A man, a dirty man.

The Louisville Short Track mountain bike race series kicked off tonight, and it was a total hoot. Seriously – if you’ve got a mountain bike in the garage, get out, pay your $8 and have a good time. I don’t care if you “don’t race bikes”, this was fun.

The intent, say the organizers, is to put on a series like the Portland Short Track Racing series – a laid back, open to all comers race series that focused on fun and getting people into the sport.

Late last night I threw some new tires purchased at Mountain Bike Depot (they sponsor this series) onto my Kona Smoke commuter/mountain bike and pulled out the clipless pedals (which, uh I had never used to trail ride with). A quick ride-check at lunch today and I figured I was a good as I’d be that day.

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Let me begin this post by recapping my brief bicycle racing career so far:

Race #1, Long Run Park Circuit, 45 minutes + 1 lap – I am in the pack for about 1/2 mile, and then am “spit out the rear” or “shelled” or “blown” by the sheer speed of it. The rest of the race I ride alone or with small groups, but feel pretty good. By the way, the “staying with the pack” thing is critical in bike racing – you’ll gain a significant speed advantage. If you don’t stick, well…

Race #2, Lexington Circuit Race, 45 minutes + 1 lap – I managed to stay in the pack the entire time, save for the very last lap. I am both extremely terrified as there were 100 cyclists in a large group all together, and a couple of gnarly crashes.  I finish squarely in the middle of the pack (51st). Huzzah!

Race #3, Shelby County Road Race, 30 miles – My first “long” road race on country roads. I last hardly a mile or two into the race in the peloton. My heart-rate goes to the redline and it takes me literally 10 miles to calm down to the point at which I am not considering throwing up or quitting the race (…and I have never consider quitting before). The rest of the race I am alone or with small groups.

I’ve come a long way since the fall of 2008 when I was asked to join the TwinSpires.com Cycling team. I’ve put in about 600+ cycling miles in those 5 or 6 months plus maybe another 400 “miles” in Spinning classes or on the trainer. I’ve lost about 10-15 pounds and gained a level of fitness I’ve never had before.

So, here I am, in the “best shape of my life” (BSOML) and I am getting my ass kicked in these “entry-level” cycling races… and you know what? I am loving it. I am eating it as you would relish a delicious slice of pie.

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Saturday, April 26th, 2009 I ran in my third Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon. For having not trained explicitly for “the mini” this year (instead more cycling) I was very excited to set a new PR. It was a great race – if a little hot for some – but I always enjoy that race, if only because it’s the culmination of a spring’s worth of training.

Friday night, a group of us from Power Creative (including a miniMarathon virgin, Brad), had dinner at Ray Parella’s. Ray was and is a big supporter of running in Louisville, and I macked on Ray’s favorite carb-loading dish: Baked Spaghetti Aioli. It might just become a pre-race favorite.

2009 KDF miniMarathon results @ Active.com

Photos of me (shot by Kelly, my fan)

Yesterday, Matt and I catered a bridal shower for our friend Katy. My wife Kelly and his wife Sara were organizing the event and we were asked (not drafted!) to cook for it. Never having organized such a thing, we took it as a challenge. Matt and I both reckon ourselves as foodies, so we aimed high and made an ambitious but not totally off-the-wall menu. We wanted more than just your typical whitebread creamcheese pinwheels and little smokies and fruit pizza.

We made a list (collaborating via Google Docs) and organized our menu according to party flow and audience tastes. For the more exotic ingredients (the dates, the endive, some of the cheeses) we went to Whole Foods. Everything else was Kroger. We even organized the shopping list for maximum efficiency in the store. Matt came over on Saturday around 3PM and we started cooking after the grocery run around 6PM. A little break for dinner and we wrapped close to midnight. We still had some cooking to do on Sunday morning – mostly for the stuff that needed to be fresh. Overall we split the responsibilities (including cleaning) pretty well while also trying to keep the ladies out of the kitchen.

Here’s our menu:

Drinks
Mimosas
Bloody Marys

Appetizers
Ciabatta bread
Cheese tray with crackers, grapes and sliced apples (Cabot Cheddar, Dutch Havarti and Red Band Smoked Gouda)
Caprese (fresh, sliced tomatoes with fresh sliced mozzarella and fresh basil leaves)

Cold Foods
Chicken salad with apples and pecans served in endive cups
Whole grain baguette rounds with sliced meats (pastrami and roast beef)

Hot Foods
Polenta rounds topped with hot sausage topped with sauteed scallions, apricot jam and parmesan cheese (recipe)
Medjool dates stuffed with almond and chevre, wrapped with uncured applewood-smoked bacon (recipe)
Mini-quiches in wonton cups (recipe)

Desserts / Pastries
Maple cupcakes with frosting (cupcake recipe, frosting recipe)
Apple cinnamon and strawberry-rhubarb galettes with vanilla ice cream (recipe)

Everything went great and I think Matt and I worked pretty well in the kitchen together. Matt is clearly the more precise and exacting cook than I am, as evidenced by his perfectly-cubed chicken and apple salad and attention to detail. Me, on the other hand, well, I figured hand-made is hand-made. The mark of a custom job is the imperfection, right? Odd how that stuff translates into our web-development “real jobs”.

In any case, it was a real honor and a lot of fun to give Katy a proper shower with good food. Can’t wait for the wedding!

