Stream of Consciousness on a slow Friday at work.

I'm really excited to race my bicycle against other people on bicycles.

This year i started "training" about a month earlier than normal and i can really feel it. Not so much in my ability but in that fact that i've only raced twice so far and it feels like i've been riding my bike forever.

I hope i dont burn out this year.

If i do burn out i can take a few weeks off and then hit cross hard.

I hope im good for cross, i keep telling Dave im going to kick his a** and im only half joking when i say that.

okay, i'm 3/4 joking and 1/4 serious.

But cross is six months away, right now im excited to be on my road bike. And my mountain bike.

Maybe this year ill get my mountain bike the way i really want it. it's totally awesome as is, full carbon with a great wheel set and other bells and whistles, but there are a few small tweeks preventing it from feeling like "mine". still looking for those perfect handlebars and i'm not sold in grip shifts.

The same could be said for my road bike. New handlebars and a new saddle, like this one, would be nice.

i'm so horrible at gear and bike maintenance. im only interested in that stuff when im actually pedaling, as soon as i get home i've forgotten all about it.

New goal, have the mountain bike the way i want it by Bone Bender and the road bike the way i want it by Snake Alley.

The weather sure is crappy right now. i was planning on spring fling tomorrow and the marathon mountain bike race at gods country on Sunday (the marathon field is huge!) but it looks like weather will cancel both of those.

I wonder if i can get in a total of 7 hrs between today and sunday? That would make this week my biggest week so far this year in terms of hours in the saddle.

Im hungry.

Oh im stressed (said in my best Seinfeld doing Kramer voice)

It's been over two weeks since I've posted. I've had stuff to write about (im the 2013 Street Cred champion! First race of 2013 at Spring Fling) but no time to do it.

What's got me stressed?

X and i are trying to buy a house.

I don't know much about this but apparently it was a buyers market for a while, but now, all the sudden, it's a sellers market. We've been out bid twice and each time the home went for $10,000 to $20,000 over asking. And these houses (the good ones at least) are selling within one to two days of going on the market. So for the past 6 weeks I've been like a doctor always on call and rushing off to see houses before someone else gets claims them.

It's stressful.

It's fun to imagine owning a home. to imagine how your going to set it up. to imagine the extra space. to imagine being settled and starting a family. but it's not fun to run all over town to find this magical home.

All of this is really testing my will to ride. this past week i was aiming for 9 to 10 hours and got 5.5, but that was particularly bad. X and i went out Friday and Saturday and we're getting two old for back to back nights like that. but when life is stressful you need to go burn off steam, then after that you're too hungover and tired to ride, that's how it happens. i've been training seriously for about 9 weeks now and i've averaged 7.5 hours a week. that's about three hours less than i hoped for. That 7.5 number is about what i always average and for a married guy who works 40 hours a week i think it's pretty good, but i came into this year really motivated. I felt like i finally understood what it would take to raise my game. unfortunately real life strikes again so im trying to stay positive and pedal when i can. I did start training earlier than normal so that should help. I really want to reach (as in earn it) cat 3 on the road.

Warmer spring weather and more sunlight should be a boost.

Hopefully the same goes for X. She may have actually forgotten how to ride a bike.

I had to write this winy post in order to get it out of my system. This blog can be therapeutic. expressing my feelings.

p.s. i will be posting about my street cred victory. I dominated that S*it!!!

Street Cred Stage 3 Re-cap. Urban Cross

(This happened 8 days ago)

"GO, THE RACE IS ON, GO, GO, GO!!!"

With those words, yelled emphatically 12 inches from my ear by a pink clad Chris-go, i set off trying to win stage 3 of Street Cred. It was the Urban cross race. I would be unsuccessful in winning but successful in having an amazing time pedaling my bicycle. You never know when it's all going to come together.

I thought to myself, 'What!?!?, the race is on... shit'. Five seconds earlier i was leisurely finishing the neutral lap, at almost the very end of the line, some 25 yards back from the front which was sure to include fellow overall contender danger men Jesse and the smoker on the fixie. We'll call him the man with no name but only because i haven't bothered to introduce myself. He seems cool. But i digress... so the race is on and im basically in last. Perhaps if i had paid attention to the pre race instructions i would have knows we were starting so suddenly. but i didnt.

Shit.

So we're racing.

Am i still wearing my back pack? yes. Shit. Do i still have 50 psi in each tire, yes. Shit. did it snow last night and turn this course into a muddy mess, yes. Awesome. 50 psi be damned! This might be the best cross race i do all year. No time to worry about starting at the back, wearing a backpack or riding with too much pressure. Actually, all things considered (including the venue)... im in my element. Time to go forward as fast as possible.

