trackies > roadies

is it possible to be a racer and a hippie?
what about a trackie and a roadie?
is it possible to ride a mountain bike on a track?
is it possible to ride a fixed gear mountain bike over technical trails and not die?
what is the meaning of life?

Tonight I'm playing music at my apartment with my buddies - like we do every Thursday. We have a live public gig a little later in the year and so for once we'll have an excuse to come up with a tight set instead of just playing for a couple hours :)

Two observations.

I don't know about bicycle racing, but in other sports "In Anger" has nothing to do with being angry or miserable. At least in motorsports it doesn't. In motorsports "In Anger" is a very common expression used to describe a rejuvenated and heightened sense of determination and focus to beat your opponent. "When Steve got by me in turn 7, I put my head down and started twisting the throttle in anger". I've heard Sportscasters use it to describe other athletes that way too. Like the way a tennis player swings his racket, etc. I always translated it to mean, "OK buddy, game on".

I took his "hollow" comment to mean that something was just missing from his experience. Not that his life sucked or that he was miserable. Just that his rides were missing a magic component.

Today I watched this:


And didn't find it divisive. :hug:

I like the GCN boys. Will watch when I get home.

Interesting perspective. I've never encountered any one describing themselves being "in anger" in a bike race. Maybe it's a thing in other places. To me it read like he was literally angry when he would do workouts.

I dig what you're saying about the "hollow" comment, but why does that necessarily preculde quitting bike racing? Unless you're an all or nothing kind of guy, why not just do both?

For example, this weekend, I'm mising out on Dana Point GP (one of the biggest in SoCal) to go on a mountain bike camping trip instead with some good time buddies. I've got pressure from the team director and teammates to race Dana but I don't want to die, and the trip sounds like more fun to me right now. It will be our first of the year and still pretty cold at night at 6,000' :).

Check this one from last year (I'm #892):


edit: it starts 12 s in.

Me too. These days I ride strictly in cotton, and strictly fixed gear, but those guys seem great. I'd ride with them anytime. (I mean, I would ride far behind them I'm sure, but you get the idea.)

EDIT: That crash looks horrifying. You come out ok?

Just road rash and bruises, so yeah. Some races just kind of bring out the stupid and I don't see myself doing this one often going fwd.

Between lights at an intersection I couldn't decide to unclip or track stand so I just fell over on green. Thankfully, the driver behind me was kind enough to not run over my head. Couldn't have asked for a better first unclip fail. I just rode away laughing at myself; along with the other drivers I'm sure

Wild guess here. You like the whole goal oriented gig of training and self improvement. You like it, you want it, you need it. Beating a previous time is a big positive. It's one of the most literal forms of success. It provides incentive and fuels motivation. It's a high. The voluntarily forced pressure of individual hard ass training (pedaling in anger;)) and the palpable pressure of the actual competition are drugs. I totally get that. I've been there.

Maybe for him the pressure became a negative. Constant pressure. Improvement is expected. Improvement is demanded. Improvement is required. If you get on that bike, you better perform to at least Level xyz. It never stops. Never. Maybe the pressure began to feel like unreasonable and unnecessary expectations. Maybe mandatory improvement became a stress inducing burden instead of a high.


I suspect he is exactly that. ALL or nothing to the nth degree. Look at his move to "Care Free Tourer". He couldn't just go Hippie-Lite. Oh no no no no. He had to go full blown hard core bicycle vagabond. One pair of clothes? Sandals? If he took a job on Wall Street, in nine months he'd be a Bernie Madoff. :p




Carnage!!!!!!!! Man, you can unclip FAST. :thumb: The guy to your right did an excellent Stoppie over the bars. :roflmao2:

Ultraromance is the man.

Dude has just always been a joker.

https://vimeo.com/24757867

I wouldn't take that write up too seriously. He's making fun of himself more than any style of cycling. We all grow and get into different things.

In the end, this.

This is real, and makes me wonder how long he was at it for. I mean, you can't get better forever - eventually you will plateau with a given training response. For me it took 4 years or so of training consistently before I stopped seeing newbie gains - I'm a slow responder.

I think this is a lot of the reason that many (myself included) like to take a break in the late summer/fall. Not completely off the bike, just significantly reduced volume, no structure, and time to focus on enjoying other activities. It's cyclic - when I start riding big again over winter I see some pretty significant fitness gains and have a lot of fun getting stronger.

At this point in the year it's more of a maintenaince thing - I'm probably as strong as I will be all year. I tested my highest FTP (by 20 min test) two weeks ago and I'm stoked on that. It's 5 watts under an arbitrary fitness goal, and I'm not sure that I'm going to hit it this year, but I'm still amped on it and feeling good.

Bingo. And if one is a competitor by nature, in their core, especially a professional, plateauing can be scary.

Yeah, it can be upsetting to apply yourself and work so hard and not get stronger. Eventually you'll be wise enough to know the game and know where you stand, but the training/plateau cycle is still something many go through every year.

I start most seasons really motivated with training and fitness goals that are a bit unrealistic - but that's how it goes.

The chips from a gas station part hits too close to home for me :(

Today I rode Critical Mass for the first time in many months. One guy actually recognized the Little Wing, another called her a "F*ckin' Beautiful Bike"

:p

Today I am going to measure my butt

Took a break from bike stuff and payed attention to my other love, my Subaru. lol
3 hours of clay/polish/wax brought out my mirror shine. Satisfying. :)
http://i66.tinypic.com/2h8crir.jpg
http://i65.tinypic.com/2monpex.jpg

Specialized Ass-O-Meter?

wrx?

Forester:)
http://i66.tinypic.com/10rtzyu.jpg

Can't go wrong with a suby wagon. I need me another subaru in my life.

I've been looking around for a beater legacy gt/ impreza WRX/ STI but it's seldom that somebody posts one of those that passes muster on craigslist.

I feel right at home wrenching on the older ej-series engines which are in those but too lazy to deal with a tween's not smogable hot-mess.

Yeah I love Subies. Used to race an '04 WRX back in the day. AutoX and trackdays.
Definitely hard to find one unmolested although they turn up here in the Bay Area from time to time.

That red is the best color. Yours looks really nice.

I recommend any of the new classes of automotive sealant. Clay bar and sealant was the first thing I did to my XT the day I got it. Wax on top of that and it shines like the second sun.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mjm0rf0srw...a.001.jpg?dl=1


-Tim-