.....love.....

The thing about CX is, it's fun (in a OMG I'm dying I will never do this again kind of way) even if you suck.

Seriously, I am an out of shape 36 year old woman with my only training being my commute and some touring rides, and I did 4 races last year. I hated/loved every minute of it.

cool. getting pretty excited. i'm just looking for a fun day out. i brought it up to some locals and they tried to scare me off by telling me that if i didn't go in with three bikes and six wheelsets, i'd be wasting my time. we'll see. i'll have one bike and probably one spare wheelset.

my regular commute is an 8mi loop consisting of: 3mi badly paved county route (250' rise in elevation, with another 200' in the last .25mi as my building is on a hill. elev not exact, just what my Casio says), 4.5mi on a rolling gravel trail where the gravel goes from packed to 2" deep in spots. in there is about .5mi of mixed dirt/grass/mud depending on weather.

one day last week i did it with horizontal rain and lightning flashing around me, so i'm hoping i have a decent base to build on.

whee!

If you're out of shape, I'm already dead.

Well, I don't know what your local CX community is like. Chicago is super fun and supportive. And a spare wheelset is more than I have. My rule was, if I had a mechanical, I DNF'd. NBD because I had no expectations to do well. It's just a fun experience and a reason to push yourself a little harder.

My commute is 20mi roundtrip on city roads. The biggest thing is to realize how much harder it is to ride on mud/grass, which you have experience with. I spent lots of time working on mounting/dismounting and barrier technique which was useless. I should have been out in the parks or on my trainer doing intervals until my lungs exploded. Barrier technique saves you seconds; cardio fitness saves you minutes. My legs were never the issue, it was ALWAYS my lungs/heart and trying not to stroke out from overexertion. "whee?" is right. :)

technicaly it was yesterday but i got my crankset put on, went from 71 GI to 75 and 170 arms to 165. I definitly feel it and i feel like ive lost leverage too :|

170 cranks make me feel like a machine

Was it the crank length or the increase in gear inches?

Can't change two variables and attribute it to one.

Estimating from Sheldon's calculator he went from a gain ratio of about 5.3 to about 5.8 and roughly half of that was from the difference in cranks and the other half from the difference in gearing.

I went down to 165 cranks with no change in gearing and could definitely notice the reduced leverage, but only when starting from red lights--it wasn't really noticeable on hills. What was also noticeable, though, was how much easier it was to spin. I definitely feel like I've been riding much more smoothly with the shorter cranks.

I'm having a lazy day. First day off in a while, so I bailed on all of the errand running I had to do to hang out at home, go to the comic shop, and take my wife out for frozen custard. Now, nap time.

Today I woke up to a nice tall glass of warm orange juice from the fridge that I did not realize was a bit spoiled until the second big sip. Totally did not see my wife's sticky note in the morning daze. Now I have to go buy groceries all over again...
For all you guys with nice dual compressor refrigerators make sure that both compressors are topped off with refrigerant or the freezer would end up working twice as hard to keep the entire thing chill. I love being schooled by appliance repairmen.

today i spent $282.64 fixing the suspension on my car, and thought about the 722 frame+fork i couldve gotten with that money..

Today, I set up a time to meet a guy to sell my rollers, which would give me enough money to buy this road bike I've been eyeing. Then he bailed. Oh well.

i polished the remaining paint off and built this:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7212/7...5fa15700_c.jpg
one by nine and probably too big but a HOOOOOOT

Today I went to pick up my Friend's dh bike and while I was at that shop, I found another set of 7400 DA cranks. So in that stroke of luck and having gotten a new bb as well, the 930 is back up and going.

I just got an A in AP Chemistry :D

With an awesome 81% test average, I am so excited and proud of myself.

Congrats.

That looks so fun.
Today I found out about Halo 4'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-CRrP9xjQ

Woo good job! A's are good I heard.

hngggg

way to go man.

i wanna this biek.

thats pretty much my ideal mtb. 26" xc-style hardtail w a sick fork, 1x9

time ta make me some money

I dont have an xbox :(
I have a pc which I use to play World of Tanks, COD MW2, and minecraft. And I think I have a ps3...