http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/brown-cycling-club/message/4703

posted by Graham - the speedy guy that blew past Solobreak on thursday

i'll quote the text in case yall can't read it

Sorry about this e-mail, but I just figured if I'm going to continue to read
about the Landis doping saga I better do some analysis as well.

If the media accounts are correct.

The half life of testosterone is about 1 hour:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=features/2006/testosterone_testing


Over the weekend Floyd's testosterone to episterone ration was reported as 11/1
in the German press. (source: NY times 7/30/06)

The French press reported that using "Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS)"
the elevated testosterone in Floyd's urine was of synthetic origin.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2006/jul06/jul31news


Former doper, Manzano, says Testosterone is administered via a testosterone
patch, clandestine suppositories or intravenous injections, called Rastandol,
taking about 30 minutes to 1 hour before competition

http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/10613.0.html


Stage 17 lasted 6.5 hours. Floyd was tested 30 minutes to 1 hour after finishing
and, accroding to Manzano, would have to have been given testerone at least 30
minutes prior to the start of the stage.

So, the minimum amount of time between testosterone administration and the urine
test would be 7.5 hours

If we assume the 1:1 is the normal level of testosterone to episterone and that
Floyd's elevated testosterone levels were purely the result of synthetic
testosterone, Floyd would have 10 (11-1) 10 times more synthetic testosterone
than episterone in his system upon time of testing.

If Floyd was given synthetic testosterone prior to stage 17, as would be
administered via traditional doping procedures (Manzano), using the half life
calculation for testosterone (half life = 1 hour) Floyd's testosterone to
episterone ratio prior to the stage was greater than (10x2x2x2x2x2x2x2) 1280:1,
given that a testosterone injection would occur at least 7 hours prior to his
test.

That is greater than one thousand two hundred and eighty to one, 1,280/1!!!

(Remember that the normal level is considered to be 1:1)

Question: Can you imagine riding a bicycle with a testosterone level 1,280 times
great than normal?

Graham ,

G-ham's pretty sharp, knows the physiology pretty well... reasonably encouraging, No?

its almost 90 degrees outside - and i'm riding home WITH the trailer, WITH my daughter in it, wearing jeans and a not so cool shirt... should be freaking awesome...

hell after this weekend i can take about anything i think... at least there are considerably fewer uphills...

One... It was a great feeling, Sunday. in the house. the feeling that things were just good. the house felt right.

felt different than the michigan one. that was just sort of "shrug" a house. didn't really seem like 'our house' this, this feels like our house.

oh and a friend read my drivel here and said i had the most profanity filled blog he's run across... big freaking deal... i swear when i feel like it but i also am pretty damn sensitive about who i swear around... i've written about it before.

time for a nap...

this last week has come hit me over the head hard... and the images from the Zeiss are pretty terrible... really dissapointing.

oh gmaps says its 6.9 miles house to work... but won't show elevation... i need one of those computer thingies for the commuter..

that or i really need to set the pmount up as a TT bike... would be great for the bike path. good steady intervals towing the trailer.

We did it. We moved in. Just cooked the first meal here, headed back to the apartment to clean up in a few minutes. But man o man – I’m fried. Not much on me doesn’t hurt. I think I might have made the miracle weight plateau of 190 pounds (86.3 or so kg). But maybe not.

There is wireless access here but it aint’ seeming to work so damn well IE seems to be hosed. Lets try Firefox. That or the wifi ain’t so good… don’t look so good but it should still be able to connect. I dunno… no worries – no bother – if I can’t bootleg a connection I’ll survive.

I’ve decided to break into a beer. The moving crew didn’t finish all the champagne of beer, but a got a house warming delivery of a bottle of Syrah and a 12 of Magic Hat. So I’m having the not quite pale ale. Although as worn down as my immune system is from lack of sleep and 100% exertion I dunno if it’s a good idea. Figuring though a good beer has more value than a cheep one. And sitting here in the nice Air Conditioned apartment (damn I really actually wrote apartment) HOUSE… house not apartment. I’m going for the relaxing effect. Man is it quiet here. Can’t hear anything except the birds! And the hum of the blower on the central Air.

Space. Glorious space… lots and lots of it. And at least it isn’t Boulder. My mother has some dear friends that are looking for a house, nothing is under 450,000 and a house that you might actually want to live in is closer to 750,000! Makes this seem a bargain. Which I feel it really is.

I’ve got the Klein, the Croll and the P-mount now in the same location. Need to get the Mt Bikes here and tuned up. And need to get my wife’s fleet of bikes put together. Yeah she has a fleet. Why? She doesn’t really ride that much, and she’s a victim of my bike shop years… buyin her bikes. A sweet bontrager race, santa cruz built no less. A pretty nice Lemond Zurich, when 853 made the debut and it was the tubing to have on a steel bike, I should say: on a tig welded steel bike.

Then there’s her GT that she actually bought from Groton Schwin, way back when. It’s a hard core 26” commuter bike, slicks and full fenders… She actually, and its hard to remember back then, but she was a daily bike commuter too! Made sense, parking was unavailable, and she could get around easy enough. Maybe she’ll be back on the commuter path once or twice AFTER then clean up the 195 bypass construction mess. Right now I don’t even really like riding through that part, and I’ll ride through any traffic and what not. Cars don’t bother me. It’s the people driving them that piss me off ;)

Gonna have to have a party here soon. Maybe the Thursday night TT, the final double one. Assuming it isn’t this week. Gotta find someone to do the TT with… maybe Mr. H will be willin to ride it… we rode similar times when he did it cannibal, so should be well matched… maybe… or I just don’t do it… talk about pooped. From 6:30 am Friday morning until 10:30 Saturday night I didn’t really stop. Well not true, I attempted to fall asleep at midnight Friday night, but was not very successful. Kept waking up, and 5am came way too soon.

So why did I get up at 5am? Well – the truck. The truck I was supposed to get for 8 hours on Saturday, all day… well was in Chapatchet(sp) about 30 miles away, and at a dollar a mile that’s crazy extra money.

So I called the ‘local’ office, and said, hey I gotta have something closer. Well all they had was a 14’ truck (I wanted a 17’) and I could have it at 5 or 6 pm on Friday but I had to have it back on Saturday by noon. Freaking hell. All the help I had lined up was for Saturday. Not Friday night.

So I was thinking to myself, well, I guess I put everything I can carry into the truck and make one trip and when the gang shows up on Saturday we can do the big stuff. I got lucky. One of the friends who offered to help called asking about the microscopes or something and well he said he’d be happy to come help. And we got some of the big stuff. Stuff that if we didn’t get Friday night, we’d NEVER have gotten it all in the truck, And the one trip Saturday morning, starting loading at 6:30am had us with the truck back 11:30.

To be continued….

It is now late… friends have come over, food has been eaten and received, and I’ve officially taken a big hammer to the wheels on the wagon. But… its just one day, and a couple beers, no more than I would have consumed on a regular day 6 months ago.

And well there is crying – and well time to check it out – they should be asleep – the point to turn this back on was to get the document off the laptop so I can sneaker net it tomorrow.

ciao

and i'm freaking dead... and everyone is bitching about the impending heat... 94 for tomorrow, 97 for wed... ya know what?

I D O N T CARE anymore why? Well this luxury item called central air. No, not the greenest of technologies... but... damn it'll be nice to get home and step into the coolness that is the house, rather than walk up into a second story apartment that is as hot inside as it is outside...

i've got an update to post here in a second. But first, lemme say, that ride in kicks ASS.

the bike path may be flat, but with a trailer its not easy going, and its gorgeous, lighthouse, little bunnies, birds, and vegetation... Soooooo different than the cars cars cars cars... There's still a touch of cars coming in after crossin the bridge, but its not too bad... not to bad at all. I will, however, have to probably start wearing something a bit more technical than jeans and a 'work' shirt. Esp if its gonna be in the 90s.

Also very funny, exactly one year after i started working at this ivy place, we close on a house. And one week later the heat is the same as it was a year ago... pretty amazing... Gonna be a long ride home with the oldest in the trailer. look for the weekend update soon, but out of sequence...

velonews.com/news/fea/10591.0.html
www.cyclingnews.com/news jul27news3

say it ain't so... say it ain't so

and my man Frankie? Fired? WTF that team was his fucking brain child - may be retarded and a bit slow but still its freaking HIS name and enthusiasm that got the thing going...

Hell i take two days away from the news and all hell breaks loose...

That whole frankie deal is fucked up... He takes a week to spend with his family and he gets FIRED? total bullshit... without frankie that GD team wouldn't have got off the fuckin ground. But props to frankie for his even and polite statements to the "press" he's a fucking class act!

That really GRINDS MY GEARS

more pissed about Frankie than Lloyd Flandis... how sucky would that be if he was stripped...

Just trying to make an effort to not write all the posts between 9 and 3…

Well its 10:53 and I got wicked wicked lucky laying it. Little waste, but the final course didn’t need to be ripped!!! I didn’t count but the length of the room is pretty damn exactly divisible by the width of the boards. Gonna see if I can remember to check that on the other room. One small room to go before move in. Guess I could do that after moving in (if I do the cutting outside I guess).

One thing I noticed when working in the house tonight: its quiet out there. And dark. No streetlights on our street, just a few solar powered markers in our front ‘yard’ can’t wait.

Also cooler. The house was more or less buttoned up no Air on and it was 78 degrees inside. Here in the apartment – second floor with all the windows open – its 82 right now. Oh it was 76 in the house when I left.

