enegry value summary kinda sounds a bit like verbatim out of the powertap handbook...
worlds video is up!!! WOOOOOO
maybe some day i'll get to watch it...
oh and speaking of videos...
HJ's got the Woman's preview of Day#2 at G'ster.
If you watch the start ya can see some freak in an orange jumpsuit and short blond hair walking around
And as the director here says in his dutch accent "Its really something right now" ala cah-ray-zeeee
The ride back up the hill was fun, gotta look at the data to see what it was but numbers were at least up to just under 11w/kg for part of the steeper section... climbing in the 38x25...
I'm liking numbers...
and while not obsessing - they are cool, when i feel tired i can see the numbers drop, when i start off and see how much i'm dumping to the legs i can say 'dude what are you doing' and cut back to more reasonable numbers... for instance cruising along at 5w/kg knowing i should really stay down below 3.5w/kg till i'm warmed up a bit more...
Also the long open stretch this morning before heading up the hill following the dude, i was ticking over just under and around the 3w/kg range which made it possible i think to unload the sustained 8w/kg up the hill...
I keep reminding myself that, these numbers only mean something to me... sure you can be relative to others, and reality is such that watts/kg are better to use when writing them down. And nice thing is the kg is based on your nekkid weight... meaning how much cloths you wear or how full the trailer is has no bearing on your potential or recorded output.
okay with all that said...
power is freaking cool...
and damn... i'm one slow mo fo
peace
-g
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
ugh
head hurts - sleep was like i didn't sleep - tired - so tired... no coffee at home rode in on dead legs...
fixed the cadence pick up tho - getting consistent readings... managed to keep it above 80 pretty easily all day... wattage not much different... okay - i was tired... and slow... but got passed just before climbing the hill up to the Vet and hung with the guy climbing like zoo... i was ticking out over 500 watts all the way up from the glances i had. In my stupor leaving i decided not to take the case with the link and didn't erase yesterday's data before leaving, or after i DL'd it. Me feeling silly.
just trying to suck down as much coffee as possible... before heading down to the other facility. The trip back up might be the first chance to check out how much power it takes to haul my fat ass up college hill road what ever it is called...
So i sign off - in caloric and sleep debt... hoping the brief jaunt sans trailer through the city at 27°F (its warmed up a bit) wakes me up enough to talk coherently for 2 hours straight.
fixed the cadence pick up tho - getting consistent readings... managed to keep it above 80 pretty easily all day... wattage not much different... okay - i was tired... and slow... but got passed just before climbing the hill up to the Vet and hung with the guy climbing like zoo... i was ticking out over 500 watts all the way up from the glances i had. In my stupor leaving i decided not to take the case with the link and didn't erase yesterday's data before leaving, or after i DL'd it. Me feeling silly.
just trying to suck down as much coffee as possible... before heading down to the other facility. The trip back up might be the first chance to check out how much power it takes to haul my fat ass up college hill road what ever it is called...
So i sign off - in caloric and sleep debt... hoping the brief jaunt sans trailer through the city at 27°F (its warmed up a bit) wakes me up enough to talk coherently for 2 hours straight.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
musing from the couch while watching my daughter sleep
So it has been a day. A day at home with a feverish kid. Viral attacks are tough. We managed to cram her and her violin, her backpack, and the warm water bottles in the trailer and scoot home along the bike path… Wattage numbers for the end of the day were pretty mellow, but I did noticed the cadence kept dropping out. I know I was well over the min I’d go from ticking over at 90 rpm to - - - - - and back again without changing the pedaling rhythm. So after lubing the chain I tipped the angle of the pick up a bit closer to see if that helps tomorrow’s numbers. Assuming I’m headed in on the bike and the oldest is off to school.
Heading home last night was kinda nice – too dark to see the numbers. I am planning on not really changing much consciously with the yellow buddy, at least not for a little while. After yesterday’s headwind and then the sprint this AM, followed by a couple more intense efforts on the way to the school my legs are letting me know – that was fine but it was more than just nothing. I think this morning’s 1300 bought is easily duplicated. What would be nice to see is if I can make it repeatable and longer, ie through down regularly AND beable to sustain it more than 30 seconds or a minute. Although 1300 watts for a minute probably could be outside my range for this year. Maybe next year with work and specific focus. But then…. How will that make me faster on the cross bike? I think getting a better starting position will improve my results on the cross bike more than anything else. But that’s a whole different matter.
Diggin through boxes of books that need to be cleaned and sorted from being out in the barn for a while I came across a picture and a note from a friend who used to tear up the woman’s road racing field back in 95 and 96…. Maybe even 97 and 98 too… got me thinking, I wonder if ne-bra has all the old results going back that far.
The note said “here’s a shot of me for the shop on my bike… “This is from the last day of the 4 day stage race I did in July. It’s the crit..” Goes on to say “Tomorrow is Haverill. IT’s going to be rainy, but I’m glad it’s the last one.”
The note is dated 9/7/96 … I wonder how FnF’s photographic memory is of that race… or if he was even racing that weekend… I was hard core mechanic back then. I built her bike. A gorgeous Lemond, with Campy, Athena IIRC. Got a screaming deal from lemond, before he sold out to Trek, I mean made a deal with the devil, I mean joined the big corporation that kept a couple small boutique names alive through the mid-90s. Maybe I’ll scan the image in so everyone can see the beautiful bike I built.
Now some of you may be able to recall that Haverhill race rather easily, I can remember building that bike… that headset, working like an anal freak to get that Campy threaded headset just perfect, using campy grease, careful not to mark up the aluminum locknut. Doing the whole 9 yards of frame prep, carefully facing every surface and chasing every thread. The fun stuff of building a bike.
The beauty of building a new bike back then with campy is that even the new grease was clean, a dull off white but still clean. Giving the frame a handful of coats of pledge (lemon scented and not the off brand, only the real stuff)…. Getting paid the few bucks an hour to work on bikes like that was pretty damn cool. I never got tired of doing stuff. Okay when it was cold and snowy and students would bring in the bikes with a flat tire and its below freezing outside and the bike is a solid mess of salty slush and dirt… that got old quick… Taking a solid axle huffy-types rear wheel off with dirty slush dropping down on the bike box remnants scattered around the floor in hopes of collecting most of the junk just isn’t the same as building a nice Steel frame with Campy stuff. I’m talking OLD school, not a single cartridge bearing to be found on that bike. The bike boxes on the floor actually did a good job of mostly filtering the dirt and salt… still puddles of water everywhere but the dirt and salt mostly stayed on top of the boxes, until we stepped in it and tracked it all over the carpet in the shop. Not that the accidental skids on the rug from racing laps around the center rack of bikes was doing much to keep it looking good (the newbies on their knees scrubbing with degreaser to spread the black around and make it look less noticeable just seemed to make the industrial grey carpet closer to black).
I should really probably get the Rolf wheel working. But then, ya know what else I found today. An email I printed out. I sent off a note to Deitric Rolf himself. And got a nice reply in return thanking me for my feedback and positive impression of the wheels. Now with that powertap, the rear one, well might not get much use… so I really should see about making the front work. Thing is. I actually have spokes for it. Pretty sure I’ve got front and rear spokes. Just no nipples, nor that funky sized nipple driver, nor the big tensioning box.
Ah well –
Interruptions – and a final thought. The twelve most important products to eat organic. Now my sis-in-law’s pediatrician says if you are going to do ANYTHING organic buy organic milk as it is the most important for the kids. I think the assumption is that they want the kids drinking milk like water… Anyway the this article (in NickJr family mag – free at daycare) has this as a sidebar…
“The Dirty Dozen”
“according to the Environmental Working Group, your pesticide exposure can be reduced by as much as 90 percent by eating organic varieties of these 12 foods, known as the “dirty dozen”:
Apples
Bell Peppers
Celery
Cherries
Imported Grapes
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Red Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries
90% reduction by buying organic in those specific foods. Think about that when ya getting that 5 pound bag of potatoes… the organic one next to it might be a dollar more ($0.20/#) but isn’t that worth the reduction in pesticides? Sure the levels ain’t high enough to kill you. Or probably do major damage.
But think in terms of lead poisoning and mercury and other toxins and the levels they are harmful at. Pretty damn freaking low. Pesticides shouldn’t really be trifled with.
The thing is, there is an alternative. The article that goes with it challenged a family to go organic. They went organic and local when in season. Costs didn’t really increase that much. There are statistics that often list how much more going organic will cost you… generally its in the twenty cents range. Obviously varies by market and market driven competition. But its not that much higher and in the environmental overall scheme of things when we talk about your global footprint. Saving the couple of dimes going non-organic is probably going to cost future generations thousands of dollars or more per instance. That or I’m just being wildly sensationalistic.
It is a tough call. But look at those around you dosed up on meds for all sorts of things… toxins typically are cumulative. Keep em out as you grow old and what not, you’ll have a higher quality of life for sure.
It is about what you eat. You don’t have to be vegan to save the world. You just have to be as conscious as a vegan when purchasing/selecting food. Yeah, it can be one hell of a lot of work. But… what rewards aren’t? Cycling? Sure some people just toss a leg over the bike and they win races… others work like freaking dogs and slowly improve maybe never winning a race, but the rewards for them aren’t in medals. Cycling is a way of life. As is eating well.
Food is important. I’m lucky. I’m churning out 1500-1700 calories (if the little power tap booklet is to be believed with their efficiency conversions and what not) just commuting. I can eat volumously. Downside, is finding volumous quantities of good food on a budget. It is possible. Fortunately.
Well time to make up some salad (organic red leaf lettuce), some annies mac and cheese (sick kid and mom needing to turn around and get back to work to finish a lecture makes it a simple night), and some nice roasted sweet and regular potatoes. Nothing too complex.
Wow what a ramble… this is G signing off…
Oh and I like writing btw. I think its because I read so much... I hated writing in English classes, loved it in history and science and wrote tomes of letters to former GFs (wife included)… writing here is like talking… except I don’t have to know if people make it all the way through, or start rolling their eyes before I get my idea fully flushed out… it is a nice feeling… if anyone made it all the way through this… wow… congrats… I’ll give you a hug or something if I see you in person.
G
Heading home last night was kinda nice – too dark to see the numbers. I am planning on not really changing much consciously with the yellow buddy, at least not for a little while. After yesterday’s headwind and then the sprint this AM, followed by a couple more intense efforts on the way to the school my legs are letting me know – that was fine but it was more than just nothing. I think this morning’s 1300 bought is easily duplicated. What would be nice to see is if I can make it repeatable and longer, ie through down regularly AND beable to sustain it more than 30 seconds or a minute. Although 1300 watts for a minute probably could be outside my range for this year. Maybe next year with work and specific focus. But then…. How will that make me faster on the cross bike? I think getting a better starting position will improve my results on the cross bike more than anything else. But that’s a whole different matter.
Diggin through boxes of books that need to be cleaned and sorted from being out in the barn for a while I came across a picture and a note from a friend who used to tear up the woman’s road racing field back in 95 and 96…. Maybe even 97 and 98 too… got me thinking, I wonder if ne-bra has all the old results going back that far.
The note said “here’s a shot of me for the shop on my bike… “This is from the last day of the 4 day stage race I did in July. It’s the crit..” Goes on to say “Tomorrow is Haverill. IT’s going to be rainy, but I’m glad it’s the last one.”
The note is dated 9/7/96 … I wonder how FnF’s photographic memory is of that race… or if he was even racing that weekend… I was hard core mechanic back then. I built her bike. A gorgeous Lemond, with Campy, Athena IIRC. Got a screaming deal from lemond, before he sold out to Trek, I mean made a deal with the devil, I mean joined the big corporation that kept a couple small boutique names alive through the mid-90s. Maybe I’ll scan the image in so everyone can see the beautiful bike I built.
Now some of you may be able to recall that Haverhill race rather easily, I can remember building that bike… that headset, working like an anal freak to get that Campy threaded headset just perfect, using campy grease, careful not to mark up the aluminum locknut. Doing the whole 9 yards of frame prep, carefully facing every surface and chasing every thread. The fun stuff of building a bike.
