I've been editing the bins with the Missus's help and I've found a lot of redundant or useless bins. I've managed to reduce the bin count to about four, maybe five, and require only a station wagon to get everything for registration to the races.

My list for registration includes two generators, gasoline, two tables, two chairs, printer, printing paper, power cords, computer stuff, tape, first aid bin, pens, releases, numbers, drawers for numbers/releases for day-of, the MiFi, a powered USB hub, and I'm sure some other stuff.

(Course maintenance is different - a dozen shovels and brooms, two wheeled leaf blowers, one hand held leaf blower, two Echo power brooms, about a dozen grate covers, another dozen cones, between 5 and 15 gallons of gasoline... that takes up most of a 15 passenger van. I still have a long way to go on this one.)

Finally, my fourth goal would be to reduce set up time to a minimum. Although I can get registration up and rolling in about 10 minutes I feel that's about 8 or 9 minutes too long. I feel like I should arrive at registration and be taking names and licenses in a minute or two. Although Silk City wouldn't be the first run of such a system I wanted to use the experience of setting up registration there to hone my needs for exactly that.

All this meant that my main work would start on Friday. Registration closed Thursday, giving me Thursday evening and Friday to work on the spreadsheet, think of procedures, pack things up, all that. Things looked good for Thursday except for one thing.

Junior got sick.

Now, okay, I have to say that Junior is our first, so we're a bit more responsive than someone with, say, a dozen kids. On top of that this was Junior's first cold so he seemed especially pitiful and helpless to us, with labored breathing through mucous filled breathing passages and such.

Thursday night he got up every 60-90 minutes, staying up for about 10-30 minutes before drifting off to a fitful sleep. Since I've been a stay-at-home dad by default, and by choice, I take the overnight shift. This meant I was up constantly with Junior, not really sleeping much.

Friday morning the Missus found me asleep on the couch, Junior in my lap, both of us bundled up against the overnight chill in the house.

Friday I couldn't work on anything pretty much the whole day. Junior was fussing constantly, very unlike him, and although he must have been exhausted he couldn't really take a prolonged nap. His mucous kept him from breathing freely and this kept him from napping. I managed to get one thing done - having Staples print out the releases and then go and pick them up.

Tip: when I printed out the releases before I'd download the whole release and print them out on our printer at home. We went through a $70 toner in a week and change. I considered printing out blank releases then downloading just the data (i.e. what we fill in when we register for a race) but I found a better solution - have Staples print out the releases. They'll print out the pdf on three hole paper in a day and charge maybe $20 for a race's worth of pre-reg. Add $25 for a couple hundred blank releases and you're done for all the release forms for race day.

The Missus came to the rescue Friday evening. As soon as she got back from work she took Junior out of my arms, cooked dinner, and basically did everything we needed to get done around the house. This freed me up to work on the spreadsheet for a race now just an overnight away.

At midnight I finally called it a night. I had the spreadsheet optimized, added the four thousand categories (as compared to White Plains) and the brain-addling mods that entailed in the look ups and such, thought of some more improvements I'd make for the next version (and made notes of the same), and populated the data from BikeReg.

As almost an afterthought  I stuck most everything in the car, set the alarm for a 6 AM wake up, and fell asleep.

Saturday came all too quickly but I felt like I had a handle on things. I got out of the house pretty much on time, stopped for breakfast on the way, and arrived at the venue at about 7 AM. I wanted to be set up by 8 AM, when we wanted registration to open, but I had to do assign numbers, print out start lists, and such.

Oh and I had to set up my "more than a minute or two" registration set up.

Where my car sat for the whole day - everything fit in it, easily. Front passenger seat was empty.

Another food truck behind the car.

We had an initial inundation of the table, with riders asking if I was ready as early as 7:20 AM. By 8 there was a big line and only with the help of four Expo folks we got the line into a somewhat manageable size. (Note to self: Cross racers want pre-reg divided by category, not by name; this may be the case with regular crit racers too).

After that first rush things calmed down, SOC arrived to help, and the day went well. I hooked up the MiFi and had a good internet signal throughout the day. I thought about uploading each race's results to USAC as we got them but then decided that I'd wait and do them all at once at the end of the day.

We dealt with the miscellaneous questions that always come up, usually by deferring to Boss Jon, the man in charge.

The Missus brought a much-better looking Junior to the race. We got to hang out a bit as the day-of registration rate dropped to a trickle.

At some point one of the food vendors (there were a couple) asked me for some gasoline. I thought it was an unprepared racer or something. I didn't realize who it was until he pointed to the truck (whose menu I'd been eying for a while) in the middle of our conversation.

