Ow?

Crashed today and smashed my head. It hurts. Anybody know how to tell when the styrofoam of a helmet is spent? My helmet is maybe a month old and I'd hate to spend money on another one, but I guess it's better than any more brain damage. If I don't wake up tomorrow an somebody look after my dogs?

In other news I'm in the lead in the 30+ and 35+ classes. Wee.

When DL doesn't mean "down low"...

A quick update for all 8 of my viewers: I've been on the disabled list for a couple weeks now, due to my crash at Eppng. The crash (technically, the front tire of a YZF) messed up my back, but it also aggravated an existing wrist injury that just won't go away.

So, I'm sitting out the last couple races and plan on returning to the Fall Series opener at Southwick on July 15th, healed up or not. Tell all your friends.

Race Report, June 24th

Epping New Hampshire, aka MX101.

Not a good day. The NESC keeps putting the 30+ and 35+ at the end of the day and almost back to back, so I ran the Open Novice as well to keep the day interesting. This was my first time ever racing Epping, and I've gotten about an hour of seat time over the past month due to various injuries. Long story short, bad things happened.

First race of the day was the Open Novice. Shitty start, rode ok, arms pumped up, crashed on lap two, and was run over. On the plus side, I was run over by a very nice girl and she was very apologetic. I don't meet many nice girls these days because all I freaking do is ride and work. But anyways, I ran a couple more races, my wrist really hurt, and that was my day. Somehow I ended up beating 4 people in the open class and still got a couple points, but the day was pretty much abysmal.

Here are a couple helmetcam vids from the day:

Open Novice Moto 1 (with sweet crash at the end):

 30+ Moto 1:

Ok, Blogger sucks when it comes to YouTube Videos and I can't figure out how to get the embed code right because it's ten o'clock and I'm tired, so here's the link.

 

SR-899

One of the biggest obstacles I run into off the track is the opinion factor. Everyone has their opinion of how I should be riding, training, racing, etc. People who have never ridden don't understand how difficult or physically demanding racing is. People who have occasionally raced or ridden don't understand why I'm not doing better than I am. And everyone seems to think I should just be doing better than I am. All sides offer good advice and only a fool would ignore the advice completely. But when it comes down to it I have to be able to figure out which advice to listen to and which advice to ignore.

Doing the Happy Dance, feeling the flow

Just went to the gym at work and had the best workout I've had in years. I fired up my music, hopped on the elliptical, and cranked out 4 miles in 30 minutes. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I wasn't thinking about how long it was taking, or hoping it would be over, or anything really. I was just feeling The Flow and cranking on it as hard as I could. I probably could have gone another 30 minutes.

The Flow is all I've been after for years, both on and off the bike. It's my single Reason For Being and the reason I do what I do. For years, riding has just been an escape from my otherwise mediocre existence and a way for me to escape to a place where I don't have a hundred things rattling around in my head. Trophies are not the goal. Winning races is not the goal. Speed, as Memphis Raines so eloquently put it, is a by-product. My goal is to get my shit in order such that, when riding or exercising or doing any kind of intense activity, I'm not thinking about the activity. I'm doing the activity.

I knew I was doing well when the machine told me to slow down because my heart rate was too high. Now I need to get my ass on the track and get to that same level of Flowness (Flowocity? Flowrannasaurus Rex?), and enjoy the by-products.

It's hard to dance with a devil on your back

More often than not lately, I wonder if this is all worth it.  Getting to where I want to be both fitness- and talent-wise takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice. Here's a quick synopsis of the past few days:

Friday - Get home from work at 6, ride till dark.
Saturday - Spend 5+ hours working on the bike and getting it ready for race day.
Sunday - Leave the house at 5, drive 2.5 hours, race, drive 2.5 hours, home at 9.
Monday - Tear bike down and clean it up.
Tuesday, spend 3+ hours installing my Yoshimura doohickey.

So I spend a ton of time, arguably the majority of my time outside of work, doing something moto-related. And is it worth it?

Is it?