The beauty of building a new bike back then with campy is that even the new grease was clean, a dull off white but still clean. Giving the frame a handful of coats of pledge (lemon scented and not the off brand, only the real stuff)…. Getting paid the few bucks an hour to work on bikes like that was pretty damn cool. I never got tired of doing stuff. Okay when it was cold and snowy and students would bring in the bikes with a flat tire and its below freezing outside and the bike is a solid mess of salty slush and dirt… that got old quick… Taking a solid axle huffy-types rear wheel off with dirty slush dropping down on the bike box remnants scattered around the floor in hopes of collecting most of the junk just isn’t the same as building a nice Steel frame with Campy stuff. I’m talking OLD school, not a single cartridge bearing to be found on that bike. The bike boxes on the floor actually did a good job of mostly filtering the dirt and salt… still puddles of water everywhere but the dirt and salt mostly stayed on top of the boxes, until we stepped in it and tracked it all over the carpet in the shop. Not that the accidental skids on the rug from racing laps around the center rack of bikes was doing much to keep it looking good (the newbies on their knees scrubbing with degreaser to spread the black around and make it look less noticeable just seemed to make the industrial grey carpet closer to black).
I should really probably get the Rolf wheel working. But then, ya know what else I found today. An email I printed out. I sent off a note to Deitric Rolf himself. And got a nice reply in return thanking me for my feedback and positive impression of the wheels. Now with that powertap, the rear one, well might not get much use… so I really should see about making the front work. Thing is. I actually have spokes for it. Pretty sure I’ve got front and rear spokes. Just no nipples, nor that funky sized nipple driver, nor the big tensioning box.
Ah well –
Interruptions – and a final thought. The twelve most important products to eat organic. Now my sis-in-law’s pediatrician says if you are going to do ANYTHING organic buy organic milk as it is the most important for the kids. I think the assumption is that they want the kids drinking milk like water… Anyway the this article (in NickJr family mag – free at daycare) has this as a sidebar…
“The Dirty Dozen”
“according to the Environmental Working Group, your pesticide exposure can be reduced by as much as 90 percent by eating organic varieties of these 12 foods, known as the “dirty dozen”:
Apples
Bell Peppers
Celery
Cherries
Imported Grapes
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Potatoes
Red Raspberries
Spinach
Strawberries
90% reduction by buying organic in those specific foods. Think about that when ya getting that 5 pound bag of potatoes… the organic one next to it might be a dollar more ($0.20/#) but isn’t that worth the reduction in pesticides? Sure the levels ain’t high enough to kill you. Or probably do major damage.
But think in terms of lead poisoning and mercury and other toxins and the levels they are harmful at. Pretty damn freaking low. Pesticides shouldn’t really be trifled with.
The thing is, there is an alternative. The article that goes with it challenged a family to go organic. They went organic and local when in season. Costs didn’t really increase that much. There are statistics that often list how much more going organic will cost you… generally its in the twenty cents range. Obviously varies by market and market driven competition. But its not that much higher and in the environmental overall scheme of things when we talk about your global footprint. Saving the couple of dimes going non-organic is probably going to cost future generations thousands of dollars or more per instance. That or I’m just being wildly sensationalistic.
It is a tough call. But look at those around you dosed up on meds for all sorts of things… toxins typically are cumulative. Keep em out as you grow old and what not, you’ll have a higher quality of life for sure.
It is about what you eat. You don’t have to be vegan to save the world. You just have to be as conscious as a vegan when purchasing/selecting food. Yeah, it can be one hell of a lot of work. But… what rewards aren’t? Cycling? Sure some people just toss a leg over the bike and they win races… others work like freaking dogs and slowly improve maybe never winning a race, but the rewards for them aren’t in medals. Cycling is a way of life. As is eating well.
Food is important. I’m lucky. I’m churning out 1500-1700 calories (if the little power tap booklet is to be believed with their efficiency conversions and what not) just commuting. I can eat volumously. Downside, is finding volumous quantities of good food on a budget. It is possible. Fortunately.
Well time to make up some salad (organic red leaf lettuce), some annies mac and cheese (sick kid and mom needing to turn around and get back to work to finish a lecture makes it a simple night), and some nice roasted sweet and regular potatoes. Nothing too complex.
Wow what a ramble… this is G signing off…
Oh and I like writing btw. I think its because I read so much... I hated writing in English classes, loved it in history and science and wrote tomes of letters to former GFs (wife included)… writing here is like talking… except I don’t have to know if people make it all the way through, or start rolling their eyes before I get my idea fully flushed out… it is a nice feeling… if anyone made it all the way through this… wow… congrats… I’ll give you a hug or something if I see you in person.
G
This morning, by the numbers
slow... much less power... i was tired, had about 1/4 the amount of coffee (ran out of time and poured it all in a thermos)... and with one daughter waking up with a start at 2:30 and NOT falling back asleep, and the other one waking up then, and then again at 4am... the 4am time was the real deal... she threw up... at least she's old enough to make it to the bathroom... thankfully the 1/2 bath on the second floor is there...
so tired and with no head wind, and extra layers to stave off the 15°F temps i head out. With the little one in the trailer. Yup. She got an extra layer on and my platypus bladder below the legs to boot. TOASTY. Wicked damn toasty this morning.
So the numbers.
Slow. If you take out the last hill where i decided to see if i could break my frame, they are low.
I'm a diesel now more than ever. It is abnormal a bit usually i THINK i'm higher than this cadence wise but then maybe the higher cadence rides are the anomaly.
Starting from the bottom this time:
HR: Av 127 (skewed cause i walked the bike in a bit i think)
Cadence: Av 69
Energy: 623
Distance: 10.7 miles
Speed: MX 21.9 (yup slow - but the trailer... well that makes a slight difference)
Speed: Av 11.3
Watts: Av 208 hey whadda ya know - i was 'slower' or less powerful on average
Watts: MX 1337 (49x15 sprint up hill, should be clear on the chart if i have time to make one)
Sitting here right now waiting for coffee to brew... my legs are feeling it.
Public props to the SuperhuMAN Yogurt Boy. You see Mr Feltslave commuted to work. Whats the big deal? Well he lives in Fahkin NEW HAMPSHIRE... it was -5°F there this morning. Props to that tough (maybe crazy) MoFo!
Props to the gal who stayed with us at nats, yeah i'm talking Peanut. She did great. And must not be omitted from praise and props going out to the whole team USA that REPRESENTED WHOOT
Well... school nurse has the oldest... short day for me. Peace out pimps!
G
so tired and with no head wind, and extra layers to stave off the 15°F temps i head out. With the little one in the trailer. Yup. She got an extra layer on and my platypus bladder below the legs to boot. TOASTY. Wicked damn toasty this morning.
So the numbers.
Slow. If you take out the last hill where i decided to see if i could break my frame, they are low.
I'm a diesel now more than ever. It is abnormal a bit usually i THINK i'm higher than this cadence wise but then maybe the higher cadence rides are the anomaly.
Starting from the bottom this time:
HR: Av 127 (skewed cause i walked the bike in a bit i think)
Cadence: Av 69
Energy: 623
Distance: 10.7 miles
Speed: MX 21.9 (yup slow - but the trailer... well that makes a slight difference)
Speed: Av 11.3
Watts: Av 208 hey whadda ya know - i was 'slower' or less powerful on average
Watts: MX 1337 (49x15 sprint up hill, should be clear on the chart if i have time to make one)
Sitting here right now waiting for coffee to brew... my legs are feeling it.
Public props to the SuperhuMAN Yogurt Boy. You see Mr Feltslave commuted to work. Whats the big deal? Well he lives in Fahkin NEW HAMPSHIRE... it was -5°F there this morning. Props to that tough (maybe crazy) MoFo!
Props to the gal who stayed with us at nats, yeah i'm talking Peanut. She did great. And must not be omitted from praise and props going out to the whole team USA that REPRESENTED WHOOT
Well... school nurse has the oldest... short day for me. Peace out pimps!
G
Monday, January 29, 2007
a picture of the ride
a picture using the data collected on this little yellow training buddy of mine...those starts and stops in the city streets kinda make for a messy display...
that first stretch with the power (yellow) line is the bike path, into the wind, the bit there where the yellow line drops down, that's the down hill before the bridge...
Seems the HR drops out occasionally, and the max speed was definately NOT obtained, not shown on the unit... but *shrug*
it'll be fun and annoying, annoying in the way a good coach can be... and since its not a person there's no excuses for low numbers... they are just low numbers...
gotta decide if i DL at night or during the day... gonna try ta do it at night to keep the dates somewhat clean... not that that would matter if i keep em separate rides...
And yeah - the trailer makes a difference... maybe too much of a difference if i need an 'easy' day...
Lots of good stuff out there. Kinda the last gasp for cross bloggers and news folks.
One not to miss is this:
http://crossbabble.blogspot.com/2007/01/bart-wellens-is-turd.html
Bart Wellens a Turd? Well yup i'd tend to agree. On the other hand, if Nys and him didn't get all taken out by the quad and the block... oh well... that's why the race the race...
luck plays a big part of it... i expect Bart to be mature enough to take his lumps when the shizzle doesn't land his way... I'm sure lots of other guys felt like they deserve to be on the podium... but hey... they raced the race... and the winner won...
now just imagine if JP had KNOWN he was in first and was pouring on the coal... would he have blown everyone away and come away with the impossible?
And Katie? Maybe next year silver won't be enough. Will Summerhill keep racing cross up through the U23 ranks and maintain his level and dominance in the Elites? Or will he burn out like so many juniors?
Till next year when the mud hits the fan. Till next year when Cross commands our attention once again.
Till then we've gotta contend with the possibility of boring old road racing...
that and powertap data...
mmm
powertap...
peace,
G
I'm Tapped
It was enough excitement to keep me from remembering to check the world's results...
for all of 5 minutes...
GO USA... Silver Silver Silver...
DAMN that's freaking AWESOME!!!
JP is da man
we know katie is inhuman and she kicked some ASS
not to mention Summerhill!
lots for me to read and catch up on - might not get much of a chance to do much more than see results for a bit...
Oh well...
Until i DL the data the numbers i'll leave the commute in terms of displays on the Head Unit... the headwind today made for some crazy numbers... i should explain the peak (without graph to back it up) i was leaving a stop sign, in little ring (38x23) and stood up and gave it a quick effort, not an all out effort tho...
WATTS: MX 941 AV 245
Speed: MX 20 Av 11.5
Cadence: Av 69
Energy: 727
HR: Av 138
Distance: 10.69 miles
Wind: From NW at 17 mph gusting to 22 mph (pretty much headwind)
might have to wait till tonight to DL data (at least our laptop has a serial port)
i think it will be good... kinda like a training partner, esp the cadence bit... i was dippin kinda low and well ya know these don't display below 54 or something so... i should never not see cadence on there, today. climbing it was all - - - - - -
anyway...
Cross - awesome...
and over...
time to start actually riding again with focus on the next race and the next season...
i haven't looked past battenkill yet... prolly should...
peace,
G
for all of 5 minutes...
GO USA... Silver Silver Silver...
DAMN that's freaking AWESOME!!!
JP is da man
we know katie is inhuman and she kicked some ASS
not to mention Summerhill!
lots for me to read and catch up on - might not get much of a chance to do much more than see results for a bit...
Oh well...
Until i DL the data the numbers i'll leave the commute in terms of displays on the Head Unit... the headwind today made for some crazy numbers... i should explain the peak (without graph to back it up) i was leaving a stop sign, in little ring (38x23) and stood up and gave it a quick effort, not an all out effort tho...
WATTS: MX 941 AV 245
Speed: MX 20 Av 11.5
Cadence: Av 69
Energy: 727
HR: Av 138
Distance: 10.69 miles
Wind: From NW at 17 mph gusting to 22 mph (pretty much headwind)
might have to wait till tonight to DL data (at least our laptop has a serial port)
i think it will be good... kinda like a training partner, esp the cadence bit... i was dippin kinda low and well ya know these don't display below 54 or something so... i should never not see cadence on there, today. climbing it was all - - - - - -
anyway...
