Moto Italiano Fatguy!

From Reston Town Center GP.



(Photo credit: Ralph Robbins)

This was a fun corse to blast around on on a Ducati. Thanks Evo doods!

Cheers!

FGR

A Long Time Comming...

It's been a long road since I did this to myself in June 2006.



That photo was taken in July 2006, about 5 weeks after the crash. Here's how it happened; I was sprinting for the sign at the end of a Davidsonville Thursday hammer ride leading "Rocket" Rick Schize with about 100 meters to go when my bike suffered a catastrophic chain failure and the rear wheel locked up while in a full 30+ mph gallop. I landed on my knee. I was out of the saddle sprinting so there was no way to save it. Had I been seated, it would have never happened. Aside from the chain, my Indy Fab Crown Jewel took a beating too. The straight bladed Steelman OEM fork was a goner, as was my rear D/A-Open pro wheel. I ended up rebuilding the bike with all new stuff, so it looks great now and rides even better than before. The crash had me in the E-room at Annapolis Med Ctr. the rest of that night. I got stitches and pain killers and was told no riding for 2 weeks. That was very optimistic. It ended up being closer to 5 weeks. My season was shot. The heartache of it all? I was doing great in my quest to comeback to full strength after a 5 year layoff. I had quit just about the time I was a couple top tens short of an upgrade to Cat 3. So my goal was to get those races done and get my upgrade. I can tell you that for the last 2 years it's been nothing but a struggle to get to where I'm not getting schellacked by Cat 5 doods. My biggest struggle these last 2 years has been to get back to the form I had before the crash when I was able to do the Davidsonville ride from start to end without getting dropped.

It finally came together for me last night. I'm happy to report that I didn't get dropped. It wasn't the fastest night and all the A guys stayed home but for me it was still harder than any race I have done so far this year. We covered the 32 miles in about 1 hour and 25 minutes. That works out to a 22.5 mph average, including the warm up and cool down. I can tell you that when it was on, it was on, 'A' guys be dammed. I had to dig deep to not let myself suffer the humiliation of getting spit off yet again. There were a couple times where I almost lost it, like the hills at Harwood, S. Polling House, finally Pax River. But I managed to find something deep inside that let me HTFU and suffer the pain. The payoff was tremendous. I cant even begin to describe the feeling that came over me when I crossed the line at the sprint sign before Governor Bridge Rd. I can describe the pain! It was horrible. But it was the sweet horrible pain of success and not failure. Whoo Hooo!

It's kinda funny when I think about the reasons that I have been killing myself training. Last night I realized that since the crash It has'nt been about getting myself a Cat 3 upgrade. It's been about exorcising my demons on this hard as hell training ride. Demons that dig themselves ever deeper into my pysche every time I fail or give up. To be honest with myself, I've been beating myself to death for a lousy training ride. A lousy ride that to anyone else on the club that is routine, but for me it's been anything but.

Cheers,

FGR

I Have Found The Garden Of Eden in Columbia, MD

It's next to the new Trader Joe's in the Columbia Crossing Shopping Center.

http://www.perfectpourcolumbia.com/

I had read about it on Ratebeer. So I had to go and check it out since it's a five minute drive from my office.

Hands down this place beats Chevy Chase Wine and Spirts and Corridor Wine by a country mile. Astor's? Forget about it. Bay Ridge in Annapolis? Not even close.

Since gas is expensive, I'll have to wait until I'm up Elkton way again to hit up State Line. From what I've read, they are the closest to Perfect Pour for sheer volume of selection. Maybe even better. I may never make it there. Perfect Pour is just too close to me to even wanna bother. I don't even have to go to Village Liquors in Waugh Chapel any more with their modest but quality selections (a little less than Astor's or Bay Ridge).

There were so many choices, I had a hard time deciding what I wanted. I ended up getting a untried 750 ml bottle conditioned brew from Brasserie Dupont called Avril, a 6-pack of Leffe Blond and a 500ml of Saison Dupont Vallie Provision, my favorite beer in the whole world (right now). Apparently it's a favorite of many other people because they were fresh out of the big 750 ml bottles.

Once I got all this beer home, I salted up a bucket of ice water and threw a couple of those warm bottles in. After an hour the Leffe was as ready to pour and drink. I also bought a Leffe glass too. Leffe is good stuff and it's and not expensive as other Belgian brews. Its right up there with Duvel.

Go check this place out. You wont be disappointed.

Cheers,

FGR.

Weeks in Review: June 1-15

Howdy Ho!

Back in the saddle again. It's been a while since my last posting so I thought I would update. More for myself than anyone in particular. Just so I'd have a record of how the wheels fell off of my season before it really got started. As I have written before May was a lost month for me as far as training goes. June didn't really start off much better. But it doesn't really matter. I have changed my focus to weight loss and maintaining whatever fitness I currently have. I have suspended the Hunter Allen training plan for a while. For the next few weeks I'm going to work on doing a good TT in August. Lots of tempo, cruise intervals @ threshold etc and the lots and lots of endurance miles to work the weight off. Thanks to the high price of diesel I am commuting to work a couple days week by bicycle. Mostly on my wife's days off from the ice cream factory. Last week was a pretty interesting commute. I took a route that I normally avoid like the plaque and to my surprise I found it to be quite easy. In fact allot of old route that I used to dread I'm finding to be quite enjoyable. I can only guess that removing the stress of high intensity training coupled with continued weight loss are having a positive effect on me mentally and physically.

