Dec 11, 2003

Off the Wagon (written Nov. 13)

For those of you who weren’t around last weekend, I fell off the wagon (again) and landed inside the Royal Falconer in downtown Redlands. On night one (yah, that’s right, night one), I was joined by Aaron Gerth, Bob Hunt and his girlfriend, Lisa. Before they even arrived I had already consumed a pint of Heffenwizen and by the time we called it an evening, I had lost count.

Night two started at the Black Angus with Denise, Meredith and Annalisa Hannah. I had a couple of Newcastles and after dinner I talked them into driving over to the Falconer. We stuck around for a few hours, dumping some singles into the juke box and twenties at the bar. I ran into a grip of people I know that night, which was nice because since the time change I’ve pretty much been cooped up inside my house. Apparently Meredith got a little bothered because someone was bagging on her for still living in Rialto. It’s not like she lives in Fontana or Chino or even North Redlands. Rialto’s only bad if you’re afraid of society.

Anyway, the Falconer kicks ass because their juke box contains CDs by The Pogues and Flogging Molly and then there’s other good stuff like Joy Division and Elvis Costello. Some even kept playing Salvation by The Cranberries and a few Johnny Cash tunes. How cool is that? The lack of Dropkick Murphys keeps the place sane, although I’d love to hear Barroom Heroes echo through the joint.

Speaking of the Bottle. . .
I finally found the DVD, If I Should Fall From Grace: the Shane MacGowan Story. I picked it up at Rhino Records in Claremont on a Friday and watched it twice before Sunday evening. Unfortunately they stopped filming in January of 2001, so it’s not totally up to date. It’s filmed as a documentary so there are a lot of one-on-one interviews with Shane, Phil Chevron from The Pogues, Nick Cave, Shane’s proud parents and girlfriend, Victoria. Some of the footage is really sad because Shane has let alcohol and drugs control his life for so many years that you can’t always understand what he’s saying during interviews. Still, he’s an awesome lyricist and musician. His dad said that when Shane was about 12, he had Bob Dylan playing in one ear and the Grateful Dead in the other. I guess that helps explain is genius. Maybe my favorite part of the movie is the old footage they dug up of The Nips, Shane’s first band from the late ‘70s. Originally called The Nipple Erectors, they shortened and changed their name in order to get more gigs. Little known fact; in the early going the Sex Pistols were often advertised on flyers as just The Pistols for the same reason. While I was watching it, Denise commented that The Nips sound very modern. She’s right and that was 25 years ago. I could go on about Shane forever, so I’ll spare you all.


Quote
Aaron called and requested I print a Phil Ligget quote that he recently read. I can’t remember the entire quote. It was something about Lance Armstrong, Jan Ulrich and a trailer park. That’s all I remember. Oh yah, and something else about the eye of a hurricane. Whatever it was, I remember it being a Ligget classic.

“Tough times go away. Tough men do not.” Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton.

Sweetness said it and I keep reminding myself of it every time I want to go our and ride my bike or even ride, but then remember that I have some sort of mystery ailment in my left thigh/groin/hip area. It’s kept me off the bike for about a month now and even though I am able to jog, I’m even refraining from that in hopes that it will heal soon. The general practitioner set me up with a few x-rays and sent me down to the lab to drawl blood. All that checked out so now I’m heading to the orthopedic.

Just about all I can think about lately is riding by bike. I didn’t have a problem with taking a month off, but now I’m approaching two months and I’m missing a bunch of cross races that I had planned on riding. And I can’t even do any leg weight lifting at the gym. I fear that I’m going to be way behind on fitness and endurance when the doctors finally figure out what my deal is. All I want for Christmas is to be able to ride my bike.

I was going to end this post there, but I don’t want to end it on a sad note. Instead I’ll say, I’m looking into putting together a new website with photos, a message board and features of that nature. Maybe by New Years. . .

