A Good Way (Or Not) to Lose 3 Lbs

Food poisioning or stomach flu--I'm not sure which I had, but it's kind of looking like the latter right now. I woke up feeling nauseous Monday night/Tueday morning, and from that point on, I had something coming out of my body at one end or the other about once an hour, or when I tried to put something back in. Even if I drank too much water at once, it came back up. This continued for almost 24 hours. Initially, I thought I had got food poisioning from some bad grapes I had eaten a little while before bed, but now, because my stomach still doesn't feel 100% today (Thursday), I believe that I had a stomach flu.
Now for the weight loss part. Because I had no calories going in (and staying in) for almost 24 hours, and had my digestive system flushed, I lost about 3 pounds. I'm going to see if I can keep some of that weight off by using a little portion control when eating my meals. Right now that won't be too hard as my stomach is still not feeling 100%, but later it might be. It should be an interesting experiment.

Week #2--Oval Criterium

First off, here's a pic from last week's race.
This weekend was the CSU Oval Criterium, which is my home race. While there is another race in town during the summer, the Oval Crit is put on by my former collegiate team, and is a race that I have competed in more than any other race (mountain or road). The Oval Crit uses a course that plays to my strengths more than usual for a crit course, with long straightaways in addition to multiple technical corners.
Two of my teammates came up from Boulder (Iles and Campie), while a third (Darrin) could only watch due to licensing problems. We worked well together during the race, as best as new teammates could. We all spent time off the front in small breakaways, and generally stuck together near the front of the race. This is more than I have experienced racing for other "teams" in years past, so it was a refreshing experience. I look forward to having the complete team racing together.
Looking at pictures of the finish, I believe we all finished in the top 15, and were within feet of each other as we crossed the line (see pic below).
Thanks to Jesse for taking lots of pictures and cheering at the race.

First Race Jitters

I was shaking at the start line, but it was more due to the cold than anything. Today was my first race of the season, and it was an Open Men 1,2,3 field, meaning I was once again racing with the big dogs (hopefully a soon to be common occurance). I believe that the race was the biggest field I have raced in, as I was told that there were 93 guys out there. Not bad for a small local race put on by a collegiate team. Despite the number of guys, I felt a level of comfort I just don't get in a 3's race. While I never saw the front of the race, I felt good, and had plenty of gas in the tank at the end. My main challange was manuvering through the mass of riders to get to the front--something I've never been very good at in crits.
Prior to the race, a group of teammates and I--all kitted up in our new outfits--did a 2 hour training ride. I feel that these activities are making us a more cohesive unit, and I'm glad we have guys motivated enough to show up.

Here's a pic of me on Thurs, wearing my new kit. I look a little top heavy because my jacket is a little big on me. This ride was the second one with my new Spy Scoop Espada sunglasses. Even though I got home when it was getting dark, I could see fine because the glasses have photochromatic lenses. In bright sunlight, the tint is dark, and in low light, the lenses become almost clear. Very cool technology.

I want to give give a shout out to Pete, Steve, and Ryan, as well as all my other regular viewers. Hamilton, get back to work and stop slacking!

Updates

I just got some new info for my "Everyone's Got Their Own Bike Brand!" post. I have added the new info to the post in the [ ] brackets.

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

So I decided to hit the trails on my single speed mountain bike yesterday, because it was warm, and the trails were dry (in contrast to today's cold weather and snow). A little over half way through the ride, I stomped on my pedals to make it through a slightly uphill rock garden, and my chainring shattered into several pieces. Was it because of the monster power my legs are putting out? Partially. I think a big part of it was due to the fact that one or two of the chainring bolts decided to abandon ship sometime earlier, as they were nowhere to be found at the scene of the mishap. This probably allowed the ring to flex when I applied the high amount of torque to get through that section, and the ring just couldn't handle it. Luckily, it was mostly downhill to the trail head, and not too far from Jesse's house, so he was able to pick me up. It would have been a long walk home otherwise.
This ride was also notable because it was my first one on my new Ritchey Pro saddle. The saddle looks similar in shape to a Selle Italia SLR, and is pretty minimalist in design. I was plesantly suprised to find that it fits my anatomy well, and is one of the most comfortable seats I have had the pleasure to ride on. These seats are a new offering for '06, and also come in WCS and Comp models. Way to go Ritchey!

Everyone's Got Their Own Bike Brand!

I rode down to Boulder on Sunday to watch my teammates doing the Stazio training race. The guys are looking strong for this early in the season. Unfortunately, Parker got crashed by another rider, and broke his fork in half. He jumped on Pete's bike and was back in the race the next lap, driving the pace and making it uncomfortable for everyone. That makes two crashes in as many weeks. Luckily, his body has got off relatively lightly, and hopefully he'll make a speedy recovery.
As for the weather, the sun was shining, the temperature was warm, and I had the ol' spy camera with me. One thing that's cool about these early season training races is that the big time pro guys will usually show up to test their legs before jetting off to big national and international races later in the season. I caught my first glimpse of the newly formed Toyota-United Pro Cycling team's kit, sported by CSU alum Chris Baldwin. I just read in Velonews that Toyota-United could not find a bike manufacturer that was willing to front the kind of money they were asking for, so the team went to Easton (a company who supplies frame tubing to bike manufacturers, amongst other things), and had them make a custom bike. Yes boys and girls, the only way to own a United bike, is to be part of the pro team. [Update: I just got my own copy of the Velonews Buyer's Guide. Apparently, I didn't get to the part of the article that says that Easton will be making 750 team replica bikes, and 250 Chris Wherry signature bikes. So you can get them, but they'll be pricey.]
Talking about making your own brand name, I snuck a shot of Olympic gold medalist Tyler Hamilton's bike while he was of all places, in the pisser! The bike was branded "Tyler Hamilton Foundation" (the charitable foundation he runs). I'm not sure who made the bike for him, or if it was an older bike he had repainted. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a BMC, and I don't think it was a Cervelo either. [Update: I got a tip from a friend that the Tyler Hamilton Foundation bikes are "Hamsten" made. Parlee made Tyler a 11.9 pound carbon bike--yes bike--for last year's Mount Washington Hill Climb, which I now believe is bike in my picture.] Until next time...