Cross - awesome...
and over...
time to start actually riding again with focus on the next race and the next season...
i haven't looked past battenkill yet... prolly should...
peace,
G
Friday, January 26, 2007
well bike racers
yes - i'm stealing CTodd's words.
It is worlds weekend. I might get lucky enough to hear an update before i get to work on monday. Might. But not counting on it.
It is cold.
And windy now.
At least the wind will be at my back.
If i start getting bundled up now, i might be able to leave at a normal time.
At least the sun is setting later and later. 4:53pm today. We haven't broken the 5pm mark yet. But we are getting close.
Very exciting.
It will be night six on this battery charge. Six nights of running that old school 15 watt halogen lamp. Add the weekend with no use, and tuesday (early ride home in the light) and we've got quite a long time since the charge. If i can go a whole week on this wonder cell. Boy i'd be tickled. Not only that but more or less ready for a 24 hour race. Yeah. Me like that stuff. Anyway. Its a good night for the battery to die if it does decide there aren't enough amps left. Reason 1: no trailer, just me on the bike. Reason 2: there'll probably be just enough juice in the old battery that still on the bike. Yeah. I've been riding with TWO 5 cell battery packs on the bike (only one actually hooked up at a time).
So.
Bike racers.
Those living it up large.
eat, drink and stay warm...
Oh...
drinking...
reminds me...
hydration things... i rode in a bit dehydrated this week and noticed the same damn dead feeling i had in my legs during the national event (friday, when feldman called me an Asshole in the race)... i was drinking like a fish before the race, but i think the few days leading up I was under hydrated and no amount of fluid intake within the hours before the event was gonna get my fibers floating. I'm too freaking long and big to expect instant hydration results...
okay...
there got that out of the brain - i'm sure a big more sh!t's rattlin around that i need to get out - its just rattlin around in the back right now...
peace...
-g
It is worlds weekend. I might get lucky enough to hear an update before i get to work on monday. Might. But not counting on it.
It is cold.
And windy now.
At least the wind will be at my back.
If i start getting bundled up now, i might be able to leave at a normal time.
At least the sun is setting later and later. 4:53pm today. We haven't broken the 5pm mark yet. But we are getting close.
Very exciting.
It will be night six on this battery charge. Six nights of running that old school 15 watt halogen lamp. Add the weekend with no use, and tuesday (early ride home in the light) and we've got quite a long time since the charge. If i can go a whole week on this wonder cell. Boy i'd be tickled. Not only that but more or less ready for a 24 hour race. Yeah. Me like that stuff. Anyway. Its a good night for the battery to die if it does decide there aren't enough amps left. Reason 1: no trailer, just me on the bike. Reason 2: there'll probably be just enough juice in the old battery that still on the bike. Yeah. I've been riding with TWO 5 cell battery packs on the bike (only one actually hooked up at a time).
So.
Bike racers.
Those living it up large.
eat, drink and stay warm...
Oh...
drinking...
reminds me...
hydration things... i rode in a bit dehydrated this week and noticed the same damn dead feeling i had in my legs during the national event (friday, when feldman called me an Asshole in the race)... i was drinking like a fish before the race, but i think the few days leading up I was under hydrated and no amount of fluid intake within the hours before the event was gonna get my fibers floating. I'm too freaking long and big to expect instant hydration results...
okay...
there got that out of the brain - i'm sure a big more sh!t's rattlin around that i need to get out - its just rattlin around in the back right now...
peace...
-g
Battenkill reports from last year
I thought i remember reading one in my email but can't find it...
so i started searching (while waiting for an appointment to show)
2006-battenkill-roubaix-report_16.html
well that's what its like riding in the back of the Cat 3 field... prolly not much different than riding in the back of a 30+ field ;)
battenkill2006.html
nerac041706.html
battenkill-cat-3-race-report-scott-brooks-april-15
of course you must read the Solobreak entry (no direct link so go to his April archives and scroll down to the 16th.)
If any one else has links or a good race report for the BkR Race pop the links up...
honestly... one thing i'm not super good at...
going down hill... i LOVE going up... and that right there will prolly be enough to have me sitting about where most of those report writers were... 12-15 riders in front of DFL... me? prolly be lucky NOT to be DFL...
goal? stay with the lead pack... contend the climbs... survive the descents and tempo out the stuff in between... one variable? Weather... i wonder what the weather will be like in April this year...
so i started searching (while waiting for an appointment to show)
2006-battenkill-roubaix-report_16.html
well that's what its like riding in the back of the Cat 3 field... prolly not much different than riding in the back of a 30+ field ;)
battenkill2006.html
nerac041706.html
battenkill-cat-3-race-report-scott-brooks-april-15
of course you must read the Solobreak entry (no direct link so go to his April archives and scroll down to the 16th.)
If any one else has links or a good race report for the BkR Race pop the links up...
honestly... one thing i'm not super good at...
going down hill... i LOVE going up... and that right there will prolly be enough to have me sitting about where most of those report writers were... 12-15 riders in front of DFL... me? prolly be lucky NOT to be DFL...
goal? stay with the lead pack... contend the climbs... survive the descents and tempo out the stuff in between... one variable? Weather... i wonder what the weather will be like in April this year...
post 700
just noticed...
everyone's been saying "its too cold, you much drive"
BS...
FAWESOME OUT THERE...
not cold (okay it IS cold but i wasn't).
In fact I was a touch over dressed in the core.
No trailer. Just me, and extra layers and lunch in the bag (just in case what i had wasn't enough clothes.
the HH mittens over my long finger cycling gloves was enough to have my hand sweating. The REI baselayer, and the bellweather jersey and the sugoi jacket with the Adidas balaclava and a lightspeed bandana over the nose was great. Busted out the black bell image pro helmet with the packing tape over the vents. Put on the requisite base layer of bib shorts, followed by long wool socks (mid calf) and the bib tights... topped off with my fat jeans (36x36) my c-dal 'muter shoes and not quite velcroed up shimano purple and blue neoprene (circa 1990 ish) booties.
Wind was strong enough to have me leaning the bike into it.
Steam coming off the bay was gorgeous. Didn't want to stop and take a picture tho. Too cold.
No frost bite.
Feel fantastic.
read fatmarc's requiem... its good. As classes are starting, as we've added new capacity here. I may back off into a users not a pusher... feeling less obligated to document where i've been and what i found cool on the 'net... ie other links... I'll still read when i get a chance... but reflections will come at a different pace i think.
Its just that time of year.
That and with the cyclocross worlds this weekend. maybe its time for the off season to really start.
Yeah right.
I'll probably have a new toy i want to document the numbers from, i do have to sort of prepare for this roubaix thing, and damn it... commuting on days like today make me feel freaking alive. besides i'm too damn stubborn to give in to all that hoopla of "its too cold"
HAVE YOU WATCHED MARCH OF THE PENGUINS?
Those dudes were out there bare handing fuycking Cameras and lemme tell you... it was WAY FAHKING colder down there than up here...
Not to mention Jill...
In michigan i commuted a handful of days with a wind chill of -40 (doesn't matter F or C its the same at that temp). and the wind was only blowing around 5 mph. Sure my commute was only 4 miles not 10... but if ya warm enough for a 4 mile commute, you'll be warm enough for a 10 miler.
Granted. It is a bit warmed down here than up in New Hampster and in suds land of Canukistan. But... Cold... its awesome.
Stop bitching about it, get out in it everyday... can't say enough good stuff about it.
eat well... smile at strangers... listen to others...
peace,
G
everyone's been saying "its too cold, you much drive"
BS...
FAWESOME OUT THERE...
not cold (okay it IS cold but i wasn't).
In fact I was a touch over dressed in the core.
No trailer. Just me, and extra layers and lunch in the bag (just in case what i had wasn't enough clothes.
the HH mittens over my long finger cycling gloves was enough to have my hand sweating. The REI baselayer, and the bellweather jersey and the sugoi jacket with the Adidas balaclava and a lightspeed bandana over the nose was great. Busted out the black bell image pro helmet with the packing tape over the vents. Put on the requisite base layer of bib shorts, followed by long wool socks (mid calf) and the bib tights... topped off with my fat jeans (36x36) my c-dal 'muter shoes and not quite velcroed up shimano purple and blue neoprene (circa 1990 ish) booties.
Wind was strong enough to have me leaning the bike into it.
Steam coming off the bay was gorgeous. Didn't want to stop and take a picture tho. Too cold.
No frost bite.
Feel fantastic.
read fatmarc's requiem... its good. As classes are starting, as we've added new capacity here. I may back off into a users not a pusher... feeling less obligated to document where i've been and what i found cool on the 'net... ie other links... I'll still read when i get a chance... but reflections will come at a different pace i think.
Its just that time of year.
That and with the cyclocross worlds this weekend. maybe its time for the off season to really start.
Yeah right.
I'll probably have a new toy i want to document the numbers from, i do have to sort of prepare for this roubaix thing, and damn it... commuting on days like today make me feel freaking alive. besides i'm too damn stubborn to give in to all that hoopla of "its too cold"
HAVE YOU WATCHED MARCH OF THE PENGUINS?
Those dudes were out there bare handing fuycking Cameras and lemme tell you... it was WAY FAHKING colder down there than up here...
Not to mention Jill...
In michigan i commuted a handful of days with a wind chill of -40 (doesn't matter F or C its the same at that temp). and the wind was only blowing around 5 mph. Sure my commute was only 4 miles not 10... but if ya warm enough for a 4 mile commute, you'll be warm enough for a 10 miler.
Granted. It is a bit warmed down here than up in New Hampster and in suds land of Canukistan. But... Cold... its awesome.
Stop bitching about it, get out in it everyday... can't say enough good stuff about it.
eat well... smile at strangers... listen to others...
peace,
G
Thursday, January 25, 2007
one Paczki down
two to go...
riding in was great - cool, but nice... Clear crisp air - new Coal bulker unloading on the waterfront...
one to go...
more coffee and soon, factory training...
nothing like sitting on a new bit of equipment learning from the 'factory' guys how to use it...
actually...
pretty GD exciting!!!
its gonna be cold tomorrow...
but like Alaska Jill has discovered, staying warm when its dry and cold is a piece of cake (for the most part). Stay'n warm when its wet out is different.
Sounds like she's got it figured out.
I wish there was a way i could say for sure that the little one would be warm in the trailer in the single digits...
at this point i know she's very warm down to 20°F but so far everyone's balking at letting me see if i can test the envelope a bit further. And i can't as a good dad push much more myself...
Couple things may need to be addressed a bit, potentially the wind screen and the amount of air it lets through. On the other hand, she'll get colder prolly in the car initially (until the car warms up enough to re-heat them).
So, begging the question, its it better to be cool for 40 minutes or to get really cold for 15 and then warm up?
And those who caught the nod-cast from the weekend. Yes, Solobreak is in possession of my powertap. Plans and hopes that i can grab it Saturday morning and have some nummas on monday... at which time i'll be freaking TAPPED... no more pluggin in funky guesstimates at analytical cycling.
That and i've been thinking about the bob beal race... and when i got popped and why... fitness #1... i was okay going over the hill... but hitting the down hill side and the next slight rise when the pack juiced it, i wasn't recovered from the hill effort and had dug in too deep on the first 1/2 a lap chillin up near the front and then for a moment sitting there wondering WTF am i doing breaking the fucking wind for the whole fucking pack... race with brains... need to train the brain now as much as i need to train the legs... the legs can get me over the hills, but will the brain not fucking sabotage them?
Oh and when making glass knives for trimming the blocks doing ultramicrotmy every once in a while ya make THE PERFECT knife... only to use it to trim down the face... but with the perfect knife, trimming the trapazoid (0.5 mm x 0.25 mm) is pure bliss...
peace,
and remember... its not if your food has meat or what not in it, its about the quality of said food you are injesting. It will probably take me a couple months to blow clear the paczki crap from my system... i don't suggest you try these at home folks...
peace, smile, say hey to folks... be a good citizen of this planet of ours!
