These are just a few more shots at the races

Sam was thrilled with the blow-up seats that they had at the concession tent, he thought they were just so cool.

Here he is during the constume contest.

And one more of me from the race on Saturday, just coming into the start/finish area for the last time.

Back to the Important Stuff

That being, posts about Sam!

Kate and I are now starting a new phase in our lives - our child is mobile. Sam is no longer stationary, he is moving. Just last week he started to take a few tentative shuffles towards crawling, but by this last weekend, he was ready to go. He is still not crawling great distances, but he is certainly moving in that direction.

Videos from the Grandprix

Here are some of the videos that I took of the pro mens race on Sunday.

The Start



First Lap



Railroad Ties Run-up



Barriers

US Grand Prix of Cyclocross

This weekend was the US Grandprix of Cyclocross stop here in Louisville. It is the single biggest cross weekend in the area, and there is racing on both days and this year was the muddiest year so far. I raced both Saturday and Sunday and by the end of both races was completely covered in mud and grime.

Saturdays race was one of the hardest cross races I have ever done due mainly to all the mud. Like the last two years, the races were held on an old golf course, so the courses were pretty flat. My race Saturday was okay, not a great race, I finished 28th on the day was content with that as I did not get that great of a starting position.

On Sunday, though I did have a better starting position and got off to a pretty good start, but crashed about a quater of a mile into the race when I wiped out on a ditch crossing that was filled with mud. The course had dried off a little bit from Saturday, though there were still lots of muddy areas, and I also learned that it is just as hard to ride through day old mud as it is to ride through fresh squishy stuff. After my crash, I thought that I was going to end up somewhere in the 50s, but then I heard a spectator yell at another race by me that they were in 29th place. By the end of the race I had moved up to 19th, even with another crash on the last lap.

Mom, Dad, Britta, and Matt were all down this weekend, so the four of them, along with Kate and Sam came out to cheer for me both days. On Sunday, we came back to watch the professional women and men race. It was amazing to see how talented and fast they are.

But far more exciting for us, was the Halloween costume contest that they had on Sunday. We brought Sam's costume along and dressed him (he is a pirate for those of you who don't know), and he got picked to be part of the contest, and he won. He even got his picture (well, sort of) on cyclingnews.com, a major cycling website. This was far cooler than any of my racing from the weekend.

I took some videos of the races, and will post somethem soon.

Muji Man or Muji's Next Top Model

Sam is finally big enough to wear his Muji outfit from his Uncle Dan and Aunt Tomo. He loves the jacket, especially getting green beans all over it like he did last night at the campout.

Bath Time and Spelunking

Here are some new videos of Sam from the last couple of weeks.

Sam loves to play after his bathes, especially splashing in the water.



And he is still exploring under the futon.

Here are two more Coedo beers--the black, Guinness-like Shikkoku and the Ruri pilsner. I know this might be anathema on these pages (the term is used here loosely) but I have to say I enjoyed the pilsner the most. Don't let its light color fool you--it's a bitter and bracing beer, just right with bread and cheese or a good German meal. I never appreciate my heritage as much as when I'm sitting down to sausages, potatoes, bread, cheese and beer.

I've gotta begin with the usual caveat: NACAS (Not As Cute As Sam) but here are a few bikes I saw yesterday that seemed worthy of inclusion in the Lug Bros. Hall of Fame. They're notable for two reasons: the first for being a mountain bike and the second for having gears. When the cool kids are riding single speeds, the COOLER kids are riding twenty one speeds.

New Road

It's been awhile since I posted an actual ride report, but since they have opened up a new road here in Utica, it is worth posting one.

Utica is no longer the end of the road. Last week they opened up a new road running out of town through the old ammunition plant. It goes from the north of town out to Indiana 62. Yesterday was the first time that I got to ride it.

It has a long, gradual up hill (about 2 miles) before topping out at the top near an old cemetery and then runs into the highway. From our house it is 5 miles up to 62.

The road is not in great shape, but is certainly ride able.

We have had a lot of rain in the last week, and there is a small creek running along the side of the road for a while, and it was nice to hear to the small waterfalls as I was riding past yesterday.

Sam New Tricks

Sam keeps growing up and learning all sorts of new things. He is pulling himself up on all fours now, and has started to rock back and further, so anytime now he will be crawling, and we are in for a whole new world of parenting.