I’m having a brew, lamenting the lack of miles this week. Not sure how this place will be packed by Saturday. But it has to be. Moving sucks, but looking towards the future, the rewards are tangible. My bro even brought the family by and the girls were going nuts playing in the basement and the back yard.

Holyshit – GM is turning it around? Who knew? Dude this nightly business report on PBS is lightspeed (I guess it was the brief). Too bad all the news can’t be delivered that fast. I’d dig that stuff.

So far this week: took delivery of 4 $400,000+ demo systems at work. Helped get em set up on Monday. Closed on the house on Tuesday, started the floor and painting mess. Wed six hours on the scopes and packing in everything else in the middle it was nuts. Now well… I needed 3 more hours but I need some sleep – and I need a touch of wind down time.

Looks like I’m gonna take Friday off. So I’ll have to wait to hear the gripping results of the bikeworks TT. . . till Monday. Not looking forward to the next week either. The unpacking, the writing of the evaluations, the collecting and and analyzing/rendering of three to six data sets from six different confocals. Yes, if you were counting we are demo’ing 4 but we have 2 confocals already. So I need a baseline and hopefully one scope that makes everything else look freakin sweet so my recommendation can be solidly founded on objective qualities.

Speaking of objective stuff – Graham (bikeworks TT king) had a brilliant few words in support of a power meter for training. Not a relative one like that iBike, but power tap type support. Esp in race situations.
(gonna try paraphrasing it)
Say ya climbing in a group, and you know the course has a 10 minute climb. Say sitting there in the group you are well below your power threshold for that duration, you could attack to the level you can sustain. He went on with a bunch of examples… keeping from blowing up, reducing overtraining issues… I’m sold. Except I’m not, well not in terms of – money money money – never enough

Ah’ight, time to wrap this up and fall asleep…

Peace out yall,
-Big Bird, Big G, Tall Freak, GeWilli, Geoff, Geee-Off, G-Dub

Why is it that when ever i start a home improvement project or go work with my little bro doing 'construction' (usually i'm on the demo crew - cause that's my relative level to his - but i can hold my own against most home depot shoppers) i can barely walk the next day.

(its a rhetorical question, i know the answer)

Got a truck. 17 footer. Should be big enough. We'll see where they tell me to pick it up...

man...

gonna be a FUN weekend.

So bruce - ya gonna have to give us the run down on the disaster that was the BLVD ride last night... names - faces - who got booted Inquiring MINDS wanna know...

gonna spend lunch going through the rest of my (growing) blog sphere. Added Too Tall in there cause - well he's updating WAY more than Tree Farm

so i'm gonna chow - read - then go play with two more scopes after lunch... This is actually kinda a lota fun!!!

iBike?

Whaddayall think?

--

Oh and we're back in debt for the next 30 years... at least... But we now own a home with at least 3x more space inside than the apartment, and adding the fenced in back yard (nice and shady) that gives the two little girls a MASSIVE increase in play space.

Panic - i just realized that i'm starting the evaluation in 5 minutes...

damn - damn damn damn damn

well - maybe ya won't hear the nitty gritty details for a while...

or hear how my knees are killing me from laying the floor...

maybe that's not all bad

Here it is - sorry for the delay - more current update laster if i have a moment

So, Thursday is completely out. No way in hell can I get over there, unless we drive over (me and the girls) and say hey. Why? No its not because there may be a celebrity appearance at the TT. Well it’s the opening of an exhibit that night. The oldest is skipping Dance cause I can’t make it to take her there… I wish yall a great tail wind. Something other than what we saw last Thursday. It may not have been a steady 10mph wind but it was a headwind. Sucky.

Oh heading home, rolling up the hill past butler, a kid on a Specialized (flat black) that looked a bit too big for him (sloping top tube with less seatpost showing than a normal frame should have) went past me, he musta been gassed cause I held it steady and he didn’t open up much of a gap. And that was with the trailer, plus the laptop and stuff on top of the normal stuff… course he probably was slow because of the t-shirt kinda thing he was wearing. I mean if ya gonna wear plastic (instead of natural fibers) they might as well fit tightly and be aero a bit.

Heading home Friday I was thinking about Floyd’s TT position, arms slightly up. And started trying to see if I could fly my hand at bike speed. Ya know… flying? Driving along and angling your hand out an open window catching wind going up and down? Playing with aerodynamics? Well if ya gonna present a ‘surface’ to the wind, why not generate some lift? Would it maybe reduce the ground force resistance by a couple extra grams? No? Maybe as opposed to angling the bars down, where you might be creating downforce?

Just a thought… this kid had the bars up, and it promted me to think about it again.

But it does come down to power, power, power. That and it was new to read that Mt A doesn’t allow aerobars. So… does that include spinachis? They ain’t exactly aerobars?
No worry – if they say cannibal, I’ll ride cannibal. Assuming I can get the final go ahead to register.

Its almost all packed – forgot to get the truck. And now my little bro is saying he can get some guys for Saturday but not Sunday…. I’m gonna base the final on the truck options, what is available when and where.

The nerves the thrill its starting to grow. How cool… how exciting… this is actually feeling good. Unlike the Michigan one this feels right, feels a bit more like us. Needs some work, and unlike the Michigan one there’s very tangible improvements that can be done, that will really make it ‘ours’

It feels like a Friday. Mostly because I’m not at work tomorrow. And something exciting is happening. The century sounded like a boat load of fun. Woulda been good to hit that ride on Sunday, but well… I can’t wait till this is over, can’t wait for the first week of vacation in almost three years… can’t wait for cyclocross season… so many can’t waits…

Now – I can’t wait to fall asleep… so – good night folks… safe riding out there.

Damn this is getting boring. The current guy talking is rough. Self absorbed and wicked protective about their stuff. Massively defensive. Also the only company that "REQUIRED" that no other company reps sit in with their talks. PSyco i tell ya, no wonder, he's bad mouthing everyone. Rather than being positive about their stuff they are wicked negative.

That postive thing that rubbed off on me from Zoe that pulled me out of a funk. If i hunk out with this freak too long i'd get all farking negative and blah blah blah blah bad news.

Oh and for the record - i miss NPR now. Heard some good stuff this weekend. gotta restart for itunes update - (finally have time on the laptop to get stuff updated)

(first part of the post below)

So, I’d post but blogger is all messed up so I’ll write here till it gets fixed.

I survived the first meeting, managed to eat lunch, and am now in the second of four ‘sales’ talks. Fortunately there is wicked strong wireless in here. Down side. No plug so I’m at the mercy of the battery (ooh just found an outlet – sweet). I’ve got about 1 hour or so left on the battery.

The Olympus rep is NOT all that great. But I dunno he’s somewhat dry – hard to hear – no where near as dynamic as the gal that took the MSU job I was recruited for. He’s not bad, just not super.

Their confocal specialist is very cute – (not the guy doing the lecture, but the gal who too the place of the guy at the company that died suddenly just after we booked the demos).

I’m not sure I’m coherent enough to get this all out.

Fuck I’ve got a messed up pop-up spam piece of crap on the system… fuck… damn it…

Now to place search and destroy – cause search and destroy did NOT nuke it…

Crap…

So the LFR post was about...

KIDS

and MegA's

kids

both - totally cool kinda stuff.

Oh and just so MegA knows, leaving a 2 week old kid with dad alone for a couple hours is no different than what those two went through. taking care of some one else's kids is 100% different than taking care of your own. its just different.

these snippets between tornados this morning are suprisingly allowing me to get through the morning Open tabs... and be a little bit of a post whore on here!!!

(out of the mail box this morning - posting while on phone)

Subject: Lipstick

According to a news report, a certain school in Garden City,MI was recently
faced with a unique problem. A number of 12 year old girls were beginning to
use lipstick and would put it on in the washroom. That was fine, but after
they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving
dozens of little lip prints.

Every night, the maintenance man would remove them and the next day, the
girls would put them back.

Finally, the principal decided that something had to be done. He called all
the girls to the washroom and met them there with the maintenance man. He
explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the
maintenance man who had to clean the mirrors every night.

To demonstrate how difficult it had been to clean the mirrors, he asked the
maintenance man to show the girls how much effort was required. The
maintenance man took out a long-handled squeegee, dipped it in the toilet,
and cleaned the mirror with it.

Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror.

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY....THERE ARE TEACHERS, AND THEN THERE ARE EDUCATORS.

Well we won the world cup of cycling. (We as in the usa... )

And while it doesn’t have the massive draw that the every how many years world cup does, at least the US keeps winning them.

11 of em eh?

Damn Lloyd Flandis is freaking fast.

Started the moving. Dreading the flooring to do on Tuesday. Its wicked simple to install but I don’t want to fuck it up.

And yeah its 9:51pm Sunday night, for the record. Yeah it’s the damn I just took my morning shower at night and now I’m crazy tired (youngest was feverish Friday night and well – that meant NO sleep, and then Saturday night I woke up twice, wide awake for no damn reason, couldn’t fall back asleep. Chalking that up to nerves and freaking out about the move. Less worried about actually commiting to buying the house than moving our crap into it.

Kinda crazy eh?

So moving, Sunday, next weekend. All the beer ya can drink, I might even fire up the stove and make a batch of the famous pasta. No its not “famous” but damn it is tastey. Spend 18 years perfecting a recipe and there’ll be results.

