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.

Bethel Spring Series - Ronde de Bethel Cam

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.

Bethel Spring Series - Ronde de Bethel, March 4, 2007

Ouch.

What a long day. Up at 5, load up the bikes and my gear (we packed the van yesterday with all sorts of goodies like leaf blowers, tents, a generator, etc., but my bikes - no way - they're too "precious" to sit in the van overnight), drive in a daze to Dunkin Donuts, and off to the race.

The first hint of things not going totally rosy - I didn't touch my coffee until hours after we got to the course. No appetite. Add that to burning something like 4000 or 5000 calories running around in the cold for 7 or 8 hours and racing for an hour plus and you have a negative equation. Not good.

The black ice on the roads before the course were not a good sign either - that meant high 20's for the current temperature. But at least it didn't rain or snow overnight.

With plenty of help from CT Coast Cycle (newly expanded for 2007), some miscellaneous regulars, and a friendly Bethel policeman, the race went smoothly bar one crash in the 4's.

When I got to the course, I felt that heat/chill feeling that was so familiar because I'd been feeling it all week. And my back was bad again. During the week it was terrible but I thought it was done on Saturday. I had actually looked up the symptoms since someone asked if I was susceptible to the flu. So I typed in "fever, chills, exhaustion" into Google.

Apparently I might have typhus or the bubonic plague. I tried to think of the song about the bubonic plague. You know the one. I'm sure you do. It's "Ring around the rosie". "Ring around the rosie" - red splotches on the skin. Negatory. "Pocket full of posies" - carry flowers to cover the stench. Nope. Plus I shower regularly. "Ashes ashes We all fall down" - I wasn't sneezing all that much and I wasn't keeling over. So no bubonic plague, thankfully. Just the freakin' flu.

Back on track.

I wore tights. I felt that cold. I almost never wear tights in a race. And I have really nice fleece knickers. So if I was wearing tights, you know either it was in the 20's (not, but only mid 30's) or something was wrong (ding ding ding).

I sort of warmed up. This involved soft-pedaling down a short hill while putting on the brakes, turning around, and climbing same hill in a 39x21 at 40 rpm. Repeat 6 times or so. Done.

After my extensive warm-up I did a lap after the race before mine finished. Then I collected my helmet-cam setup. Turned it on. And three minutes later was racing.

The first confirmation I wasn't good was I didn't get to the front in the first 500 meters. My typical race pattern is get near the front (usually 2nd-5th) on the first lap, trade position for rests as the pace picks up, make effort #2 to move back up to the front at some point, trade position for rests again, and then make a final move towards the front to finish off the race.

I struggled mightily on the hill and wasn't smooth elsewhere. I did move up (this is my effort #2), coincidentally the lap before a prime. So I was in good position to watch the racers fight over the prime and then for a few to disappear down the road. They immediately picked up about 10 seconds. The field seemed unconcerned and I thought everyone came back. But then I got concerned when a multi place prime was offered and "all the places were up the road".

What?

I couldn't get a straight answer from the sidelines when I asked how many up the road. I got a lot of time splits but very few numbers. Finally my friend and co-promoter Gene (racing in the same race) simply pulled over, climbed off the bike, and gave me some clear and concise info. Basically he relayed to me that I was hosed. There were three up the road and they were gone. Adios. Bye-bye. Apparently a solo rider, away for forever, drew out two teammates who stomped up the road and marked "Paid" to the race.

So I was left fighting for the field sprint. At least there were 3 points positions left.

Now normally when I feel terrible in a race, at 5 to go things magically transform. You know, like the fairy godmother waves her wand, there's that magic dust tinkling noise, and suddenly things brighten up, I float up the hill, I feel like I'm soft-pedaling, and I have this insane need to smash the field in a sprint. It's like suddenly things are good again.

No fairy godmother today. Things were cloudy, cold, and windy and not getting any better. My legs were terrible, tossing my untouched waterbottle bought me a gear (why didn't I toss it 50 minutes ago?), and I felt like my brakes were dragging.

Okay, I could do something about that last bit. I opened up my brakes.

When you see a guy opening up his brakes (and he didn't just get up after a crash) you know he is just dying.

Unfortunately nothing happened after I opened up my brakes. The bike still felt like it was oiled with molasses and greased with super-glue.

And it felt mushy, probably because someone innocently told me this morning that he's getting rid of his Giant TCR (which is what I ride) "because it's too mushy". I hate that whole psychological thing and how it affects what you perceive.