freemanrace@sbcglobal.net

Nov 3, 2003

It’s not a Halloween party unless there’s a hearse parked out front
That’s what greeted me, Denise, Jeannie and Aaron at Rob Bock’s costume party, along with plenty of drink, candy and Chic ‘n Stew. I threw together a Sid Vicious costume the night before and Denise went as a pirate. Denise thinks everyone should know that part of my costume consisted of a pair of her jeans because I couldn’t find my leather pants and all my jeans aren’t of ‘70s punk rock tightness. Ha, ha Denise. Aaron showed up in his fishing duds, although he had to check his pole at the door. Still obsessed with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jeannie was draped in an Elfish Princess dress accessorized with big pointy ears and a massive hooded cape. Mark and Joanne Foist eventually showed up dressed as two guys from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I thought it would have been funny if they would have gone through Rob’s drawers and closet and replenished his wardrobe with hip trendy clothing from Banana Republic. Then they could have shaved all the hair off of Rob’s back and taught him how to cook something like curry chicken. Wait, I don’t think Rob has any hair on his back and he already cooks curry chicken. Anyway, Rob was dressed as Shaggy from Scooby-Doo and was sporting hair and a goatee a shade of red. One of Rob’s co-workers, dressed as a NY Giant fan, brought a Karaoke machine, but he couldn’t get the lyrics to read on the TV. Too bad, because I was planning a rendition of Ray Parker Jr.’s Ghost Busters. Maybe next year. Not all party goers were in costume, but it was still fun, which is why Denise and I didn’t get home until well after midnight. Thanks Robby Boxcar. Sorry we didn’t stick around to help with tear down.


Park Tool Chain Cleaners: Who needs ‘em?
It’s official. P-Diddy ran NYC in a time of 4:14.54, which means Mark Foist lost the bet that he and I made at Rob’s Halloween party. Mark thought that P-Diddy wasn’t proud enough to beat Ophra’s Chicago Marathon time and I was confident he would. Don’t ask me why I suddenly had so much confidence in the alleged murdering hip-hop artist and music producer. Maybe it was because I fell off the wagon and indulged in several Newcastles that evening. No, scratch that. I based my bet on logic, such as: it’s logical that a healthy and strong 30-something year old male might turn in a better time than a middle-aged woman with an intermittent weight problem and a history of smoking crack. The wager? Joanne, Mark’s better half, has to scrub the grime from the chain of my mountain bike. A hand shake, witnessed by a room full of people, sealed the deal so I expect a shining SRAM power link by the end of next weekend. Sorry Joanne. A bet’s a bet.

“That dude is tough.” – Nathan when I told him Rick Daniel won the Iron Man class at this year’s Glen Helen 24-Hour, again.

You know what else is tough besides Rick? Sitting around on my arse waiting for my pulled groin muscle to heel. Sure, I’m able to jog a little, however I’m unable to ride my bike and do the leg work in the gym that I should be doing right now. Currently the gym is only good for a litter upper body work and abs. I fear if I don’t mend soon my performance in next year’s racing season may be in jeopardy. Not to mention this time of year is really boring as far a riding goes, so I’ve concocted a plan of attack to stir up a little fun. While my injury heels I’m going to set up a cyclocross course on the back side of Blue Mountain. That way when I’m ready to ride again I’ll be able to ride a little cross for fun. I’m thinking one night a week a few of us can get together and flog ourselves for about an hour. Who’s with me?

Sep 9, 2003

Sunday was a well-deserved day of rest. I had planned on sleeping in but as usual Sala jumped in to bed around six and after that I couldn't sleep. I rose about seven, made coffee and downloaded the podium images that Denise shot on Saturday. Of course, I had my eyes closed in nearly all the shots taken of me standing next to Tinker on the podium. Later that morning Denise and Sala got up and we sat around for most of morning before heading over to Chipotle for lunch. I’m getting over that place.

In the afternoon we went to Moore Middle School, where Jeannie, Chris and Cindy were working on getting ready for the upcoming school year. I laid around on the couch in Cindy's room and watched the Niners beat up on the Bears. It was a very uneventful afternoon and it was damn hot in those class rooms.

At about 4 we headed over to the pool and played a game of three flies up and dodge ball. I forgot how tiring treading water can be. I swam for over two hours. So much for a recovery day.

Earlier in the day Josh called see how the Epic went. He was planning on doing Onyx Summit. I told him to watch out for traffic since Hwy 330 and 18 were closed due to the fire. That meant a lot of traffic on the 8443 ft. climb to Onyx. Just the though of doing Onyx a day after doing Radford made me sick.

Monday was another recovery day but wasn’t supposed to be. I intended to ride in the evening, but we had to go sign our refi papers out in Rancho and by the time we got done it was late. Another rest day won’t hurt I guess. Instead Denise and I went and had dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. She loves that place and I can’t figure out why. The selection is slim, the service is below par, the parking sucks and they serve their Caesar salad with way too much dressing. We at least had a good time making fun of the other patrons in the joint. What a society we live in.

