Life - Wah Wah For Me

Over the last couple weeks I've started a bunch of posts with good intent but found myself derailed before I could finish them enough to post them. Even the last couple I've posted have been pretty sparse. I know it's all first world problems - I mean, seriously, whining about not being able to blog is a first world problem.

Junior was sick, yes, and then he got better just in time for Thanksgiving at a friend's house. After a week of bliss he started acting a bit quiet again. He's been waking up frequently at night, maybe every hour to two hours sometimes. Since I'm the first responder on most nights I've been up with him but that means little sleep at night. I make up for the missed sleep during the day, which is nice, but then  I can't sleep at night.

Then yesterday he got sick all over himself again.

Wah, wah, right?

This time it's worse because the Missus is sick also. So far I've had just a bad stomach ache, like I did last time.

To try and put that in perspective I've gotten a bad stomach ache after meals where other people at the table have gotten full blown "food poisoning". I'll get these stomach aches after eating some maybe-sketchy food so I tell people I have a cast iron stomach. In other words if I have a bad stomach ache then something is up.

With some cold weather maintenance necessary around the house (window pellet stove is not usable right now, some shoveling etc), some indoors maintenance (moving trainer to the basement, starting to get Bethel stuff ready), some bike maintenance (working on the second try of the rocking indoor trainer), and life in general (kitty litter - it sounds minor but to have 12 bins to clean it's a big deal, especially with my semi-bum back), I've found it hard to set aside time for the blog.

I've been able to ride here and there. One thing that interested me was if I actually heated a room while I rode. I know I get all hot and stuff but I figured it had to be more than just me working. I got an inexpensive "weather gauge" to read both temperature and humidity.

10:30 PM, give or take. 68 deg F, about 51% humidity.

This is before I started on the trainer (unheated basement that has a furnace in it).

12:40 AM, give or take. 72 deg F, about 57% humidity.

Note baby monitor (white thing with a screen) - Junior did wake up once.

Although I can't vouch for the accuracy of the numbers at least the relative change is significant. I can conclude that I do heat up the room a bit, in this case two connected rooms. There are wall vents to circulate air to the other parts of the basement but honestly they don't circulate that much. I'll call it just two small rooms in the basement. I guess if we have about 10 riders on trainers we could get the house up about five degrees and about 5 % humidity.

Of course that doesn't take into account the trainer noises, the sweat, etc.

It's not just the rider though. The fluid resistance unit gets really hot, like you can burn yourself on it hot. Not only will the trainer try to break your ankle as you walk by (if you hit the trainer with your ankle by accident), it'll also try to sear you medium rare when you're done with your workout.

At any rate I've found little time to do less-critical stuff. When Junior is barfing all over himself then suddenly blogging becomes less critical (as does keeping myself clean, doing dishes, etc.). When we need to move cars into the garage in preparation for snow, training takes a back seat as I organize the garage to make room for the cars. And when it's all I can do to stay awake while looking after Junior, it's less important to do anything once the Missus can take over - it becomes nap time for me.

All first world problems, I know, but I do have a number of drafts I want to finish for the blog. At first I  liked having a few unfinished posts in reserve - I could just grab one, polish it up, and post it. Now, with about 180+ unfinished posts, it's hard even to look through them. Many of them have lost their immediate significance; others require some pictures to finish (and I'm not getting many pictures on the bike with the snow on the ground). Some lost their way, meandering to nowhere, and some haven't even gotten out of the blocks.

When I finally do get some of these done I'll post them.

For now though it's chores, taking care of a sick Junior and Missus, and prioritizing from there.

Life - Junior Sick

In my previous life I'd take time off from riding if I got sick or if I had a ton of chores to do. In this life, after Junior arrived, he takes precedent over pretty much everything else. In the last week or so our main focus has been on taking care of Junior while he battles a stomach bug. He's getting sick each day (i.e. projectiling, enough so that we were doing a load of laundry each time) and has had such a marginal appetite that I can't believe he has anything left to give. He's tired and much more needy than normal, probably because his stomach isn't feeling good.

I've spent a lot of time simply holding him, his arms tucked in against his chest (he does that as he gets comfortable), his head resting sideways on my shoulder. I don't have a picture of that since I wasn't thinking of taking a picture when I was holding him (but I admit I did afterward).

Holding his giraffe, courtesy a former teammate Tom who lives up in Maine.

When he was on my shoulder that was basically him except he was on my shoulder and his elbows were at his side.

He doesn't look sick.