To be honest I did do one thing which helped me. I couldn't hear very well for most of the race because I had two head covers and both covered my ears. I found I really wanted, no, I really needed to uncover my ears in the closing laps. So I did. And suddenly I felt a lot more comfortable in the field. It was like I had re-enabled all my "area-sensors" on my bike.

I guess like blind people whose skin tingles when they're close to a wall (which disappears when their ears are covered up), my "close quarters peloton" riding instincts rely on sound cues as well as visual ones.

Nothing crazy happened in the sprint. Good crazy or bad crazy. I was too far back because I had no "go-juice", jumped when I saw my chance at about 150 meters, and looked up and saw the first eight or ten riders cutting from the right of the road to the left.

Now in the past this was my cue to shift up, hit the afterburners, and go rocketing (well if I had afterburners, it would be "jetting") through the closing gap in the nick of time, just like the heroes do in the movies. Maybe a judiciously timed "LEFT!" to scare the guys about to close the door on me.

But that whole fairy godmother thing hadn't happened. So no afterburner, no jetting, just a painfully slow slog up the hill. The line of sprinting racers beat me to the curb, I snaked through said line, and just could not believe how slow I was going. I kept looking back, incredulous that no one was passing me. I managed a paltry 6th in the field, 9th in the race.

And yeah, I got it on tape. I'll put it up at some point.

A hard earned 9th is great. But this was an abysmal ride and not at all satisfying. No points, no prize money. It's like a I never even got on the bike.

But like a true racer, there's one thing you say after a day like this.

"There's always next week."

And so there is.

Bethel Spring Series - Sweep day, pack van

Today was a long day and it isn't over just yet.

Up early, load sweep gear into the van (push leaf blower, hand held blower, brooms, shovels, gloves for everyone, and a thing to break ice - usually used to edge lawns). Then pick up the other push leaf blower and off to the course. Did a lap around the course with the camera to record the "before" (still to be posted). People were already there so we started unloading things.

And more people showed up.

It was a great turn-out. I think about 20 guys pitched in and worked for most of 3+ hours to clear the course. The sand was tenacious, stubborn, and just didn't want to move but it was no match for the army of volunteers armed with the aforementioned sweeping implements.

In previous years we've had as little as 4 or 5 volunteers, working in terrible conditions. This year it was sunny and dry, so no complaints.

I did end up hogging a leaf blower for a while but tried my best to use the brooms as well. One broom I grabbed started out with bristles about 3 inches long. After a solid bit of brushing, they were about 1 1/2" long. Either that or I grabbed a different broom in there. Either way, I felt bad so left the broom and grabbed a leaf blower.

I offered everyone lunch on me but as it turns out people have lives other than Bethel. So just a couple of us ate. And I had no cash so my teammate Sean had to cover for me. So I got a lunch out of the deal.

Then at home my fiancee and I loaded up the van. Generator (it's a biggie), cones, tents, grate covers, box of goodies, charging the radios, tables, etc. And all the sweep tools are still in the van. And tomorrow I'll toss my bike and gear bag on top of all that. It's a big van.

Now to spin my legs a bit. Being sick meant staying off my bike, so I absolutely need to loosen my legs up. And pack my gear bag.

Then bed. And then the official start for the 2007 racing season.

Bethel Spring Series - pre-sweep

So I didn't feel good today either but my boss asked me to pick him up on the way in to work so I figured I should go. It was raining like crazy this morning - I saw water flowing down roads I never saw water flowing down before. I saw a Mercedes sedan up to its rims in mud next to the highway. I saw a car that had been on fire enough to melt the front tires, hood buckled, the front blackened. I saw a Porsche Cayenne that had slid off a sweeping exit ramp. And I saw trees blocking the highway.

And this was before I got to my boss's house.

I was a zombie at work. I felt terrible, wore my coat the whole day, and could barely focus on work. My mind, I have to admit, wandered on the race and how things would go with a weakened me at the sweep and, more importantly, a weakened me in the race.

I figure the sweep would go fine. I could hog a leaf blower and just push it around. Race day is different though. Lots of running around, final checks of the course, people asking questions, people complaining, little tiffs, all the normal things a race goes through. Then there is the racing itself, about 5 hours after my day at the course starts. I try and eat in there but inevitably it's a PowerGel, some water, the rest of my coffee, and into the race.

So I was thinking of this stuff on the drive home when my fiancee calls.

"There's water in the basement."

Crap.

And our wet-dry vac at my brother's place. And a 20 mile traffic jam on the one highway open (the other was closed in spots due to something, flooding or trees or something).

She called ahead to a local box hardware place, they set a wet-dry vac aside, and I try not to imagine the damage. All my bike stuff, I should point out, resides in the basement.

