End of season

It's that time of year when I have absolutely ZERO motivation to train anymore. I was going to buy a cyclocross bike and try racing this fall, but can't justify spending that kind of money with the economy in freefall. So, right now my riding pretty much consists of one or two 45-minute rides after work, the occasional ride towing Owen in the trailer and a weekend mtb ride if it's not raining. There's a mtb race in Red Wing on Sunday, but it's at 9:00 am, meaning I need to leave my house around 6:30. It's a fun course, but I'm not sure it's worth getting up at 5:30 on a Sunday. We'll see.

What do you do to stay motivated in the shoulder seasons?

Economy

$700,000,000,000
That's a lot of zeroes. That's $2,317.88 per man, woman and child in America. If that kind of jing is going to be handed out, it should be in the form of a loan, and all 301 million of us should get quarterly interest payments equal to or greater than the rate I have to pay on my unsubsidized student loans.

Expiration Date: Jan. 20, 2009 12 p.m.

First, there was an immediate threat to our nation, and if we didn't give Bush all the power he needed to invade Iraq our country would be in grave peril. That turned out well. Now, there's an immediate threat to our nation's economy, and if we don't let Bush give Wall Street a blank check (with no oversight, regulations or auditing) our economy will collapse. Sounds like a great idea. What could possibly go wrong with giving Bush more unchecked power? By the way, if Wall Street got into this mess by being grossly overleveraged, what would you call expanding our nation's already morbidly obese debt by 1 trillion dollars? It's an election year, so you know that taxes won't be raised to pay for it. Instead, we'll keep digging a bigger hole to China (literally) with my kid left holding the shovel. And, in true Bush "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie" fashion, the CEO's responsible for this gaping craphole still get their golden parachutes. They don't need the parachutes -- their fall will be gently cushioned by the backs millions of American middle-class taxpayers. Maybe W will award them Presidential Medals of Freedom, too. That would be Compassionate Conservatism in action.

I agree something needs to be done, but something doesn't mean putting blind faith in someone who only weeks ago said our economy was fundamentally sound, and that Freddie and Fannie were fine, etc. Is throwing $700 billion onto the fire going to douse the flames, or fuel the fire? I'm sure Sarah Palin has the answer. She has a checking account, so therefore she has economic experience. Maybe she can shoot at the bad corporate debt from a helicopter.

I'm just a public university educated moron who lives on "Main Street", and I approve this message.

Second

It's official -- my consistent mediocrity was good enough (barely) for second in my age group. Let the lucrative endorsement deals commence. Seriously, I'm happy to finally finish on the podium as I've been chasing that goal for the past several years and always just missed it. Also cool that Peace Coffee took the top two spots in Comp 30-34 and 35-39. Big shout outs to Kevin, Matt and Jamison for dominating all year long.

End of Mountain Bike Season

Singletrack Escape was Saturday, marking the end of another MNSCS season. My number one mission was to finish this race -- any mechanicals or a DNF would kill my series standings, so I was more conservative than a McCain-Palin rally in a Texas church full of oil lobbyists. I wanted to ride just fast enough to get the points I needed to hold off Rich and Brandt. Well, I finished 7th. But, Rich won and Brandt came in 4th. D'oh! Not looking good (proving that it's much better to be progressive than conservative).

When I first tallied up the points it looked like Rich ended up second overall by ONE POINT. Then I remembered the bonus points. Ah, the bonus points. I did nine races to Rich's seven. With ten races in the series, you get 5 bonus points for each race beyond the seven that are required. Even though I had mechanicals and DNFed two races, I still get the 5 points for each one. Meaning, by my rusty math, that I ended up second overall by two points. I'll have to wait for the official results to be sure, but if it stands I'll take it. Here's what I got, somebody else check my math:

1 Kevin Supple 950
2 Chris Van Ert 899
3 Rich Omdahl 897
4 Brandt Elson 883
5 Eric LeBow 855

However it all shakes out, it fun racing with y'all for another year. Looking forward to more suffering in 2009.

