Congrats! Big news!!!!
Where ya moving to?
Where ya moving to?
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
Around the corner. Staying in Hoboken. Found a nice duplex with laundry/parking/unicorn farts right across the street from the new Southwest Park.
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Congrats on all accounts!
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
Will forward this to my wife, where do I send the punishment?
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
I will share with you my trademarked phrase. I'm sure over time you will remember the moment you read it and it will strike you with it's profoundness:
It never gets easier, it only gets different.
It never gets easier, it only gets different.
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
I was driving down Rt. 1 on the way there and saw a new one pop up next to the old Burrito Royale South Brunswick that is now Mediterranean food and knew I had to have it on the way home.
It was no worse than any other cheeseburger and fries, feeling wise. Taste wise it hasn't kept up with the evolving burger trend. It just doesn't compare something made of quality ingredients like a Shake Shack or Bobby's Burger Palace. I was literally watching the person cooking burgers split apart frozen patty bricks as I ordered. Sometimes ya gotta go back to the basics though.
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
Add 3 flights of stairs and subtract one bathroom. Hence why we're moving. I'm going to miss the simplicity and tiny mortgage payment though.
The new place has an elevator which I've never had before, feels fancy.
FTFY
The Squirrel
Well-Known Member
Bottom of the morning loop?
The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
Nice! That was the high school Mexican spot before there was New Brunswick and the chain restaurants!
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
I "rode" Fools Classic this weekend, the middle child of the Kermesse Sport spring rides. It has a similar vibe to Hell of Hunterdon on a much smaller scale and on the Bucks County side of the Delaware.
I rode it last year pre-cyclocross and thought the gravel and sketchy roads were a bit out of my league but fun as heck. Last year I rode a road bike with wide-ish tires and compact gearing and felt I didn't have enough grab on the brakes. This year I rode my cross bike with 1x drivetrain (42x11-32) and while I had plenty of brakes, I was outgunned with gears in a big way. I was zig-zagging hills and even ended up walking one.
I hit a pot-hole on one of the long gravel descents and got my first ever gravel flat, not a bad run. After taking my sweet ass time changing my flat, climbing up another way too steep hill, and rolling into the rest stop, I started to think about calling it quits a little early. I just wasn't have much fun grinding at 30 RPM all morning. Once the road turned up at Stagecoach Rd around mile 60, I knew my day was over. I made it to the top and found the nearest shortcut to the finish. After 5 hours in the saddle and over 5,000 ft of climbing, I was pushing being late for an early Easter dinner and feeling generally miserable. No reason to prolong the suffering when this was supposed to be a fun day in the saddle.
I'm still chugging away on my TrainerRoad plan, mostly hitting my marks but can feel the VO2max efforts getting harder to hit as the power increases. They'll be my main focus as cyclocross season approaches. I did yoga last week for the first time in 3-4 months and felt liberated. I've been lifting 2x/week consistently since December and the total body strength was very evident in yoga. Downward dogs used to be a chore for my shoulders and now I can hang there all day. I was even able to do the extended hand to big toe pose and a wheel like they were going out of style.
I renewed my USAC license for the year this week and signed up for the Orchard Beach crit on 5/7. Both the cat 4 and 3/4 fields. I'm excited to get a summer of #critbro started! The goal for the cat 4 race will be to attack off the front and the goal for the cat 3/4 race is to conserve as much energy as possible and learn to surf in the pack.
I rode it last year pre-cyclocross and thought the gravel and sketchy roads were a bit out of my league but fun as heck. Last year I rode a road bike with wide-ish tires and compact gearing and felt I didn't have enough grab on the brakes. This year I rode my cross bike with 1x drivetrain (42x11-32) and while I had plenty of brakes, I was outgunned with gears in a big way. I was zig-zagging hills and even ended up walking one.
I hit a pot-hole on one of the long gravel descents and got my first ever gravel flat, not a bad run. After taking my sweet ass time changing my flat, climbing up another way too steep hill, and rolling into the rest stop, I started to think about calling it quits a little early. I just wasn't have much fun grinding at 30 RPM all morning. Once the road turned up at Stagecoach Rd around mile 60, I knew my day was over. I made it to the top and found the nearest shortcut to the finish. After 5 hours in the saddle and over 5,000 ft of climbing, I was pushing being late for an early Easter dinner and feeling generally miserable. No reason to prolong the suffering when this was supposed to be a fun day in the saddle.
I'm still chugging away on my TrainerRoad plan, mostly hitting my marks but can feel the VO2max efforts getting harder to hit as the power increases. They'll be my main focus as cyclocross season approaches. I did yoga last week for the first time in 3-4 months and felt liberated. I've been lifting 2x/week consistently since December and the total body strength was very evident in yoga. Downward dogs used to be a chore for my shoulders and now I can hang there all day. I was even able to do the extended hand to big toe pose and a wheel like they were going out of style.
I renewed my USAC license for the year this week and signed up for the Orchard Beach crit on 5/7. Both the cat 4 and 3/4 fields. I'm excited to get a summer of #critbro started! The goal for the cat 4 race will be to attack off the front and the goal for the cat 3/4 race is to conserve as much energy as possible and learn to surf in the pack.
The gearing was one of my biggest reasons for bringing my road bike to Monkey Knife Fight. Looking back at my cadence with 34x28 it was stills super low. I also found the 50 front to be quite useful and glad I had it. Seems like similar rides.
As much as the shitty rim brakes have some pucker moments, at least the gearing gets you up the hills.
And you're making me realize I need to get back into Yoga regularly...
As much as the shitty rim brakes have some pucker moments, at least the gearing gets you up the hills.
And you're making me realize I need to get back into Yoga regularly...