I got home and it wasn't terrible. No ankle deep like after the last furious storm we had ("Worst storm in 75 years"). So some vac'ing and things are better.

Well, I lost a bike picture or two, clipped from the magazines. And an odd bolt or two swept up into the vac. A lot of wet clothes, waiting for the washer now. But nothing permanent.

And yesterday we walked by the sump pumps and I thought "Boy, we should get one put in the basement".

So why is this the pre-sweep post?

Well, because tonight was supposed to be a relaxing night, recovering for the tough weekend ahead. Instead, it was even more stressful than normal. My back is acting up. I'm exhausted. I have a long day ahead of me - sweeping the course (a few hours usually). Then home, pack the van with all the race stuff. Charge the radios. Make sure the battery for the clock is there. Gas for the generator.

Then my bikes - check the race wheels, put my other set of pedals on the spare bike, do a short spin to loosen the two-day rested legs.

Anyway, this wasn't the way this night was supposed to be.

So...

First things first.

Tomorrow is the sweep. Then I worry about what comes next.

Shartkozawa - Post Ride updates, video

A couple updates.

One rider Dominique rode with a spectacular bruise on his left side. He mentioned it before the ride but it didn't seem like a big deal. After the ride (where he incidentally stayed with the front group), he asked for a "third opinion" (after his opinion and his wife's opinion). My eyeballs almost fell out of my head as it looked like someone put a baseball under his skin and painted him with a pot of purple and yellow paint.

My reaction wasn't unique. I had him show the bruise to other guys and you could see their eyes actually widen as they took in the damage.

It had been eight days since he actually fell on it. So we all voted he should see a doctor. The report? He'll be okay. There's a chance the "blood ball" (is that a technical term?) may have to be scooped out during a medical procedure.

Yuck.

In other news, I woke up this afternoon at about 2 after calling in sick and trying to read a bit in bed. After answering the phone a lot (it woke me up) and eating a bit, I decided to put up the Shart video. Very short, my first vid, my first YouTube upload, I hope you like it. It's quite generic using Windows Movie Player.



So there it is. Enjoy.

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.

How To - Helmet Cam for Cyclists

People have asked about the helmet cam I use. It's a pretty straight forward setup with a camcorder, a remote camera, and miscellaneous things needed to make everything work. First a picture of the whole setup outside of the bag.

Lilly (she is the one with the pink collar) is suspicious about this bag previously not on the floor here. I've strapped the helmet cam bit to the chair leg. The white thing is the mic. And you can see the camcorder, battery pack, and the bag. The jumble at the bottom are all the various wires to feed the image from the helmet cam to the camcorder VCR.


Camcorder: I use a Canon ZR100. It has the ability to act as a VCR and record from an external source. It is NOT used as a camcorder - it's used only as a VCR. Many people do not realize this. I can't blame them since I didn't know that when I first looked into a helmet cam.

Left side of ZR100, closed, showing the taped allen wrench to try and somewhat successfully prevent the stop/pause button from being pushed accidentally (the two buttons on the right side, under the L of the wrench). I also have a sawed off drawer handle which is a little better. I'm going to use that again.



Next, the left side open. Note the lower left button labeled "Rec Pause". This means that as a VCR, this camcorder can record. This means you can use an external camera. Many camcorders do not do this and therefore cannot be used as part of a setup like this.


Below is the camcorder's right side is where the remote camera feeds to the camcorder. You can see the electrical tape to hold the wires in place and the power switch (the rotating knob at the back with the green thing on it) stationary.



Helmet Cam: I use a ChaseCam. Specifically it's a 520 line helmet cam pictured below. Go to ChaseCam, not any other site. Here it is with the battery pack described below. The thing wrapped in white duct tape is the powered mic. I have to find a wind screen for it so the sound is more interesting than a loud, roaring background.


Battery pack: I use one from ChaseCam. I use rechargeable Duracell batteries as you can see in the picture. I love the batteries - use them in my blinky taillight, LED headlight, remotes, weather station (going strong for a few months now, and half of it sits outside in the bitter cold).

Mic: I use a powered one from ChaseCam. Again, it's the thing wrapped in white duct tape. Why duct tape? Well, when I was getting ready for my race, I had the duct tape we use for the finish line next to me. So it got pressed into duty.

Camera bag: I use a basic CamelBak for this - the Hydro ($30). I took the water bag out and put all the camera stuff in.

I tape and zip-tied things together. I used a helmet mount from one of my many night light rejects (possibly a Vista light setup).