I bought this house last year and it's a bit of a fixer-upper. But since I spend all my time and money on the bike, the house is just as shitty as the day I bought it. And I'm reminded of it every time I get home. It's an embarrassment, to be honest - I look at my shithole and think about what people who drive by or stop in must be thinking. Every damn day that I come home I ask myself if this is worth it.

Is it?

On top of the shitty situation that is my life, I have this constant sense of hurry-the-fuck-up all the time. I'm constantly prepping and planning and getting ready for race day. And it permeates everything I do, to the point that it really wrecks my personal life.  I mean I'm closer to forty than I am to thirty, and I spend my weekend battling with a bunch of young kids made out of rubber, in a sport that I've never been any good at.

So what are the positives? Well, I'm in the best shape I've been in in probably five years. Every day I get a little stronger and a little more confident. I feel better about myself and I actually have a sense of purpose. If it wasn't for riding I'd probably be obese and spend all my time on the damn computer (Irony's a bitch).

But days like today, I just don't know.

Race update - Jolly Roger's, 05/22/2012

Haven't updated in a while. I'd apologize but that's a blog cliche, AMIRITE?

I raced Jolly Roger's Sunday, in the bustling metropolis that is East Lempster, Cow New Hampshire. I've been racing since 1996, and this is the first time I have ever been to Jolly. It's a track like no other, with insane elevation changes, crazy corkscrew-esque turns, and some guy named Bubba that kept telling me I had a purty mouth.

If you've never been to Jolly, you had better hurry, because the owner (who was sporting a kickass mullet) told us during the riders' meeting that he had sold the facility, and after this season it would be leveled and rebuilt from the ground up. According to the NESC schedule there are only two races left.

Anyways, on to the race report, with GoPro helmetcam goodness:

35+ moto 1:

I had an ok start, nothing to really write home about. I hung with the leaders until I got cross-rutted at 2:30. I remounted and still was able to pass a dude for 7th out of 8th place. That cross-rutting got in my head and I was really slow in both rutted sections for the rest of the day.

30+ moto 1:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByGX8bMJiHQ 

(The Blogger API won't find my YouTube link no matter how hard I try, so you get a link and you'd better like it.)

2nd place start. Ran in 2nd till I screwed up in a turn. Then started to fade and ended up finishing 4th out of 5. Bonus - Watch somebody crash in the same ruts I did at 2:25.

35+ moto 2:

Take that start, put it in the trash, and take a big dump on it. I hung with the pack until 1:37, and then had a huge screwup at 2:27 - Watch my left hand after I got back onto the track, I pulled a tear-off and then couldn't find the handlebars and almost died. This is probably the most interesting of all the videos because I ended up chasing down pink chest protector guy after a looong time. 7th out of 8.

30+ moto 2:

That start you took a dump on? Yeah, how's last place sound? I thought so. This is a super boring race other than my EPIC SAVE at 1:20 which sucked the life right out of me. After that, I treated the race like a practice and tried a few different lines. The last place guy started to catch me so I did step things up a notch.

Recap:

If you listen closely, I spent 3/4 of the day in a gear too high and smoked the hell out of my clutch. I've had a real habit of doing that this year - The Yoshimura motor has so much more torque and power than my stock bike that I'm really abusing it, and it's causing a disadvantage. By the last race of the day I had started to use the powerband properly, but I really need to work on my throttle and clutch control.

To paraphrase Travis Pastrana, I did better than I had expected, but worse than I had hoped. Considering that I have never been to Jolly Roger's in my life, things weren't so bad. Plus, my fitness is getting to the point where, 24 hours later, my entire body isn't on fire. I was able to catch my breath after my screwup(s) in each moto, and finish with a little bit of gas left in the ol' tank.

I have an off weekend next week because I have to work, but then it's on to Central Village. Central is the track where I had my first decent finish EVAR. I plan on training and practicing as much as humanly possible in preparation for that race, and I'm feeling extremely optimistic about it - If everything falls into place the way I think it can, Central could be my breakout day that will make all this crap worthwhile. Or, it will be just another day of disappointment. At least I've lost ten pounds since I started training. Seacrest out.