I didn’t have a bike to participate in the “fun” this morning but I got to take photos and heckle people. It was cold standing there during the race, even the woods didn’t provide any cover. Good job to everyone that decided to show up and participate in a “group ride.”
Archive for November, 2009
Turkey Cross
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
Fun afternoon
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Today was interesting. This afternoon I wanted to go and shoot some traffic while experimenting with the blur that you see in magazines. Well I waited until after school was out to go and sit by the school because I could see from both directions and there wasn’t any vehicles parked on the sides of the road. Well, someone complained that I was photographing children even though there was no children anywhere to be seen. After I had a talk with the officer that decided to come over and investigate me I continued to shoot. Then a little later a high schooler comes in a car and tries to confront me about what I was doing. He then proceeded to tell me that his photo “better not be on the internet” and then I asked him if he was trying to threaten me, he said no and then drove away after a second saying about “it better not be on the internet.” So my experiment turned out to be a little more interesting than I wanted it to originally.
I think that the photos that I got turned out ok, I can tell that I need to get more practice at doing this in the future. I would like to get a person to drive around a parking lot and let me experiment with flash and a few other things. I will have to see about that in the future.
Weekend fun
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009Saturday involved Andy, a.k.a. Murderface, and I going out and riding the Titletown tour ride. It was fun to go and just ride for one of the last nice days of the year. I could definitely feel the miles after a while because of the lack of riding lately. It wasn’t bad until that last couple of miles.
Sunday involved Nate, Julie and I going to Milwaukee for the last race of the year. I didn’t know what to expect going into this race because of my lack of cyclocross riding. After taking my bike off of the back of the car I found out that the rear tire is flat. I try to fix it by patching the tube and then going out for some warm up riding. After the pack left the start chute I get to about mid pack and then all of a sudden the pack comes to a stop at the sand pit. I managed to ride my front wheel for most of the pit because of the sudden stop. So I made it through the pit, ahead of Nate, and continued on my way. A little bit later we cross a bridge and then twist and turn to a muddy climb, I noticed everyone just taking their time because they would spin out on their bikes up the hill. I managed to put the mountain bike to good use and sprint the hill and pass about 4 people each time up. I come across the start/finish line and then I could feel the rear tire is starting to become squishy. I was not a happy camper after that, I had to slow down through all of the corners because I was afraid of rolling the tire.
The second lap went smoother but then I noticed Nate was right behind me and I made it difficult for the rest of the people to get around me. I sprinted the the same hill and managed to get some other people and tried to keep them behind me. Crossing for the line for the third lap and I let Nate get ahead of me to see what he had left. By this time the tire was really noticeable. After about 3/4 of a lap I got pass Nate and then got two more people before the second bridge crossing.
The fourth lap the tire was almost flat because I could feel almost every bump that was to be felt on the bike. I got to the hilly part of the course and Nate was right behind me and then I put down another acceleration up the hill and managed to get two more people and was able to keep them behind me. That acceleration afforded me about 15 seconds between Nate and I. He and another guy managed to catch me because I had to slow down because of the flattening tire. I babied it until the final straight and managed to sprint away from the two people behind me. All in all it was a great day of racing, I would definitely do it again.
Camera problems
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009I went to use my camera the other day and the camera has a malfunction, not good! I am trying to figure out what the problem is with the camera without sending it in. So I am now going to get another camera and relegate the D90 to the backup position. This sucks because my savings for next years racing funds are now gone, so unless something changes I will not be racing next year. All I can say is, F*CK!
The weekend
Monday, November 16th, 2009Saturday involved me racing in some kind of race called cyclocross. I gave it an attempt and it was a poor attempt because of my cold. I managed not to be last, which was a goal of mine before the race started. I managed to have a good time and did get to harass some people up the Polska climb. Russell and Joe were the main targets where I would run along side them and tell them I better not beat them up the hill with my camera bag on my back and camera in hand. Joe looked like he was getting the hint and ran faster but Russell just laughed and kept going.
Sunday involved me doing nothing because of my cold that I had.
Week in review
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009The last week has been interesting. I got a larger hard drive for my computer. The transfer of information from one to another was a big pain in the ass. I had to reinstall the os a couple of times before I got my stuff to work. Adobe licensing program sucks, that is all I have to say. That was what was holding me back for the whole time. You got to love Mac’s because of their simplicity and everything works when you want it to.
On Sunday I went to Green Bay to ride with Julie and Nate, the road ride went into Freedom and the weather was absolutely beautiful for the ride. When we were coming out of Freedom I looked to my left because I heard a kid screaming and then I noticed a naked kid that had some boots on and carrying a football. That was the most bizarre thing I have seen while riding my bike. All I could do was laugh and shake my head as we continued on the ride. The mountain bike trip in the afternoon was a blast also. I got to teach a newbie how to ride a mountain bike and then watch him make the same mistakes I did when I started to ride mountain bike. It makes me think how far I have come since 2004.
Later
Wednesday night road ride.
Thursday, November 5th, 2009Well the turnout was thoroughly disappointing. Joe Greetens was the only person to show up after I had a conformation of about 4 people.
Picture from Roadie.
Joe and I headed off towards Seymour for a ride. The ride ended up being about 1.25 hours. It was a nice ride through the countryside in the dark. I found out that I haven’t lost a lot of fitness since the end of the season with the running and riding that I have been doing, damn hills still suck though. Just as forewarning I am thinking about doing this again next Wednesday as request from the only guy to show up to the AWESOME ride.
Later