Two weeks ago I couldn't get out of my own way and I was sliding backwards on the Tues/Thur hammer rides. During my rest week, i took 3 straight days off the bicycle. The timing was perfect. Those three days were the hottest of the year so far. One one of those hot days, I worked as a race moto for Ride Sally Ride crit and baked my brains out. That was a long day. 6 am to 8 pm on the motorcycle. The day started out at 80 degrees and only got hotter. I heard over 100 degrees hot! It was still in the low 90's when I got home. I have to give props to the Whole Wheel Velo Club for keeping an ample supply of cold water and grub on hand. I went thru at least 15 bottles of water that day.

I'd like to think that all my bicycle fitness is what keeps me going on the moto race after race. It's what most motorcycle racers do for fitness training. I do need to find a solution for my bars as my wrists are taking the worst of it. By the end of the day I can barely squeeze the clutch lever without searing pain shooting thru my wrists. I wish I had not sold my Helibars. I may have to get another set if I continue with the Ducati next year. I will for sure change out the clutch slave to easy the pull at the lever.

I've been seriously considering a replacement or another mount just to do races. Something like a big Beemer R1200T or R1200TP. Maybe even a R1200GS. I'm not a fan of the K bikes or the small Rotax engined thumpers. If i get a BMW, its got to be a boxer. In spite of sore wrists I still feel pretty good when I get home from a long day on the moto. I've been wearing bib shorts under my armored overpants. They are perfect for the job. I haven't come close to having 'monkey butt.' A common ailment of long distance motorcycling. What ever choices I make I will always have a Duc, so if I get rid of the ST4s, I will replace it with something like a Monster S4R or a 1098 superbike.

Back to the training. Not much to report. I did an unsupported century a couple Sundays ago and had a blast. Otherwise it's been mostly easy riding and tempo efforts. I haven't been back to Greenbelt to race since my last post. I was going to last week, but they needed a ref, so I said OK. I will be there this week to race. I'm looking forward to it.

What I have done is a whole lot of moto ref gigs. Murad in the rain, Ride Sally Ride in the heat, Church Creek TT on a hot, but not as hot as Sally Ride day, Jason Gundel Crit on a perfect day. My favorite one so far has been the Jason Gundel crit in downtown Wilmington. It's not often a rider gets the chance to blast around real city streets riding curb to curb unencumbered by such things as obeying traffic signals, pedestrians, cars, speed limits, etc. I don't think I could have had as much fun if I had went to Summit Point or VIR for a track day. The fact that I get a check for doing this makes it all the more sweeter.

I am looking forward to the Reston GP. If the 8 turns at Wilmington are anything to go by, Reston should be a blast too. But before that I am working the Washington County Road Race in Smithsburg. I like working the road races too. My clutch hand doesn't take quite the beating it does at a crit. What I'm not really looking forward too is getting up at 4 am to make there by 7 am.

Somewhere in between all this work I'll be hitting the bicycle training and getting in my hours as needed to stay on top of my weight loss. I haven't stepped on a scale lately, but I'm sure I'm getting close to the magical 200 lbs mark. Once I cross that barrier it will be much easier to keep at it.

I have to end this on a somber note, as I wish to express my wish for a speedy recovery to fallen Masters 50+ racer Craig Clark of Evolution Cycling. Craig went down hard in the 50+ race at Jason Gundel and suffered very serious life threatening injuries as a result. Fortunately there were plenty of quick thinking and qualified persons on hand to care for Craig until the EMTs arrived on scene. I like to offer my best wishes to him and his family as they do their best get him on the road to recovery.

Cheers,

FGR

The Lost Month

Howdy Ho!

I have not posted a new entry in a while. It's been a very busy and depressing month. The death of a beloved family member will do that. Nothing seems to be very important. However life goes on and things are starting to return to normal. My wife is hating life at her new job, but like a trooper she's hanging in there. Money helps and she's making a pretty decent wage for someone who's never had a real job before. She'll get used to it eventually. As our debts disappear she'll be even more motivated to keep at it.

Allot has happened training wise this month. I have fallen behind schedule on weight loss and the Hunter/Coogan training plan. I'm still hovering around 205 pounds and haven't gone up or down in about 3 weeks. This is because I have stopped tracking my food consumption in the Training Peaks journal. I need to get back to that right away because I am eating too much. Fortunately I'm riding enough to even it out.

Fitness wise, It's been a so so month. Since the last posting about Greenbelt I have done 2 BAR events and did not do well at either event. I have also been sliding backward on the Davidsonville Ride. My tempo pace is increasing, but since I have shirked the training plan, I have not been getting in any quality VO2 max intervals or any sprints. This was painfully obvious at Bike Jam and RFK. It's also comes to play on the D'ville rides too. I cannot respond to the repeated acceleration. I'm OK initially or if I stay to the front. But once the race wicks up, I'm spit out the back.

