RUSTY DODGE TAKES THE FIFTH

Shout-out of congrats to Bellingham’s Rusty Dodge who took fifth place in last week’s Washington State Road Race Championships (Cat. Pro/1/2) down in Brady, WA.  (He’s the red-sleeved dude in the above pic from a Donut Ride last year.)

Rusty, who races for B'ham's Fanatik Bike Co., is a great guy whom I see all the time at the Y. In fact, a couple days ago, we got into an embarrassingly sloppy 5-minute game of one-on-one basketball. Despite my hard fouls and all-over cheating, Rusty schooled me 1-nil. Neither one of us was exactly shooting the lights out. Must’ve been pretty hilarious for anyone who witnessed a couple of endurance dudes trying to shoot hoops.

Great job at the State Championships, Rusty!

FANATIK JUNIORS TEAM RIDE

Bellingham's Fanatik Juniors Team is looking for road and 'cross riders ages 10 to 17, both male and female. A meet the team ride will be held Oct. 5, leaving Fanatik Bike Co., 2025 James St., B'ham (http://www.fanatikbike.com/) 10 a.m. for a short, easy pace ride to Mount Bakery and points throughout Bellingham. All interested riders age 10 to 17 are welcome. The juniors team is a great way for young riders to learn about racing, training for their first 25-mile ride, or even completing STP in one day.

Also, on November 9th the Shuksan Velo Club (Fanatik Bike Team) is sponsoring a one-day road cycling clinic. The clinic will be led by two former pro cyclists and an active national championship rider and will focus on skill-building to become a better rider, training for your first race, or completing your first century ride. Location: Fairhaven Fitness, 800 McKenzie Ave., Fairhaven. Cost: $20, free to those 17 and under. Space is limited to first 30 and preregistration is required. Participants must have a road bike or 'cross bike. For more information and to register, contact Stewart Bowmer at stewartbowmer@comcast.net or (360) 319-7809.

BIG BIG WEEKEND

Wow! Lots going on this weekend. Watching my boyz in the Chuckanut 50K on Saturday. Last Wednesday, I predicted John would run 4:33 and Scott 4:46. John goes out and runs 4:30, 12th place, while Scott blazes a 4:35--a PR by over an hour! Incredible. Inspiring as hell!
Saturday, I jumped back and forth between the race and my real boy's chess tournament at Assumption School. See Baker (right) below with medal and trophy-winning friend Tristan. We're all going to state next month!
Sunday, I rode a 36-mile road race in Ravensdale with some Fanatik guys. Below are Tim Reinholtz (who raced Cat 5 with me), Dave Bishop, and Chad Clarke who both raced 4s. Fun, intense and we all finished safely. Later that morning, Fanatik's Jeff McConaughy won the Masters race. Way to go!
Here's Chuckanut winner Bryan Dayton.
More pics and video to come throughout the week!

SUNNY SUNDAY

Sunday was Bake's birthday. After our neighborhood birthday walk, as seen above, (not that it's a tradition or anything, it was just sunny for the first time in a while; though it does seem like a nice tradition, dunnit?), we headed north to Vancouver. That's where the Pink Pearl (www.pinkpearl.com/) is, Bake's favorite restaurant. It's a vast Chinese place with dim sum that's out of this, or any other world.
The Pink Pearl happens to be on Hastings Street, definitely the scariest, skankiest street I've ever been on in my life. Nothing but junkies, junkies, and more junkies! Last November, we stumbled upon it on our way to the Pink Pearl from Chinatown and had the holy bejesus scared out of us. See my November archives for my write-up of that thrilling experience. (Though I didn't include the bit about the ancient, scraggly junkie with the upset tummy who pulled down his pants and well, I'll leave that to your imagination ...)

Luckily, the Pink Pearl is not on the real, real bad section of Hastings. Below, please take note of me pretending to vomit from having mainlined too much H. (I understand that Vancouver officials are pretty freaked about the impression that Hastings and its environs will give to visitors during the coming 2010 Winter Olympics. No Doubt.)All righty. Enough about that. Sunday was also Fanatik team picture day, but of course I wasn't there. But here they are anyway:

NORTH SHORE RIDIN'

Rode the North Shore Circuit Race (http://www.wwucycling.com/events_northshore.php) course today with Fanatiks Stewart Bowmer and Chad Clarke. Stewart started at 7 a.m. with the intention of doing eight or nine loops of the eight-mile course. I showed up about 7:30 or so having parked at Bloedel and ridden the five miles out to the course. Though I did just 4-1/2 laps, it was tough, very tough.

Stewart is a font of race experience, always full of tips, advice, etc., and race wisdom. All of which I try like heck to absorb and make sense of--when to attack, when not to attack, when to not do any work at all, etc.--but it's not really going to make full sense until I'm back in a race again. Which should be sometime in March.

The North Shore course is challenging with two hills which, in the Cat 4/5 race I'm planning on doing March 29, is really 10 hills because we'll do five laps. Total elevation gain is 2,934 feet. It ends on a short but very steep hill that Stewart had us practice sprinting up on consecutive laps. He'd lead Chad and I out and we'd sprint about 150 yards until my quads felt like they'd explode. Heartrate hit 183 and 181 at the top. When we came to that spot the third time, we were talking and kind of forgot about doing another sprint. (Thank god).

In all, I got in 50 miles riding with 3,200 feet elevation gain. Good for mid-February.

Bake's birthday tomorrow--9 years old!

FORGOT THE CAMERA THIS WEEKEND

On Saturday Bake took 10th at a chess tournament in Ferndale. (The same day, it turns out, that I forgot my sister's birthday. That's all right, I'm pretty sure she's got another one next year.) Forgot the camera though so no pics of him in deep concentration trying to outwit his opponent. Once again, he took three out of five games, qualifying him for the state tournament in April. (Which he'd already qualified for.)

Sunday was a fun as heck 50-mile ride with the Fanatik team. Out Red River Road where we practiced sprints and attacks and the like, and where the trees were filled with eagles. We must've seen 60 in all.

We also came very close to being purposely sideswiped by a white Mount Baker Cable van, the driver of which we later came upon waiting in line at the Lummi ferry terminal. When members of our group expressed their displeasure at his driving so close, he made it abundantly clear that he was no cycling fan and that we had no business riding on the road. Then we all laughed, shared a hug, and went to his house to watch the Super Bowl. (That last sentence isn't true.)

The above image I found on Tom Boonen's website: (http://www.tomboonen.com/) in the Webshop section. The listed price is 0.00 Euro, which seems about right.