Dan Action

Where to start? April 20, 2008

As per usual, I’ve had a pretty busy time of late. Last week found me and Nat-a-tat driving up the eastern seaboard to the ever so familiar northeast. We got to New York Friday afternoon, had some stellar Indian food, and went to meet the other members of this Rapha team’s eastern faction. We all met up at R. Bravo’s house in Park Slope, had some great beer via Sam R.’s brewery workplace, and settled in for a meeting of everlasting duration. I felt like a kid on Christmas opening all the cellophane bags holding our new pristine riding togs. We were all trying them on and parading about the apartment. Primping ain’t easy. Saturday morning we were on our way to New Paltz to start our first ride. It was 6:00 am, so needless to say, I slept the whole ride up. All bad weather broke as we hit the road. The sky cleared and the temperature was hitting in the 70’s as we rolled over hill and dale into the Catskills state park. Much clowning around was had throughout the 6 1/2 hour ride that had us climbing an estimated total of 12,000 feet. Much food was consumed, a few stops taken, a couple wardrobe changes, and one crash. Not too shabby considering. I do love riding with a group of guys that love to goof around, but are not afraid to put in some monster efforts.

Sometime late that night we were back in Brooklyn, preparing for a brunch in the morning, then heading to Philadelphia for a few days of job and house hunting. Traffic was pretty brutal, but we got to Philly in the early evening and sat around some friends’ West Philly apartment and caught up a bit. Job hunting went well over our three day stay, landing me a job at the one shop I had my eye on before even getting there: Bicycle Therapy. It’s quality shop on South street. I was incredibly impressed by my first impression upon walking through the door, and even moreso after talking with the owner, Lee, for a while. I believe it is going to be a great fit. We also found a great house just south a few blocks from South st. It is super close to a wonderful outdoor Italian marketplace that is in full swing every day. Cooking will be so nice. Can’t wait to get up there. One more week.

In other recent events, Last night in honor of Wayward Council’s 10th anniversary as a volunteer run record store/ practice space/ community meeting place/ etc., they held a night of rollerskating. I will tell you that few things make me happier that to see all your friends get goofy and klutzy while strapping wheels to their feet and zip around an oval. Since there is no way to be cool at all when skating, nobody seems to try, all defenses are down and that makes for a great time. my hips are a bit sore from stacking up a few times but it was all worth it. I’ll be back up North in a week, but it can’t come soon enough right now.

Next Rapha ride is in New York. I can’t attend because of the move, but I encourage others to check out the events at Cadence in New York, it’s gonna be tight.

B. Casual April 9, 2008

   Well, after a few busy, busy weeks I can post here again.  Work is non-stop.  I am really looking forward to  settling into  a four or maybe even five day work  schedule when I get to Philly.  This six or seven day work week sucks. Even though four of those days are only 5 to 6 hour shifts, one day off is just not good enough for me.

In recent news, our race, Business Casual, went off great. Even though it was pretty crappy weather we still somehow enticed 55 people to come out and enter. Thanks!! The riding was soggy and fierce, but the awesome Tempeh chili was great in contrast.  We were the proud receivers of not just a few pounds of locally made tempeh for which to feed our hungry racers along with a few pounds of gainesvile’s own Sweetwater roaster’ coffee to get folks pumped. Crashes were at a minimum, mostly happening at my checkpoint which was at the end of a long wooden boardwalk into the woods. That nonsense was SLICK.  It was great to see so many folks without the reservation of racing in helmets. A couple of folks were pretty glad they wore them. Brendan and Mike graciously opened their house up for the event and we all piled around to watch the Tour of Flanders afterwards.  Hooray!!!

I embark on my trip Northward tomorrow. Me and Nat-a-tat are driving the eastern seaboard all the way to NY, NY., where the wonderful gang of the Rapha east coast team are having the first meeting and dinner. The rest of the weekend will involve a ride through the Catskills and a glorious return to NY. Let it be known that copious amounts of coffee are going to be consumed.  It will be on this trip that I will answer my own questions regarding my acclimation to Florida temperatures. Will I be unduly freezing in the rainy 50-60 deg. temps, or will the old New Englander part of me rear his head and thicken up that blood. I do know I can hardly stand the 80+ deg. days here, but is cold and rainy what I crave?

After the weekend in Ny, we depart for Philly to arrange to see some houses and apply for jobs. I’ve scoped out a couple of shops I’d be pretty interested in working at, for as much as you can garner from someone’s website anyway. I am psyched to get familiar with Philly’s layout again and to see how much I remember. I’m getting itcy to get into a new place and start getting my stuff set up.