I’ve got a feeling I’m letting the base miles slip. C-Burke and Mr H headed off for a century out towards CT (check the Prov Velo blog for the route). I’m crazy jealous.

I suck at 3D pinball. But I must say I’m getting better on a black keyboard.

Thinking more about the whole TT bike thing, and kinda thinking I should wait till next year to build the bike. Lets get through Cross season, then worry about what the spring (road races) and summer (TTs and Crits) will bring.

Second game of suckage and I’m finally getting sleepy… Tomorrow brings a day filled with insanity. 11-4 pm, no break, no stoppage in play… solid… here’s to hoping the wireless works in the lecture hall… fingers cross… if not I’m getting a sodoku or however you spell it book. Damn puzzles are cool… I ain’t lightning fast but I’ve been resisting their temptation for a long time now. Why? Cause I’m intrigued and I know I’d be a target for addiction.

Speaking of which I’m shooting to take the coffee thing head on when on vacation in Maine. A week… it’s a start. And it looks reasonably positive that I may head to the Hill climb TT… still working on an equivalent hill in time/length. The trailer gives me the extra drag for the less steep/longer hills that College hill lacks in length. Gmaps time baby… gmaps… of course, trying to find time between now and then to ride consistently will be the supreme challenge. Here’s to hoping the bike path, makes up for it.

Peace out yall…
G

#1 - based on the counter i think i've successfully pissed off about everyone who checks in here save maybe the married guys who have jobs that are flexible like mine... at times...

#2 - wtf was number two

#3 - i've lost it - i swear i had many points

#4 - oh, update, written last night, will post when laptop is done with automatic updates and all that

#5 - A Shout out from Dan Schmatz - cool... i wonder if he'll be running into Wicknasty or TreeFarm anytime soon? (Yeah i'm still obsessed about the whole me getting one of their bikes things)

#6 - closing is tomorrow. Already into the house, cleaned/prepped the walls for primer and paint. Looking trepidatiously at laying the floor. Not so worried about the damn laying of it, more worried about the trim and taking it out without fucking up the walls and making more work.

#7 - gonna be home owners again tomorrow - wicked exciting.

#8 - meetings today starting at 11 running till 4pm... FREAKING Zzzzzzzz i think i mentioned something about that in lastnights writing.

#9 - Floyd's a monster. LFR has new content, so does just about everyone else except Zoo, Felt and KL... wonder if there's a coincidence ;)

#10 - back to finalizing the evaluation form for the demos... damn this week's already tossed me in the freaking wringer...

okay so i don't have one yet...

but...

i'm drawing a blank on finding an email for Ryan Trebon aka Tree Farm or Barry Wicks aka Wicknasty

both those suckers are my size... maybe they've got a cross bike kicking around from last year they would unload cheap on some slow ass tall freak from R.I.

ifn anyone has the hook up - or knows someone with the hook up or runs into either of those two too tall joneses send em my way with a yeah or a nah...

G

out for good (i think)

The latest bit of cyclingnews is pretty condeming.

for old Jannyboy...

What i'm reading into it is they really wanted Jan and Oscar to come forward with facts to show that they haven't been doping. To discredit and disprove the allegations and associations with the Spanish doc. But they didn't.

With blood samples that are supposedly in custody, all Jan would have had to do was proceed with "Here's my blood. Get a DNA profile and run it past all the blood collected in the raid and you'll see I'm innocent."

Of course he and the rest implicated will want to "claim" innocent until proven guilty. But the mere association with the dopin doc is enough to violate the ethical contract.

It is saying that he was terminated not for being a doper, but because he (according to T-Mobile) did nothing in good faith to work towards clearing his name.

Hard to debate that. Not to mention some prosecutor in Germany is gunning for Jan too. That could make it tough.

Hell, most contries have prescription drug abuse laws on the books. Should be easy enough to book em for EPO use (it ain't exactly an over the counter drug) or other 'stuff'.

I will never have the opportunity, nor talent to acheive anything close to their level. I will be lucky to reach the level that Solobreak and Cronoman are at, even then it will be a process of at least 10 years for me to hit their level... if it is even possible (doubtful i think).

Oh and i don't mean to go off railing on singles. The important thing is to first discover who you are. Second, fall in love with some one who knows who you are and you know who they are and get married (or not). If you really know them, and they really know you the big D (divorce) will never enter into the picture.

And suds - you ain't the only one putting stuff off to the last minute... and that whole sitting down with goals for 5 and 10 years is a damn fine idea...

oh and SB... its way after 3pm.

Here i've been wondering what the upgrade stuff was like for Cross... and well its in the 'rule book'

DOH I wonder how long its been there. Pretty sure i looked, but maybe they've updated it since April 28th.

I'm a 4....

USCF Cyclocross Upgrades (on page 8 here)
Guidelines and Notes by Category:
4-3: Need 20 points in any 12-month period; or experience in 25 qualifying races with a minimum of 10 top-ten finishes. 30 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade.
3-2: Need 25 points in any 12-month period.40 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade.
2-1: Need 25 points in any 12-month period. 40 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade.



We'll see what happens...

HOLYSHIT - when the hell did i do this race? not to mention i was a Cat 4 at that point... (i raced in the cat 5 it seems)

is someone out in Cali using my #/name? Is Geo... hmm Geo/Geoffrey?

Its funny when ya login to your USAC page and KNOW ya have been a psyco-cross pre-occupied rider - ie no road events (other than the BW TT) and see some results...

(que twilight zone music)

Weather is such a damn pain in the ass as a variable..
the course is right between these two towns:

Attleboro
6pm 76 74 79 ENE 11 30.06 0.00 10 l/rain
7pm 75 73 84 ENE 11 30.04 0.00 7 l/rain

Taunton
6pm 75 77 81 ENE 9 30.05 0.00 10 cloudy
7pm 74 75 84 NE 9 30.04 0.00 10 cloudy

wind... nothing like a 9-11 mph headwind to slow down the times a touch...

previously we've had no wind or a slight tail wind for the course.

This headwind is a fucking bitch. Now i know... wind is key for me... big tall lanky freak, no diskwheel, only spinachi's but not a bad position. I tipped them back down and felt much stronger than last week (the spinachis) positionally, i could get a bit lower maybe, just not on that bike. I was contending with a nice inflamation in the perineum region... prolly from the heat and riding in something other than jeans or bibs...

Time: 20:36
C-burke was just over 30 seconds slower, we'll wait to see the results to figure out how it all is relative. Those who didn't ride last night will preserve some measure of avereage speed (IE Garber).

The percived effort was way higher than the other times. I KNOW i was working harder, my legs felt stronger and i emptied the tank at the finish. Unlike last time there was nothing in there to give after the line. (I think i've figured out the course).

This is crazy... Austin's Calc (with a 10 mph headwind) needing a freakish amout of power to make the time... A difference of about 190 watts. Which is flat out crazy. Not sure i buy it... but well, no one did it with a powertap last night so we'll never know.

That marriage thing... Geo dropped me an email with a few interesting additions to the list (From his pov).

And the marriage/single clarification. Take C-Burke for example. He got hit by a bus, wound up in the hospital. his long time (years and years) Girlfriend didn't have any visitation rights or what not. It took his mother and an understanding nurse to get her in to see him. That's an example of the difference between single and married. If you are married you had this bundle of rights that are legally there, making you family/next of kin.

Singles don't have that. And even if you are emotionally married, committed, it doesn't matter. You are still single. You can walk away from the relationship at any point without going to Vegas or town hall for a divorce/cancelation of the contract.

Its a very very important part/fact to realize. The differences are not inconsequential. And i'm not just talking same sex stuff here. I'm talking old school tradditional stuff if you will.

At anyrate, my legs were hurting so much last night i couldn't fall asleep. I think that is a good sign. My lungs and the rest of the physiology is catching up to let me push to the next level.

till the next post sometime before 3pm... if i don't get swallowed up by other stuff...

OUCH (click header for link)...

after the last time trial out there in Ro ho land, my for arms were sore on saturday. Didn't realize it till i was resting on them just right and DAMN ouch... bruise... stupid spinachis ;)

i guess its true though - real men like Landis don't need elbow pads!

Oh and anyone who's NOT racing or futzing around and may wanna come help move a bit of something into a truck and then do as many 12 oz curls as they can (on me of course) would be welcome to swing by. Next weekend it looks like. 29 or 30 of july... Gotta send the APB out ;) I can deal with the heavy stuff - its just the larger more awkward items that require a tiny bit of guidance down the stairs from the second floor... Heck if someone just wants to come hang out with the little girls and keep em out from underfoot that'd be super peachy too!

You say stuff like this:

"I already sent him a text message..."

Listening to BBCRadio1 its all about the text messages... the US seems to be the last place cell phones are still primarily being used for talking... "So old school"

No - i will spare ya the old school stuff.

And i know - some of ya don't get what i'm writing, some of yall don't relate to 1/2 of it, but keep in mind - the aim and scope (this is to remind myself as well). I'm doing this to log my life, or this phase of it. I don't get a ton of hits a day - if there are 50 its amazing. (most of em are from Il Brucie not working at work)

Why am i saying that? Well its prompted by CTodd's link to the MSN dating page story suggesting that you are better off single.

Definitions. Erik (sailorboyman) is going off on his crazy analytical lawyeresque/doctor rants all the time and the definitions of terms are a common theme.