Since I can't start/stop the recording remotely, I have to do the following:
1. Set up helmet cam on helmet.
2. Plug everything in and put in bag.
3. Start recording and verify feed is active from helmet cam.
4. Put bag on.
5. I usually wear another jersey on top of the CamelBak. I guess I look like a motorcycle racer with the aero lump on the back, but at least you can read my jersey.
6. If I have someone around to help, they verify the camcorder is actually recording. So far I've had 3 events where something went wrong by this time.
7. With an 80 minute DV tape on LP, I have 120 minutes recording time. The camcorder battery can support recording this whole time.
8. When I finish, I have to remove everything. I don't know how regular users of the CamelBak do it because I just cannot reach the strap adjusters when it's on my back. I have to practically dislocate my shoulder to get the thing off. Then I can see if things recorded.

So this is the setup I use. I don't know how much it weighs exactly, but it's probably about 3 pounds. The camcorder is 1.5 lbs, the rest, well, I don't know. At my level of riding, 3 pounds on my back is not going to affect my racing. (3 pounds on my wheels, well, that's another story.)

My next mission is to get what I record and share it with you. The motivation for the helmet cam was to share with my fiancee just why I get so excited over racing a tightly packed criterium. Elbows, hips, shoulders, corners, jumps, brakes, it doesn't get more exciting than that. I also recorded one of my Summer Street Sprint workouts - this is where I use 30-40 mph traffic on a one way road as leadouts and opponents in imaginary sprint finishes.

Then she watched part of that tape. A tamer part, I have to admit.

"I think you were a little too close to that car."

Maybe it wasn't such a hot idea after all.

Shartkozawa - Ride Report

There were a few disappointments today.

First, while marking the course, I discovered a bridge was closed for repairs. When I was more gung-ho about this event I used to recon the route in the prior weeks but now I wait till the morning of the ride. With the middle of the figure eight course cut, it became a small "o" about 10 miles around. I decided to have everyone do the loop twice to make it about a 20 mile event. The plus side is the second loop would be less "where do we turn now" and more "I'm going to attack on that hill".

Another disappointment is the photographer never showed up, or if they did, they were in a different part of the parking lot (or waiting inside the Stop & Shop). We park as far away from the store as possible to let legitimate customers have the good spots. So no team kits in the papers I'm afraid.

Finally, my helmet cam turned off when I put it in my Camelbak. So no footage except the finish footage I got at the end of the ride.

But the positives. Weather was decent (I wasn't looking to suffer that much). Riders showed up (only two said they'd be there prior). Everyone filled out a release (yay!). I was able to descend well, even for a Connecticut boy amongst Connecticut riders. And we had no incidents with rider, mechanicals, or townspeople.

With temps in the teens overnight and about 22-24 degrees at the start, it wasn't really warm. But with reasonably bright skies, no precipitation, and relatively dry roads, the conditions were fine for a February Connecticut ride. Ten riders (including yours truly) showed up for the event.

After a round of "Hey I haven't seen you since last year" greetings and a discussion on the shortened course which would be covered twice, the riders rolled out. One rider Johan, a Shart newbie, seemed particularly eager to go, enough that I had a bit of difficulty talking after the mile or so neutral zone before the start. We paused for some final notes and warnings, caught our breath, and went.

Johan, of course, was the first to go about 60 seconds into the ride. It seemed that everyone watched for me to go since I had been on his wheel but I was already cooked. Ian went next (he had just returned from riding and racing in Florida), followed by almost everyone else on the ride - teammates Edgardo and Doug; Johan's old friend Andreas; Dominique (I think a teammate of Edgardo and Doug but wearing a different kit). Only Michael, another Shart newbie Matthew, and my teammate Sean were left with me. And to be honest, I think Michael severely slowed his pace down to wait for us as he eventually noodled away down.

Sean, Matthew and I decided to call it after one lap. My excuse was to video tape the "end" of the ride. Quite spectacular for a little group. Johan did a lot of work and ended up cooking himself before the downhill finish. Ian, intent on improving on his second place of years gone by, did an aggressive sprint. But Doug passed him just short of the line to finish the ride first. Ian was second, trailed by Dominique, Edgardo, Johan, and eventually Andreas and Michael.

We hung out for coffee after and talked about the ride and cycling in general.

During that time a random guy in the coffee shop came up to me and (re-)introduced himself. He used to race, his wife was a serious racer, and the last time I really spoke with them was when she was riding while pregnant with their first child. I mentioned that to him. He pointed across the room and said "Well there they are now!" We all looked.

The girls were probably old enough to drive.

It's been a long time.