The group rides here have been going great. I’m really thankful for them in general. We’ve started going the intermediate length since daylight is a bit short, getting dark right about 8:00. The route now is up to 45 miles at an average speed of 24 including warm-up. Pretty fast, there is a pretty constant double paceline rotation for most of the rides, and as always, a good umber of attacks and breakaway attempts. It’s a great intensity day for me, and I like the folks who come out. It’s also just nice in a social way. Since I’m not hitting up the racing circuit here at all, the Hipp ride gives me a chance to chat it up with a good number of friendly, familiar faces and hear about the weekends’ competitions and what not. The ride typically gets 25 to 50 folks out on any give Tuesday or Thursday.

Well, tomorrow is a big day. I’m alittle nervous, but for no real good reason. I guess it’s time I get some sleep.

Business Casual February 28, 2008

       So Brendan, Mike and I are up to putting on another alley-cat race here. Last year we did it and the outcome from all sides was amazing. From the companies and bike shops who were generous enough to donate stuff for prizes to the folks who volunteered to make sure all the checkpoints were covered, and finally, to all the folks who made it out to race, the whole day was fantastic.

This year’s is going to be truly outrageous, like Jem, the doll-turned-cartoon rock star. Get out the pleated pants, the business suitpants, the bland and the dreary. Make sure your TPS reports are done up and sales quotas are met, because April 6th is declared Business Casual!!!

Thanks to Nathalie A. for doing up the flyer right!!

Double uP! October 30, 2007

Well, Last weekend Found me racing the bike again both days. Saturday, though, I switched it up a bit and raced at the alley-cat Bobby N. and others put on here in Providence. Despite the rain, or actually, because of the rain it was strangely warm out and I was glad I raced in shorts. The format was super fun; it was kind of an out -and-back type of race, or what transportation planners might call a “hub and spokes model”; who could resist the play on words? I had a great time riding with Adam St., Brian C., and Marty GH. Alley-cats to me are fun and not so much the competitive times, so I set a goal to be the first one to a specific point and got it. Maybe it’s me getting older or something, but I ride pretty cautiously in these things now-a-days. I don’t see the need to drill it through red lights, stop signs, and what treacherous situations that might arise for a pair of socks and bragging rights. Much like a prime in a cat. 4 crit, it just isn’t worth the effort. Hannah had a smart plan and won the women’s division and second overall. Everyone did a fantastic job on setting this event up and super props for making a race fun for anyone on a bike to enjoy and rack up points. Photos here.

Sunday saw me and Hannah on the commuter rail to Canton MA. for the Canton Cup ‘cross race. Hannah was feeling pretty ambiguous about racing it but followed through great. I was pretty pumped about the race, though still unable to get my game face on for real. See, last year I did this race. It was the first time I ventured out of the 2,3 races and into the elites. Incidentally, for those of you that don’t know me and my ‘cross racing history, last year was my first year racing cyclocross. I had put in a decent season up to Canton ‘06 so I figured I should get a little taste of what a local Elite race was like. I felt good about my finish that day, rolling in at 25th or 26th.

This season thus far, though, every indication I have tells me that I’m riding twice a well as I was last year. As there is no physical way I can prove this, I figured if I could at least halve my previous result at Canton, I was more or less right. The start of the race was decent, I was being pulled up the hill at a pretty good clip. This was one race where I did not really want the hole shot, since the first couple hundred yards held a quick hill to climb. Soon enough we were on the dirt and going into the field. A lot of unnecessary braking was going on in the corners, but I found a few places to get through. I ended up in a pretty good group for most of the rest of the race. For a while I was on Frank Mc Cormack’s wheel and watched him use up a couple of people at the front of our group and after they died off, take off. With three to go, I was with Brendan from ME, Adam Sulls, and a Bikeman guy. we worked pretty good together, but Brendan had a teammate one position up from our group, so was more than content sitting in. When we got two to go, I realized I didn’t want to be in an uphill sprint with three other folks, and got a gap after the first barriers and gassed it, opening up a small gap. I used the advantage of going through the turns alone well and still had my gap at the short barriers, which I rode. Every time. But then, heading up to the back section before the run up we were all together again. I sat in with them again through the last lap, but I was feeling pretty gassed. The last set of barriers found me on Brendan’s wheel, and third wheel over-all, but my attack drew a little more out of me for me to make a decent bid for our sprint. I ended up eleventh. To be honest, once someone had given us our placements as we passed them on the course somewhere, I knew I had my goal for the day surpassed. I did go on the attack a little, but Not in that desperate, driving way. A goal is a goal, so much the better for being able to put in a good effort this weekend. Thanks to the Cambridge Bike team for their unwavering support.

Getting ready. June 20, 2007

The rain has come in droves starting today. I got rained out of work thoroughly so Dave and I went to l

the lab at his school and he took some sonogram pictures of my heart. Good news, it’s still there.

