Bubba @ Suson

Quote of the season "I am going to spoil all of childhood memories of my favorite St. Louis childhood parks". I can remember going to Suson often as a child, to visit the animals, climb around in the playground, and run around on the open grounds...well, we did plenty of "running around" on open ground today! Honestly, I wanted to vomit the first 5 laps... finally I got into a groove.



The course was good: soft, but good. Lots of twists, turns, ups and downs. This week did not feature the infamous "Stairs of Death", but it did feature an uphill barrier-->180-->reverse 180-->uphill that killed me every lap. I was actually good until we got through the start/finish area. The network of twists and turns featured extremely soft ground, which drained the battery power out of my legs as each lap card fell.



More pre-killer 180 hill craze pics. I really began losing spots in laps 4-6 or so, but made a little come back. This is my second worse finish of the year, but I don't like soft ground or hills, so back off!



I finally got my legs back, but they continued to tire each lap. Not even the cowbells could resuscitate me.



So, here I am sitting in my compression hoes trying to recover from the brutal rape and pillage my body received today. I am calling JASON OZENBERGER out to come race next weekend. It is supposed to be warmer, and you and Alicia will have more baby sitters than you could imagine. So, rum and coke...do it, DO IT!

On another note, have you ever noticed that every other country in the world dies from diseases of deficiency... lack of good quality food, good water, poor healthcare, and lack of understanding. Why is it that every disease in our country is a disease of excess? Diabetes, heart disease, renal failure, alcoholism, emphysema and others. Seems a bit unbalanced, huh? Of course, if we just tried to balance out the world's health by sending them more food, our health care (or illness care), and what we believe we understand, the planet would go to hell in a hand basket. Sorry, not hating on our country, just the bone-head people in it that eat, smoke, and drink themselves to death... literally. "Oh, heart disease runs in my family...ohh, my mom and dad were both Type II diabetics...my entire family is fat; I guess those are the cards I was dealt." In the words of Adam Sandler in Mr. Deeds... "bu bu bu bullshit!" Get off your duff, begin eating better, decrease --> eliminate the toxic substances you cram down your pie hole and quit doing things known and proven to kill you! It is sad that we have to make caskets the size of a 77 Cadillac to accommodate some of the fat-asses that pass away from choking on a chicken bone, when our "brothers from another mother" in a less developed country gasp their last breath of air hungry, dehydrated, and desperate.

I do not lack empathy, I just absolutely despise helpless people...sorry if I offended anyone. K made me watch this episode on the tv about the fattest people in the world...bet you can't guess where they were from:)

Crossin' it up

So, in this edition of cross race-STL, you basically ride around in circles just like any other race. Here you can see me taking a pull w/ my buddy Jay...Jay and I have seemed to find each other the past two weeks and work our way through the field together.



This was a major difference in the other cross races so far...there has been many nicknames given to this beast (that one may work too), but I like to call it the moveable mountain.



Ok, so it isn't as tall as Everest, but after a few laps, I bet it is close to the demands of the Asian wonder of the world. This is me ascending the stair-case.



And preparing for descent... notice my landing gear is not attached. You see, the flyover (aka platform on top) was not very long, so you had to remount immediately, put your feet in the vicinity of your pedals, and get off your seat as quickly as possible in order to clean the transition at the bottom of the down ramp. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the ground, snapping a fork, or the day's favorite... destroying a seatpost. The stairs claimed several victims on Sunday, thankfully I wasn't one of them.



As Josh came around me, I dug a bit deeper and tried to hold his wheel for a bit. I kept him in sight for about a lap, and with his help I moved up a little. I was beginning to fall into a little groove; Jay and I were closing in on a few peeps. Jay crashed or mechanicaled (wow, what a word...almost as cool as bikleing) and I pulled away for just a minute or two. He caught back on in the sand pits and we began rocking again. Next lap I dropped my chain just before the pits, which was the pits, and I had to get off my bike to fix it. Come to find out a lap later I had kicked my front D and couldn't shift into my big ring... that made the chase very interesting.



A lap or two later (mind you we only have 3 to go at this point) I really began closing in on Jay, spinning @ 200+rpms... he held me off through the pits, the start/finish, and the barriers, but I caught him and passed him on the asphalt climb on the backside of the course.



I kept on the gas and managed to hold him off, unfortunately it wasn't for much...9th place is all I could offer my efforts. This is a good peak at the sand pits in the closing laps.



The good:
- I am feeling better each week
- my riding is getting a bit better each week... I am sure Josh would argue I use my brakes too much still, but I am working on that. When I get my tubies back on, we will start talking no brakes!
- I get stronger throughout the race

The bad:
- my starts still kind of suck; I need to change this before state, as I got myself a sweet starting spot.
- I am on the brakes too much, and not pedaling enough... hopefully the tires take care of that.
- my back is still pretty weak. I better get that in check before Herman too!

All in all not too bad. K and I kind of hunkered down over the weekend and chilled around the house. We had a gang of leaves to rake, which I may have some pics of somewhere. This coming weekend we are staying in a cabin that my siblings and nieces reserved for us last Christmas... should be fun. It is in the heart of wine country out off Hwy 94. Suson is next weekend, so that should be good as well. I haven't been to Suson Park since I was 9 probably.

I am really boring these days. Maybe if I didn't stay up so late studying this eve, I would be wittier.

Bubba # 3, Mucho Gusto e' Mucho Better!

This edition of Bubba was much more enjoyable for myself. I must have really been "off" last week, because I felt like a new person. Maybe it was my top secret race mods I made to my bike the night before...I still don't have everything together for that, but I am working on it. I really liked the Faust course last year, and this year proved to be just as painful w/ a few different arrangements. The course featured many of my favorite elements of cross...costumes, bull-horns, cow-bells, and boozers!

This section was crazy...I never did get the hang of this double 180, and it may have cost me a spot or two. Better gearing would have helped, but when you play bike shop late the night before, options are limited...lesson learned.


Much of the course was tortuous and bumpy, but I enjoyed this particular section as I had a dense (and by dense, I mean K, my buddies Steve and Cameron, Parker and Payton) cheering section. Cameron attempted to moon me, but couldn't get his belt down in time...it is a shame, because I was actually watching...and waiting:)


It doesn't get much better when you find two pics from the same cross race and both of them you are grinning ear to ear.

Oh, I almost forgot...Halloween was fun too! If you remember from my Nov 1st-ish post of 2006, I am technically supposed to still be grounded from All Hallow's Eve...I decided to go against my own punishment and have a good time.

This is my pal Steve and some guy I really don't know. He was kind of creepy.


A pic of the dudes before we hit the party...well, we were partying already, but you know what I mean.


K was a lady bug, and she must have been flying around all night, because I haven't seen a pic of her yet...if I come across one, I will post it up. You can't tell, but I actually pulled a costume switch-a-roo...I am now Tom Cruise from Risky Business...I had the dance down and everything. But then again, what dance do you not have down at the end of an evening such as this? This pic is kind of like "Where's Waldo?" except I like to call it "Where's Weirdo?" Can you pick him out?

Yeah, amazing I as even able to race cross on Sunday...consequently, we had originally planned on racing in Columbia on Saturday. I bet you can guess where I was;)

I updated my link bars just a bit...just for you! And me, it will save me precious Internet surfing time!
That's all for now...the less I promise, the more I deliver!