"Wait, you're the waffle guy?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, well, then take what you need."

He tried to offer some money (at $4/gallon gas ain't free) but I declined. It's part of the whole gig, plus I'd have to use up that gas somehow in the next few months.

Juniors U15 race. Waffle truck behind them, registration tent to the right.

As last year the cleanup went quickly. I handled putting away the registration stuff with SOC. I admitted I was jonesing for a hot dog.

"You should ask the guy for one. You gave him gas, right?"
"Yeah, but..."

The waffle guy happened to be walking by. SOC kind of flagged him down.

"Hey, can you give him a hot dog?"
"Sure!"

He walked over to me. I wasn't sure about this.

"You don't mind?"
"No, not at all."
"Okay, then, a Nathan's dog then."
"What do you want? Ketchup? Mustard? Sauerkraut?"
"How about sauerkraut? And mustard."
"Spicy or yellow."
"Spicy."
"You got it."

SOC broke in here, asking me a critical question.

"You want your buns toasted?"
"Yeah!"

A minute or three later I was munching on a delicious Nathan's dog. Yum yum.

We all chatted for a bit. Something I said last year came up in conversation. Someone was thinking out loud that, wow, we had a lot of helpers at the race this year. Another guy said that, yeah, that's what it seems like. And he basically quoted what I said last year - Expo, it seems, is made up of those people that singly get things done in other clubs. In other words most clubs have one or two people that get things done. Expo is made up of those people - everyone gets things done.

With that we hung out and chatted. I caught up with an Expo teammate that, get this, was an RA in my dorm back in my UCONN days. That was a blast. As my back started to twinge (I've learned it does this when I stand or walk on uneven surfaces) the Missus called. She'd left earlier with Junior and was wondering when I'd be back for dinner.

I remembered that the GPS told me it'd take 33 minutes to get to the venue from the house.

"I'm leaving now, I'll be back in half an hour."

Half an hour later I was at home.

Junior and me at registration. His cap says "born to ride".

No pressure.

Interbike 2011 - Indoor Day One

Welcome.

After a late night out - we had dinner after the Lavo party and got back at about 2 AM - I snapped awake at about 6:30 AM. I wanted to get to the show around 8, an hour before the main floor opened (the first floor opened at 8, the second at 9). I showered and dressed quickly, fortunate that I felt no lingering effects of the night before.

Wearing my new shoes for only the second time ever, I set off. Last year I broke in brand new shoes at Interbike too - I highly recommend this method of breaking in shoes, especially if you believe in the "dive into the deep end" method of learning how to swim. Anyway, with my now-molded-to-my-feet shoes slapping the concrete I caught the shuttle to the show. Unbelievably the clouds were emptying out again - it was raining for the third day in a row (?!). After a long drive in the shuttle me and my shoes got to the show in good order.

The first person I recognized, other than Rich, was Nelson Vails. As usual he dressed to the nines, in a suit, tie, and even the matching ruffles sticking out of his jacket pocket.

Conspicuously absent?

A lanyard holding a badge.

Rich asked where he had his badge.

"No badge. I don't need a badge."
"What do you tell security?"
"I don't need a badge. I walk up and when they ask me about my badge, I tell them 'no badge, but check those guys' IDs'. So they let me through and checked all the guys behind me for ID."

Only Nelson could get away with that.

We walked up to the show doors, before the show opened. The security guard let Nelson in and checked our badges.

I felt almost lucky I didn't have to show my ID.

Nelson checked out the Circulus track, a small (50 foot diameter) track built by the pdw folks. The pdw folks were really friendly and really encouraging, inviting us out to check out the track. Nelson asked if he could walk in and poke around.

The badgeless Nelson Vails, 1984 Olympic Gold, 200m sprints, and hotel management lookalike.

Nelson declined. But me?

Hm.

I have to think about that.

Artwork.

On the way to the media center we walked by the art display. The pieces here were commissioned by Interbike (I think) and the proceeds goes to various bike advocacy things. Something like that.

Once at the media center I realized I forgot the MiFi little card thing and my USB phone charger. Luckily the Nissan display of the Leaf also had a charger station - I used it to keep the phone from going critical. The MiFi was less an issue, although there are so many networks in here that you could probably hold up a fluorescent bulb and see a glow.

(You can try this under high tension power lines... just don't stay there too long.)

I managed to find a copy of the Show Daily, a review of what happened the day before. Lo and behold, what did I find?

Hunter, with white helmet, representing Connecticut and Cheshire Cycle.

