It was warm but not hot at San Marcos. Thankfully.
I said I wasn't going back but today's race was the MCL 35+ finale and I wanted to help our team move up in the rankings, even if it meant driving to San Marcos and into a potential hot, hot day.
The weather was nice and the race wasn't too bad. Of course, it was easier from my vantage point most of the way. After a couple of early attacks, breaks went off and I settled into blocking / resting mode.
Up ahead it was Jim Stark versus Chris DeMarchi and his Amgen teammate Michael Johnson. They went 1-2 and Jim was 3rd. More of our team went up the road and showered the top 10: Andy Wilson was 5th, Andy Brown 7th, and Tomo Hamasaki 10th. Dave Herbst cleaned up the field sprint while Mike Hand, Lance Coburn, and I rolled in with the pack.
In other news, I am finally ready to part ways with my trusty VeloVie Vitesse 300 - CA Pools Team custom edition. I hate to let her go but there's only so much room in the garage.
I went out to race Team Velocity's "Old Brea" Criterium today. It's the "old" St. Valentine's Day Massacre course. Still great for racing.
It was a sunny but cool day. The wind was blowing fierce. I carpooled with Rob Kamppila and we decided the one 35+ race in the wind would be enough. We might normally do the Pro, too, but it was back-to-back and we didn't feel up to that kind of effort.
Our man Andy Brown made the break that lapped the field. He was pretty spent from the Amgen attacks but was a real fighter. We (Tim Coleman, Dave Herbst, Rob, and me, organized to get him a chance for the finish. Andy got 5th.
The race fields were kind of small. I guess everyone was watching the Tour of California or just decided to take the weekend off.
Despite having only an average race, I managed to have a pretty good time. I contributed to the team effort, sure, but I was actually just glad to be there. Glad to see the same group of guys, glad to be able to ride my bike, grateful to have another chance to get some exercise and compete.
On Saturday, we raced the 30+ and Mike Williams made the break. He finished 4th, I was 8th, and Tim Coleman 11th. Tim and Mike did the 40s and Mike again made the break for 3rd.
I did the Pro/1/2 at the end of the day and was feeling okay. A break of ~5 got off and there was no way it was coming back. I was tiring and I knew I wouldn't be able to race the second race of the omnium the next day (because we were leaving early), so I considered pulling out but ended up pressing on.
It was forecasted to rain during the day and it started to drizzle ever so slightly at the later moments of the race. Coming into the last laps of the race, it started to come down a little more and the ground started to get wet. I hit a fast downhill corner like I'd been doing ever lap before, but this time my bike slipped out from under me and I slid on the pavement.
I didn't take anyone else down and they were kind enough not to run me over. The slip-out was very sudden so I was shocked and then in a lot of pain in my left calf. No one saw what happened but we think my bike, pedal, or the slamming force to the ground caused the calf muscle to knot up.
My teammates were nearby and ran to help me and the bike off the road. I sat to collect myself and waiting for the calf to release. It finally did and then I was able to get up to assess the damage.
Mike said my bike looked okay. When I worked on it later, it really was. I just had some more torn bar tape, a more scraped seat, and had to readjust the left brifter position.
As for my body, my lower rear-end took the brunt of the fall and slide. I got a fist-size razzie there, one small one on my shoulder, and surface abrasions along my outer left lower leg. There was no helmet scrapes or damage, no broken bones, and the thing that hurt worst was the knot in my calf. It sucked to lose a brand new pair of bib shorts. As I walked away, I could see balled up portions of the shorts fabric still on the road.
I wasn't the only one to go down at that turn. At least three others went down in the last two laps including two guys of the breakaway. Then later there was a fun/kids race that took place and several of them crashed, too.
I still raced the next day. I finished 10th and ended up 8th GC in the 30s. Mike was a stud and finished 5th in the 30s for 5th overall, and then he took 2nd in the 40s and took 2nd overall.
Using Microcomputers at the Library SUN, 27 DEC 2009
Before my parents brought home an Apple IIgs, I could only use a computer at school (usually an Apple IIc or IIe) or at the library. And it was there I learned the early joys of using an Apple Macintosh.
Here's a scan of the "Microcomputer User Handbook" put out by the Cerritos Public Library circa 1986. My brother and I used to sign up for time slots and go to do homework and play games. Once in a while we'd try the IBM with DOS but it never seemed to work. But the Mac's were awesome and it was there we got our first tastes of typography and graphic design.