In light of this I have decided to go ahead and volunteer at every BAR race left on the calender as a moto ref and only race at Greenbelt, and hit the D'ville rides for the rest of the season. I can be of more use to ABRT in this capacity since I earn BAR points for officiating. Weight loss needs to be my focus for the rest of the year. Hopefully I can come good for Cross. I really wanna try that! Right now I need to put the miles in and get the weight off once and for all with out the added stress of high intensity training. I should have done this over the winter. But I didn't and so there it is. This winter I will be more motivated to stay on the bike to maintain the fitness.

No point in recapping 2 DNFs at Bike Jam or RFK. Needless to say I raced them both not very smart. Bike Jam more so than RFK.

On a more positive note, I did do well at Greenbelt last night. I remembered my mistake from 2 weeks ago and did my damnedest to stay on the front. My only spot of bother was the prime with 3 to go, but I was able to close that gap on the downhill and get back on the front for the final 2 laps. At the end of the last lap, I sat up. As a Cat 4, I should even be in the C race, so I wont contest anything. I figure another couple of weeks in the C's and my power to weight ratio should be good enough for a right proper suffering in the B race. All in all, I was very satisfied with my ride even thought I am technically sandbagging it. Practically speaking, it still kicked my ass.

Next week I will be back on track with Week In Review.

Cheers

FGR

Fatguy, You Big Dummy!!!

Note to self:

Stay up front.

On a whim and since I had my Jeep and my stuff, I decided to blow outta work at 10 till 5 to beat traffic to G-belt instead of just training local roads and going home. I wanted to get there early enough to see if i could weasel my fat cat 4 ass in to the C race. I was prepared to deal with suffering thru the B until they dropped me. Thanks to the Rt-1 guy who said OK for me to ride the C. I hadn't done a race there since 1999. Back then I suffered badly enough on that stupid hill in the B race (they had stopped doing the C for a couple years and I was Cat 4 anyway) that I lost all desire to wanna race there anymore. This season my training has been pretty good and I have resolved to cast out old demons by entering races that I know I will suck at.

How'd it go?

Well...Not bad. I spent the first 7 laps on the front, staying outta trouble and outta the wind. I was pretty comfortable just staying in the front 10 riders. And I was thinking that maybe, I shoulda signed up for the B race after all. I had 2 teammates in the race, Alex and Mike. Alex is riding really really well this year and he was on the front or near the front the whole race. I pretty much sat on his wheel. It's a weasel thing to do, but I know my limitations. One the 8th lap i started drifting back a few spots to take on some water and found myself getting outta the saddle way too much to maintain the gaps. That's when the wheels fell off. I had blown psychologically as my old demons on the hill came to haunt me and I gave up let myself get gapped off. To tell the truth, my legs were feeling like bags of wet cement. It's not easy hauling 207 lbs up that hill 11 times. On the downhill, I snapped out of it and gave chase to get back on. I knew the pack would coast down the hill, so I actually closed some of the gap to within about 100 feet by the time the bottom of the hill started. I did my best to get up there, but the psychology of that fracking hill just works my head over into a pile of goo. Well there was no coming back for me, but I has passed a whole bunch of guys who came off and guys who were already lapped and I decided to do my best to keep the group in sight. For the next 3 laps I did my best to keep up the tempo and I really did keep the pack in sight right up to the end. My last trip up the hill, I was completely blown, physically and mentally. I kinda just slowly drifted across the line, glad that my odreal was over. But I was very happy that I didnt give up. I managed 16th outta 25+ starters.

When it was all done, I kinda felt pretty good about myself. I never do that well here. But tonight I got a nice moral boost. I can do this race after all. Tonight, the only thing that kept me from staying with the group the whole race was my own stupidity. If they'll let me, I want to ride the C race maybe 2 more times and then move myself to the B race. And let the suffering begin anew.

Shout out to Alex, He managed to win the race. I think it was his first race to boot. He's been training really hard too and looking good at all the D'ville rides lately. It was no surprise to any one on the team that he did well. He'll be in that B race soon enough too.

Just a thought.

Perhaps the rules at Greenbelt can be bent a little to let 200+ (Clydesdale) Cat 4 guys into the C race without question. I think I speak for allot of us when I say, that staying in a race for more than 3 laps is a wonderful morale boost. It makes me really wanna drop the pounds off and get where I should be.

Cheers,

FGR

F U Speed Channel - The Monza Edition

Two races in row with this Sunday race 1, Tuesday race 2 shit? Repeats of Pinks and Two Guys Garage can be rescheduled so you douchbags can air BOTH WSBK races. One the same day. One after the other.

It was fecking M O N Z A you dolts. The Holy Land of WSBK.

You guys at SPEED suck so much ass you need a Listerine enema.

Cheers,

FGR

PS - Thank you for the continued live coverage of F1.