Single = not married. If say you have a girlfriend/boyfriend what not. YOU ARE STILL SINGLE! Unless you have a legally binding document saying you are joined as a couple (man woman, man man, woman woman, woman man) you are SINGLE.

Now, a familiar friend to a few of us here was the catalyst for that sticking in my head. Geo. Yeah. The story goes that he remarked to his dad about finnally being single after a break up (that involved many doors being punched, walls punched through, pencils broken in German class) of a long term relationship. Well. His dad wisely told him. You have ALWAYS been single. You WILL be single until you are married. Well Geo IS married now and is NOT single. (yeah Geo, i still have the wedding present to send out, maybe i'll make you pick it up - and i'm serious, -if ya reading this- i've actively been working on it since i heard ya were getting hitched to that High country gal!).

So... that said. I'd like to address (from the married guy with kids POV) the list.

Reason #1: You have a better body.
Bullshit... have yall noticed how many freaking unbelievably hot mother's are out there? Maybe its just me. But DAMN, those MILF's are impressive. In contrast most of the older (my age) singles are either psyco or fat and depressed (see further down).

Reason #2: You’re more likely to achieve great things.
Bullshit. Nothing is greater than raising kids. Nothing is more of a motivator for greatness than leaving the world a better place for your kids. The empathy and drive provided by kids is inexplicable. Now its not to say that there are lots of stupid people out there who see the kids as pests and rotten eggs and ship em off to boarding school, then ship em off to summer camp (not day camp, i'm talking the 8 weeks of hanging with friends being told what to do by highschoolers and college kids). And sure the family takes time. But there are probably statistically just as many parents who've acheived great things as singles.

Reason #3: You do less housework.
Okay, well, that one i can't argue as effectively. But, housework still has to be done. Sure ya can leave stuff laying around more often, or ya can ignore it longer. But like KL mentioned a bit ago, getting it cleaned up is kinda nice. The energy from a clean room/apartment/house is tangible.

Reason #4: You can do what you want with your money—including keep it.
And that's a GOOD thing? Irrational spluges? Hell my FIL was doing that. Still does. Who goes out and buys the best Pool Table on a whim? he did. Who goes out and buys a pair of ocean style rowing sculls and uses em twice? Sure there should be some consultation. No doubt. And if there's cash kicking around later after the necessities are paid off... splurge. Sure being single means not having to do as much justification for buying a bike as you would being married. BUT, i was married when i bought pretty much one or two bikes a year in grad school... no issues then.

Reason #5: You have better sex.
Gotta call bullshit on that. Sure there's exciting new sex... but knowing your partner, knowing what works and all that, takes time. No way singles have as good sex as married folks. I think lots of woman's mags have been saying that for a long time. For that very reason.

Reason #6: You’re better rested and smarter.
Can't argue that. Well i can't argue the rested part. Actually i can. How many singles get all the sleep they need? I'd wager a large part of the sleep drug market is going towards single professionals who drink way too much coffee all day and then stay up to watch the 11 o'clock news and then get up at 6am to commute to work. Ya telling me that they are better rested? Smarter? No way. that's a genetic thing.

Reason #7: You’re less depressed.
Not gonna bother with that. No way. Sure i get grumpy, and moody, but it'd wager it'd be a bit worse single. Well maybe it wouldn't. But lets pick say Bridget Jones. Talk about depression!

Reason #8: You have better friendships.
Maybe, maybe not. Friends that are real friends stick around. meaning ya can go 6 months without talking and pick up where ya left off. Ya might have more superficial friends... but well i dunno - maybe its different for women.

Reason #9: Your travel tales are enviable.
Oh i dunno - travels involving little kids can be pretty impressive, although maybe not enviable. Okay - i got nuttin on this one. (about time)

Reason #10: You know yourself—and what you want out of a relationship.
IF you don't know thise BEFORE you get married. You should NEVER get married in the first place.
This is the most annoying point of all. But hey. I don't wanna rub it in.

(can yall tell the list has been fermenting in my head for a while?)
Maybe now it'll leave me alone.

maybe i'll have a bit more later on... maybe

Didn't get out for the Prov Bike TT like i hoped, decided it was too hot (92 degrees INSIDE the apartment at 6pm) to think about making dinner so we headed out. Came back and i went out and got a mellow hour in looping the BLVD doing a couple intervals on the lengths down hill. I called it TT speed work. Holding 25-26 for the length of the BLVD on the hoods. Wicked fucking hot though. Took two laps to cool down (heat wise) and i may be desperate for speed but i ain't stupid, no need to redline. Besides i didn't want to eject a belly full of dinner. Felt good. Got back and the apartment was a nice mellow 91 degrees. When you touch the bed, the dresser, anything sitting out, and it all feels hot. That's not so good. But by this morning when we woke up it had cooled down to a nice cool 79 degrees. The office is still pretty damn fuckin hot in the scope room (84 or so) but better than yesterday it feels like.

Today's race is gettin HAMMERED. Oh and Rasmutten is a doper. Doper's Suck. Maybe he isn't a doper, but that whole thing with his wife awhile back. That just ain't cool.

Damn Floyd's gettin NAILED... dude looks to be screwed big time good bye velogames team... i just got hosed...

what a day...

and well...

gotta get busy... yall be good... thanks for reading this random stuff... keep writing if ya write...

peace out for now,
G

At least Landis or Merckx didn't win... i woulda been bummed to miss that.

still very cool... someone put their stamp on the race. I'm dissapointed that whinin sack of shit Simoni didn't step up. And yeah like the tag line for the Lantern Rouge blogger... even the last dude on the GC could drop anyone reading this rather easily. Maybe not KL heading up Mt Washington super easily but still i wouldn't bet against the pros...

but anyway back to me getting to thinking:

If ya picked up an electic car- and were reasonably mechanically inclined a small watercooled diesel generator would seriously kick ass. Run the genset on BioDiesel (100% of course, made from recycled oil, not virgin stock). Cool the system with a coil in the Hot Water heater - or a pre-heater for the hot water. With a simple heat exchanger and even a minor draw on the hot water an 80 gallon tank should easily beable to deal with the extra heat wasted and make it useful. Who doesn't like hot water for a shower or washing dishes? A luxury item, no?

So what about the exhaust heat? I haven't gotten there yet, but... with a simple EGR system (to kill the NOx emissions) the majority of the rest of the waste heat could be scavanged by the hot water tank setup. Maybe use a three tank system for hot water, first tank is the exhaust heat (lowest load), second tank is the coolant exchanger, and the third tank is the primary (gas or oil or electric heated), but if tank one and two are in use the primary would be more of a supplementary tank. Sure its a bit of stored water, but its also a good collector of waste heat for a useful purpose. Old water heaters are a dime a dozen if you know a plumber or a remodeler.

Battery storage is the issue... although for a car - with onboard capacity the recharging could be done at night when plugged in. And the hot water would be ready for the morning showers...

I dunno, i just love the idea of a biodiesel powered genset. The big problem is in getting it tuned just right. And that requires a serious investment in time and sensors. That or just yanking a TDI motor and hooking it up. Running it steady state at 2k rpms (torque peak) and playing with nozzle size, timing, and EGR while hooked up to a 4 gas to get the mix just right.

Sure a hydrogen powered setup would be 'cleaner' but. not cheaper. not at least right now. Solar would be great. Is great. But for those in the shade... not best.

Although i can hope that maybe in 5 years when i have to get the new roof on maybe they will have more affordable photocell 'shingles' and i can set up a nice bank array and reduce our dependance on the grid. At the very least i think i could maybe setup a fuel tank for the Golf somewhere... and have B100 delievered and avoid the fuel stations all together.

Here's the problem last night. hot. car off, card won't read in the 24hr card lock pumps. Damn. Try three times, four times. Try the other swipe reader. Same problem. Try different cards. back the original. The two girls, while strapped in are getting antzy... by my wife needs(ed) to head 45 minutes north of Bean town today and with a 1/4 tank (probably plenty) she was anxious, and a bit leary of filling it up at the Card lock on Thurbers (one known source of B20 in the area). So...

FINALLY it asked which pump, #4 Bio Diesel... and we're in biz. $3.049/gallon 11.9 gallons 519 miles... 43.6 miles per gallon. Most of that was the trip to Tanglewood (the first one with my sister) driving 80 with the air on. And then this weekend to CT and then Ikea all with the air on and pretty heavily stressed with a heavy lead foot (80+ on the highways)... with in reason on US44... Not too shabby... pretty pleased for a golf with an extra 1" lift up front (bad for aero, good for handling and oil pan protection), bigger injectors (more POWER), high output programming (way more power and no smoke)... and tires that ain't gonna win records with efficiency (195 65s, Turanza LS-H - no where near as low roll as the Michelin MXV4 Energys in the same size).

Have i mentioned i like my car? It's not going to get to 60 in 6 seconds but it gets there a second or two faster than any of the hybrid/electric models. It makes the Civic hybrid seem anemic and winded.

It won't set records like the Insight but it does have a drag coefficient around 0.31 to 0.36. The insight is kicking a CD around 0.25 (wicked freaking low) (for comparison - now imaging putting this powerplant in a car with a CD of 0.25, me getting 43 now could improve a bit). granted if i drove gently i can and have acheived 54 mpg. But like the song says "I can't drive fifty five"

(maybe i should - nah - gotta have some thrills in life)

and i have to leave - how freaking umbelievably frustrating....

its L'Alpe d'Huez today... and i've got a nice tour scheduled from 10-12 (eastern standard time)... So much for live coverage...

don't that make ya grumpy... Well it makes me grumpy! Coupled with a cooling system failure here in the lab... the worse room is the one we just had a fancy new scope put in for a demo... fantastic.