G
riding in was great - cool, but nice... Clear crisp air - new Coal bulker unloading on the waterfront...
one to go...
more coffee and soon, factory training...
nothing like sitting on a new bit of equipment learning from the 'factory' guys how to use it...
actually...
pretty GD exciting!!!
its gonna be cold tomorrow...
but like Alaska Jill has discovered, staying warm when its dry and cold is a piece of cake (for the most part). Stay'n warm when its wet out is different.
Sounds like she's got it figured out.
I wish there was a way i could say for sure that the little one would be warm in the trailer in the single digits...
at this point i know she's very warm down to 20°F but so far everyone's balking at letting me see if i can test the envelope a bit further. And i can't as a good dad push much more myself...
Couple things may need to be addressed a bit, potentially the wind screen and the amount of air it lets through. On the other hand, she'll get colder prolly in the car initially (until the car warms up enough to re-heat them).
So, begging the question, its it better to be cool for 40 minutes or to get really cold for 15 and then warm up?
And those who caught the nod-cast from the weekend. Yes, Solobreak is in possession of my powertap. Plans and hopes that i can grab it Saturday morning and have some nummas on monday... at which time i'll be freaking TAPPED... no more pluggin in funky guesstimates at analytical cycling.
That and i've been thinking about the bob beal race... and when i got popped and why... fitness #1... i was okay going over the hill... but hitting the down hill side and the next slight rise when the pack juiced it, i wasn't recovered from the hill effort and had dug in too deep on the first 1/2 a lap chillin up near the front and then for a moment sitting there wondering WTF am i doing breaking the fucking wind for the whole fucking pack... race with brains... need to train the brain now as much as i need to train the legs... the legs can get me over the hills, but will the brain not fucking sabotage them?
Oh and when making glass knives for trimming the blocks doing ultramicrotmy every once in a while ya make THE PERFECT knife... only to use it to trim down the face... but with the perfect knife, trimming the trapazoid (0.5 mm x 0.25 mm) is pure bliss...
peace,
and remember... its not if your food has meat or what not in it, its about the quality of said food you are injesting. It will probably take me a couple months to blow clear the paczki crap from my system... i don't suggest you try these at home folks...
peace, smile, say hey to folks... be a good citizen of this planet of ours!
G
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
couple images...
these next three are from yesterday... below here you can see the CNG tanker unloading and the little coast guard boat (if ya look real close at the bow) with its blue tell tale light.... the snow covered mounds are coal... pretty fucking huge piles...
the first cove
but before that cove there is the point,
Snow this morning
no, no snow, but man there were some NICE ice patches... Cold...
wore the jeans again. Kinda like it.
Almost like people give ya a bit more space or something when ya not wearing that cycling stuff...
Felt much stronger on the bike this morning.
Maybe it was the big batch of french toast i made. We had a bunch of cut up baguettes from the party this weekend, they were super hard... so... do what the french do and soak them in eggs, milk with a drop of vanilla... then cook em up (cover them for the first few minutes and they soften and plump right up) in a touch of butter and serve with maple syrup. A good balanced carbs but with some fats and protein for the day. Toss back a cup of coffee and some Orange Juice with a lemon-lime emergen-c and ya got ya self one damn fine b-fast.
Just maybe could use some more coffee. And a few poonch-keys!!!
oh and don't even think about tryin out this game over lunch...
Oh and a Bike through window at a bakery? F'n SWEET... vegan treats even (I guess they won't have Packzi)
wore the jeans again. Kinda like it.
Almost like people give ya a bit more space or something when ya not wearing that cycling stuff...
Felt much stronger on the bike this morning.
Maybe it was the big batch of french toast i made. We had a bunch of cut up baguettes from the party this weekend, they were super hard... so... do what the french do and soak them in eggs, milk with a drop of vanilla... then cook em up (cover them for the first few minutes and they soften and plump right up) in a touch of butter and serve with maple syrup. A good balanced carbs but with some fats and protein for the day. Toss back a cup of coffee and some Orange Juice with a lemon-lime emergen-c and ya got ya self one damn fine b-fast.
Just maybe could use some more coffee. And a few poonch-keys!!!
oh and don't even think about tryin out this game over lunch...
Oh and a Bike through window at a bakery? F'n SWEET... vegan treats even (I guess they won't have Packzi)
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
in a second between "WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING"
Okay – so no update today. Oh well. Sometimes ya have five minutes here and there and some days you are five minutes late.
Today I was running 5 minutes late.
Survived the 2 year doctors visit with the little one… kept talking about “remember courdory at the doctor?”
But it was one of those we’re running late ride like crazy man all the way home – hop in car and drive.
Arrive just a few minutes late but wait behind TWO woman who were creating all kinds of hassles for the poor RN sitting behind the desk. So while I was only a few minutes behind I was standing there for more than five minutes while the nurse who eventually called us checked the waiting rack three or four times…
Ah well…
The girls and I eventually took a trip over to stop and shop… the one place we didn’t look last year for Packzi (when ya read it don’t say Pack zi, say poonch key)
I bought three boxes. Three of the seven that were there. Not fresh baked. The box was familiar though. Same packaging as
I bought one of each flavor.
So far I’ve eaten one raspberry and one Bavarian cream… Flavor? About right. The dough definitely is richer and more satisfying than a regular donut, KK or DD or wherever. The total calorie issue is a disappointment. According to the box the raspberry is only 330 each. Such a disappointment. Caloric indulgence of 600 calories reported makes me giddy with delight. So, well I ate two before dinner.
Two down, ten to go.
Its Poonch-key time baby! Poonch-key time.
Now the ride in this morning was actually rather fun and pretty damn cool. Snow. We only had an inch or less on the ground, but it was there. On the ground. Pristine. Only a couple cyclists and a walker or two tramping down the white powder before me and the trailer blasted through. Traction was great. Assuming I sat down. Standing up “slip-slip” with the pedal stroke. So 38 tooth and spinning. Not fast. But plenty of traction.
I changed up the attire a bit too. Put the shorts on and the LS cold weather jersey, topped off the with Sugoi jacket, and I slapped a pair of jeans on. It was 22° F (hey Christine I got the thing to work on my laptop! WOOO! So I hit num lk then the Fn key and while holding the alt key down (and the Fn key) I tapped out the 0176 on the num keys!)
Cooooooool
Woops complex minds simple keypad work arounds… mmmm
Me like that…
Okay – so jeans? Commuting? Farking brilliant I tell ya. Perfect. Even riding home with it 30°F I was warm enough. The sun had melted most of the snow, but, it was wet.
Tomorrow morning should be interesting. With the ice and all.
Okay- well its crazy, imagine trying to convince a 6.5 year old to play nicely with a 2 year old… when the older one doesn’t want to. That is about all I wanted to get down time has expired on me…
Ctrl+s
Monday, January 22, 2007
tbc....
it was a nice quiet ride in - and i have to say its gotta be pretty damn cool sitting back there and watching it all..
there were mini-icebergs flowing in and around the coves... its just amazing... and even when ya feeling slow (no need any gadgets tellin me when i'm slow) its still an amazing way to get to work.
Even the special needs kinda bus (not the yellow kind, the ones that look like the airport rental car shuttles) buzzing me very close wasn't quite enough to upset the balance of the morning's calm.
it would be nice to have a bit more space, or a real bike lane all the way up the the BLVD, but that's maybe too much to ask for. The streets aren't too narrow, and the traffic even when heavy isn't dangerous (relatively).
oh and finding out that the stove we've got is a coal stove (wood stove like thing) makes riding past the mountains of off loaded coal kinda tempting... heck one ton of coal isn't that big space wise... and looking across the water seeing the little tiny rail road cars (standard bulk fill cars but next to the mountain of coal they are tiny)... filled up with little visual difference in the pile....
its amazing how much volume a ship can carry...
and then are the times ya just flat out hit the wall...
sleep, rolling over, draggin you under, eyes getting heavy, sore, wanting to close, head nodding... even with the flavor of the last cup of morning coffee - slightly bitter and burnt on your tongue.... breath slowing... wanting to do nothing much more than close the eyes and shut the system off for a few minutes... adding to that the weight of double the enrollment in our class compared to last year... and with techniques that cannot be easily taught other than one on one, its overwhelming and completely exhausting in the same time, the positive measure of having a popular class, being in demand is not what comes to the mind first...
part of the mellowness is coming in part from the essential mix this week...
taking a quick look at the world cup results, seeing tree farm back in there and noticing that #2 is Dlask! Wicked damn cool...
That and i hope CV gets her damn bikes sorted out... chain sucking and not shiftin ain't so good... am jealous of all those who are out there spectating... maybe some day i can get over there this time of the year and partake in the festivities!
peace
there were mini-icebergs flowing in and around the coves... its just amazing... and even when ya feeling slow (no need any gadgets tellin me when i'm slow) its still an amazing way to get to work.
Even the special needs kinda bus (not the yellow kind, the ones that look like the airport rental car shuttles) buzzing me very close wasn't quite enough to upset the balance of the morning's calm.
it would be nice to have a bit more space, or a real bike lane all the way up the the BLVD, but that's maybe too much to ask for. The streets aren't too narrow, and the traffic even when heavy isn't dangerous (relatively).
oh and finding out that the stove we've got is a coal stove (wood stove like thing) makes riding past the mountains of off loaded coal kinda tempting... heck one ton of coal isn't that big space wise... and looking across the water seeing the little tiny rail road cars (standard bulk fill cars but next to the mountain of coal they are tiny)... filled up with little visual difference in the pile....
its amazing how much volume a ship can carry...
and then are the times ya just flat out hit the wall...
sleep, rolling over, draggin you under, eyes getting heavy, sore, wanting to close, head nodding... even with the flavor of the last cup of morning coffee - slightly bitter and burnt on your tongue.... breath slowing... wanting to do nothing much more than close the eyes and shut the system off for a few minutes... adding to that the weight of double the enrollment in our class compared to last year... and with techniques that cannot be easily taught other than one on one, its overwhelming and completely exhausting in the same time, the positive measure of having a popular class, being in demand is not what comes to the mind first...
part of the mellowness is coming in part from the essential mix this week...
Gabriel Ananda, Cologne's minimal house and techno master provides this week's Essential Mix.Its pretty clean but definitely minimal...
taking a quick look at the world cup results, seeing tree farm back in there and noticing that #2 is Dlask! Wicked damn cool...
That and i hope CV gets her damn bikes sorted out... chain sucking and not shiftin ain't so good... am jealous of all those who are out there spectating... maybe some day i can get over there this time of the year and partake in the festivities!
peace
almost willing to bet
almost? ya say it like there's a smidge of doubt in your nod-cast...
a smidge of hope that i actually WILL be fast in July...
Nah - i just hope to be fast come October...
And riding in this morning i'm thinking - there are gonna be lots of low wattage rides in... do i dare record and document them... oh the horrors of shame and low power... or just being slow...
slow... is it a fear? nah... no way am i deluded enough to think i'm fast, not prolly ever gonna be Myerson, McCormack, or Feldman fast... but ya know... i think i have a chance to be GeWilli fast. As in faster than i was last year. Next year maybe i can be faster than this year. First gotta get through this year.
Riding. Nope - no roller rides. Funny to read Murat's rollin the McClains too... yeah like a fixie - don't stop peddlin. I think maybe i'll bust out the weekend training soon... we'll see what the coach says... no - i don't have a coach, i'm just being goofy...
Tired tho... this weekend put me under the ropes, but it worked out alright. I survived. The party went well, hangin with the family was good. The Bears and the Colts won and we can finally get over the Patriots. FINALLY. Man i'm glad i'm not a pats fan...
and hockey is on broadcast TV next sunday! With luck i can manage to sit down and watch the Red Wings line up against the Avs. Maybe i'll even drag the rollers into the basement and get some gerbil miles in. Ala the diva in Solobreak's nod-cast...