The bar hints at a future post.

At any rate his schedule of waking up in the middle of the night to get sick, followed by an early wake up call, then a slew of short naps during the day… it's got me all discombobulated. I tried to ride but was too tired when I had the time. I also had some pretty bad stomach cramps so I might have had a minor version of what he had. On the other hand I managed to get the garage cleared out before the temperatures dropped too much, but, honestly I really haven't gotten much else done in the prior week.

Before.

I know, it's basically clear (I did a big push on a warm day in October), but usually the right bay is full of Bethel stuff which is now becoming more "Carpe Diem Racing Event Services" stuff. Instead of putting it all away for the season I've been working a few more races, doing registration mainly, and I just pack that stuff up and head out. After Silk City Cross I finally put everything away.

My big job in the above picture was to move the shelf out of the middle of the garage. I wanted to clear that out, toss or organize the stuff on it, and give us more room. More "forgiving" room, to be completely clear - hitting a sharp edged metal shelf with a fender isn't very good. Hitting a plastic thing that will move is much better.

I also needed a day where the Missus could look after Junior. I needed to move some big stuff to our storage bay, including the tent (the tall blue thing in the middle). It would fit in our Jetta Sportswagen but that would mean removing Junior's seat. Since I have to drive to the storage bay that means that Junior wouldn't have a good place to sit so that precluded doing the work when I had responsibility for him. The Missus took over Junior's supervision for a long afternoon and allowed me to move stuff back to the storage bay.

After. The cars are waiting to pull in.

The plywood tilted against the left wall is to act as a door shock absorber. Works well, btw.

It does look a bit better. I swept the floor after I cleared stuff out. The tent, the middle shelf, my bike, some soil, and a few knick knacks all found homes. Of course I have thoughts on what I want to do next spring but we'll see how life treats me. The biggie would be doing a true epoxy floor covering. Another biggie, much less realistic, is insulating the garage. Smaller and more realistic things include shelving, more storage hooks, and organizing the stuff behind our garbage/recycling bins better. I also want to surround the air compressor with rigid foam insulation to try and quiet it down. But that's for another time.

You can see the modular work benches in the back of the left bay - they work together, the two tall ones and the one shorter one, so that I can use the miter saw (on the shorter table) and the surface of the miter saw lines up with the other two benches. This means I can support a 2x4 along the two taller benches while cutting it in the middle. I used them to cut wood for a couple projects already and it's nice not having to worry about cutting a 2x4 and then having a long piece dangling over the bench edge. The "waist height" miter saw is great too, no kneeling on the floor, and it's easy to put away. I highly recommend such a system.

The idea was to have the benches latch together to form a unit but I haven't done the latches. They roll on locking casters so if I remember to lock the wheels then the bench won't go rolling down our steep driveway.

Forgiving stuff we can hit.

You can see that the stuff between the poles is much more forgiving to a car fender. It's mainly ice melt stuff, sand, and a couple empty litter bins. The litter bins are great for water tight storage for things like sand, ice melt, and even safety equipment (I store eye and ear protection in one).

You'll notice the two "no spill" yellow (yellow=diesel) cans of fuel. We buy diesel for our two diesel cars using food points. Since the points really add up we try and buy a lot of diesel when we buy it. This means a trip with both cars plus the auxiliary fuel cans, and we park in such a way that we can fill up everything without moving any cars.

Out of view is the yellow can on the ground.

Picture is from January 2013 but you get the idea.

This saves us more money, allows us to make one trip (Junior sits in one of the cars), and helps control that "I need to get fuel" anxiety. With 10 gallons of diesel on hand it's basically a normal fill up for a 14 gallon tank. The last time we got fuel, over last weekend, we paid $2.49 per gallon for diesel. We got over 30 gallons but stayed under the 35 gallon limit, and based on the points we saved in the 40+ dollar range on that fuel trip.

Today, Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Junior has made huge progress. It started yesterday, when he finally had a "BM" (bowel movement aka poop). It's hard trying to guess what he's feeling because he can't communicate what he's feeling - we have to interpret a whimper or a sad wail or an intense shriek (the latter when he's really in trouble). However, based on our experience in the last week, a BM (or, in his case, three of them in a day) is a really good sign that whatever stomach bug he had was working its way out.

Now he's still a bit tired, fatigued-like, but alert and curious and wanting to do stuff. He's eating a lot more than before - one day he basically had one strawberry, some saltines, and some milk and water. He's not quite at the "grilled cheese and a half" record meal from a month or two ago but that's okay, we'll take the progress. We have to change his diaper during the day instead of changing it "just in case" so he's a lot more hydrated.