Tour big guy news:
Maggy B is out - DNF stage 15
Race radio just said Tom Boonen is out

crap

big guys are dropping like flies...

good news - i'm finally getting some sleep - either i'm now used to falling asleep in 85 degree heat or i'm just so tired that it doesn't matter anymore.

Just listened to Backstedt's interview video with Eurosport http://eurosport.co.uk/cycling/tour-de-france/2006/mc_vid28153.shtml

try that link -

the've got some good video - damn i miss watching this on TV... (watching the stage 14 catastrophic crash video)

damn that was shitty - Kessler goes ass over tea kettle over the guardrail but finishes the stage... damn that guy's got some cojones...

Ullrich: "Innocent until proven guilty"
um... nevermind... no need... this is one of those have patience...

or the moment of a perfect 'crime' the dude's gotta live with him self... like that Tyler fuckup... if he really is guilty then that is one freaking heavy load to carry, and if he doesn't feel that weight - he should go into politics, crime or sales... do something that requires you to lie cheat doublecross and well ya know be a general sack of crap and still feel good about yourself.

Its still in the 80s in the scope rooms. and the 20+ brown summer high school kids are gonna roast... while i'm missing the tour finish.

okay yall - some people say that the heat will break tomorrow - i'll believe it when i see it. And the national map was crazy last night - everything was what over 90 degrees? that's some serious heat loading...

So much for the lower water temps up here helping to diffuse any potential hurricanes... at this rate we'll be in the 70s (water) and while that ain't super heated its not cold enough to suck all the energy out of a hurricane.

oh and i bought new running shoes... not so much for running but cause they are the only shoes that breath well enough for my big feet. Got some New Balance 980s or something. a big departure from the only shoes that seem to fit perfectly (Ascics Trabuco)... so i may need to replace those before starting a few runs to get those muscles 'functional' for cross.... gonna probably head out to the Prov Velo TT course, ride out hard... and go balls out for the TT and then head back... to Olive garden up in Attleboro - its way to wicked GD hot to cook at home in our apartment.

Gerry's given me something more positive to end on than that freaking chimp in the whitehouse.

I mean I'm as much of a good ol'boy as the next Red Neck, but damn, ya gotta know when to turn the shit off.

Maybe that's what you learn if you DON'T get shipped off to boarding school your whole life.

Felt's asthma stuff has been bouncing around in my head since reading his bit.

there's this quote from an article Gerry posted today:

Because of the increasing number of children with asthma, homeowners are more concerned about indoor air quality, he notes.

Vinyl siding = bad
laminate flooring = bad
synthetic carpet = bad

basically anything plastic/synthetic outgasses for a long time. Well insulated houses are the worst. As you put in newer and more leak proof vinyl windows you trap more and more and more of the toxins inside. Big leaky houses with nice wool carpets and hardwood floors and radiant (steam or hot water) heat 'can' be the best. Assuming the basement isn't like the house we are renting. The fucking bricks and rubble foundation was whitewashed and now is more or less black. Black from mold and mildew. Ain't it pretty?

I'm very excited to be moving into the house. Dry basement is very helpful. Its also a chance to really put into practice more of the goals of sustainability and to lighten our footprint on this planet.

Solar would be great but we have a large number of trees and the shade is very welcome in the summer.

There is a lot of Tile in the floor - which is nice, much nicer than a vinyl flooring. We're hopefully going with the Lakt in the birch. While it isn't a true hardwood, it is an economical way to have real wood (even if its a veneer) underfoot. carpets hide and harbor so much crap that we really want to go with something smooth. this is both economical in cash but more importantly in money. Doesn't need to be sanded finished like a real hardwood would need to be.

anyway - i've got way too much thinking/time on my hands today...

thanks for reading (man everyone, even S&T G is sayin it)

peace out! G

PS - Plastic Toys
Huh? those miraculous engineering feats of wonder that occupy kids for so much of their time?

Yeah - fuck plastic. esp for kids. its bad. Yes - we have our share of plastic. But we limit it. We work hard to get the in-laws (mine) and others to reduce the plastic stuff and emphasize the natural stuff... Its not easy... And often our large plastic items have been picked up second or third hand, still outgassing but not nearly the same as brand new. Something to keep in mind when buying stuff for little ones... They'll play with the old school wooden stuff as much if not more than the plastic crap...

a laugh riot and a job well done:

Bush singing Sunday Bloody Sunday on youtube



(if i got more to add today - i'll add it up here... maybe)

More on the dumbya in charge

“See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this s--- and it’s over,” Bush told Blair as he chewed on a buttered roll.

That guy's just fucking sick and twisted... not to mention he has one serious potty mouth...

I like this... so formal, so diplomatic:

“You eight hours? Me too. Russia’s a big country and you’re a big country. Takes him eight hours to fly home. Not Coke, diet Coke. ... Russia’s big and so is China. Yo Blair, what’re you doing? Are you leaving,” Bush said.

we'd be lucky to be called something as polite as a laughinstock...

"Why can't we do that here?"

Record 1500 teenagers screened in Wales

The search for the next big Welsh stars has progressed well this year, with a new record being set for the number of Welsh Cycling Talent Identification conducted. Sponsored by builders' merchants Robert Price, the tests have taken place in secondary schools across Wales over the past 6 weeks, with the aim of identifying those who could be the next Nicole Cooke or Geraint Thomas.

Chief executive Peter Sommers is very happy with the progress. "Welsh Cycling aims to carry out 1,000 talent identification tests of secondary school pupils across Wales each year," he stated. "Thanks to the wonderful welcome we have had from schools across Wales, the good weather in the last few weeks, and the hard work of our coaches, we estimate that we will have actually tested over 1,500 pupils by the end of the term!"

"This years total is all the more pleasing as we have been concentrating on testing female pupils from the Schools, and the initial feedback from the coaches has been that we may have found talent from all across Wales, from Bangor in the North, down to St Davids in the West, to Pontypool in the East"

Pupils that have shown the promise in the talent tests will now be invited to more scientific tests held by Welsh Cycling. "All selected pupils will now be invited to a specific testing day, when we will once again put them through a series of physical tests, both in the sports science laboratory and in racing situations," explained team talent coach Stuart MacDonald. "This will help us to select those riders with the potential to succeed in the future".

Once identified, the selected riders will be given a place on the Robert Price Wales Talent Team. This will offer coaching and equipment support and thus boost the chances of the riders to succeed in the sport.

can't not post it...

like rehab would ruin an alcoholic......

what a crazy day... i'm too worn out to even write about it i think...

hot, party in CT, lots of kids, wife decides we need to go to IKEA to look at flooring (at 4:30 when everyone else is headed to the lake), the oldest starts bawling, friend local with kid in same school says 'we'll take her back' and we accept (big mistake), i'm thinking 'i hope ikea doesn't close at 5 on sunday' wife doesn't even have a clue what time it is, then later admits only thinking about what time it closed as we were dragging the road up to it... (got there with 5 minutes to spare - perfect), anyway much insanity ensues when the oldest gets home... total wreck/nightmare of an evening, she's rubbed raw from her swim floaty thing under her arms and didn't eat much dinner and well the joys of parent hood eh?

it is gonna get hot, 94 today 95 tomorrow and this morning the apartment had cooled down from 84 degrees last night at 11pm to 79 degrees at 7am... i wish i could have slept that whole time... i think i managed sleep from about midnight till 6am... no AC unit, and the last complete week in the apartment... gonna need a cold shower when i get home after pulling the trailer up the hill... good heat training no?

and its monday - i haven't seen any tour coverage all weekend and i wanna hear some tour racing... but NOOOOO they have to have a rest day... fuckitalltohell...

i'm done for now... other than to say my wife's driving my car - burning B20 instead of gasoline...

oh link dump:
biodiesel best, but soybeans not ideal (um duh, no shit morons, algal crops or other 'organic' wasteland crops...

Felt's link here...
and i won't mince words: fucking awesome movie... Mcain obana indy ticket... i'll vote for that and campain for those two no reservations...

These guys have the right idea

Brattleboro to use biodiesel for town fleet (more good news)

an article (cause its a pain clicking through the MLive crap:

Biodiesel is a 'win-win' for farmers
Saturday, July 15, 2006
By Jim Harger
The Grand Rapids Press

GRAND RAPIDS -- Tom Fehsenfeld, president of Crystal Flash Energy, wants to help local farmers help themselves.

So for every gallon of soybean-based biodiesel Kent County farmers buy until Sept. 30, Crystal Flash will donate a penny to a Kent County farmland preservation fund, Fehsenfeld said Friday.

Fehsenfeld said his Grand Rapids fuel distribution company has stepped up promotion of biodiesel now that it has become as affordable as regular diesel fuel.

"First, a farmer can pay no more than they normally would for fuel and support American agriculture," Fehsenfeld said. "Secondly, they can support this program to support farming in Kent County."

Dennis Heffron, chairman of the Kent County Agricultural Preservation Board and a Grattan Township farmer, said Crystal Flash's contributions create a "win-win" for local farmers.

"It's going to help bring awareness to a fuel that you can put in your tractor or truck that uses less fossil fuels that we have to ship from overseas," he said. "It's taking a renewable resource that can be grown wherever they are."