During the next 45 minutes i would lose a battle with a fat bike, resulting in me crashing on a sidewalk, lose a battle with a bunch of vines, resulting in me crashing in a grassy alley, win a battle with my backpack resulting in the sweetest on bike backpack toss onto a pile of 2x4's ever seen... plus i would ride over a pile of potatoes (multiple times, that's a lot of potatoes), narrowly avoid hitting a cop car, narrowly avoid hitting a regular car (how come none of the numerous spectators were looking out for cars, jerks. I better get some damn photos of myself as consolation), ride from last into second place, lose second place, regain second place and in doing so put an extra place between me and the man with no name, keep pedaling despite seemingly everyone around me getting flats (okay it was only two people, not everyone), expertly negotiate an ever changing used tire barrier, constantly ask how many laps were left only to be met with blank stares or smart-ass remarks, and finally, after 45 of the best minutes I've spent in a while, i would cross the line in 2nd place.

i just couldn't catch Britton but i buried myself trying.

The west bottoms is made for cross and getting 1/2 inch of snow the night before made for an unforgettable experience.

Thanks to everyone for making it happen.

One stage to go and i think i have a shot at the title.

Last Nights Explosion and Fire on the Plaza

I live at 51st terr and wornall. About 3/4 of a mile from JJ's restaurant, the one that blew up last night around 6pm. I was at home and felt the blast. For a few seconds i stopped what i was doing, it felt like someone ran into our house with a car. When nothing else happened i went back to washing dishes, assuming my neighbor below had dropped something.

X called me soon after that to say she was working late. That was at 6:02 pm. Maybe 30 minutes later i turned on the tv to see live coverage of the fire raging at JJ's restaurant. After 10 minutes of watching the tv i jumped on my bike and headed to the plaza but before walking out the door i talked to my downstairs neighbor. Her husband works at Graham and Dunn (also on the plaza) so i wanted to see if he was okay. She said he was fine but that she used to work at JJ's and she was trying to get in touch with old co-workers to make sure they were okay.

In that instant it really hit home that this was my neighborhood.

There was nothing to do once i got down there except take it all in and pray everyone was alright. Unfortunately we now know thats not the case as the news is reporting that one person has died.

Sad.

Street Cred Stages 1 & 2 recap

So far so good, two stages of Kansas City's alley cat stage race have come and gone and I've attended both. It's a miracle! two more to go, if i make both of those i fully expect to explode into a joyous mushroom cloud of candy and rainbows.

Anyway...

Stage one was a scavenger hunt type race. Michael and his better half Erica did an amazing job setting it up. the race started and finished at Volker Bicycles at 18th and Wyandotte and they had scouted out 10 different bits of graffiti in the vicinity. Each rider was given a piece of paper with addresses on one side and pictures of the graffiti on the other. However each picture had a blank spot which you were required to fill in, as in drawing, once you found it. that's how you proved you were there. 

Despite Taking the most indirect route between stops 4 thru 8 i managed to finish 5th. I might get bumped up a little due to both the quality of my drawings (said in my best 'my name is Simon' voice) and the lack of quality of other peoples drawings.

If any streetcred officials are reading this im lobbying that the top 3 drawings get moved up one spot and the the bottom three get moved down one spot.

afterwards we passed around bottles of boons farm and 24 hours later i had a head cold for 3 days.

Plus my camera broke so these are the only photos i got. 

Moving on...

Stage two was a hill race. I believe these are sometimes called a 'dirty dozen' although we only did 6 hills. The premise: ride slowly in a group to a hill and then race to the top, then re-group and ride slowly to the next hill and repeate. This is perhaps the ideal race for me since climbing is my least worst skill on a bicycle, next to looking good at a red light.

Unfortunately i was delayed by a crashed teamate who required assistance so i missed the first hill. Over the next 5 hills i managed to finish 2nd, 3rd, last (due to dropped chain), 3rd and 2nd. It was a ton of fun.

Im not sure of the points system becasue i dont think the officials are sure of the points system but i've got to be sitting pretty good.

Afterwards we drank boons and budweiser and high life in the shawod of the former FBI building.

Ride bikes with your friends!

Day 1 of Street Cred Alley Cred tomorrow!!! (plus bonus pictures of last wednesday)

I've been slack, how could i not have mentioned sooner that Day 1 of Street Cred is tomorrow!

Flyer

I will be there.

And this year it's free! Tomorrow is going to be a beautiful day so i really hope you come out and support the Cred by pedaling your bicycle around Kansas City and then getting free beer and hugs afterwards. Now lets have a little fun (and hopefully get your competitive juices flowing) and take a trip down memory lane. Click each stage to relive all the glorious details.

My street cred history.

2010 
I was new on the scene. Might have broken my wrist during the crit. Felt pretty cool.
time trial
Stage 2 - Crit
Stage 3 - Cross
Stage 4 - Stairs

2011
Hitting my stride as far as taking nothing seriously except bike riding, and not even that really. Won the cross race and shone like a golden god while doing it.
Stage 1 - Alley Cat
Stage 2 - Cross
Stage 3 - Crit
Stage 4 - Riddle Race

2012
totally lost my stride of taking nothing seriously and only did one of the races. Weak.
Pre race hype
More pre race hype
Crit race - not sure which stage (no pictures)

2013
Who knows what the future holds but if i can do even 2 of the races it will be a f*cking miracle.

Here's to miracles!

And now, finally, here are the bonus pictures from last Wednesday. Is anyone even reading this frigin blog?

Friday (okay it's thursday) photo dump