I’m feeling last night’s ride today pretty well, it was a good one. Only a few folks showed up for the group ride because of the threat of rain, so the ten or so of us set out into the wind. After somewhere around 20 miles, Tony and Ryan Saylor slipped off the front. That didn’t leave us with too many folks strong enough to chase really effectively, but three, and sometimes, four of us took up the task and went for it at the front. With only the few of us working through the rolling hills, recovery time was nil. It took us 15 miles or so to bring the two of them back, and as soon as we did, Tony, who was on the break flatted. I will say, though, I felt way better than I expected and was taking pulls that seemingly came from nowhere, given my earlier feeling of fatigue. I was pleasantly surprised. Every now and again my tenacity shows itself to be a virtue.

In other news, Mike Arena, Brendan McGrath and I are putting on an alleycat down here in early July. The 7th to be exact. In the gross spirit of the fourth of July, we are calling this one Manifest Destiny, to make an even more heinous allusion. The race, in the true horrible spirit works it’s way from the East side of town to the West. It even gets a little more pioneer/ Oregon Trail when the last section send people on a mile or two of trail, complete with river crossings and Donner Party type antics. Well, hopefully not, but you never know.

In still other news, Hannah will be here next week. I am doing laundry in anticipation. And my newest band, Sex Potion, is playing next Saturday. The next six weeks or so are getting pretty packed with things like shows, rides, shows, the alleycat, other alleycats, my 31st birthday, and more shows. The busyness is good, along with working a bit for the last push to have some cash when I get to Providence, I won’t have too much time to really dawdle and miss it so much. I hate to admit it, but I’m actually even excited to get back to work too. Who knew?

Drought June 4, 2007

Last week saw me laid up on the couch and shed loft before the week ended.  I’ll admit, it was way too hectic a week to try to keep up the training intensity through feeling downtrodden.  The weekend’s debauchery while Dru’s folks were in town put me in a little bit of a weakened state; and with Dave (my employer) pretty out of focus work-wise, I was stressing about money.  That is the kind of anxiety that creeps through the mist of every other thought and causes me to tense and cringe, even, no, especially while riding.  Not to mention two, count them, two  late practices  and one  even later show to play.   But if I couldn’t work , I’d try to ride.  No wonder  the last  post  sounded  a little bleak.  Thursday night after the show I started feeling pretty feverish and weak.  I thought it might’ve been from inhaling too much baby powder from Travis  and my dressing up zombie-style for the show, but I got the desperate, emotional trainwreck feelings  and headrushes I only get from fevers.  So it was off to the library after work Thursday to get some movies and lay up.  First Blood, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, & Vincent Price in some Edgar Allen Poe stories later I was fitfully sleeping with the dogs.  The next morning I slept in hardcore then got up for more movie time.  I can’t get across to you that I absolutely could not shake feeling completely and entirely exhausted, every movement, all the time.  After I took a bath, those feelings were only amplified.  I actually started to worry.  I’ve only had Lyme disease once before; it’s impossible for me to remember the feelings leading up to the full-blown emergency room visit save for the re-telling, but I do remember feeling sore and fatigued.  If you know me, you probably know I don’t worry about these types of ailments in too profound ways. I will say after much sleep and worry and stress, I, as I usually do when sedentary, got fed up.  I had to go for a ride.  It’d been raining all night and day, but it cleared in the evening. That’s my time.  I just got out and spun for an hour, but it got me so nice and limber again.  My bones were cracking just like they should.  I pedaled home and ate and ate.  Sunday I felt  a little renewed, so I set off to catch the westward wind for a while. I got a good sixty miles on and felt not too strong, but  kind of accomplished given how shitty I felt. I also kind of felt a little rewarded for a bit of patience on a kind of slow ride by myself, a rarity these days, to be honest.  Well, It’s Monday, and  Elvis Costello wasn’t talking shit when he wrote the lines  “welcome to the working week”.  Here we go.

So, did I mention I live in Florida now? May 24, 2007

Well, I do. At least for the next few months. I’m waiting to go on the group ride tonight. They have evolved somehow from a nice hard interval day to a weekly training race. Not that I’m whining, you see, because given my reluctance to race the road season down here I could use a training race to keep me even a little sharp.   Thursdays, especially, are so much fun; it’s a 30 mile course with a couple rises in the road you kind of have to embellish to even call “rollers”.  Since it’s such a short ride, it’s been just a flurry of attacks and breakaways within the first ten miles through to the finish under the highway.  What had once been an organized rotating effort earlier in the year; smooth, fast and efficient,  has now turned into a perpetual chase group.  All heavy breathing.