In its first four years, the Kent County farmland preservation program has raised about $3 million. The anti-sprawl program purchases development rights from farmers who agree to keep their land in agriculture rather than sell to developers.

Fehsenfeld hopes his company's donations will foster similar efforts by other agricultural suppliers. He did not have estimates for how much his effort would raise.

While Crystal Flash gets its soy diesel from out of state, Fehsenfeld is an investor in Michigan BioDiesel, a processing plant near South Haven that will produce soy diesel this year.

Jim Anderson, a Sparta organic fruit grower, said he was delighted to hear his biodiesel purchases will help the farm preservation fund. "I like it when people put their money where their mouth is," he said.

Anderson has used biodiesel for about three years because it burns cleaner and uses renewable resources produced by American farmers.

The third-generation fruit farmer said he also is a big supporter of the farmland preservation fund and may consider selling development rights to his land someday.

"That's one of the reasons I farm," he said. "I'm trying to grow fruit and green things, not asphalt."

...

1 hour later, i need more coffee... today is gonna suck...

oh and 1/2 through the open all and there is very little new content... but i've yet to hit Feltslave (dude ya really should try some of the Hawthorne vally stuff... its good) Solo-fuckingkickmyassonabike-break, Zoo.. DC, Frazz... about 18... the first were damn nothing new close tab... repeat... maybe tomorrow ;)

peace out yall, remember the three Rs (reduce reuse recycle)...

Its hot out there... if your not here its 87ºF degrees (30.5ºC).

Riding back up from the other facility it was remarkable the waste heat given off by the vehicles...

So one thing those vehicles are doing is #1 being a gasser, which by nature means about 60% of the energy contained in a gallon of gas is being converted to heat that's being radiated in some form from the vehicle. Now for those inside, they want to be cool as cucumbers, so they crank the AC. That AC like any cooling device just moves heat around... moving heat from the inside of the car to the outside. Of course there is constant thermal incursions (solar, radiant - engine, air temp...) that make the AC a balance. But if you've ridden in the city on a hot day. Ya notice, ya notice just how much waste heat is being pumped into the air by vehicles.

Does a hybrid release less heat? Does a Diesel? More or less maybe by a little. but that AC thing - it costs efficiency (fuel economy) and it pumps heat out.

How can we fix this?

Trees. Lots of em... Problem is they need water. Good thing is the natural transpiration from the leaves acts as a natural AC... More trees in the city is a good thing. Shade, CO2 uptake, Cooling.

All you need to do to learn about efficiency is ride a bike, and be aware of the surroundings.

how to combat it all? I dunno, public transport? And in many cases its probably best to do the delayed energy production/conversion. IE electric cars for the city.

Do the conversion from stored fuel to electricity when the sun's not beating the crap out of the city streets, and run electric cars. Sure they'll still radiat AC heat, but if they don't have a wicked hot internal combustion motor inside it will be more efficient.

Best solution is just to make everyone ride a bike. But the way some people sweat - that may not be the best thing for 'working' folks. I wore shorts today for the first time at work (ever i think)... and man does it make a difference in the cycling temps... still hot - but no where near as bad as riding around the city in jeans.

After this morning's CF i'm not looking forward to the 24th when we have 3 companies jockeying for the loading dock and a deadline to get set up and running. Gonna be a bit hectic. The company that dropped stuff off today is way ahead of the rest and i'm crazy glad they are too.

Well kiddies, we'll see if Big G can manage a ride tomorrow - magic 8-ball says don't count on it... (no i don't actually have one here)...

Waste heat. Thermal Loss... Like making Pizza in the oven in the middle of the summer with the oven/stove in the middle of the kitchen/dining room/main room in the apartment. First we use the gas to get the oven hot, then a fan to blow the heat out of the room, but not completely. The winter, waste heat is great. Would be nice to be able to do the balance on a seasonal basis.

Oh the other thought. Geothermal heating/cooling. Gordon Bok's house is damn incredible. He build it himself and his bed is on a big rail like track over 10,000 gallons of water. Essentially he has a pool inside the house. And it keeps things cool in the summer and moderates the temps in the winter. I don't remember if its re-circulating through an underground tank or not. But, when things cool off at night that extra energy loss/cooling could be easily, inexpensively harnessed.

Conservation comes down to Thermodynamics. Energy is the currency. Energy costs money. Conserve both and you win. The world wins. And everything is good.

But right now - riding around in the city in this heat... no one seems to be winning... Some might say the Oil companies and the energy providers are winning, but are they? Once the consumer has no fiscal resources left it will hurt - in the long run - the producers. There in lies the problem.

the delima for the world to solve. one problem that cannot be solved in conflict, with conflict. It must be solved with intelligent discussion and reasonable solutions. Roof Top Algal farms in the city could produce oil based biomass and reduce cooling/heating costs and clean up the air at the same time. It is an investment, but not an overwhelming one. It would be a small step...

But every step we take in the right direction is critical. Absolutely critical.

A Quote to end it on...

"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."
- Isaac Asimov

Trumpets sound... horns Blare... Sound the arrival of the 28s...

(needed to add that to the list of why i was slower - riding different tires)... meh

They are here... And well now i can look at them, and smell them (mmm still outgassing like brand spanking new tires)... and eventually get them on the bike.

I've determined that i need more interval work. How did i determine that? Well. Simple. I could keep going and heading back my HR was kicking down in the 130s and 140s doing 20mph/32kph with my hands on the tops of the bars... no issue, no problem... So. That tells me, i'm running at my power limit. Or so i'm letting my deluded self believe. Maybe i'm at my power ceiling, and must rely on skill cunning and other functions besides power to 'compete'

the other option is to toss in the towel and join Il Brucie in his quest to be the fastest slow guy in the bunch.

I'm not done yet. No forks for me. My weight seems to be stablizing at 195 or so (90kgs) at that critical mass i just hope my critical power is sustainable for a long enough duration to make it when i need it...

I'm suprised that the results aren't up on the bikeworksma.com page yet. last week they were posted the next day.

I like how Big Jonny hit up KL with another link dump attack... it was a kick ass letter.

Although... i still have yet to see ANY of the coverage of the tour on TV. Not even a clip of it. Amazing. First time i haven't seen it since they've started broadcasting it here in the USA...

I will say that Adrian Karstens was actually good at it when ESPN finally pulled the plug. He improved and learned (dunno how) but this Al Troutfuckingwig hasn't changed, hasn't listened, and still gets on there (it would seem) and do his old shtick...

and Big up PROPS to my man Pops. The same day Il Falco gets clipped and stcuk back on his perch and out of the race DC boys (Disco channel, not drunk cyclist)) score a victory. And that's a victory for my Velogames team! WOOT.

Oh and ya can pass the word on (to anyone in general) that KL's webmaster needs to put "target=blank" for the moveItFred's link up there on top... oops the bob jr link too...

Quote of the Day:

Gert Steegmans (Davitamon, 160th at 44'20)

"I'm completely f***ed up. Even the speed of the bus was almost too fast for me."

okay - Big G - out

Its a bright hot clear friday morning here in Providence folks. We're ready to start the day. Making coffee... DOH! What the Fuck? No good coffee grounds? SHIT. What the hell am i gonna do. I've got five bills in my pocket but each one has washington on them... not enough to get lunch AND coffee... even if i buy lunch at the Chinese Food Truck. Resign my self to drinking water all morning and dealing with the onset of caffine withdrawal... and boom... one cup of water down and it hits me... i've got shitty backup coffee.

mmm may taste aweful, but... its got the required elements.

(I started off with my PA announcer voice and melted back into my mumbley trail off blogger voice)

Why i didn't get better last night - and how i've managed to be positive rather than dwell on the excuses...

#1 wicked hungry on wed... well below the 5,000 calories for the day to sustain energy/glycogen levels... starting Thursday with a deficit, food and sleep.

#2 started the day off not so well... crazy rushing around to get my daughter to camp at 8:50 so i could be here at work for a training i was giving at 9am. I made it btut just barely.

#3 spent the next 4 hours of extra high intensity mental exertion...

#4 worked hard to get K home and turned around for Ballet. Which means, riding my ass off up some nice heavy grades with a 50 pound kid, her camp stuff, my stuff, and me.

#5 tried a different food routine before heading to the ride (not the best i'm thinking)

#6 rather than go all out for 10 miles to get to the start on time... i sit in and draft all the way. Thinking well we're getting there just about 6:10, first rider should be heading off at 6:15... no worries... DOH... not how it happened...

#7 i tried a different bar angle... not all that much better... less upper body stability and i think a bit less power out of the position than before.

#8 i had to take a wicked pissa before the start - 2 minutes before... not a problem, i found a nice hill of dirt to water...

#9 it was at least 15 degrees (f) cooler than the previous two runs...

All that in consideration i was happy to pull a 19:45... not a kick ass time... not terrible either.

I worked way harder than i would have if i wasn't paying cash to race... it was a great long interval workout

So i'm feeling great about it.

okay - we just had one of those clusterfuckbombs dropped... phone rings - where do you want the crates? What crates? I got 8 crates for delievery at 9am to 171 meeting street... Are they from Thornwood NY? Yeah... Damn, wasn't expecting them till next week.

Okay - now ensues madness...

must complete thoughts later...

Ciao...

i hope today's tour stage is boring... cause i ain't gonna getta hear about it till its over...

weather is looking to be a GO at least based on the current radar. The bands of clouds have moved through providence and i've got my Hall Pass for the TT tonight... anxious and eager to put the power to the pedals.

