Tour of Battenkill Recap... 25 feet!

Somehow I let myself get talked into racing in the Tour of Battenkill.  In hindsight it is kind of funny that I would let this be my first road race since the late 80’s.  The night before the race I got pretty much NO sleep.  It was partly nerves and partly one of the worst hotels I have ever stayed at.
The morning of the race I had a early breakfast while hoping that my race day stomach would calm down.  We lined up for our race about 9 minutes before our start time, and it was a good thing that I had a friend lined up next to my.  There were two quick runs to the restroom in that 9 minutes.  

The second the race started I calmed down completely and quickly fell into the flow of the race.  The first 10 miles was covered in a quick 24 minutes with two short punchy climbs.  I have never been a great climber, so my plan was to try and be at the front going into the climbs and give ground slowly to stay with the group.  My biggest concern was a 600 yard climb at 18 percent starting just before mile 12.  I hit the climb sitting 4th or 5th wheel which was perfect.  During the climb I was slowly giving up spots and before I knew it there was a gap between me and the group.  What I didn’t know was that the first two climbs had torn the group to shreds.  At the top of the climb the gap was about 25 feet between me and the last rider.  I spent the next five miles trying to close that slowly growing gap.  On the fourth climb starting at mile 18 someone was dropped from the group and I started working with them.  By the top of the climb at mile 20 we had become a chase group of 4, but were still losing ground.  There was another short steep dirt climb around mile 28 that ended any hope I had of getting back to the lead group.  I was dropped by the chase group and ended up doing a individual time trial for the last 34 miles.  In the end I was just over 30 minutes back from the winner, but only lost 5 minutes to the chase group by the end.

At the end I swore I would never do this race again.  By time I got home 4 hours later I decided I could be talked back into it.  The next morning I started looking at my training program to see what I needed to change to improve my performance next year.  Yeah, I’m hooked.

Some of the funny things that happen during the race was the guy that just before I caught him on Wrights Road, he got off his bike and tossed it into the woods and walked off.  There was another person bent over his bike, so cramped up he couldn’t move.  I felt pretty bad for him because I was fighting cramps myself.
Next year ...

2011 Cyclocross Season Review

For the most part my plan for this season was just to get back into the swing of racing.  Over the course of the season I just happened to learn quite a bit about myself in the process.  Some of the biggest surprises had to do with training.  Mainly things that I thought would work and things that actually did work.  The following is my race by race breakdown of the season and some quick thoughts on the race.

Providence Cross Fest Day 1 (77/89) 10/8/2011
Time Back: 0:09:20

Wow!  I completely forgot how fast cross races were.  Completely not ready for this.  I was the first or second to last person not lapped.

Providence Cross Fest Day 2 (62/67) 10/9/2011
Time Back: lap

This was very much a continued learning experience.  Was not ready for back to back days racing, and was so happy when the leader caught me.  It felt like the whole race was up hill in a wet spongy field.

Mansfield Hollow Cross (42/56) 10/15/2011
Time Back: lap

I had a pretty good start here, but again found my fitness lacking.  Felt pretty quick on the lower part of the course that was fairly hard, but I had nothing on the upper part of the course that was mostly open field.  Just watched people ride away from me there.  Started to see some of the areas that I needed to work on.

Cycle-Smart International Day 2 (110/135) 11/6/2011
Time Back: 0:07:03

This was the first race where I was happy with how my day went.  Started at the back, and was able to move forward for a change.  Crashed on the last lap and bend the derailleur hanger, but still finished strong.

Baystate Cyclocross Day 1 (38/57) 11/26/2011
Time Back: 0:05:29

Started in the last row and got tangled in a crash at the start.  It was lap two before I was finally able to start moving forward.  Hooked up with John Young on lap three and worked with him for the last couple of laps.  By far the best race of the season.

Baystate Cyclocross Day 2 (30/34) 11/27/2011
Time Back: 0:06:55

I was the last row at the start.  My legs never really came around.  Guess I still was not ready for the back to back race days.  Still a good day for the most part.