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately I don't have a road bike that will take anything more than a 23mm tire so I'm stuck with only one option (with one chainring). Whoever at Cannondale designed their bikes to have no clearance behind the BB is basically satan.
The next bike on my wish-list is a Fuji Roubaix Elite or Van Dessel Hellafaster with SRAM eTap to give me a bit of bling factor and a more versatile bike.
Also a picture from Saturday courtesy of Mike Maney.
The next bike on my wish-list is a Fuji Roubaix Elite or Van Dessel Hellafaster with SRAM eTap to give me a bit of bling factor and a more versatile bike.
Also a picture from Saturday courtesy of Mike Maney.
hotsauce
Well-Known Member
BLP 2209 Crit - Race report
First office park crit of the year yesterday at the Green tree office park. Last time I raced this course in June 2015 I cartwheeled across the finish line and left in an ambulance (see 1st post for story and pic). I didn't really want to race this course again but it's known as one of the safer courses around and it fit my schedule so why not. Leading up to the weekend I had been feeling under the weather and skipped a few workouts then had a good but (hopefully) not too taxing ride on Saturday down the shore.
Warming up I felt fine, confident even. My goal was going to be to attempt a few breakaways and hope something would stick. Knowing that cat 4/5 breakaways in crits never stick my backup goal was to just get comfortable in close corners remember the feeling of all of the surges. The course was raced counter-clockwise with two wide left handers and a big "U" making up the top of the course. The finish line was up a small incline which was the only elevation on the day. The first lap was neutralized for a local racer who crashed and passed away training a few weeks back but guys were already surging before the car pulled off.
As the car pulled away the pace was high and the attacks were one after the other off the front. None of which were me. The race stayed very surgey for the entirety of the 20 lap race. Small breaks would go and then the field would surge to catch. Typical 4/5 nonsense. My legs just weren't feeling it and my goals quickly went from attacking to just hanging on. I surfed the pack OK, not the best but gained a little bit of comfort. I was still favoring the outside line but in hindsight I would have saved a lot of energy if I were on the inside. It always amazes me how quickly the you go from 2nd or 3rd wheel to the back of the pack. Seems like it's almost instantaneous.
With just over one lap to go the pack slowed and I found myself situated mid-pack on the outside so why not try a break just for the heck of it? I jumped, and probably didn't mash hard enough so the group was right on my tail. I gave it a hard 30 second turn then pulled off and rode the last lap a bit behind the pack to ensure I didn't slide across the finish line this time.
Looking over my power file afterwards, I definitely wasn't 100% but I'm still a bit bummed with my performance. It was one of the faster crits I've done at 26 mph avg but I still would have liked to have had the strength to try more breakaways. The only power target that was respectable was my 30 minute power at 263W. Total normalized power was 278W vs an average of 256W. I should have conserved energy more and pedaled less, definitely too much wind sucking with only a 20W difference between normalized and average. Overall I'd give it a "C" grade but I came home in one piece which is the most important part.
Next up is the Orchard Beach Crit on Sunday, both the Cat 4 and Cat 3/4 fields. I hope my legs are feeling better since the NYC crowd always races a cut above the suburbs.
First office park crit of the year yesterday at the Green tree office park. Last time I raced this course in June 2015 I cartwheeled across the finish line and left in an ambulance (see 1st post for story and pic). I didn't really want to race this course again but it's known as one of the safer courses around and it fit my schedule so why not. Leading up to the weekend I had been feeling under the weather and skipped a few workouts then had a good but (hopefully) not too taxing ride on Saturday down the shore.
Warming up I felt fine, confident even. My goal was going to be to attempt a few breakaways and hope something would stick. Knowing that cat 4/5 breakaways in crits never stick my backup goal was to just get comfortable in close corners remember the feeling of all of the surges. The course was raced counter-clockwise with two wide left handers and a big "U" making up the top of the course. The finish line was up a small incline which was the only elevation on the day. The first lap was neutralized for a local racer who crashed and passed away training a few weeks back but guys were already surging before the car pulled off.
As the car pulled away the pace was high and the attacks were one after the other off the front. None of which were me. The race stayed very surgey for the entirety of the 20 lap race. Small breaks would go and then the field would surge to catch. Typical 4/5 nonsense. My legs just weren't feeling it and my goals quickly went from attacking to just hanging on. I surfed the pack OK, not the best but gained a little bit of comfort. I was still favoring the outside line but in hindsight I would have saved a lot of energy if I were on the inside. It always amazes me how quickly the you go from 2nd or 3rd wheel to the back of the pack. Seems like it's almost instantaneous.
With just over one lap to go the pack slowed and I found myself situated mid-pack on the outside so why not try a break just for the heck of it? I jumped, and probably didn't mash hard enough so the group was right on my tail. I gave it a hard 30 second turn then pulled off and rode the last lap a bit behind the pack to ensure I didn't slide across the finish line this time.
Looking over my power file afterwards, I definitely wasn't 100% but I'm still a bit bummed with my performance. It was one of the faster crits I've done at 26 mph avg but I still would have liked to have had the strength to try more breakaways. The only power target that was respectable was my 30 minute power at 263W. Total normalized power was 278W vs an average of 256W. I should have conserved energy more and pedaled less, definitely too much wind sucking with only a 20W difference between normalized and average. Overall I'd give it a "C" grade but I came home in one piece which is the most important part.
Next up is the Orchard Beach Crit on Sunday, both the Cat 4 and Cat 3/4 fields. I hope my legs are feeling better since the NYC crowd always races a cut above the suburbs.
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It's like how Canadians are better at hockey...
Nice on the crit. After last year it's definitely a mental hurdle to get over.