After what amounted to a week pause in my life I can now get going again. I have a couple things planned for the bike, some unexpected stuff to handle, and some long shot stuff to work on.

Hopefully Junior's schedule returns to normal. It's tough watching him suffer, but in this case we could only console and comfort him.

Life - Sick

I'm sick.

I even got the flu shot (at least a month ago I think).

The thing about being sick is that I never remembered feeling this bad.

I mean, I remember remembering that I didn't remember feeling this bad, but I didn't remember the actual feeling that I remembered not remembering.

Does that make sense?

Suffice it to say that I'm in la-la land and totally unproductive.

Which, I suppose, is why they call it a sick day.

Life - Sick

Yep. Yesterday and today. Didn't go to work. On either day. Coughing. Hacking. Stuffy head.

Please make it stop.

Training - Sick

After all that stuff with the cranks and stuff... I'm still sick. Each morning I wake up unable to swallow without wincing. I feel weak and feverish and my head pounds (I normally never have headaches). Spent most of today curled up watching first the abysmal failure of technology during the Tour of California (where are those weatherproof cameras that clean their lenses automatically, why can't they figure out better image relay technology, and even if they can't relay things, why don't they record to tape/harddrive for future editing?), second some various Star Wars things. I managed to get out of my shell to help mold one pretzel (we made pretzels, again), and read a few pages of a book, but otherwise I've been totally zonked. I don't get it. Talked to the missus briefly, but still in "just woke up" la-la land.

Will go back to sleep shortly. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Training - Sick

I'm in California, the sun is out, and I'm sick.

What else is new?

Arg.

Sick

Yeah. Sick. When the Dayquil or Nyquil or Vicks wears off, I'm running about a 2 degree fever. Since I'm normally at 96 or so degrees F, almost 99 is a tad high for me. Bummer because I wanted to ride yesterday and it was beautiful outside. Instead I lay in bed, delirious. Such is life.

I suppose I have to practice hitting elevator buttons with my elbow. And bump elbows instead of shaking hands.

Luckily we have no elevators here at home.

California - Day Three

Still recovering from my unexpected stomach ailment. Yesterday I could barely drink two cans of soda (aka "sugar water") - in fact, I found drinking water next to impossible. Probably because of that, as well as my epic long ride the day before, the time zone change, and various other things, I was pretty much delirious all day.

Today started out about the same - I gargled with water since I felt like I couldn't swallow it without getting sick. Of course that prompted an "Are you getting sick in there?" remark, but luckily for me and the bathroom, it was just gargling. Suddenly, some time in the late morning, my body alerted me that it could eat. I started out with some nice natural yogurt (figure I needed to replenish some of that good bacteria) and by the end of the afternoon I had eaten a few small plates of food.

I passed on riding though, my head pounding a bit, extremely dehydrated (orange urine), and probably most significantly my insecurity of being more than 15 or 30 seconds away from a bathroom. I never had any such bathroom "alarms" today so I think tomorrow, weather and body permitting, I'll be able to go out for a short spin.

I'm still exhausted though - I lay down to read or watch some TV and find myself waking up an hour later, groggy and disoriented. Obviously my body is still working on getting back onto even footing.

A bonus is that, thanks to two fervent young fans living in the house (ages "almost 3" and 6), I've now watched Star Wars Episodes I-V completely, with only Episode 6 left. Since we also watched some of the special features, I think I've watched about 12-14 hours of Star Wars so far.

If only I could train this much.

During the Star Wars breaks I've watched some of the 2007 Giro, praying that my lack of eating for a day will help me look a little more like the guys scampering up the big climbs. Not the healthiest way of losing weight, but as the saying goes, when given lemons, make lemonade.

I hope tomorrow to have a nice little pitcher of delicious lemonade.

And not a bowl of lemons.

California - Day Three

Sick.

Shortly after I posted Day Two, I realized I wasn't feeling too well. I spent most of the night in the bathroom, sitting or hunched over the bowl. I crawled into bed, shaking and chattering, hot but strangely chilled, and passed out.

A few hours later I woke up. After drinking a bit of fluids, I stumbled first to the couch, then to the bed. I'm sure I've felt this bad in the past but for the life of me I can't remember when. I guess we really do forget pain.

Obviously my body is trying to rid itself of something that I took in yesterday. I have no idea what it is, but I'll try and give it fluids and let it flush itself out.