Yes, this is just what I’ve gotten myself into.

Last fall, my Power Creative colleague Doug O asked me if wanted to “give racing a shot”. Not knowing any better, I said “uh, sure?” and that was that. One new recruit shakedown ride later and I had become a member of the TwinSpires.com Cycling Team. This would mean that I’d be competing against other riders on other local/regional teams and would have to do at least 5 races in the next year. I would also get a snazzy-as-hell team outfit (see above).

I never envisioned myself a “real” cyclist (whatever that means) – but I do and have always enjoyed it, and spurred on by Doug’s invitation/challenge, I started training harder and more consistently than I ever have in my entire life. Lifting weights, riding during the cold months, eating better and  losing weight (almost 15 pounds in 2 months!). As a result, I’m in the best shape of my life.

The last two weekends, I’ve participated in my first two cycling races as a part of the KYANA Series, with the first race being a literal wash – 40 degrees and a steady rain (yay!) and me being dropped from the main group almost immediately ending in 48th place out of 50-something. The second, just today in Lexington, went much better with me hanging with the main group the entire time, only getting dropped at the very end. (PS – I am blaming my lack of energy at the end on a serious lack of peanut-butter-and-jelly sammiches). I ended 51st out of 90-something! For my second-ever race I am totally jazzed.

So yeah, I’m a bike racer now, and I think I like it.

A good friend of mine’s family does this thing around the dinner table during “Family Night” that is called “One Good Thing” in which you have to say something selfless and charitable to others you did during that day. It can’t benefit you – like being part of your job. One would assume that over the years of Family Night and the ever-present threat of “One Good Thing” would lead to good things happening from that family – at least on that one day of the week. This is a good idea and should likely be included in an Omnibus Spending Bill as a requirement for all taxpayers.

But that’s not why we’re here, oh no – I have a story to tell – even despite the commandment from the Pregonaut that “You may never tell this story again”. This story must be told… and it will be, after the jump. Please be warned that I get rather angry in this story involving a drive-through pharmacy and that I use some rather colorful language – all of it extremely useful and apt, though.

Those of you who know me know that I very rarely get what I would called riled up. Hackles raised. Snortin’ mad. Completely ape-shit crazy with rage. I just don’t. Maybe it’s because I have few morals. But there are a few, select times when forces collide that I will get riled. This, ladies and gents, is one of those times. Allow me to set the scene:

The scene looked like this, except A) not pleasant and B) not English

Kelly and I were headed off to see Watchmen at the locate theatre and decided to “hop” through the Kroger Pharmacy Drive-Through here in beautiful downtown Hikes Point. There is enough room in the drive through lane for four cars (this becomes important later), and there were currently two. Sometimes it’s just easier to go into the store. It appeared that the first one (a Prius) was being served and Krogers was busy (Friday is party time, yes?!) on the inside, so we entered… THE WORST DRIVE THROUGH EXPERIENCE I HAVE EVER HAD.

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Kelly and I just ran the Anthem 5k! Amelia ran as a “bandit”, though Kelly did make her a little number. Kelly finished in 38:07 – a minute shy of her first ever 5k all those years ago.  I bested my Anthem personal record AND my 5k record by running it in 23:58! Woot!

On Monday we gathered what family wasn’t sick or working and crammed them into our friend Melinda’s ultrasound room at her practice here in Louisville. This was the first time most of the rest of the family had seen an ultrasound, and definitely the first time they’d seen our little girl-to-be in motion! Much awwwww’ing and oooooh’ing ensued.  Thanks to Kristin’s Andrew who took some great videos!

Baby Amelia’s Ultrasound Party from Ben Wilson on Vimeo.

Baby Amelia’s Heartbeat from Ben Wilson on Vimeo.

Baby Amelia opens her mouth from Ben Wilson on Vimeo.

Looking back through the archives, I see it’s been a few years since I really did a “Best Music I Heard Last Year” article, and that’s a shame, ’cause I really enjoy doing them – almost as much as the music itself. But it takes a lot of time to put something like this together and once I get going on one my editorial instincts go out the window and they become untenable, unfinishable beasts. And thats what you had here in the last few weeks… I started my “Best of 2008″ and realized that I hadn’t done a Best Music I Heard This Year for 2007… and that lead me into a wider discussion of How To (or How I) Criticize Music. Somehow both of those got done and here we are now, 2008…

The year…2008. A year of much car listening for me (and Kelly), travelling to and from races. A lot of personal growth for both Kelly and I eventually culminating in her completing the biggest challenge of her young life and we both taking first big step to the biggest challenge of them all – parenthood. Perhaps viewed relative to those things, the music got lost – dwarfed a bit, but perhaps it was just a down year. I didn’t sense the same profound leaps in sound that I saw in 2007 – just a lot of good-to-great music that was just a step or two removed from the everyday. This band sounded like that band but with just a little twist thrown in. Perhaps it’s just the quiet before a loud and roaring storm?

It was a good year with a number of albums that I dearly loved, but my general feeling was that the market was down from the high that I saw in 2007. And the good news is that the market for sound always rebounds… more after the jump.

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slugger, originally uploaded by michellej.

Love this photo from Michelle over at Consuming Louisville. Perhaps I’m just pining for baseball?