I got into my role, scoping out stuff and setting up appointments for David. It's tough trying to coordinate all that, but overall it worked out pretty well. My role this year was more booking and such so after taking care of the day's schedule I got to browse around.

I stood in line for two signed posters (Dave Z and Ryder H), small posters (excellent for transportability), but otherwise checked out only a few things.

Dave Z's shoes say "Z". Sort of.

He seemed ruefully resigned to his autograph duties, but he still did them. I have no idea if these guys remember folks from one signing to another, but I imagine they remember the real oddballs.

Hopefully they don't remember me.

During the day I saw Richard Masoner, aka Cyclicious. He was munching on pistachios. I had to take a picture because the Missus had bought me the exact same kind of pistachios just a week or two ago.

Cyclicious Richard Masoner, with pistachios.

The first indoor day always seems busy. The booth girls are around usually on this day only. Everyone's dying to see what's out there. And every blogger and cycling news site is scrambling to scoop the others.

The Garmin booth was... crowded.

Believe it or not I did little research on anything this year, so although I saw the mobbed booth, I didn't try and take time away from those in there. I felt a bit overwhelmed with the show this year for whatever reason. I had to get used to the floor layout, figure out where the two sets of escalators sat (to get downstairs), and figure out where some of the office rooms sat.

The day rushed by, my legs tired, my feet reasonably okay, the shoes spectacular from a comfort point of view.

We had a short break to coordinate travel and such, then jumped in a minivan for a short drive. Tonight the after hours stuff was pretty tame, at least compared to last night. I stuck with drinking soda and water when we went to...

VIVA CROSS VEGAS!

Sorry. It's just that it's one of those things you can't say quietly.

Subaru bell.
I chose that side for this picture in honor of the Rent's team's sponsor, New England Subaru.

I figured this was a great way to end a 10 hour day spent on my feet - stand another few hours on uneven ground. By the end of the racing all sorts of weird muscles in my legs were cramping up.

Now, mind you, you really haven't seen much 'cross here. There are a few reasons for this.

1. I don't race 'cross.

2. I've never raced 'cross.

3. Even if I wanted to try it, I don't have a 'cross bike.

Although properly impressed with the athleticism out there, within a few minutes of watching the next race up (Elite Women's), I realized 'cross is really not for me.

For a moment I had some hope, a flickering. The field looked bunched up, like a crit field on a really narrow grass course, blasting by at speed, just after the start.

Then, within a few minutes, the group first strung out, started splitting, and then blew up into a million pieces.

I looked at how hard the women worked just to maintain speed on the tire-sucking grass and dirt. I thought about how it'd be to be there, to try and power through a hundred yards of muck, turn, do another hundred yards, all while never being able to coast or really draft or anything to ease the pain.

I thought of me doing such a thing.

"No way."

Then the Pro men went off. Holy smokes! Barrier to barrier at the start, they practically took the spectators' hands, heads, and cameras off.

Although it took a couple laps for the group to thin down, it still followed the same pattern. Mad rush at start. Racers blowing up as they hit the wall while trying to maintain what would essentially be about the same power (i.e. to power through dirt you need to pedal pretty hard - there's no coasting there).

As a given racer's fuse expired, he'd blow up and drop off. His position in the field at that moment depended on his skill at moving up, his cornering skills, technical skills in the run up, etc. The exploding racer would then typically leave a gap.

Others would go around, try and close it, redlining yet another racer or three.

More gaps.

More going around.

And even more gaps.

Interestingly enough I saw riders way up front blowing up early - it seems that they either went way too hard to get position or they had better technique but less fitness than those behind. I suspect the latter because 'cross is like running - if you can't hold a certain pace you get shelled, period.

No clever riding, no saving grace through technique and such. If you can't go fast, you lose.

Then, after thinking about the implications of the different types of terrain offered through the course, I thought of my ideal 'cross race. If such a creature popped up I'd think about trying it. So, if you want to get me on a 'cross bike, this is the course you need to make.

- Lots of corners, mainly on downhills

- As much pavement as possible

- Run ups as necessary

- Not a lot of flat stuff.

If you read into the requirements you'll realize that such a course would emphasize technique more than fitness. Corners, fast stuff (where you can draft if with someone), run ups, those all favor a crit-type rider. It avoids the flat power stuff, the stuff that requires super hard efforts, where wattage becomes king.

I had fun watching, my right ear hurt from someone ringing a bell right next to it, and I grinned a lot. After the races we packed up and headed out.

I wasn't sure how to summarize the whole 'cross race but then this car rolled by.

Piled into the car.
There's someone in the trunk too, maybe two of them.

It's what 'cross is.