I guess the positive bit is that I'm getting the sick bit done at the beginning of the trip. And I did a big ride yesterday so I can "recover" from that, so to speak.

Back to bed.

Sick

btw I'm still sick and spent virtually the whole day in bed, dead to the world. I even missed a couple of the missus's calls (unusual for me). I'm coughing and hacking now but hopefully I'll beat this stupid thing down. Normally it's not a big deal to be sick (other than being sick) but I have a physical type thing on Saturday so I absolutely have to be better by then. Plus we want to visit my brother's family and the new baby - being sick probably isn't the best way to visit. Arg.

Sick

So we're back.

I'll have more to report once I'm feeling up to it. To summarize - we got married, we had our reception, and we went on our honeymoon. All those things went really well.

Except that I'm sick.

Luckily the symptoms manifested themselves on the trip back so our honeymoon wasn't affected.

Doping - Sauron's Veil

I feel like Theoden, the king of Rohan, after Grima's evil work is lifted from him. The past three days have been like a haze, a delirious mish mash of heat, chills, hunger, and above all, an overwhelming fatigue. With some potions supplied by the future missus (a mysterious red substance named NyQuil as well as something I'll leave unnamed but it fixes things one doesn't talk about in polite company), I overcame the evilness, warded off the blanket of fatigue, and stand now free of all such encumberments (that's not a word I think but you get the gist of it).

Apparently my brain is still feeling the after effects judging by what I just wrote. I suppose my aborted attempt at watching the Return of the King a couple weeks ago (the last time I watched even a portion of a movie) had something to do with that first paragraph.

At any rate my oblivion was such that I missed all sorts of things.

For example, a figurehead of the World Rally Championships passed away over the weekend. If anyone had told me during my haze that the famous Scottish rally racer Colin McRae had died, I'd have thought they were the ones possessed by evil spirits. However, sadly, McRae died in a helicopter crash (on Saturday, the point at which, I think, the blanket was descending but I was not aware of it just yet). He helped make the World Rally Championship part of American kids' vocabulary (although they just knew it as the "rally" part of the Playstation's Gran Turismo).

It was his driving and his charismatic character that made the blue Subarus (and Ford Focuses) so well known in the rallying world. This then prompted Subaru to introduce the real car in the US - the WRX. Until that point, Subaru had been satisfied selling a non-turbo car, sort of a tarted up Impreza. With the introduction of the low cost, high horsepower, all wheel drive WRX, Subaru upped the ante for all car manufacturers, much like Scott Bicycles got everyone going on frame weights by publicizing its frame weights so prominently.

Ironically his then teammate died of a brain tumor a couple years ago. And his team owner crashed the next day in a helicopter (but luckily walked away).

Now, when looking at cars, I see all sorts of WRX-prompted competition - Subaru's own STI (a hopped up WRX), Mitsubishi's Evolution, a number of larger AWD saloons (Subaru Legacy GT, MazdaSpeed6, the various Audi A4s), and a number of boosted similar sized cars (MazdaSpeed3, Mini Cooper S, Volvo's new C30, even the Caliber SRT4). A few cars haven't made it here yet - Ford never brought over their AWD Focus (to me a natural competitor to the WRX, thanks to the Playstation game) and of course we don't get some of the interesting European cars like Citroen, Alfa (not yet), or the smaller BMWs (but soon we will).

Anyway, all that was to make the point that normally, if such an illustrious and famous character in some sport or arena I tend to follow passes on, I'd make a note of it.

I didn't.

Some other breaking news hit the wires while I was in my haze of confusion and disarray. Yesterday afternoon I was passed out on the bed when my phone rang.

As a practical matter, I kept my phone next to me as I kept missing various calls because I couldn't stagger to the phone before whoever it was gave up on me. So answering the phone was a matter of groping for it, flipping it open (didn't recognize the phone number), and holding it to my ear vicinity.

"Hello?"
"Hey, were you sleeping?"
It was the other name on the blog, GMF.
"Yeah..."
"Oh. Sorry to wake you up. I thought you'd be all over this. Did you know they announced the Floyd verdict?"

My hazy brain tried to assimilate this. Floyd the airfield? Floyd, wasn't that a hurricane? Wait, it's got to be Floyd, the racer!

"No, I didn't hear."

Silence.

I could hear him trying to decide how to break the news to me.

"Well, what happened?", I asked, a bit anxious. After all, the whole blog got started because of our discussions on Floyd, doping, and all sorts of related stuff.