While he is currently not crawling, he does propel himself around by rolling and scooting along backwards. He likes to try and get under the futon in the TV room. Why I am not sure, but he always makes a bee line for it when we put him on the floor. Saturday I put him on the floor, left the room for a minute, and came back to find him half way under the futon.

Lastly, he had peas for dinner tonight and managed to get them all over his face.

Two beers here--they look the same but are in fact totally different. The top, Yebisu Amber, is a seasonal beer. It went on sale yesterday. It's got Yebisu's trademark bracing clarity but is fuller and bitterer than standard (gold label) Yebisu or (green label) The Hop. I really like the new can design. Minimalist elegance.


The bottom beer is brewed by a small company in Saitama. Saitama is the prefecture directly to the north of Tokyo. Sometimes you hear it called the New Jersey of Japan. Convenient, most likely full of hidden attractions (did you know that there are more bear sightings per mile of the Appalachian Trail in New Jersey than in any other state?), but largely forgotten in the shadow of its much larger and more glamorous neighbor. In fact, some less-charitable folks call it DaSaitama, a pun that combines the prefecture's name with the word dasai which can be translated as "uncool" or possibly "frumpy". (Contrast this with Ebisu, the swanky part of Tokyo where Yebisu's parent Sapporo Beer has its headquarters.) Despite its unfashionable provenance, Coedo beer is very good (and comes in a good-looking bottle). There are four or five brews, differentiated, like Chimay, by color. In the shop by our house you can find blue, black, and red. The blue label is a light pilsner, the black label a stout, and the red label an amber lager. The red, called beniaka in Japanese, is brewed with sweet potatoes which give it a distictive sweet, almost heavy flavor, better perhaps after dinner than with food. The company has a cool website. The text is in Japanese, but it's easy to navigate by graphics alone. Here's the address: http://www.coedobrewery.com/swf/index.html

Video from the race today

Here is a short video that Dad shot of me during the race. I was just going through the crossing the finish line on one of the laps and then came around the corner.

Sam and Ben

Ben the dog is famous in our household for his complete inability to catch food when it is tossed to him. Sam thinks it is hilarious to watch him try and catch Cheerios when Kate throws them to him.

Tour d'Louisville

As I mentioned in the previous post, today was the first cyclocross race of the season. Even as of last night I had been waffling about whether or not I wanted to do the race, but I talked to Kate about it and she convinced me that I should do it, and I am glad I took her advice, because the race turned out to be a lot of fun.

It has been almost a year since I last raced, and so much has changed since then.

I was also a little hesitant about this race because last year the course was one of the worst cross courses that I have raced on, but thankfully this year was quite different. That is not to say that the course was easy, as it was all on grass, with lots and lots of off-camber sections, a steep down hill that if you missed the corner meant you would plow straight into a pond, and a steep climb.

I raced in the cat. 4 race (which is the lowest category), and lined up at the start of the race with probably about 50 guys. The front row was almost entirely made up of 13 to 15 year old kids (who would actually go on to win).

The start did not go that well for me because in the first 1oo feet I was caught behind a crash, and that meant that I had to work my way up from the far back of the field. I spent the first two laps playing catch up and then the last 3 trying to keep my position.

I am not sure where I finished in the race, but am not too concerned about that, as it was much more just about having fun than anything else, and that I did.

Sam enjoyed watching his first cross race, and I had some help from my pit crew (though I was lucky and did not need to stop to change my wheels).

Anniversary/Birthday Weekend

Mom and Dad came down this weekend to celebrate their anniversary with us and my birthday. They arrived late on Friday night and then we hung out on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, we had an adventure when we went out for breakfast. The first place we went had an hour long wait, so we ended up going to IHOP (one of Kate's favorite places). In the afternoon we went to the St. James Art Fair, which is one of the major events in Louisville during the Fall (actually the best thing about the art fair was they were giving away cases of sparking water for free). In truth there were some amazing pieces of art work and pottery at the show. After that we had dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant in New Albany.

Sunday was the first cyclocross race of the season (I will post a report about it later). Dad and I went out there early so I could register and preride the course, and then Kate, Mom, and Sam joined us. After the race we came home and had a picnic down by the river.