Today’s Tuesday and you know what that means. I’ll have to make the best of it too because I leave tomorrow for Vegas and then Utah until next week and then I’ll be home for a couple days and then off to Alabama for the AMA Superbike finale. I’m about to get real familiar with my running shoes. Maybe I’ll be able to post from the road . . .

freemanrace@sbcglobal.net

Sep 7, 2003

The latest from the PR machine that is me . . .

FREEMAN FINISHES SECOND OVERALL AT BIG BEAR EPIC AND CLAIMS CALIFORNIA STATE ENDURANCE 30-39 CLASS CHAMPIONSHIP

BIG BEAR, CA, SEPT. 6 – Ran on the new UCI World Endurance Championship standards, the 75 mile Big Bear Epic got underway at 7 a.m. and it didn’t take long for Canyon Velo’s Matt Freeman and two-time U.S. Olympian, three-time National XC Champion Tinker Juarez to drop the rest of the brave field. Nearly ten minutes into the race, Juarez, who recently earned a silver medal at the World 24-Hour Championship in Whistler, Canada, went off the front of the pack, taking Freeman with him.

The two racers rode together for a short time before Freeman gave up the chase, in order to save his energy for the long day ahead. Regardless, Freeman kept Juarez honest until about the midway point of the grueling race when the course headed up Radford Jeep Trail, an hour-long rocky climb that begins at approximately 5600 ft. in the Santa Ana River bottom and ends over 2000 ft. later on the east side of Big Bear’s Snow Summit.

“Tinker put a lot of time on me going up Radford, but I wasn’t worried so much about him as I was about my own legs,” said Freeman, who is fresh off his round seven California State XC win and plans to enter the Fall Classic on October 12 as a Semi-pro. “As if the climb isn’t bad enough, we had gnats swarming around our face for the first half of the climb. I probably wasted a lot of energy just waving them away.”

Freeman survived the bugs and the Radford climb, but lost valuable time to third place Cliff Clairmont, when confusing course markings toward the end of the race found him riding in circles. “I was comfortable with my lead over third place until I made a wrong turn and lost the course markings,” said Freeman. “I turned around and went back to where I’d made the wrong turn, but I still wasn’t sure I was in the right place. I think fatigue had a little bit to do with my confusion. When I finally figured out were to go, about five minutes had passed so it made me a little nervous.”

From there it was a big-ring sprint back to the Start/Finish, which took place at Big Bear Lake’s Whaler’s Pointe. Freeman crossed the finish line in six hours and 37 minutes, 32 minutes behind Juarez’s winning time. Third place Clairmont capitalized on Freeman’s late-race confusion to pull within a minute of the new 30-39 class champion.

“I wish I could have kept Tinker a little closer, but cramping a little bit around the five-hour mark forced me to spin in easier gears,” said Freeman. “Still, I’m honored just to be standing on the podium with him.

“Winning the California State Endurance Championship in my age division is a great way to end my career as an Expert racer,” continued Freeman. “Hopefully I can carry this momentum into the Fall Classic next month when I make my Semi-pro debut.”

For a complete list of results visit www.teambigbear.com


Sep 4, 2003

Rember Me?

January 3rd? Is that the last day I had any free time? It feels like it. A lot has happened since then; mainly I changed jobs (again) and almost completed an entire mountain bike racing season. And then there’s day to day life, which just complicates work and racing. Take today for instance. After my morning ride I had to shower and groom, do the dishes and put in a load of laundry. All this before 8:30 a.m.! If only we had a maid, but that wouldn’t help with the shower and grooming part much.

So, what’s new? The new job is with Vreeke & Associates (V & A), Honda and Dunlop’s advertising and press relations agency. The sweet part is I work out of my house, which means no more commuting – at least not daily. Our office is in Simi Valley and I go there about once every two weeks. I also have to travel a little more than at Kawasaki, but it’s worth it since I don’t have to sit on the 91 and 55 freeways daily anymore. So basically I sit in the spare bedroom of our house everyday and write stuff for www.HondaRedRiders.com. We also publish a magazine titled Red Rider, which has a circulation of 600,000! It goes out to al the members in the Honda Riders Club of America. It’s a pretty good read and I’m proud to be a part of it. There’s a ton of other stuff V & A does; too many to list.