"Guilty, two year suspension."

At some level, it was a let down. I figured that would have been the outcome, but it would have been nice to be surprised. Like Bernanke and his half point cut. A nice surprise.

I pondered what I just heard.

CAS appeal, another year or two, and then in 2009 we'll crown Pereiro the 2006 Tour winner. Doesn't seem right.

For Floyd's sake, his financial sake, and for racing's sake, I hope he decides not to appeal.

Interestingly enough (and unfortunately for the whole sport), the arbitrators found that his initial ratio test was not carried out in a proper manner. If this is the case, at least from a legal point of view, the carbon isotope test never should have been carried out.

It's the latter that demonstrated he doped.

It's a legal question now. If the ratio test was properly done, perhaps the carbon isotope test wouldn't have been done. It's like getting evidence with a faulty search warrant. I'm no cop but according to the TV, evidence gotten without the proper paperwork is no evidence at all. Actually, since we don't get any TV, it's according to CSI Las Vegas (for which the future missus owns the various season DVDs) that evidence gotten without the proper paperwork is no evidence at all.

Therefore, Floyd's wallet notwithstanding, I think we'll be reading about an appeal at some point in the future.

If only it would be possible to lift this doping veil from cycling. All the confusion, uncertainty, and disarray gone. It's hard to remember what freshness feels like until it's gone and it comes back. Although cycling is a sport hard pressed to remember when it was "fresh", earlier generations of "doping" didn't alter a racer's ability to the point where you could make a mule into a race horse. In fact, some of the banned substances from back then are considered so harmless that they are now legal for use by cyclists.

Back then it seems like a good racer was a good racer. You read about the same guys week after week in the spring and then other guys week after week in the grand tours. They were inevitably helped by the same guys, racers who couldn't quite wield the finishing hammer but could get most of the framework done before dropping back.

I suppose it'll take a lot of money, perhaps some fresh faces. More vigorous testing, less rigid testing procedures (i.e. sometimes we'll do the ratio test, other times we'll go straight to the carbon isotope test), and a LOT more random tests. Tests virtually at the start line since that's when any doping would be most effective. Such start line tests would prevent last minute "topping up" of the system with blood (the racer's or someone else's) and force racers to have some semblence of normal hematocrit levels, not those controlled by blood thinners and such.

I'm no pro. But I have to believe that such a system would reward the clean racers. Dissuade the dirty ones. And, though the average speeds in the mountains might drop substantially, that's okay. It's the race between racers which is spectacular, not the race against the clock. I don't care if a stage averages 38 kph or 48 kph, as long as the last 10k is a elbow-throwing, shoulder bumping, tire touching mosh pit. And when it comes to climbs, the climbers will dance away from everyone else.

Wouldn't it be refreshing to see the climbers get shelled on the flat stages? And the time trialers get shelled on the climbs?

It goes without saying, of course, that the sprinters would be shelled anytime the race didn't end with 50 km of flat roads ending in a nice flat sprint.

Now, since I'm not a pro cyclist, for the second time this week, I have to get to work.

Life - Sick

It amazes me that whenever I feel a bit off, tired, maybe lack my normal appetite, I don't think anything of it. I seem to have explanations for everything. My throat gets a bit dry, I feel blah, well, I figure I've been working too hard. My muscles are sore - that's from not recovering enough. Then my glands swell up, I feel dizzy, and I'm exhausted, cold, and feverish all at once.

And I'm surprised.

With a relatively busy weekend coming up, and another much more important one coming up in two more weekends, I decided to be extremely conservative. Skip everything - working out, the walk, and work.

Warm clothes, hot tea, hot soup, rest and recover.

Sick

Yeah of all times to get sick. Stomach something. Horrible. It must have started last Saturday as my stomach wasn't normal. Worse and worse during the week. And today I took off. Chills, hot, cold, I don't know what's happening.

I ate a couple times. Drank some tea. And that's about it.

Arg.

No Series updates yet... and still sick

I woke up this morning after having a nightmare. Since I never dream (or rather, since I never remember my dreams?), this was very unusual.

In my dream I kept doing things which made me think "What am I thinking?". It seems to have something connected to promoting the race, my drive home yesterday (swervy 18 wheelers in the wind), and concern for my sponsors (heh).

