Palmer RR

Good race overall. I wasn't expecting much from myself as there are a number of climbs in this race. For possibly the first time, I stayed in the pack and just waited for the end. I took a couple of flyers, did some bridging, but those that have raced with me for awhile wouldn't recognize my actions. What resulted was a good placing in the final 1k, and enough kick to get inside the top twenty. My only regret was being in my 39 for the final climb. The pace picked up and I still was there, so I upshifted, ended up in my 39-11, needed another gear and only found my 53-11. That was equivilent to dropping an anchor. Live and learn. Now onto the pictures...

Myles Standish Photos 4-20

Next race I will try and get more photos.


The 3's


The Ladies



The 4's finish

Geoff, Chuck and Oscar after the race

Cleaning up the yard

found in the garden


Hopefully they will stay that way, if I can get the cats to stop using it as their litter box

Payback?

Last weekend I raced Turtle Pond. It was cold, it was hard, the race wasn't very much fun. When it was over, I tried to pump up my teammate CR before her race and encourage her. The result was that I made it into her blog. The downside was that I read it. The payback was thinking of this over and over as I went mountain biking Thursday. What was I thinking over and over???

"You suck, but just keep going anyway"

"It's a nice day for a long LT ride - NOT"

"I don't belong racing in this category"

The result is that I will reenter the mountain bike scene as a beginner. Thank you MRK!

Amazon

Just proof that you can buy anything in the world on Amazon.

New season, let the races roll

Turtle Pond, Loudon, NH and the start of a new road racing season. Having skipped Marblehead two weeks ago, I decided to get the season going. The race was five laps, with an "extra" climb up the big hill. Not being a hill climber, my plan was to work for my teammates John and Peter. Within the first 20 miles, there were a couple of small attacks, which the NEBC team did a great job of covering. Somewhere around mile 22 though, two riders went off the front and everyone watched. Kudos to Chris B of BRC, who sat on the front of the race for the next 2o miles or so blocking. Seems that while the weather was cool, and we were all at a race, everyone just wanted to ride and talk about the winter. My teammates and I tried several times to bring the two leaders back, but every time that we rotated through the paceline, Chris B showed up at the front and slowed everyone down.

With two riders gone, we changed plans and went for third place. Setting up a good pace going into the final turn, I burnt my final half smoking match and got the hell out of the way. The good, Peter took sixth. The bad, Scott was far enough from the pack to be time gapped! The ugly, Mike R not showing up early enough to get some pics of us racing and gets me just trying to hold the pack on the final climb unsuccessfully.

Home Deprovement

Weekend at Casa de Swartz

To be referred to as the "Before Image" at a later time in my life

From the front, this looked like a beautiful cedar closet worth saving

But from behind, it was filled with cedar shavings...homemade insulation???

Fishing with the boys

Life can't be all about biking or winter, can it?

Winter break in Punta Gorda

Which way South???

This guy was on the line --- Heavy JT --- Where Tom spent his day


Drinking till 2 and fishing at 5 --- Brooksie and the blowfish --- Captain Jack

Fear the Reaper and the Red Bull!!!