Kinda wish he'd go back to picking on ZoozieQ... ah who'm'i kidding its nice that he's showing me so much love...
In weather news, it snowed on the way in. Sort of.
it was cold but the little one was freaking UBER toasty this morning. Wearing her big designed fake fur - in blazing red. Pretty amazing how warm she was, talking like completely toasty. even without gloves! Hot water bottles do the trick! I peaked back as we were cruising across the open causeways on the path, and she's peacefully watching the water and the ducks and the ice outside.
tbc
a smidge of hope that i actually WILL be fast in July...
Nah - i just hope to be fast come October...
And riding in this morning i'm thinking - there are gonna be lots of low wattage rides in... do i dare record and document them... oh the horrors of shame and low power... or just being slow...
slow... is it a fear? nah... no way am i deluded enough to think i'm fast, not prolly ever gonna be Myerson, McCormack, or Feldman fast... but ya know... i think i have a chance to be GeWilli fast. As in faster than i was last year. Next year maybe i can be faster than this year. First gotta get through this year.
Riding. Nope - no roller rides. Funny to read Murat's rollin the McClains too... yeah like a fixie - don't stop peddlin. I think maybe i'll bust out the weekend training soon... we'll see what the coach says... no - i don't have a coach, i'm just being goofy...
Tired tho... this weekend put me under the ropes, but it worked out alright. I survived. The party went well, hangin with the family was good. The Bears and the Colts won and we can finally get over the Patriots. FINALLY. Man i'm glad i'm not a pats fan...
and hockey is on broadcast TV next sunday! With luck i can manage to sit down and watch the Red Wings line up against the Avs. Maybe i'll even drag the rollers into the basement and get some gerbil miles in. Ala the diva in Solobreak's nod-cast...
Kinda wish he'd go back to picking on ZoozieQ... ah who'm'i kidding its nice that he's showing me so much love...
In weather news, it snowed on the way in. Sort of.
it was cold but the little one was freaking UBER toasty this morning. Wearing her big designed fake fur - in blazing red. Pretty amazing how warm she was, talking like completely toasty. even without gloves! Hot water bottles do the trick! I peaked back as we were cruising across the open causeways on the path, and she's peacefully watching the water and the ducks and the ice outside.
tbc
Friday, January 19, 2007
Paczi-Packzi
how could i have forgotten...
last night - chillin with the littlest, playing spot the food in the Shaws and Stop and Shop add flyers... (ya know "Can you find the grapes?")
turn it to the bakery section of the stop and shop one and KABOOOOM
PACKZI
SOOOO EXCITING
yeah... FOOD
me like food
and then the real kicker was a google search that brought someone in...
and that reminded me...
and here i am... and here i am I can't WAIT to get over to check and see if for real they have these royal donuts... mmm...
and its way hot in this other facility too - not helping with the headache or the waiting for a grad student to show up and get trained on a system they've never used, never even been in front of anything similar... and somehow i've got to convey our most complicated system and how to use it in 2.5 hours... did i mention english isn't exactly their first language... i hope it goes better than i think it will... but its all in positiveness and i will remain positive and helpful even if it sucks ever last ounce of grit out of me...
peace
last night - chillin with the littlest, playing spot the food in the Shaws and Stop and Shop add flyers... (ya know "Can you find the grapes?")
turn it to the bakery section of the stop and shop one and KABOOOOM
PACKZI
SOOOO EXCITING
yeah... FOOD
me like food
and then the real kicker was a google search that brought someone in...
and that reminded me...
and here i am... and here i am I can't WAIT to get over to check and see if for real they have these royal donuts... mmm...
and its way hot in this other facility too - not helping with the headache or the waiting for a grad student to show up and get trained on a system they've never used, never even been in front of anything similar... and somehow i've got to convey our most complicated system and how to use it in 2.5 hours... did i mention english isn't exactly their first language... i hope it goes better than i think it will... but its all in positiveness and i will remain positive and helpful even if it sucks ever last ounce of grit out of me...
peace
nothing new
keep moving along folks...
nothing to see here...
but - i will make note - made some lead stain that actually went into solution perfectly - here is to hoping it actually stains the grids well... and i get pictures before lunch to prove it...
might even stick one up here...
maybe...
coffee's not working today...
nothing to see here...
but - i will make note - made some lead stain that actually went into solution perfectly - here is to hoping it actually stains the grids well... and i get pictures before lunch to prove it...
might even stick one up here...
maybe...
coffee's not working today...
getting caught in the rain
yeah...
sweet...
actually last night it was a hell uva lot of fun... it was dry loading the littlest in, but barely. I felt a couple little drizzly drops like wet condensing fog on the way down the hill.
The road seemed just a wee bit wet... and i wondered if it was warm enough to not freeze or make black ice. It had been pretty cold in the morning.
Luckily no ice. But it did steadily increase all the way home.
Brilliant thing is, when its cold and raining i have a deserted bike path all to myself. The other bike commuter schedules often are 5-10 minutes before me based on timing leaving and me adding a bit extra time heading to the pickup.
It was great.
This morning, pro day for the oldest's school, in laws in town, so my dear wife took a day off and is hanging with everyone. The original plan was for me to take the youngest in. However, she was waking up every hour more or less from about 2am on... she stayed in bed, but... when i finally got her at 6am, and came back up after my coffee and shower she was still out, sleeping deeply. So change of plans. Let her sleep, one of the home crew will take her in to daycare (to play with her friends)...
The ride in blessedly was dry. The road was wet but there was no precipitation. Warm too. 36°F. Just the bellweather jersey and a wind vest today. Perfect. That and a little bit of slushy ice on the Washington bridge.
Mellow day in. And early.
Gonna suck down some coffee and also suck down some yogurt. It seems to make Yogurt boy fast so i'm gonna try it ;)
no links... no referencing anyone else today...
life is short - live it to the fullest
make your choices count
and never presume to have had a more difficult time than someone else
G
sweet...
actually last night it was a hell uva lot of fun... it was dry loading the littlest in, but barely. I felt a couple little drizzly drops like wet condensing fog on the way down the hill.
The road seemed just a wee bit wet... and i wondered if it was warm enough to not freeze or make black ice. It had been pretty cold in the morning.
Luckily no ice. But it did steadily increase all the way home.
Brilliant thing is, when its cold and raining i have a deserted bike path all to myself. The other bike commuter schedules often are 5-10 minutes before me based on timing leaving and me adding a bit extra time heading to the pickup.
It was great.
This morning, pro day for the oldest's school, in laws in town, so my dear wife took a day off and is hanging with everyone. The original plan was for me to take the youngest in. However, she was waking up every hour more or less from about 2am on... she stayed in bed, but... when i finally got her at 6am, and came back up after my coffee and shower she was still out, sleeping deeply. So change of plans. Let her sleep, one of the home crew will take her in to daycare (to play with her friends)...
The ride in blessedly was dry. The road was wet but there was no precipitation. Warm too. 36°F. Just the bellweather jersey and a wind vest today. Perfect. That and a little bit of slushy ice on the Washington bridge.
Mellow day in. And early.
Gonna suck down some coffee and also suck down some yogurt. It seems to make Yogurt boy fast so i'm gonna try it ;)
no links... no referencing anyone else today...
life is short - live it to the fullest
make your choices count
and never presume to have had a more difficult time than someone else
G
Thursday, January 18, 2007
its 37°F outside...
do you know what's running through GeWilli's head right now?
Do i wear bib tights over my shorts or not...
yup... two days of riding in the teens and i'm thinking 37 is a HEAT WAVE...
i'll prolly pull a solobreak and cover the legs...
Do i wear bib tights over my shorts or not...
yup... two days of riding in the teens and i'm thinking 37 is a HEAT WAVE...
i'll prolly pull a solobreak and cover the legs...
stupid peer pressure
but this time its good (I think)
Thanks Yogurt Boy...
a team mate of mine had signed up for the cat 4, so i jumped in with him... my gut wanted to ride the 30+ (cause i'm stupid i think)... team mate thought it would be a good idea to hit the 30+ group and twist arms of the rest of the team to go race (most of us are old farts too)... What's good about the 30+ race? Well all ya gotta do is read mr positive's jan 17th entry. Every reason in the world not to start in the 4s... 125 riders deep, starting after the 40+ (125 riders) and after the Cat 3s (80 or so at this point) dirt road downhills... Carnage...
so the 30+ (course the 30+ field is nearly as last minute as the Pro/1/2 field and that'll be the catchall for those folks... well basically 30+
i'd rather finish a few riders in front of the lantern rouge in the 30+ than maybe deal with what could be one serious bar banging jamboree...
'course now that i've said something the 30+ will fill in a matter of days, but i'll be still comforted by the fact that there'll be more people on the road behind me, than in front of me, at least through the first few hills...
heck i'm even thinkin about using a 27 cassette! Yes solobreak's absolute favorite - nothing better for a cyclist than the 12-27 - esp for those compact crank driving weenies... I wonder if i'd survive 30 miles of climbing with a 45x25 low gear ;)
we'll see what magic gears gewilli pulls out of the tool box...
oh and i'm thinkin CTodd needs to mix it up a bit more than just having one Todd-cast up all week... change up the content a bit...
or not...
what-i-think's tale of traveling to cali - mmm luxurious... envy...
all these tales of people riding in warm sunny lands... i'd not normally be jealous of, with as much as i revel in riding in challenging cold conditions... some how it just sounds awesome...
Thanks Yogurt Boy...
a team mate of mine had signed up for the cat 4, so i jumped in with him... my gut wanted to ride the 30+ (cause i'm stupid i think)... team mate thought it would be a good idea to hit the 30+ group and twist arms of the rest of the team to go race (most of us are old farts too)... What's good about the 30+ race? Well all ya gotta do is read mr positive's jan 17th entry. Every reason in the world not to start in the 4s... 125 riders deep, starting after the 40+ (125 riders) and after the Cat 3s (80 or so at this point) dirt road downhills... Carnage...
so the 30+ (course the 30+ field is nearly as last minute as the Pro/1/2 field and that'll be the catchall for those folks... well basically 30+
i'd rather finish a few riders in front of the lantern rouge in the 30+ than maybe deal with what could be one serious bar banging jamboree...
'course now that i've said something the 30+ will fill in a matter of days, but i'll be still comforted by the fact that there'll be more people on the road behind me, than in front of me, at least through the first few hills...
heck i'm even thinkin about using a 27 cassette! Yes solobreak's absolute favorite - nothing better for a cyclist than the 12-27 - esp for those compact crank driving weenies... I wonder if i'd survive 30 miles of climbing with a 45x25 low gear ;)
we'll see what magic gears gewilli pulls out of the tool box...
oh and i'm thinkin CTodd needs to mix it up a bit more than just having one Todd-cast up all week... change up the content a bit...
or not...
what-i-think's tale of traveling to cali - mmm luxurious... envy...
all these tales of people riding in warm sunny lands... i'd not normally be jealous of, with as much as i revel in riding in challenging cold conditions... some how it just sounds awesome...
so i roll into the office today
only to have to REALLY go potty, wet not poopy (can ya tell my bathroom vocab is influenced by a 2 year old?)...
and well i got as many layers on as ever... bib shorts - damp REI baselayer (poly pro ain't so stretchy when stuck to skin) bib tights, pearl wind pants, Bellweather heavy weight longsleeve jersey and Sugoi jacket.. getting changed into clothes just doesn't happen fast enough...
And if the ride in this morning at 15-17° F (yeah - balmy compared to the northern folks) wasn't quite enough - i've gotta pop back out, brave the city streets and hit the other facility in a few minutes. Farking brilliant. And no - thet littlest hitched a ride in the car this AM.
And while watching the news or something in the last couple days - i think just before the "cold" hit, a guy said "It is very important to get your car winterized."
So my wife turns to me and says "What do you have to do to winterize the car?"
And i thought for a second... um... um... um... not a Fahking thing! Not a Goll-durn thing. Okay - running through the list:
Oil- most all cars now require an "energy conserving" viscosity that is fine for cold weather
Coolant- winter/summer if ya coolant ain't ready for summer it ain't ready for winter and if it ain't ready for either it is just flat out asking for trouble and problems down the road...