I guess I was following our short trailer truck (we don't have one in real life) in the van (we have one). The truck was a 6 wheeler pulling a 4 wheeler type trailer - you know, a small 18 wheeler - I think of a smaller FedEx truck when I picture it. We were driving in some slippery conditions. I realized it was black ice (like last Sunday morning). The guys driving the truck lost control coming down a hill to an intersection and spun the whole rig around, finally ending up blocking the road. The trailer rolled into the woods.

I got out of the van and walked over to the guys (not sure who the "guys" were). They promptly climbed into the van and took off.

So now I have a truck blocking traffic and I'm standing there in the middle of the road. I decided to get the truck out of the way. I put it in neutral so it could roll backwards down the hill.

That's when I saw the cop running up to me.

Now if a cop comes up to me in real life and tells me to stop, I stop.

But in my dream, I thought "Oh man, if I talk to this guy, it'll take forever." Insert thought "What were you thinking?" So I did what you see on the Cops video shows. I rolled backwards right past him.

The black ice worked in my favor - I needed to turn around and as soon as I got the rear wheels in the dirt, the truck spun around. I was pointing forward, downhill, and I gunned it.

Somehow, the town after the intersection had a carnival going on. I recently read about that guy who mowed down a street-market in California - someone said that the driver showed blatant disregard for human life because he aimed at the people instead of, say, parked cars. I know collision insurance is expensive but if you don't have it. The market story reminds me of some of the old car racing stories I read, Indy 500 in particular, perhaps the driver's name is Shaw? Anyway, a racer crashed really hard in the race. The driver running just behind didn't hesitate. He simply slammed his car into the wall at full speed. Better than running over the driver in the middle of the track. Very honorable.

Anyway, I have a lot of regard for human life. So to avoid hitting people, I was doing wheelies with the truck and sort of bouncing the front of the truck around them. I didn't hit anyone but I was scaring a lot of people. I figured I should stop. At some point I parked the truck and got out. There were all sorts of people running after me - police, paramedics, and carnival security. I darted down a boardwalk type thing running behind all the buildings.

A paramedic came up to me first, holding out a big syringe. I said, "Wait, wait, let me get my jacket off first. I don't want my sponsor getting involved in this." I struggled out of my jacket and stuffed it under the boardwalk. Always looking out for the sponsor. Such a nice boy.

He watched me then said, "I wanted this for myself anyway." And he injected himself and slumped over. I'm not saying this is what paramedics do - they've been very helpful whenever I've needed one, and I know a couple. But this is what this one did in my dream.

My brother showed up (?) and asked how I was feeling. I told him I was feeling kind of sick. We actually work at the same company and he wanders over when he needs a brain break (he programs, I do sys admin stuff). So this replayed a scene from work yesterday. He sat down and we chatted a bit.

And the co-promoter and his wife also showed up. Or maybe it was my colleague and his girlfriend. Whatever. I told them, look, I just put my jacket under this boardwalk. Put it at such-and-such house (where I grew up and which we haven't owned in many years). I'll get it back when I get out of jail in 10 years or something.

That's when I woke up, sore throat, feverish, head pounding. Not sure how much the dream has to do with the feverish and pounding but the sore throat, that didn't feel good.

So... back in the real world.

The Ris Van Bethel may be over for the racers but it's definitely not done for the promoters. My co-promoter Gene handles the paperwork. I do the site. Since the site faces the racers, it gets a lot of feedback.

I still haven't done the GC for the Bethel Spring Series, and with two races done, racers want to know this stuff. I did the P/1/2/3's and the 3/4's but have the M40's, Jr's, Women, 4's, and 5's to go before I upload the page. I won't be able to finish it before I have to go so I stopped. I corrected a team I got wrong. Tried to find a misspelled name I noticed earlier but couldn't.

I'll need to finish editing the tape of the Ris race. Yesterday I got a lot of songs from my brother which he owns. Although I don't think anyone will come after me for using more than clips from a song, technically I sign an agreement when I upload clips to YouTube saying I'm not using copyrighted material. Since I haven't gotten permission from various well-known bands to use their songs, I can only use clips (that's okay). Or songs where I've gotten permission - like from my two brother's bands. So unlike my "get away from the authorities" dream, I try to play by the rules in situations like this.

Now I'll see if I can go to work. I think I'll be okay.

Bethel Spring Series - pre Ris Van Bethel

So today is the day before the Ris Van Bethel.

By the way, in case you're wondering, this is how we came up with the Series race names. Three of the names of the various Bethel Spring Series are simply translations of Tour de Bethel. I plugged the name into a translation page and got back various responses. Since there were only three usable ones, I borrowed the themes from some classic races (Amstel Gold Race, Criterium International, and Circuit de "you name it") to come up with the other names.