Down to the Wire

One race to go and I've still got a chance at Top 3 despite two DNFs. The Jail Trail is probably my least favorite trail in the series: flat, tight and twisty. Pretty much a dirt crit/time trial. We'll see how it goes. Looks like Kevin has first locked up in 35-39. Matt has first locked up in 30-35, and Jamison is in a dogfight for 2nd. It would be sweet for Peace Coffee to nab the top two spots in both age groups. If that happens, beers are on me.

Did the R&G ride last night -- 30 miles of high-speed cruise intervals. Didn't have the power I had 2 months ago, but was able to hang just fine. Put the mtb skills to work when the pavement ended and everyone else hit the brakes. Rode the 1/2 mile gravel washboard section with another crafty veteran at full-speed while the rest of the pack tiptoed through. C'mon guys, it's only dirt and rocks...

Vote

It's only a primary, but it's all part of the process. You know, that process you learned about way back in school. Democr-something? Go vote.

Annual fall burnout

Really struggling to find motivation to train right now. I've got one mtb race left and maybe will try some cyclocross this fall, but right now the last thing I want to do is cruise intervals. I did get down to Lebanon Hills for a couple of laps on Saturday. Managed to bend my front brake rotor on a rock, but otherwise had a good ride. The new exit section is fun. The big berms remind me a little of the original trail exit from 10-15 years ago.

Chicago?

75 hits on the blog from Chicago yesterday. Barack, is that you?

Laddie's Loppet (or, what a difference a week makes)

This course used to give me nightmares. Came up on Saturday and prerode with Jamison. Glad I did. I took my time and rerode a few sections to get them dialed in. We ended up clearing everything, which gave me a big boost of confidence for Sunday. Everyone talks about the "Lakeside Drops" (see above), but there are many, many spots on the course that are way more difficult. But, none of those spots is 10 inches from the lake, where if anyone crashes, they go into the drink.

Race day hit with temps in the high 80's and wicked humidity. My plan was to not go out too strong at the start and then try to bring it on the last lap. Well, I should have gone faster, because it got really, really jammed up in the first section of singletrack. I had to get off and run several times due to people in front of me falling (not a complaint, just an observation, I ate it right in front of someone later on). This really broke my rhythm and spiked my heart rate. I made it through all of the drops and sketchy singletrack in one piece and came around to start Lap 2. By now the heat and humidity were really doing a number on me. I grabbed a bottle from Jen and drained most of it before I hit the singletrack. Then, I started getting the chills and feeling like a full-body cramp was coming on. I eased way off the gas and just focused on riding smoothly and getting through the race. I noticed lots of other guys were cooking as well, so I just tried to keep it going and hoped I would recover. It was pretty slow going for a while, and all the punchy climbs were just killing me. But, at about mile 4 I saw Zilla and thought I had a chance to at least keep him in sight (I need to finish higher than him for the Series Overall). Well, I was finally able to catch and pass him, but he's got mad skills on the technical stuff, especially descents, and I knew he'd be tough to shake. He was behind me on the last steep climb up to the big boulder. I didn't have enough power to clear the boulder and went down right in front of him (again, sorry about that Zilla!). I was able to get back on and I gave it everything I had from there on out. I saw the 1k to go sign and popped it in the big ring and just went for it. I didn't look back until I got within sight of the finish. There was nobody behind me, so I rolled across the line, quite happy to just finish.

Ended up 2nd in my group, which was my best MNSCS finish ever. Not sure how that happened considering how close I was to a total bonk. Peace Coffee had a pretty good day. Jamison got second in his group, Clayton smoked me for the first time all year, and Bryan just missed the Top 10 overall in his first Comp race. I think the "dream" is still alive for a top 3 overall spot for me, but I'll have to see how the results shake out and who else is still in it. Big props to everyone at Maplelag Resort for making this the coolest race every year.

"Lakeside Drop" photo from Skinnyski.com