Fuel- should be good fuel ya ain't gonna have problems if you have good fuel (gasoline or diesel)
so what else is there to winterize?
put the ice scraper in the car?
snow tires - yeah, that'd be winterizing, but most folks run all seasons and stuff...
winter wipers - yeah, i suppose... i've used em, and they flat out suck giant donkey testicles, esp if ya going over 60 mph... at least on the Golf they do.
I guess bottom line - if ya car is properly maintained and your maintenace up to date... ya don't need to worry about "winterizing" and yes... i've lived in michigan, two three months where the temp NEVER got above 20 degrees F EVER... weeks in the single digits. I ain't experienced penguin arctic cold... but the windswept fields of Michigan are pretty damn almost as close as you can get in the lower 48...
Okay,
scannin through skimming stuff (okay i read all of Peanut's new stuff while eating a fig newton or two or 6)...
I get to this at Big Jonny's and laugh... how funny - and how true - he DOES try really hard:
Patrick O'Grady's got some new stuff and a pic wearing a Richard Sachs T but that'll have to wait - as will what-i-think (she's talking about beer... mmmm beeeeer)
and heck - read the rest of Jonny's sh-tuff for a nice play by play from "demon cat" about some yuppie in a volvo in DC... good stuff - gwadz - watch out for that volvo!
Okay well that's about it for the link happy g...
*raising my cup of coffee in toast mode*
Here's
to rides that how ever freaky in the middle wind up safe in the end
to having family and friends you love and respect
to having the benefits of health and freedom
And to the bumper sticker i saw:
I can't wait till
2008
(ya gotta admit, it has a nice rhythm and meter)
Peace
G
and well i got as many layers on as ever... bib shorts - damp REI baselayer (poly pro ain't so stretchy when stuck to skin) bib tights, pearl wind pants, Bellweather heavy weight longsleeve jersey and Sugoi jacket.. getting changed into clothes just doesn't happen fast enough...
And if the ride in this morning at 15-17° F (yeah - balmy compared to the northern folks) wasn't quite enough - i've gotta pop back out, brave the city streets and hit the other facility in a few minutes. Farking brilliant. And no - thet littlest hitched a ride in the car this AM.
And while watching the news or something in the last couple days - i think just before the "cold" hit, a guy said "It is very important to get your car winterized."
So my wife turns to me and says "What do you have to do to winterize the car?"
And i thought for a second... um... um... um... not a Fahking thing! Not a Goll-durn thing. Okay - running through the list:
Oil- most all cars now require an "energy conserving" viscosity that is fine for cold weather
Coolant- winter/summer if ya coolant ain't ready for summer it ain't ready for winter and if it ain't ready for either it is just flat out asking for trouble and problems down the road...
Fuel- should be good fuel ya ain't gonna have problems if you have good fuel (gasoline or diesel)
so what else is there to winterize?
put the ice scraper in the car?
snow tires - yeah, that'd be winterizing, but most folks run all seasons and stuff...
winter wipers - yeah, i suppose... i've used em, and they flat out suck giant donkey testicles, esp if ya going over 60 mph... at least on the Golf they do.
I guess bottom line - if ya car is properly maintained and your maintenace up to date... ya don't need to worry about "winterizing" and yes... i've lived in michigan, two three months where the temp NEVER got above 20 degrees F EVER... weeks in the single digits. I ain't experienced penguin arctic cold... but the windswept fields of Michigan are pretty damn almost as close as you can get in the lower 48...
Okay,
scannin through skimming stuff (okay i read all of Peanut's new stuff while eating a fig newton or two or 6)...
I get to this at Big Jonny's and laugh... how funny - and how true - he DOES try really hard:
And yes, Al as in Al Gore. Who wants to pick on Al Gore? He's like everybody's retarded second cousin. You don't see much of him, but when you do your nice to him because he's trying really hard.
Patrick O'Grady's got some new stuff and a pic wearing a Richard Sachs T but that'll have to wait - as will what-i-think (she's talking about beer... mmmm beeeeer)
and heck - read the rest of Jonny's sh-tuff for a nice play by play from "demon cat" about some yuppie in a volvo in DC... good stuff - gwadz - watch out for that volvo!
Okay well that's about it for the link happy g...
*raising my cup of coffee in toast mode*
Here's
to rides that how ever freaky in the middle wind up safe in the end
to having family and friends you love and respect
to having the benefits of health and freedom
And to the bumper sticker i saw:
I can't wait till
2008
(ya gotta admit, it has a nice rhythm and meter)
Peace
G
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
doing a search...
to make sure i don't have words that i don't want hit from google i found the old haiku and word thread...
the word is still bike...
but i like the current haiku alot...
okay so its not that great... but
fast i commute
going north with wide open
stretches of water and
maybe better than
rocks oh and yeah there
were mornings with no coffee
beans to make coffee
combine them
fast i commute
going north with wide open
beans to make coffee
but then i click again and get a different haiku
part greasy mess arrrrgh
but whatever i'll survive
the stone hell maybe
floppy bar'd no
drops to grab bike running down
a narrow walk way
ah...
well ya know haiku - time to think along those lines -
i think economy of words could be good no? might be a new challenge
the word is still bike...
but i like the current haiku alot...
Haiku2 for gewilli
fast yeah i commute
going north with wide open
stretches of water and
okay so its not that great... but
fast i commute
going north with wide open
stretches of water and
maybe better than
rocks oh and yeah there
were mornings with no coffee
beans to make coffee
combine them
fast i commute
going north with wide open
beans to make coffee
but then i click again and get a different haiku
part greasy mess arrrrgh
but whatever i'll survive
the stone hell maybe
floppy bar'd no
drops to grab bike running down
a narrow walk way
ah...
well ya know haiku - time to think along those lines -
i think economy of words could be good no? might be a new challenge
14°F w/ a N wind @ 12 mph
yeah - thats the stuff i rode in today. And yeah i commute going north - with wide open stretches of water to the NNW (nearly north and effectively no shield from wind from the North to the South).
I was sweating. too many layers but not uncomfortably so. Big toes got a wee bit cold but here it is 30 minutes later waiting for coffee to brew and blocks to cool down my toes are toasty.
The trailer made the trek, but it was sans kid. Probably a good thing.
Tomorrow, yes, i will ride in, and yes it is supposed to be a mere 7-8°F in the morning. But the wind is supposed to change around to the SSW.
Thanks for the comments there molly - and suds on the soy stuff... good data...
and as they say, you can find statistics to back up any POV... heck people come up with ways to show the earth is less than 10,000 years old using "science" *gasp*
lets not even approach the whole politics side of things
Yall should read Mahk the Shahk's interview over at Cyclingnews.com kinda pissy what the new management did to him, but well...
i guess having a consistent podium rider isn't worth the cash to hang on to him or his bro eh? not all bad - Mahk of course has a great attitude, which is probably the biggest part of his success.
In honor of those two (and yeah its a cyclocross cartoon, and he isn't retiring from that... but anyway its the first image that pops in my head when Frank and Mark are brought up in the same breath)
Also: Don't miss milliman's article over at the snooze he even mentions the way too often overlooked US female cross racer Christine
then and last night before heading out i noticed the headline
BP gone... sad... he was one of the real entertaining guys in the booth... smoking kills - it might take an extra 28 years to catch up with ya... but ya can't escape it...
like anything - moderation ;) soy, diet coke injected in the ass, whatever ya prefer...
hell studies show that water can give lab mice cancer...
I was sweating. too many layers but not uncomfortably so. Big toes got a wee bit cold but here it is 30 minutes later waiting for coffee to brew and blocks to cool down my toes are toasty.
The trailer made the trek, but it was sans kid. Probably a good thing.
Tomorrow, yes, i will ride in, and yes it is supposed to be a mere 7-8°F in the morning. But the wind is supposed to change around to the SSW.
Thanks for the comments there molly - and suds on the soy stuff... good data...
and as they say, you can find statistics to back up any POV... heck people come up with ways to show the earth is less than 10,000 years old using "science" *gasp*
lets not even approach the whole politics side of things
Yall should read Mahk the Shahk's interview over at Cyclingnews.com kinda pissy what the new management did to him, but well...
i guess having a consistent podium rider isn't worth the cash to hang on to him or his bro eh? not all bad - Mahk of course has a great attitude, which is probably the biggest part of his success.
In honor of those two (and yeah its a cyclocross cartoon, and he isn't retiring from that... but anyway its the first image that pops in my head when Frank and Mark are brought up in the same breath)
Also: Don't miss milliman's article over at the snooze he even mentions the way too often overlooked US female cross racer Christine
then and last night before heading out i noticed the headline
BP gone... sad... he was one of the real entertaining guys in the booth... smoking kills - it might take an extra 28 years to catch up with ya... but ya can't escape it...
like anything - moderation ;) soy, diet coke injected in the ass, whatever ya prefer...
hell studies show that water can give lab mice cancer...
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Grrrrr
okay - now - i've got these great training audio bits - BUT - short of burning 6 CDs and re-ripping them... i can't use em on my MP3 PLAYER... yes, i have a prehistoric player that WILL work with mp3 files but THAT IS IT. AAC and i'm screwed...
now i've mined around abit and found some nice s h a r e w a r e stuff but they want cash... no f r e e stuff to be found... even re-DL'd i copyright your whole Hard Disc tunes... it'll convert everything to AAC but not the other way a-freaking-round. At least not that i could tell...
would be nice to pop one of these bad boys in the "playa" and sit on the rollas or the traina one cold day sometime... I guess i'm kinda stuck doing my own freaking damn thing... ifn all yall got some sort of suggestion i'm all ears... and maybe i'll just have ta break down and do the whole burn cd thing a try...
in the mean time anyone have any recs?
now i've mined around abit and found some nice s h a r e w a r e stuff but they want cash... no f r e e stuff to be found... even re-DL'd i copyright your whole Hard Disc tunes... it'll convert everything to AAC but not the other way a-freaking-round. At least not that i could tell...
would be nice to pop one of these bad boys in the "playa" and sit on the rollas or the traina one cold day sometime... I guess i'm kinda stuck doing my own freaking damn thing... ifn all yall got some sort of suggestion i'm all ears... and maybe i'll just have ta break down and do the whole burn cd thing a try...
in the mean time anyone have any recs?
found this funny...
(edited some of the stuff to reduce search crawlers and shizzle)
okay so i was slumming over at m y s p a ce - peeping at AM or AHM or whatever the hell he's calling himself nowdays. Someone told me a while back this fall that he wasn't A H M anymore - just A M... he dropped the H... okay whatEVER he's still the same dude with weird blog rules and what not... (oh and ace still refers to him as AHM so that adds to the confusion)
so i click on that soy will make you increase your femininity (read Gee Ay whY) link...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327
interesting - the literature cited wouldn't stand up under review for the most part (at least the medical stuff). Writing a "scientific" "article" and citing web only sources and books is alot like citing the bible for scientific support. It just don't cut it.
I've come across more solid studies showing that the phytoestrogen does not interfere with the human estrogen pathway. They are analogous in some regions but not functional. Has that been 'reversed"? I dunno. I haven't looked.
its curious tho - no my kids weren't raised on soy formula, hell they barely drank formula at all... they were raised on what G o d intended them to develop on. The proper balance of sugars, proteins, minerals, fats and what not.
I shouldn't give that dude any more press - but, ya know - it is a good example. Maybe he's right, but my 30 second read of it and the scanning of references leaves me thinking he's FOS. I dunno.
Something to think about.
Oh and just cause tofu and "raw" soy based products may shrink your pee niss, make your kids (read sons cause well that's all that matters right?-according to them), give you breast cancer(women), kill your wigglers (men), and whatever else... doesn't give you a reason NOT to be a vegetarian/vegan.
No?
