This story begins in the shower, but don't get your hopes up, there is nothing "fishy" going on here. Like I said, as I was showering after my morning swim today and a fascinating thought popped into my head as I was looking at my bottle of Pert Plus shampoo. Before you write me off as a complete lunatic (if you haven't already), hear me out. What popped into my brain was the saying that Pert has on their bottle "For all types of hair"..Since I rarely remember to bring soap to the pool, but I always have my Pert which says is for "all types of hair', and a human body is essentially covered totally in hair (for the most part)..am I covered here? Can I say with a clear conscious that I indeed washed my whole body? I am not concerned with the cleanliness aspect as I ended up showering upon returning home..but I just wonder...is using Pert on your 2001 body parts the same thing, minus the nice moisturizers as a bottle of shower gel? It's these type of thing that I really wonder about. So if one day you see me looking very intent as I stare into the oblivion...you can with good faith know that I am not trying to solve the great mysteries of life. Most likely I am thinking about shampoo, or why my ears keep getting plugged with water at the pool, or how ear wax come to be? This is in case you might ever avoid talking to me for fear of interrupting something important...so if our paths should cross please smack me on the head and say "what's up".
Getting somewhat back on topic I figure I will let you know a little about my second cyclocross race that I took part in today. First things first...the parking for this little even was probably a good 1.5 miles from registration. Now I am all about getting some warm up time on the bike...but c'mon this was a long ways away. Since I would need to use my wallet to register and need water to fill my bottle and other various things..this meant that I would need to traverse the path from my car to registration not once, BUT twice! But seriously I am not complaining I just thought it was funny that it was so far away. I guess the only thing I am kinda ticked about is that I put my wallet into my bike bag after I got back from registration. Since the bike bag was placed in my apartment upon arrival home after the event, the wallet was carried along with the bag...and not returned to its proper resting place in my pocket or car glove box. Needless to say I happened upon Starbucks later in the evening, walked right up to the counter and suddenly realized I had no form of currency or plastic to cover my bill...a dilemma indeed...(Apparently Starbucks does not currently take personal checks...figure that!) I'd like to say that I sweet talked my way out of my bill..but that would be lying..and slimy. Instead I scoured my solo coin cup that I keep in my car...buried in the bottom were the treasures I like to call quarters...you will never see the quarters on top because I have used all those up and I have not had the urge to dump everything out and re-sort...Anyways after some nifty spinning of the solo cup I extracted numerous quarters which to my jubilation covered my bill for the Starbucks Via Instant Coffee that I so crave at the wee hours of the morning when I awaken from my slumber..on another note...it's nice to see the sun during my morning workouts again..I wonder how long that will last? I can wait for December 21st or thereabout when the days finally start going the other way and daylight lasts longer and longer..until finally its light out until like 9PM...that's such a nice thing...it means that if I can sneak out of work at like 5:30 I can still ride from 6-9pm in very bright daylight...that ranks as very nifty in Matt Curbeau's world, in case you wanted to know.
Geez, I got off topic. Back to the race. All in all it was a very good race. Extremely fun indeed! The field was packed with all the big guns in the area since it was the final race of a three race series put on by local bike shop, Full Moon Vista. So the big guns were out in full force to try and lay claim to the top prizes..plus their was free beer after (or before) the race..so I am guessing that enticed a few more people to show their faces. Anyway, in my opinion the race was more physically grueling than last weeks race. There was a lot more climbing involved and a lot more high speed descents. I feel that these high speed descents and technical cornering are where I seriously lack, and lose A TON of time. The good guys can absolute haul serious booty in these sections..and they are not expending much effort doing so..as for me I am using every ounce of concentration and willpower not to crash..as luck would have it I did not take any spills this week! Quite an improvement over the 8-10 I took last week. (I think I exaggerate the amount of times I crashed last week every time I talk about it...just sounds cooler I guess..kinda like that 20 foot bass I caught when I was 10 years old..or was it 20 inches..either way I'm lying my ass off...I grew up on a lake and the only fish I have managed to wrangle in have been insanely brain cell deficient sunfish that live to eat the most delicious of people food...burnt hot dogs and moldy bread...I swear the best fishing day I ever had was when I caught the same dumb fish about 3 times in the matter of 10 minutes...needless to say I am no bass master and I will not be competing in any "Fish Derby's" in the near future..even though sitting in the freezing morning air, alone, with your line in the water sounds like a hoot and holler of a time...but I can't really say anything..I am up at the same time planning ways to make my body say "What the heck matt! Didn't we do enough yesterday?"..so I do not mean to de-grade fishermen or fisher-women in any way..instead I look at them with awe in how they have the patience that they do..