Graham the Fast G, shared a bit of info from his powertap, and well... re-affirmation that wheels are important.

Last night i pulled off the old tires... and guess what? Thanks to a panic stop by a phred in front of me i made a second flat spot on tuesday... and 90% of the tire rubber is so thin that you can see the cord. One more ride and i'll be riding on threads!

I changed them tires. Put on what i thought were 23c tires... nope, lucky me... 25-622s.

Klien Prime tires. Made by IRC... old... but, well stored and in good shape. They were on the cross bike when i moved up here and i had used the cross bike on the road for a few of my first rides with the Brown club. And for some bike path solo ventures. (it has knobbies on it now - the cross bike).

So i've got decent rubber. Not the dreadful 23s i thought, but no sign of the 28s... they'll be here tomorrow just in time for another potential weekend free from cycling (i fear)....

Anyway - dats about it for now... kinda one armed paper hanger around here today...

caffine levels should be artificially bosted for the afternoon seein as this is as late in the day that i have half a pot sittin still in the machine! I should be twiching like a junior by 6...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3934788900154749704

Title BUSH PILOT...

damn is it priceless


----

Not funny but cool... hadn't stumbled over there...

seems i need about 5,000 kcal to sustain me... and from the looks of it - if you ate bananas and kiwi... in... say... whole milk yogurt... that's be pretty damn complete!

and dig out his archives... USAcycling fucks its riders up the ass... One more time:
http://velonews.com/race/dom/articles/10351.0.html

yes folks. that's how i'm reading it. that's how strongly i feel about it.

certainly there are some wonderful folks at USAC, and all of them are well meaning and have to balance lots of issues...

But how the hell can you even conceive of having a 'National' event without ensuring that the competition is at the absolute highest level in the country.

Maybe the next time they hold nationals in say... um... Germany and rather than holding the event pre or post tour they do it smack dab in the middle of the Tour de France? That's be smooth.

WTF! Okay the bigger beef is the registration process.

The whole retarded notion of holding 'nationals' during a major UCI protour race is baffling... Sure, Landis, Levi, Hincapie may forgoe the opportunity, but guys like Fast Freddy R, may wanna shot at wearing the stars and stripes no?

I don't get it. I just don't freaking get it.

Hold State Champs, let the top few riders from each state head to nats... that or do it regionally, top ten based on population... I dunno. But there's gotta be a better way than how they've managed to fuck it up this year.

It really GRINDS MY GEARS.

The bit that actually started me back to the web log over lunch was an idea about sample rates, data and cycle computers.

It'd be kick ass to have even 8 bit levels but even better 12 or 16 bit level resolution of the speed/power/cadence what not signals. And rather than average or sample every few seconds, record all the data and DL it at the end of the ride, where you can fit smoothing curves yourself in EXCEL (or what ever spreadsheet graphing program you prefer).

Is the level of information too much? Can you sample too often? Why yes of course. But like chopping up a sweet analog recording into an MP3. the Sampling interval dramatically affects the information content.

So file size becomes an issue. Or does it. With the absolute rock bottom cost of memory, a data logging device can be fitted with a permanent 1 gig drive or use something like an xD card for storage. Sure it'll need battery power, but well, that ain't so much a limitation. Size? no bigger than what people are strapping on to the bikes anyway...

Then i got thinking... why not integrate load sensors into the shoes/cleats? Tie in that signal to speed (cadence would be wicked easy to mathmatically pull out of a foot mounted load sensor). Down side would be upstroke, unless two sensors were used per foot. Anyway.. Power is what, force over time? Right? Measure the Newtons of force at the pedal and apply it to the speed... if you sample enough there ya go...

'course that's essential a SRM power meter. Anyway... I'm not an EE (electrical engineer) am a pretty poor solid state electronics guy (i can do it but i ain't gonna start pulling chips off a board that i actually need to use) and can't write the code that would be needed to make it happen. So i have to make do with thinking about possibilities, wondering why not... what if, and how freaking cool would that be.

well almost sideswiped...

just about caught up to the vehicle when they turned and took off at about 45 up a residential street...

nothing like that to get the heart rate up... at least the trailer was empty...

got in a decent 1.5 hours last night - mellow pace... one or two slight efforts into the wind... no redline, but it was a "hey i have one hell of a lot of frontal area"

chatted with Giulia, back and fresh off her Italian tour. Okay so she was at NoHo or what ever everyone's calling the Northhampton crit, so not back and fresh, but tanned and looking relaxed.

I'm sweatin buckets... nothing like 74 degrees and 100% humidity. So humid its cutting into the visibility. Sucky... a day that might be okay on the bike but biking in and working... even for a guy who doesn't sweat that much... well... anyway.

Word trickled back - sympathies headed over to the big G, gwadzilla... i know that pain, all too well. Grieve and most of all remember all the good times... and the love that the big dog passed on and gave to you and your family.

Gotta run out for some Chocolate Milk. Big up props ya know! Its the energy drink to beat! First Velonews, now cyclingnews. Maybe even PEZ had a bit about it. Gotta thank Karp et al., 2006...

Giving a tour for the Brown Nano Class. I was pretty heavily involved in some cool nanotechnology research back at Central... but switching gears more towards biology has been a nice change.

And in part trying to see if there are any races going on while i'm going to be 'vacationing' in Maine...

and i see the Mt "A" TT... hmmm 7.4 miles with a 12-14% finishing grade? Hmmm...

'course i'm huge and no where near the w/kg level of an Indurain and have no hope probably of being anything but DFL... but 0.7 miles is short (final climb) and while the grade is steep... peak power output might be sustainable... (yeah right)... Oh its nice that Doug Jansen (hill climbing dude iirc) is registered in 'my' catagory...

Pretty low registered turn out though...

And then i noticed a race... the race... the one race in my Collegiate Career that i LOVED... and actually didn't do too poorly on... Of course its the same day as the Mt A TT, and I'll be down on the Pemaquid Penn... but maybe next year... Next year i can look forward to the Tokeneke Road Classic. That course ROCKS... If ya get a good big team mate with some massive gearing a little guy/group can gap on that initial downhill and then rocketship up that first climb leaving the big diesel to slowly drift back to the group... That's assuming the group will let a gap open (maybe assuming way too much)...

Maybe i have such fond memories cause the race happened in the cold and drizzle...

Me like Cross and Cold stuff... me no like heat...

next year... next year... ifn i'm still a P'velo guy maybe i can convince a gang of us to head out... or if i move to a different club maybe there'll be more riders involved...

Unfortunately the weather broadcast this am was for Rain on Thursday... i hope they are wrong...

Oh and... one thing... i noticed this morning - somewhat disturbingly hysterical
terrycrit3.jpg

There is a reason bike saddles should be black... and not pink...

(i know i know - never shoulda vocalized it...)

but since i noticed it... well... i chuckle when peepin for updates or links...
(bad geoff, bad geoff...)
-G

welcome back welcome baaaaack...

its been pluggin in my head lately - figured i'd share the welcome back Kotter theme song again...

The welcome back is targeted to a certain AceGirl who finally put up some new content...

not much but... its something...

gonna take it mellow tonight - hit the BLVD circuit and chill and hopefully get a few miles in at a mellow pace for a change... call it active recovery or something...

thats it for now...

and the verbosity of the post does reflect my mood... quiet, somber, and down a bit...

Saturday... well... my wife had a hankerin for Sushi...

here's the thing, she doesn't like the raw fish...

and i've made it before... so...

we thought hell why don't i make it this time...

what else do we put with it?

Perfect...

To start, Sushi is about the rice. how its cooked, and then how its seasoned. I've got some nice organic seasoned rice wine vinegar. Mixed just the right amount with the rice - let it cool (slowly to RT)... we bought some tasty silver grade organic Nori sheets (damn stuff is fucking expensive per pound)... but 10 sheets at 50 cents a sheet really isn't that bad for the purpose...

stuffed em with some carrots and cucumber (avacados weren't ripe)... and had that with some Tofu.

Now this tofu freaking rocked. Here's how to make it great.

Get the pound (damn cheap stuff too - 1 pound of tofu is $1.60 or so... beef? chicken? not the same)... slick the extra firm brick into 5mm sheets... place on a dish towel (clean and cloth- remember the 3 Rs)... let the packing water leach out...

then put the dried slices back into the container (use the tofu in the plastic container not the boxes), and fill about 1/2 with soy sauce, add a bit of the afore mentioned seasoned rice vinegar, and some water to the top (I use a very strong soy sauce, so if you are using a lite or lighter version omit the water)...

let it marinate and soak the stuff up for a minute...

get a nice non-stick skillet hot with a layer of Extra virgin olive oil in there... get it and keep it hot but just below the smoke point (easy to do on gas... not so easy on electric)... and fry those strips of tofu up... If you want add a bit of fresh grated ginger to the marinate... (let em sit in the marinated for 30 minutes or more...)

If i had fried up 3 bricks of tofu it all would have been devoured... the stuff was wicked tastey...

One of those: "I gotta document this"

not to mention the Sushi rolls turned out perfectly... Its way easier to make sushi than build a wheel... way easier...

and the cost savings is huge - what i pay for is the access to quality fish (cause i like the raw fish)... but... find me a good retail source for it and i'm all over that...