As far as racing goes, I had a pretty good season even though it started out with several mechanicals (all linked to the Cannondale Scalpel) and an unfortunate flat while leading in the last five miles of the opening California State XC Series. Once the guys at Mountain Bike magazine hooked me up with a 2003 Team Issue Orbea (only 21 lbs), my results started looking up and my fitness even improved. After a 6th place finish at the National Championship Series opener, I peaked late in the season and put together two seconds and race win in the state series. I also contested all but one of the NORBA NCS events (Mt. Snow, Vermont) and tied for tenth in the national standings. In addition to my round one sixth place performance at Big Bear, I took tenth on a very muddy Snowshoe, West Virginia course, a disappointing 13th on a very dusty and flat Sandpoint, Idaho course and 10th on a very short, but fun Durango, Colorado course. Missing Vermont obviously hurt me in the overall, as did my poor finish in Idaho.

Other summer highlights included teaming up Sean Donovan and Griffith and Garnet Vertican to race the 12 Hours of Snow Summit. We won the Pro/Semi-pro/Expert 4-man division by 33 minutes and handily took the overall. It was a long day, but rewarding.

And then there’s always the road bike on Tuesday nights, my favorite. I’m a little sad because they’re coming to an end due to the shorter days, but I’ll always have the memories. As usual there were about four to six of us three-lappers who regularly beat the hell out of each other on a weekly basis. Myself, the Brothers Vertican, Josh Underwood, Andy Padilla, Chris Trembly, Marine Tom and occasionally a kid named Michael would go off the front early and set the stage for a night of anaerobic bliss. With only a few long Tuesdays left this summer, those days are soon to end. And then there was Thursday night crit practice, which I still haven’t mastered . . .

So, this coming weekend is the Big Bear Epic and I’ve been giving my body a rest leading up to it. Marked for 75 miles and billed as the National Endurance Championship, I have no idea what kind of pace will be set. I’d imagine that Tinker and the likes will be there and since I’ve never competed in a race like this, I don’t know what to expect. I do expect to do well, at what cost I’m not sure of. I’ll let you know.

That’s it for now. I’m meeting Denise for dinner somewhere (undetermined as usual). I’m going to try and start posting regularly again and even plan to ad photos. Hopefully it will help in getting a decent sponsorship for next year. I downloaded my Semi-pro papers from the USA Cycling website yesterday. For the second year in a row my results were good enough for the semi-elite upgrade so I might as well give it a shot.


Jan 3, 2003

YOU'VE WAITED LONG ENOUGH

Today I am going to fulfill your new years wish. No, I’m not going to help you shed that five pounds you added over the holidays. No, I’m not going to help you refrain from drinking, cursing, smoking and/or racking up horrendous credit card bills. Today, exactly one month from my last posting, I am updating the web site. Happy New Year! You can stop emailing your requests.

One might figure that since a month has passed since my last posting that I would have a lot to report. Not so. This is 2003 now, so instead of paragraph after paragraph of beautiful flowing prose describing my two-week Christmas vacation, I bring you bullet points for the short attention span of mankind.

*At the ZX-6R Press Launch in Las Vegas Forbes/Men’s Journal/Rolling Stone’s Mike Salisbury revealed to me that Ernest Hemingway did not use adjectives. (Yah, that’s right, I said Rolling Stone).

*The Blue Man Group at the Luxor in Las Vegas is the best MAJOR stage production I have ever seen. They topped The Rolling Stones, Jane’s Addiction, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and that lame Metallica show at Blockbuster.

*Be on the look out for a royal blue Honda CRV occupied with a snowball-throwing father, mother and two elementary school-age children. They barely missed me as I climbed Oak Glen on my road bike Christmas Eve. It’s great what parents are teaching their children these days. I hope the only thing Santa left under their tree Christmas morning was an electrical fire.

*Descending Oak Glen in the snow is wicked cold.

*The wait to get seated at a downtown Disney restaurant is wicked long (and cold).

*People who watch a lot of Texas football tend to throw a lot like Texas football quarterbacks. I learned this the hard way when Chris threw me a duck in the street that I tried to pull in with one eye on the ball and the other eye on the curb. The result was a badly swollen left knee that still needs an MRI.

That’s all the time I have right now because I’ve got more pressing issues to address:

The Insomniac Theme Song

Awwww….
Drunks and losers,
Dwarves with limps,
Flos and hos and one-eyed pimps –
Down the alley way they creep.
They’re all your friends when you can’t sleep.

Come with me and you will see
A late-night-freak-show-jubilee!
Kick the Sandman in his sack,
Stay up late – Insomniac!


Catch Dave Attell’s Insomniac on Comedy Central Thursdays at 10 PM. Next week; Cleveland.