Sooo...the race was awesome indeed...I actually managed to complete 10 laps in 1:07. This put me in 30th place out of 71 finishers (I think)...so its a little better than middle of the pack...I'll take it! I still want to be fast...no better yet I am dying to be fast..I say "I'll take it!" but deep down what I really mean is..gosh darn it (im trying to keep this family friendly, insert any explicit's you deem necessary, if you deem them necessary at all) I want to be in the top 10, I don't care if I don't have much experience I wanna be with the big guys! Moving on...There really was not enough OMG moments for me to narrate the entire race...but overall it went like this...starts out kinda flat, immediately goes into climb mt everest mode, followed by a hold on tight downhill, which leads into two hairpin turns, then a 20 foot maybe, 90 degree hill..ok it wasn't a 90 degree angle..but it was steep...however it was short and I was able to get up it every time without a problem..most people were able to as well...at the least the ones I saw, this was then followed by a short uphill and another good length descent. After this came a bit of paved road where I could mash on the pedals...but don't worry there was trouble up ahead..a nicely placed run up that included a hurdle and a good bit of mud too! I guess this section is what you could call "The Beginning of the End for Matt Curbeau"...I had made it 8 out of the first 10 times very nicely through this section. However on the last two laps...where it was important for me to finish strong because that's where I could make some time up with the juice I still had in my legs...the bad news was that the mud from the run-up section had clogged both my shoes and pedals...lacking knowledge of how to extract the mud and lacking the experience with these types of pedals and shoes...I proceed to race the next section of the course..which is all uphill on a little bit of pavement and then a lot of grass..with 1 freaking legged..my right leg would clip in and for the life of me I could not get the left clipped in! I was literally inching my way forward with my right leg...(so to compensate for this exertion I will only be lifting weights with my left leg this week...you know.... to compensate :)..lol in reality I am just saying this because I found it funny..I don't really think it had any bearing on my race...maybe I would have finished a couple spots higher..oooo yey 28th instead of 30th....the fact of the matter is that it didn't matter and I wouldn't even talk about it because I DO NOT want to make excuses..but it was funny and I needed something for you guys to laugh at and make fun of me for.
So...with that said...the good guys did 11 laps, some mediocre fellas including myself did 10, and a few more did 9...The only bad thing is that I think the cyclocross race season is coming to a close shortly..I am not really sure if their are any more races going on...but if you know of any I am all ears!!! Let me know!
about the soap thing. had a nice discussion with spales about this a couple weeks ago. we came to the conclusion that in order to get truly clean, you can't just wipe some suds over your skin and call it an end. you have to get all the dead skin and bacteria off of you, because that's what causes all the stink during normal daytime stuff. the 3 essential things everyone, not just girls, should have in the shower are as follows:
ReplyDelete1. the puffy lacy looking thing. that will cover most of your body.
2. the tan spongy looking thing on a stick. i don't know about you, but i sure as hell can't reach my back on my own, and am not about to ask my roommates for help. (on second thought, i might actually now that i realize i live with two very hot girls.)
3. a pumice stone for your feet. with all the running and cycling we both do, feet take a beating, sit in sweaty socks a lot and accumulate an unpleasant odor because of it. scrub those things down every day and it keeps all that from happening.
we also decided it doesn't matter what kind of soap you use, as long as its not the crap you can smell through a concrete wall.
glad you're a cross freak now. don't convert to the dark side. stay true to your roots of going fast on the pavement and leave this for just practice and saving boredom.
Seen a 3-n-1 by suave... you should invest in a bottle. Coupon in today's paper for a dollar off. =)
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