Sushi (doesn't have to mean fish) is goooooooood....

gmap of tt course

I wonder how well that profile lines up with Solobreak's Polar data?

its showing an elevation change of 100 feet... which would be about right compared to SB's metric loving Polar kicking out 30 meters or so...

Sorry, even as a microscopist who uses µm and nm on a daily basis... my cycling mind is still stuck in the dark ages of the english units...

miles, feet, mph...

Power lines at 5 miles... Power the start and then keep speed up... follow advice...

oh and the facial hair - I believe ol' SB is refering to C-Burke's Harley goatee... and yeah C-Burke has a Harley...

and no this facial stuff ain't permanent... it comes and goes...

These "photochops" first hit the Internet on May 2, 2005 and -- uh -- the young lady who's the central figure isn't ...

Oh and... i'm clean... finally... i think i've managed to make it 3 weeks with one alcoholic beverage... and that was with dinner... last week... not that i'm saying i'm never gonna drink again... but... i think i've set out to accomplish what i have wanted to do... control it... set the limit on my genetic predisposition... but its strange to look around and realize the socialization around me with my friends is based on drinking and getting loaded... boss comes back and said "[vacation] was great, i got drunk every night and slept until 1pm" and me, instead of being 'cool' i was more like... 'that's not good'

oh well... next up... coffee... *yeah right*

I find myself less caring about the TdF than ever... did that sentence make sense? No. But the meaning is hidden in there and i'm not writing a press release so i ain't fixin it.

I didn't get TT updates from the big boys, i didn't find out the results until 20 minutes ago. And well... i just don't really seem to have a feeling one way or the other. My Velogames team is sitting back in 800 something... decent mid pack for this early...

tried to go watch some racing at Attleboro, but... well... the little one wanted nothing to do with it... run around and around and around... the oldest just wanted to eat candy... (those two candy pimps with the $100 Dicks gift certificate didn't make it easier)...

Saw the 35+ race, watched Ranger Rick Rusnak (yeah i know - his name is dave) make the break and finish with the group... Ran into one of the guys at work who's still riding unattached for the season, till he can decide what team brings the most guys to the races he enters.... (45+)... I'm trying to get him as a PVelo guy, and seein as we'll almost be neighbors soon (fingers crossed) that'd be sweet. He's a bit tall as well. Was racing his steel IF, but recently built up his Tanaka lugged steel bike cause he doesn't want to think what would happen to the IF in a crash...

(i told him he could always just get it fixed - but that didn't seem to make him feel any better about the thought of his baby getting smushed)...

So to top it all off... the damn car's hatch wouldn't close. If ya saw some tall dude trying repeatedly to shut the hatch on a black golf at the attleboro race... that was me... kids baking in the car, me unable to get it to latch... freaking hell!

even busted out the triple squares and tweaked the lower latch (thinking it was some alignment from the body shop)... no good...

Eventually, it closed... and we headed home, hot, frustrated, and not able to check out the rest of the races...

Anyway... Sunday we get up early to head to Tanglewood. Problem is. The Volvo needs an AC charge (i have the stuff, just need to get a can and to the barn with the hook up)... so we were going to take the golf. The kids seats were in it. 3/4 tank of B20... but... i needed to get the stroller in there... door opened. Door would not latch...

and would not latch... and would not latch... no time to take it apart... transfer stuff and girls to the volvo.. head out... less than two hours we arrive... It was a great concert the Ozawa hall is spectacular. Had fun chasing the girls around... the way back was wicked hot stuffy and with tripple the traffic...

a weekend in stark contrast to the last one.. no miles, driving...

we got back and well i took the damn back end of the car apart... I love working on the VWs cause once ya understand how it comes apart and goes together it makes perfect damn sense and usually is wicked elegant. The back hatch/latch what not was no different. Got the sumbitch apart. And its just a coroded sticking latch. could get a new one. Might be easy. But i found the secrect. There's a little hole ya can poke something in that will trip the latch and let it close.

So next time... i won't be stuck, pissed and sweating bullets...

Gimme one of these, anyone of em... http://pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=4166

Anyway - it was a weekend... made it through... actually for the first time on the pike not one hybrid was causing problems... Could be the fact that i saw a total of one insight, and no other hybrids...

anyway - maybe more later... word has it on the street that there'll be a guest appearance at the TT on Thursday...

back to the craziness that has interupted this flow for the last 2 hours... hell i haven't even opened tabs yet

but - a nice phone call... to BTD... has em sending out a proper set, with a return shipping label to collect the incorrect sizes...

Here's to hoping it's all set up.

Not as funny or as pricey as the guys who picked a set of 5 hole volvo alloys when i ordered 4 hole ones... shipping those rims there and back and then the right ones cost em more than I paid for the rims...

Ah well, they might get here before the Thursday TT...

or might not...

FUCKING HELL

ya know - that pictures showing cord (my tire)... well last week i ordered a pair of 700x28 Conti GP4 season...

Order sheet said 28... I clicked confirm...

invoice, billin sheet - said 28mm

i get a box this morning (a week after i ordered it - exactly as per the predicted delievery from UPS)...

open the box... two tires FREAKING SWEET... I was also some what impressed that they sent a little patch kit...

cool...

wait...

what size are these tires?

700x25? WHAT? FUCK...

check the invoice/packing slip... 700x28 right there, plain as day...

Check the boxes... 25,

Hmm well maybe the tires are just in 25 boxes...

nope... 25 25...

grumbly fuzzle sticks...

*sigh*

email sent...

waiting on reply...

guessing i have to run my extra 23 or 25s that i have kicking around... That or:

its a funny way of re-inforcing what i knew when i came back up climbing College Street... (the 11%+ grade)...

My legs are tired. Sore, and in need of some rebuilding recovery from the last week of effort. Just starting with Thursday last week, 48 miles and the TT, satuday 58 miles, sunday 73 miles, monday 10 miles, tuesday 50 miles, wednesday 8 miles, thusday 52 miles (total for the day).... dats a few miles for me legs... no wonder they felt like shit climbing the hill...

so maybe not having the 700x28s is okay for a few days... not to mention It looks like the girls and i will head over to Attle B for a race or two tomorrow (no riding) and sunday heading up to Tanglewood. So no riding this weekend. Might not have a hard effort until next thursday's TT... Give my body time to restore the glycogen levels to stasis. That and i have managed to lower my Body fat % over the last week. That's good (i think).

And the other thing... I like going fast... 35-38 mph That's fun... esp jumping out after a leadout...

I think maybe that's where my strength might lie... but... one fatal assumption: I'd have to make it to the point where i can actually USE that jump top speed...

I'm guessing based on my frontal area, that i have to be putting out over 350 watts for the TT lenght. Maybe 400... just to overcome the wind. At that speed. But if we go back a few months to the power vs area, (the comparison between me and KL) its no surpise...

same speed... forces are HUGE... now lets jump it back to the average... (these are using standard variables for the most part - may not accuately reflect KL, esp on her small wheels... so we use SB)... SB being average by most cycling size standards... assuming his weight is: 68, and mine being 88... i'd wager i'm well over 0.7 square meters of surface area.. and that SB is kickin around at 0.5 or so...

I'm gonna look at 0.7, 0.74 and 0.8 as areas...
yall can play along at the webside:
http://analyticcycling.com/ForcesSource_Page.html

And dude - that's freaking monsterous...

If i'm really 0.8 and cruising at 24 mph, SB (the test subject) would have to travel at a shade under 30mph to encounter the same total resistance force! And even with the same total those resistance numbers are much higher at the wheels... but the wind resistance is still much lower...

why'm i worrin about it all? well... it just shows, big sunsofbitches like me have a lot more to overcome than some tiny toothpick when it comes to a race against the clock. Sure leverage, potential for higher total watts is in the big fat ass favor, but... but i tell ya... that wind, that wind's a fuckin BITCH...

Oh and the TT results are indeeed on the webpage. Zoe Owens put in an 18:07 LAST week... riding cannibal... that girl is fast...

I'm incorrectly listed as Cat 5 and riding for Brown... I am a Cat 4 and riding for Providence Velo... but the times are correct...

Okay - Z-sectioning instruction time!

less grumpy about the tires right now but still rather pissed...

After all those miles, and having high hopes, and taking all the tubes, phone, pump, and tools out of my jersey pockets, taking the waterbottles off the bike...

I still managed pretty much exactly the same GD time as last week. I'm wondering if my muscles aren't quite fully repaired from the weekend flogging?

However, killer bright spot in that i was able to do it at a MUCH higher cadence than last time. Same power numbers, but the higher cadence IS a good thing. Maybe the power will come back if i let these twiggy guns rest a bit. Oh the time? 19:36...

Making me pretty confident that i'm just a freakin parachute... even with the wheels and the bars...

That and i didn't notice that much drag difference (power output) between the spinachi bars and the drops... But for this running of the TT i was able to stay in the "aero" position the whole time, last time i was dying, doggin it and in and out...

There was significant improvement in all aspects of the TT except my time. As Graham mentioned: "It happens in steps..." and i'm happy with these steps.

Oh and I haven't checked the course or the time but i may grab the two little girls and head over to the bike race... Look for big ass tall me, and my two little girls...

Oh poop - i almost forgot the more exciting part...

looking at the tires, just before the start... the front was showing cord in four or five spots and the rear... well the Beloki incident on Tuesday musta seen me lock it up a bit:



And the FnF hissef


Why i'm so slow without special equipement:

(courtesy of C-Burke - with my camera)

Okay - now i'm late...

time for the sprint to Ship Street