The reason we named each race differently is we went to a Category D type race which are one day races. Category E series races limit the amount of prize money you can offer ($1500/day). Category D races bumps that up to $2500/day. Since we offer more than $1500 minimum on certain days, we chose to up the race Category. Incidentally, if we advertised more than the Category maximum in prizes, we'd have to pay a "Prize Tax" to USA Cycling. I guess this is the prevent races like Tour De Georgia to be filed as a Category E race.

This year we advertised $8400 in cash for the 6 week series.

$8400.

That's a lot of money, even if I do say so myself.

Oh wait. We advertised daily prizes totaling $6900. And we pay $1500 for overall placings. That adds up to $8400.

Still.

We don't advertise Bethel Cycle's very generous gift certificates for overall winners (they have a great online store so they're actually usable), nor the carbon brake calipers from Tektro, nor the DeFeet socks donated by the TargetTraining team. There may be more primes as well but till they're in our hands, we won't count them.

We also don't count our dashing Leader's Jerseys, supplied by Champion System.

And while I'm talking about prize money, we typically pay out more than the minimum advertised amount. We pay prizes in two ways - race placings and primes. The minimum prize lists are based on 3 places for each of the earlier races, 5 places for the 3/4's and 1/2/3's. (Unfortunately we can't pay out in the Cat 5 races due to rules).

Based on field size, we increase the prize money. We use the 10's digit to determine how many places we pay. So in a 39 rider field, we still pay only 3 places. A 40 rider field, we pay 4. Last week I think we had 60+ or 70+ racers in the last couple and 60+ in the 4's. So all those races paid either 6 or 7 places.

In addition, we pay unadvertised primes. I only have the numbers on the P/1/2/3 race - in that race we paid three 2-place primes, $30 and $20. So $150 in primes in that race. Again, we don't advertise these primes. We decide on them based on field size, race importance (later races get more primes), and, well, honestly, what we think we can afford to give away.

Although I go for places (and therefore place money), I can't remember the last time, if ever, I won a prime at Bethel. I figure the primes are for the racers who need some gas money, brunch money, etc. I'll leave primes for them.

Okay, where was I?

Day before Ris.

Oh, so let's see. Other than being trapped at home due to various contractors coming over to give various estimates on various things, I have to do a few things to prep for the race.

Charge the radios. Update the site. Update any errors I made over the week on race results. Think about putting in the permit numbers on the flyer. I won't, not this week, plus the other guy does the flyer. Test a USB hub so we have an optical mouse.

Oh and ride my bike.

For those of you keeping track, I'm still sick. So it's been almost two weeks. "Da Bomb" worked a bit but I may have to hit myself again tonight with the same thing.

And hope for the best for tomorrow.

Sick - "Da Bomb"

Yesterday, my trackstand post notwithstanding, I was also sick. I wrote most of that post after a ride in California where someone asked me how to do a trackstand. I explained but it's hard to do on a long group ride where you've already covered most of the ride.

In other words, I had been too tired to make a lot of sense.

Anyway, I spiffed up what I'd written and put it up. That post is for that rider out in Oceanside, CA, and for a Cycling Forum reader who seems really into cycling.

Back to being sick.

Yesterday I woke up for long enough to eat something (I was dizzy with hunger), call in sick, and go back to bed. My phone rang at 4 PM, jolting me out of bed into a confused, still-in-REM-mode haze. In short order, it rang again. I finally got up, not feeling too much better than when I went to sleep.

I was still feeling terrible last night so I decided to unleash "Da Bomb". It's the last resort for a racer worried about his Sunday race and it's already Thursday and he hasn't touched his bike the whole week.

"Da Bomb" consists of two, perhaps three elements.

First, find all the cold weather gear you own. Layers and layers of this stuff. Put it on.

Second, get on your bike. Leave the fan off. Start riding. Moderate pace, mind you, no sprints here, just a "loosening the legs" kind of ride.

Third, stay hydrated.

The last bit is tricky since after a few minutes you're drenched in sweat. I soaked my gear enough that I could feel the chill air of the basement through all my layers of soaked gear. Even the best gear doesn't evaporate the moisture for you - it's up to the atmosphere to do that. And by skipping the fan, I had created my own little steam bath.

Anyway, after an hour of this sauna-like ride (and the point where my clothes became water-logged), I climbed off the bike. I felt drenched, tired, and like I did something to get rid of my tenacious cold. I ate a bit, took a hot shower, and went to bed.