No! Tofu don't have to be a staple in your diet to get a nice balanced meal. nope...
ah well...
i ain't a nutritionalisticly trained monkey sitting at a keyboard - just overly introspective with 30 seconds of time spread out here and there...
peace,
g
okay so i was slumming over at m y s p a ce - peeping at AM or AHM or whatever the hell he's calling himself nowdays. Someone told me a while back this fall that he wasn't A H M anymore - just A M... he dropped the H... okay whatEVER he's still the same dude with weird blog rules and what not... (oh and ace still refers to him as AHM so that adds to the confusion)
so i click on that soy will make you increase your femininity (read Gee Ay whY) link...
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327
interesting - the literature cited wouldn't stand up under review for the most part (at least the medical stuff). Writing a "scientific" "article" and citing web only sources and books is alot like citing the bible for scientific support. It just don't cut it.
I've come across more solid studies showing that the phytoestrogen does not interfere with the human estrogen pathway. They are analogous in some regions but not functional. Has that been 'reversed"? I dunno. I haven't looked.
its curious tho - no my kids weren't raised on soy formula, hell they barely drank formula at all... they were raised on what G o d intended them to develop on. The proper balance of sugars, proteins, minerals, fats and what not.
I shouldn't give that dude any more press - but, ya know - it is a good example. Maybe he's right, but my 30 second read of it and the scanning of references leaves me thinking he's FOS. I dunno.
Something to think about.
Oh and just cause tofu and "raw" soy based products may shrink your pee niss, make your kids (read sons cause well that's all that matters right?-according to them), give you breast cancer(women), kill your wigglers (men), and whatever else... doesn't give you a reason NOT to be a vegetarian/vegan.
No?
No! Tofu don't have to be a staple in your diet to get a nice balanced meal. nope...
ah well...
i ain't a nutritionalisticly trained monkey sitting at a keyboard - just overly introspective with 30 seconds of time spread out here and there...
peace,
g
Silver Lining
Yeah - so i used another song from the same artist.
But that's the truth. Three days off and this morning my legs felt great. Well the headwind in the 18-25mph range riding in with an overloaded monday morning bag wasn't easy...
but after the daycare drop off i plunged the bag in the trailer and headed out - only to see a group of roadies out for a ride... i pulled in the middle of them on the BLVD, solo guy up front - pair off the back, and thought - well lets see what i got in these legs... i reeled in the first guy pretty quickly - granted he wasn't going that slow, but i was keeping pace with the school bus 50 yards or so up the road, and i was feeling strong, passing and sort of dropping the eddy merckx riding guy... But the legs were able to respond directly. No lingering soreness from a weekend of cross...
I kinda like this fresh leg feeling. Its cool. Cool, is what we're gonna be getting. Just ain't quite got it yet. but it is getting cooler so far as the morning is progressing. The legs are feeling the efforts of the morning - but we'll see how long that lasts...
That and why is it with adversity i can push myself harder and further than w/o it, adversity on the bike i equate with headwind or hill in general... items that work against your forward progress... mentally i can find the edge and sit on it longer under those conditions than say with a tailwind. But then maybe at some point here soon i'll be able to see if that's a mental feeling or an actuality.
eat well, food is life... the old saying you are what you eat is rather unfortunately VERY true... don't fill your sleeve full of junk... now where can i get some of that neuralchem...
and damn - i just discovered that there are two more to Takeshi Kovacs novels... more reading... SWEET
peace, and don't forget to smile at strangers
G
But that's the truth. Three days off and this morning my legs felt great. Well the headwind in the 18-25mph range riding in with an overloaded monday morning bag wasn't easy...
but after the daycare drop off i plunged the bag in the trailer and headed out - only to see a group of roadies out for a ride... i pulled in the middle of them on the BLVD, solo guy up front - pair off the back, and thought - well lets see what i got in these legs... i reeled in the first guy pretty quickly - granted he wasn't going that slow, but i was keeping pace with the school bus 50 yards or so up the road, and i was feeling strong, passing and sort of dropping the eddy merckx riding guy... But the legs were able to respond directly. No lingering soreness from a weekend of cross...
I kinda like this fresh leg feeling. Its cool. Cool, is what we're gonna be getting. Just ain't quite got it yet. but it is getting cooler so far as the morning is progressing. The legs are feeling the efforts of the morning - but we'll see how long that lasts...
That and why is it with adversity i can push myself harder and further than w/o it, adversity on the bike i equate with headwind or hill in general... items that work against your forward progress... mentally i can find the edge and sit on it longer under those conditions than say with a tailwind. But then maybe at some point here soon i'll be able to see if that's a mental feeling or an actuality.
eat well, food is life... the old saying you are what you eat is rather unfortunately VERY true... don't fill your sleeve full of junk... now where can i get some of that neuralchem...
and damn - i just discovered that there are two more to Takeshi Kovacs novels... more reading... SWEET
peace, and don't forget to smile at strangers
G
Monday, January 15, 2007
Life in Slow Motion
(title from a song cause Solobreak has predictably abandoned his long running web log entries using song titles... anyone name the artist - okay so its more a album title anyway here's the entry hammered out on monday...)
So here it is – the last day of a long weekend. Glorious I might add. Mellow. Productive and actually like a vacation.
Maybe because I read a book cover to cover in the span of two days (altered carbon, a great sci-fi book I might add). Had a bit of wine, slept in, stayed up late (watching football and reading books).
Not a lick of cycling. Thought about it. But the wet drizzle wasn’t incentive enough. The rides with the crew were at times when I was hanging with the family – getting items for the house and everything in order.
Chillin to some David Gray. Nabbed three CDs from my little bro today – needed a bit of diversity from the standard fair I have here.
Unfortunately the sporadic but generally there unsecured Linksys wireless that can be snagged from the house has vanished. Could have to do with a guy moving out of a duplex this week across the street. So there really is no way to even pop on and do a quick upload over the weekend.
Brings up the debate. Do we need to get it at home. And then because we have neither a home phone or cable activated, what route do we take to get internet hooked up here… those wireless broadband cards from the cell companies seem rather sort of attractive, subscription where ever we are (that has cell coverage) – but locks us in to one laptop (more or less). But the alternatives aren’t that much less money. Ah heck not pressing now. I can do this sort of thing and do a quick dump in the morning.
Winter is supposed to be getting here finally. We’ll see what it brings. In a way I’m looking forward to a bit of coolness. Change up the cycling challenges. Or not I guess its just the same.
The odd thing I find is that this long weekend really feels like a vacation. Its sort of kinda saying – okay lazy bones, next week and the next 4 months are going to be brutal, you’re going to be up to your eyeballs at work, the weather is getting warmer – sooner than later races will begin, training will have to take a more focused and specific mentality. Life goes on, challenges to be met, nothing gets easier – ya just get better at dealing with it.
I keep thinking about two projects, neither have funding, both probably would need some, and both I think even despite my involvement would be pretty spectacular. So if anyone knows anyone who’s looking to fund an art project or two send em my way. But I guess I have to actually have a decent accounting for the potential costs of the projects. Now speculating could just leave me with nothing more than hot air and ideas – but right now that speculation is inspirational. Movtivating. Stimulating creativity. Making the brain fire and focus and think. Helps me focus on the work at hand. It also drives the desire to teach. To try and impart a little bit of art in the teaching of microscopes..
Made a wicked damn good pot of soup on Saturday:
Onions (1/2 med sweet), celery (2 stalks), carrots (4 large), parsnips (2 med), turnips (2 sm), sweet potatoes (3 sm), butternut squash (1 v.sm), red kale (1 bunch), peas (1 cup frozen), garlic (6 cloves), red lentils (1.5 cup), extra virgin olive oil, soy sauce, sea salt, seasoned rice wine vinegar, dried basil, dusting of curry powder, water… dats it…
Vegan, uber tasty… and once its all cooked in, ya take a stick blender and make it all smooth and serve over cous-cous (which I typically make using 1:1 ratio of water to French style cous-cous with 1 teaspoon of organic chicken stock (that better than bullion stuff in a jar). Alternatively it can be served with rice.
Must haves to go with it are (for me) Hot sauce, fresh ground black pepper and a hard cheese, aged emmenthaller or parm or romano… and shaved into thin strips… obviously omit the cheese and chicken stock base for those vegans.
Cause vegetarians are just fooling themselves. “Oh I’ll just eat dairy and eggs.” Yeah. Like that is a good idea. Or a rational idea. Ya either vegan or ya an omnivore. Sure plenty of people fall into the no red meat or just fish or something… but I dunno that all is just wicked hypocritical for the most part- esp the ones with “moral” objections. If ya got moral objections, ya’d better be full hard core Vegan.
And that argument “but I can’t be fast as a vegan” “its too hard to get a balanced meal” Bullshit. I say that’s bullshit. Well maybe if your idea of cooking involves pre-packaged foods. On the other hand even those challenged in the culinary arts can survive and thrive on a vegan diet. Just takes a bit of education and effort initially. Like all things worth while, there is an investment requirement. Effort. That paleo diet mr Boulder was talking about is somewhat intriguing. But the problem with that diet is the pre-historic man’s diet was wildly dependent on seasonal offerings. Supermarkets here in the US/Canada and the world have pretty much made the consumers who shop there oblivious to what is in season and what isn’t.
Problem is which Paleolithic group do you pick? Which climate do you choose to model your diet after. I got started thinking about it when cleaning/unpacking book box after book box of anthropology, archaeology, and history books. And ya know, their diets may not have been super healthy all year. We have options to stay healthy more easily. Eat more consistently. Not to mention, when paleo folks ate a hoofed animal or what ever it was that they caught/slaughtered… they ate the whole damn thing. That’s pretty critical for their survival. The liver and other organs are important sources of minerals and vitamins you don’t get from just eating muscle tissue. That and just eating muscle tissue ain’t so good for ya. Some folks say protein is a poison to the system, at least in high amounts. There is some truth to that. Someone’s recent diet that was lacking in lots of carbs who was trying to race was definitely not a good idea. Following a diet purported by those with one goal (vanity) is stupid. Unless you are a purely vain person. Plant based foods, really for the most part can provide most all cellular basis of nutrients. Why? Cellular processes are just that. They are very well conserved. That Darwin book had a great point towards the end. Talking about the fact that Humans and Mice share pretty much 99% of the same genes, yet, a mouse and a human are rather different in rather striking ways. Ways that come down to the fact that: all biology is really evolutionary biology. Every new bit of knowledge about gene expression is related to evolution and the differential expression and how we adapt and change. We not humans, but we being more global, we being all living life on this planet.
Creationists must there fore disregard any modern understandings of viral genetics, antibiotics, and heredity. The question that’s hard to answer is why would a mouse and human have identical genes, but be so different? If we were created differently why not use different genes. I dunno – I’m just incredulous that anyone could, in light of knowledge, facts, testable, demonstratable fundamentals of biology dispel all that from one book. Its pretty depressing in a way. Extremely scary in others.
And yeah – so while the expression of the gene patterns are different (between mice and men) the genes are the same, and if you put a mouse cell cross section from a TEM (transmission electron microscope) next to a human cell cross section (in TEM of course) it would be near to impossible to tell the difference. Food, and fuel comes down to a few things, energy and nutrients. If you are conscious of what you are eating, avoiding shit that’ll fuck you up (trans fats and heavily processed shit like High fructose Corn syrup and the like) ya be way better off. Calories in = calories out for maintenance. And there’s the basal rate right? Then activity you add calories per that activity to maintain weight. If you increase slow twitch activity for along time you will (over time) chew up the fats stored in your system (assuming you don’t go over the caloric requirements). Now… segue (that’s pronounced 'se-(")gwA, 'sA- ) back into Darwin and evolution. Understanding your diet is not more complicated than evolution and science…
Well time to cook up some dinner – gonna be a Mexican night, beans, rice, and yes, meat. No seasoning packets, all from scratch. Okay – I’ll use a bit of enchilada sauce.
Peace out
g
So here it is – the last day of a long weekend. Glorious I might add. Mellow. Productive and actually like a vacation.
Maybe because I read a book cover to cover in the span of two days (altered carbon, a great sci-fi book I might add). Had a bit of wine, slept in, stayed up late (watching football and reading books).