NBX GP of Cross Day 1 (82/111) 12/3/2011
Time Back: 0:07:26

Started near the back and moved up really good on the start.  Had a great ride going for the first two and a half laps until a pointless crash the tweaked my front wheel.  Had to ride to the pits with the front breaks released so that the wheel would turn.  During the wheel change we found that my skewers had been stolen from my pit wheels.  Quit counting at 25 places lost during the wheel change.   Had a monster lap after the wheel change.  Adrenalin can be a wonderful thing, but I popped on the last lap.  All in all a good race.

NBX GP of Cross Day 2 (64/106) 12/4/2011
Time Back: 0:05:24

Had a good start and was rode pretty good.  This was a rather uneventful race.  Faded a little at the end.  The only negative was that Bunny Boy got me at the line.  This was probably my best race of the year.

Expo Wheelmen SalvageCross (26/51) 12/10/2011
Time Back:  

FRONT ROW START!  Had a good start, unfortunately I felt awful.  I pretty much just tried to not give up spots two fast for the first couple of laps.  Felt really good for the last lap and a half, where I picked a couple spots back up.

DAS Cross 12/11/2011
Time Back: 

I was still a little tired from the day before, and it was very cold.  More or less had a good day.  I was riding much better at the end that early in the race.

New England Regional Championships Day 2 (37/61) 12/18/2011
Time Back: 0:04:58

This was the first race of the year were I started far enough forward to be called up.  It was the last row to get called up, but it was a call up!  It was VERY cold at the start, and I had not had time to pre ride the whole course, so I started easy for the first lap.  Turned it up on lap two and started moving forward.  Felt GREAT.  Crashed pretty hard on the third lap and that took a lot of the wind out of me.  Didn't start feeling good again until the last lap.  This was the first race that I actually wanted to go another couple of laps.  Great way to end the season.

Outlook 2007 Print Error

After installing the the monster group of patches this month we have lost the ability to print from Outlook 2007. It looks like KB2507618 was the culprit. After removing this patch we were able to print from Outlook again. This does not seem to have effected Outlook 2010.

Using 32-bit COM Call in 64-Bit Windows Application …

This was a new problem for me since I rarely ever need to write software that calls a COM object that is running on a second machine.  I am working on a data collection system that will integrate with our ERP system and is accessing it through the API that they provide.  The ERP system that I am connecting to is a 32-bit application and it will NOT run on a 64-bit system.  There is still some legacy code that they need to get migrated, and they are working on a full 64-bit update.  In my Visual Studio 2008 project I have a reference to a dll file that exposes the API needed to access the business rules and import or export data.  If I compile the project and run it on a 64-bit system, to program runs fine until I make a call against the API.  I then get this error:

“System.DllNotFoundException: Unable to load DLL 'SERVICES': The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)”

After digging around, I found this is because I am calling a COM object that in turn is calling a 32-bit object which is not supported.  It is the act of the COM object running in the WOW64 subsystem making a call to a 32-bit object that is causing the problem.  At lest for the application that I am working on now, I was able to tell Visual Studio that the target CPU was a x86 and then everything ran fine.  This setting can be found at Project > Properties > Compile > Advanced Compile Options. 

Hope this helps …

Windows 7, Fully Functional …

Well at this point I have pretty much managed to get everything working on Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit.  The last piece of the puzzle was getting a working VPN connection.  Although I was not able to get my NetGear client to work, or their SSL connection to work, there is a VPN client called Shrew Soft VPN Client that works quite well with the router that we are using.  I have tested it with a FVS336G and a FVX538.  Now to take some time and get it working with my home network.

The other item that was outstanding on the get working list was the VI Client for vSphere 4.  When trying to connect to the server I was getting the message “Error parsing the server <server name> “clients.xml” file.”  There was a good workaround here.

After getting there last two items corrected, I have to say that I couldn’t be happier with the performance and stability of Windows 7.