At about 2:30 in the morning, a work related call came through. I thought for sure this would blow my ride-benefits as it was in the single digits overnight, and although I do live in a house, we turn the heat down overnight. Breathing the chill air wasn't doing me any good.

I did pull on my gangster knit hat and slept the rest of the night with that on.

I woke up this morning and my head is stuffy, my throat is phlegmy, I'm coughing some horrendous sounding coughs. But they're wet coughs, not those scratchy throat dry coughs. And wet coughs mean I'm recovering. It's dead bad stuff being evacuated from my system.

So I'm off to work in a bit. I have to get gas for the car and for the generator for the race on Sunday.

And for some very good racers at the Bethel Spring Series...

I have to pick up the Leader's Jerseys.

Sick

Totally wrecked today. I guess it's all relative. No bubonic plague though so that's good. Queasy. Head aches. Exhausted. Throat sketchy.

And cold.

The last part might be because it's cold outside. But it's 70+ inside (I cranked the heat) and I'm wearing everything I wear to go outside except my shoes, gloves, and wind shell.

In other words, as I type this, I'm wearing my coat, scarf, hat with ear covers, lined pants, Paul Bunyan flannel shirt, my "I see fragged people" tshirt, and thick socks.

So I feel miserable.

I actually feel worse now than I did this morning.

When I'm sick like this I have an hour or two in the morning before I'm wiped. Today I used it to finalize the Ronde video and post it. Since it's about 100 MB, it takes several minutes just to save it to disk. Then it takes even longer to upload.

Oh I also called in sick in my hour or two. Yesterday I didn't and I was wiped by the end of the day.

Not sure about tomorrow. The way it looks now, I think I'll be out tomorrow as well.

And I haven't even considered touching my bike.

Sunday is looking more and more dismal by the day.

Arg.

Sick. Still.

Sorry been away from the blog for a bit. Been exhausted after the rush of finishing the first of the Bethel Spring Series (from a promoting point of view). My gear is still in the middle of the kitchen floor, exactly where I put it Sunday evening. I haven't even touched my bike. And I'm still kind of sick.

Yesterday I was in my coat all day at the office. The bitter temperatures overnight (10 deg F or so, with really gusty winds) didn't make things better.

Today hasn't been much better. I'm still wearing three layers up top, lined LL Bean pants, and Thinsulated shoes with long thick socks. I had a couple bowls of soup, lots of water, and some M&M's if you must know.

And I only broke a sweat when I got a tough call from a big client.

I've hacked my hour plus helmet cam video of the 2007 Ronde de Bethel down to 8 minutes but realized I'm probably violating some copyrights with my background music. The rule is that you can use portions ("clips") but not whole songs etc. It's not clear what's happening when you watch the tape ("it's a bike race stupid" doesn't go very far) so I'll try and make it a little clearer tonight. I hope to put it up tonight.

I also misspelled my "name" when I signed up for YouTube so I signed up again.

And yeah, this time I spelled my name right.

By the way, I'm using Windows Movie Maker to edit my helmet cam tapes. It's free, it works, but I don't know if there's a better video editing program that's legitimately free out there. When I get tired of using WMM I'll look for a better one.

In the meantime I have four or five 2006 races (a couple are kind of boring, one better one is the Nutmeg State Games) and one fun Nighttime Summer Street Sprints tape to edit (me vs some cars). So I'll be busy for a while.

My tasks here at work currently involve updating servers so that they recognize the new Daylight Savings schedule that takes effect this year. It didn't dawn on me for a while that this meant more than simply updating servers in our infrastructure.

It means that this upcoming Sunday we have to get up an hour earlier for the race.

Sick

I've been fighting this for a couple days and thought it was getting a bit better yesterday. This morning I felt the exact same way since Monday - dressed but still chilly, throat irritated, burning eyeballs, back pain. With two days of hard work ahead (Sweep Day Saturday and Race Day Sunday) I don't want to risk anything. So I'm calling in and resting and recovering today.

On a good note yesterday I did work, stayed warm (work my coat pretty much all day in the office), got a haircut, and met with a team about the race we're doing on June 3rd. I also got some glue for my tire (on my recently relaced Reynolds DV - it goes quickly when you only have 16 spokes to do) and glued my tire.

Mechanically, I'll be ready. I only have to round up some spare wheels (or simply put pedals on my spare bike).

Physically, that's a different question. We'll see in a couple days.