"The Apple Macintosh computers supplied by the Cerritos Public Library are equipped with two 3 1/2" disk drives, 512K of RAM, and Apple Imagewriter printers. The 3-1/2" disks hold twice as much information as the 5-1/4" diskettes used by the IBM computer."
512K of RAM! The latest MacOS (OS X Snow Leopard) requires a minimum of 1GB RAM. That's 2,048 times more memory!
Have you ever talked to someone and asked for their phone number and they give you just seven digits?
Me: What's your number?
Them: 555-1212
[silence.waiting.awkwardness]
Hello? Area code? Do you have one? Am I supposed to just know it?
I'm from L.A. and as long as I can remember there've been at least three area codes (213, 714, 909) around here and now there's a bajillion. Every time I cross a street I'm in a new area code or dealing with an overlay.
So from what hick-town-with-just-one-area-code are these people from who give out numbers without area codes?
Similary, I do a lot of print advertisements and keep seeing these ads where the designer - wait, perhaps I'm giving too much credit to begin with to assume there's a "designer" involved. Anyhow - where the "designer" has made the area code smaller than the rest of the phone number. I call it area code deprecation. It's as if the area code is less important to the phone number, which you know isn't true if you're trying to reach said number from a different area code phone, or even the same area code phone in an overlay situation. And there's the one that leave it off entirely...
Racing isn't about the money, but even when the payout is just enough to buy a spare tube, there's exponential joy in knowing you finished "in the money". Or anger and frustration when you keep coming up short.
But really, it is about the money, as in I gotta keep doing well at my day job to keep the family housed and fed.
Prior to last weekend, early season racing for me was two CBR crits, both of which I pretty much just attended. I was a low factor of the races and I pack finished.
Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Arizona was last weekend and our team headed out to defend last year's GC win by Peter Andersen.
I knew my lack of TT skills would immediately leave me out of contention, but I wasn't there for me, I was there for the team. I put in some efforts that got me dropped in the road race. I loved the crit but used my energy to help keep the race in check, not to sit and save or break away.
It takes another rotten Bank of America ATM experience to drive me to blog.
Short Story: BofA's new "scanning" ATMs suck. Don't believe me, Google something like BofA ATM scan terrible.
Longer Story: Within the last 12 months or so, BofA has replaced their ATMs with new versions that take cash and checks without the need for an envelope. Sounds good, except instead of an envelope, the new ones require you to insert cash and checks separately, and each check has to be fed in one at a time to go through a scan and verify process. With the older ATMs, you could put all your checks and cash into one envelope, make one deposit transaction, then be done.
BofA touts their new machines as a great achievement because you get machine-verified deposits that post more quickly to your account. That is great, except the trade-off is it takes much longer to run even a single check or cash transaction, not to mention much, much longer if you have several checks that have to go through the scan and verify process.
I do most of my banking online, have my paycheck direct deposited, and rarely pay cash. But still, I get checks and cash from time to time and have to deposit them. I use the ATM instead of going inside a bank and up until these new machines, it's been a great way to take care of business.
Today was the tipping point because like has happened times before, the machine wouldn't recognize an otherwise fine check. It just wouldn't take it. It tried scanning, buzzed and whirred, and then spit it out and said it couldn't accept it. And that's just unacceptable.
BofA is forcing me to do their deposit work while I stand their waiting for their machine to conduct what used to be back-office work. And then it can't even do it. Now, BofA is forcing me back into a branch where I'll have to wait in line longer because they have even less tellers working.
These new ATMs would be great if they were faster and better, but they're not. They just suck.
I put in 105 miles yesterday with the New Year's Day Ride. More miles than I've been putting in weekly. I've been eating like a pig ever since. My annual weight and body fat graphs will be posted soon (and probably won't be pretty).
In the right column of this main blog page is a ChipIn Widget for donations to Hughes Park Cycling. You might have noticed it before, but I never pointed it out because I wanted to really spice it up before the official launch. I never got around to spicing it up and it expired 12/31/2008, but I do have good news to report about the donations collected out there.
Donations Collected in 2008 via the "DONASHUN BUKIT": $72.27
Expenses in 2008: $97.43
Three 18"x24" reflective "CAUTION: BIKE RACE" signs with H-stakes, $97.43
I'm in the process of starting a new ChipIn widget for 2009 donations. Funds will continue to benefit Hughes Park Thursday night cycling with signs, lights, and whatever else helps to keep it great.
Thanks to all who contributed and care to keep Hughes Park cycling safe, friendly, and going!
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