Not a lick of cycling. Thought about it. But the wet drizzle wasn’t incentive enough. The rides with the crew were at times when I was hanging with the family – getting items for the house and everything in order.
Chillin to some David Gray. Nabbed three CDs from my little bro today – needed a bit of diversity from the standard fair I have here.
Unfortunately the sporadic but generally there unsecured Linksys wireless that can be snagged from the house has vanished. Could have to do with a guy moving out of a duplex this week across the street. So there really is no way to even pop on and do a quick upload over the weekend.
Brings up the debate. Do we need to get it at home. And then because we have neither a home phone or cable activated, what route do we take to get internet hooked up here… those wireless broadband cards from the cell companies seem rather sort of attractive, subscription where ever we are (that has cell coverage) – but locks us in to one laptop (more or less). But the alternatives aren’t that much less money. Ah heck not pressing now. I can do this sort of thing and do a quick dump in the morning.
Winter is supposed to be getting here finally. We’ll see what it brings. In a way I’m looking forward to a bit of coolness. Change up the cycling challenges. Or not I guess its just the same.
The odd thing I find is that this long weekend really feels like a vacation. Its sort of kinda saying – okay lazy bones, next week and the next 4 months are going to be brutal, you’re going to be up to your eyeballs at work, the weather is getting warmer – sooner than later races will begin, training will have to take a more focused and specific mentality. Life goes on, challenges to be met, nothing gets easier – ya just get better at dealing with it.
I keep thinking about two projects, neither have funding, both probably would need some, and both I think even despite my involvement would be pretty spectacular. So if anyone knows anyone who’s looking to fund an art project or two send em my way. But I guess I have to actually have a decent accounting for the potential costs of the projects. Now speculating could just leave me with nothing more than hot air and ideas – but right now that speculation is inspirational. Movtivating. Stimulating creativity. Making the brain fire and focus and think. Helps me focus on the work at hand. It also drives the desire to teach. To try and impart a little bit of art in the teaching of microscopes..
Made a wicked damn good pot of soup on Saturday:
Onions (1/2 med sweet), celery (2 stalks), carrots (4 large), parsnips (2 med), turnips (2 sm), sweet potatoes (3 sm), butternut squash (1 v.sm), red kale (1 bunch), peas (1 cup frozen), garlic (6 cloves), red lentils (1.5 cup), extra virgin olive oil, soy sauce, sea salt, seasoned rice wine vinegar, dried basil, dusting of curry powder, water… dats it…
Vegan, uber tasty… and once its all cooked in, ya take a stick blender and make it all smooth and serve over cous-cous (which I typically make using 1:1 ratio of water to French style cous-cous with 1 teaspoon of organic chicken stock (that better than bullion stuff in a jar). Alternatively it can be served with rice.
Must haves to go with it are (for me) Hot sauce, fresh ground black pepper and a hard cheese, aged emmenthaller or parm or romano… and shaved into thin strips… obviously omit the cheese and chicken stock base for those vegans.
Cause vegetarians are just fooling themselves. “Oh I’ll just eat dairy and eggs.” Yeah. Like that is a good idea. Or a rational idea. Ya either vegan or ya an omnivore. Sure plenty of people fall into the no red meat or just fish or something… but I dunno that all is just wicked hypocritical for the most part- esp the ones with “moral” objections. If ya got moral objections, ya’d better be full hard core Vegan.
And that argument “but I can’t be fast as a vegan” “its too hard to get a balanced meal” Bullshit. I say that’s bullshit. Well maybe if your idea of cooking involves pre-packaged foods. On the other hand even those challenged in the culinary arts can survive and thrive on a vegan diet. Just takes a bit of education and effort initially. Like all things worth while, there is an investment requirement. Effort. That paleo diet mr Boulder was talking about is somewhat intriguing. But the problem with that diet is the pre-historic man’s diet was wildly dependent on seasonal offerings. Supermarkets here in the US/Canada and the world have pretty much made the consumers who shop there oblivious to what is in season and what isn’t.
Problem is which Paleolithic group do you pick? Which climate do you choose to model your diet after. I got started thinking about it when cleaning/unpacking book box after book box of anthropology, archaeology, and history books. And ya know, their diets may not have been super healthy all year. We have options to stay healthy more easily. Eat more consistently. Not to mention, when paleo folks ate a hoofed animal or what ever it was that they caught/slaughtered… they ate the whole damn thing. That’s pretty critical for their survival. The liver and other organs are important sources of minerals and vitamins you don’t get from just eating muscle tissue. That and just eating muscle tissue ain’t so good for ya. Some folks say protein is a poison to the system, at least in high amounts. There is some truth to that. Someone’s recent diet that was lacking in lots of carbs who was trying to race was definitely not a good idea. Following a diet purported by those with one goal (vanity) is stupid. Unless you are a purely vain person. Plant based foods, really for the most part can provide most all cellular basis of nutrients. Why? Cellular processes are just that. They are very well conserved. That Darwin book had a great point towards the end. Talking about the fact that Humans and Mice share pretty much 99% of the same genes, yet, a mouse and a human are rather different in rather striking ways. Ways that come down to the fact that: all biology is really evolutionary biology. Every new bit of knowledge about gene expression is related to evolution and the differential expression and how we adapt and change. We not humans, but we being more global, we being all living life on this planet.
Creationists must there fore disregard any modern understandings of viral genetics, antibiotics, and heredity. The question that’s hard to answer is why would a mouse and human have identical genes, but be so different? If we were created differently why not use different genes. I dunno – I’m just incredulous that anyone could, in light of knowledge, facts, testable, demonstratable fundamentals of biology dispel all that from one book. Its pretty depressing in a way. Extremely scary in others.
And yeah – so while the expression of the gene patterns are different (between mice and men) the genes are the same, and if you put a mouse cell cross section from a TEM (transmission electron microscope) next to a human cell cross section (in TEM of course) it would be near to impossible to tell the difference. Food, and fuel comes down to a few things, energy and nutrients. If you are conscious of what you are eating, avoiding shit that’ll fuck you up (trans fats and heavily processed shit like High fructose Corn syrup and the like) ya be way better off. Calories in = calories out for maintenance. And there’s the basal rate right? Then activity you add calories per that activity to maintain weight. If you increase slow twitch activity for along time you will (over time) chew up the fats stored in your system (assuming you don’t go over the caloric requirements). Now… segue (that’s pronounced 'se-(")gwA, 'sA- ) back into Darwin and evolution. Understanding your diet is not more complicated than evolution and science…
Well time to cook up some dinner – gonna be a Mexican night, beans, rice, and yes, meat. No seasoning packets, all from scratch. Okay – I’ll use a bit of enchilada sauce.
Peace out
g
Friday, January 12, 2007
weeks come and weeks go
and its warmed up a damn heck of a lot today.
i'll take distinct pleasure in baring the fuzzy legs for the ride home, not bib tights over the shorts tonight... no sir!
Forgot to mention running into the damn blinky brigade again. Fewer of them tho as instead of straggling back to the starting point where they parked all their cars (don't get me started on people who DRIVE a short distance to go for a ride) the few souls who did RIDE to the start were still headed opposite my direction...
the whole helmet mounted lights piss me off - yeah what doesn't piss me off... anyway there was one train of three guys and well i noticed the first cause he had some wicked bright light - the two behind him - couldn't tell they were there until they were right there... blinky.
i'm a big big big fan of a front blinky like like i got. even if ya can see... or ya feel protected sitting behind someone with a light a blinky for the front - is helpful and wise...
The slight headwind/sidewind should provide enough resistance to make me work hard enough to stay nice and toasty warm... so anyway...
still off season mode- no riding planned for the weekend - two days off the bike! But plans, like someone has pointed out i might have said, plans are just plans. They ain't a contract, or a binding agreement. We'll see what the weekend brings.
And i ain't buying Beckham's reason for going to the LA Galaxy. He's not going to bring US Soccer to the mainstream. He's going so he will be able to get to the auditions and screenings more easily... $50 mil for some washed up old football playa? Not good enough to be in the EPL... whadda ya think about it all Suds? You and Jimmy being the consummate "football" fans?
Its a long weekend here in this neck of the woods... folks seem to think its a good idea to honor the good doctor. I pretty much agree with them. it'll be nice to have an extra day hangin with the girls...
if you've seen many of the cTodd_casts... check this video... it makes me laugh harder than the Frazz from this week...
"that was cool"
peace, and keep smilin
g
i'll take distinct pleasure in baring the fuzzy legs for the ride home, not bib tights over the shorts tonight... no sir!
Forgot to mention running into the damn blinky brigade again. Fewer of them tho as instead of straggling back to the starting point where they parked all their cars (don't get me started on people who DRIVE a short distance to go for a ride) the few souls who did RIDE to the start were still headed opposite my direction...
the whole helmet mounted lights piss me off - yeah what doesn't piss me off... anyway there was one train of three guys and well i noticed the first cause he had some wicked bright light - the two behind him - couldn't tell they were there until they were right there... blinky.
i'm a big big big fan of a front blinky like like i got. even if ya can see... or ya feel protected sitting behind someone with a light a blinky for the front - is helpful and wise...
The slight headwind/sidewind should provide enough resistance to make me work hard enough to stay nice and toasty warm... so anyway...
still off season mode- no riding planned for the weekend - two days off the bike! But plans, like someone has pointed out i might have said, plans are just plans. They ain't a contract, or a binding agreement. We'll see what the weekend brings.
And i ain't buying Beckham's reason for going to the LA Galaxy. He's not going to bring US Soccer to the mainstream. He's going so he will be able to get to the auditions and screenings more easily... $50 mil for some washed up old football playa? Not good enough to be in the EPL... whadda ya think about it all Suds? You and Jimmy being the consummate "football" fans?
Its a long weekend here in this neck of the woods... folks seem to think its a good idea to honor the good doctor. I pretty much agree with them. it'll be nice to have an extra day hangin with the girls...
if you've seen many of the cTodd_casts... check this video... it makes me laugh harder than the Frazz from this week...
"that was cool"
peace, and keep smilin
g
So this 'slow' guy asks me...
how do i know about all these pro sites?
ah super double secret grasshopper. one day you may learn.
research - data mining - them shit's skills ya learn from being a science major back in the day when journals were in the library and ya traced back through sources... it required a couple things - reading fast (yeah i can do that), thinking creatively and looking for maybe not obvious ties or allusions... speaking of mining - don't miss this shot - i was there (i think) and missed this photographic opportunity to capture (on a ccd) that gal that makes CTodd get all wiggly in the knees (it's over on Clara's page for context and words to go with)
so on with todays linkiage... cause last year finding a whole host of great sites to read happend around this time - so here it goes...
is it because cyclists are mentally checking off the bike and socializing now? come summer they all spend too much time outside or are brain dead tired alseep or too busy shoving mountains of pasta in their mouths to write?
and lemme try it again... HERE IT GOES (gewilli - stop adding shit)
Kinda Tom Brown like with the research. Tom Brown, everyone's his stuff, right? Maybe not everyone lived that book. (holy tangent batman) The Tracker was a book i read and kinda lived by when walking in the woods. Thinking about foot placement, sounds, sort of living the leave no trace mantra. Although - for damn sure i was no tom brown and prolly left a trail like a herd of elephants for him to follow.... others - maybe not so obvious.
One trick i started employing lately has been a gold mine of cross blogs and stuff - although - i'm now kinda over-saturated (fortunately few people provide content on a daily basis, and fortunately the blogs i prioritize mostly have been pretty quiet, lately).
Anyway two that HAVE to be mentioned. And i no - they must have been calling him Tonkinator (i did the search on Trebonator, which reads better than it says, unlike Tonkinator).
So up off the bat: TONKINATORS
its got a great video of Tonk or two and some pics... I didn't actually find it there first. Its here where this line grabs me
also the lead link for that thread is here at Kona World filed under CXBE (ZooziQ, that stands for cyclocross belgium)
Another one - can't miss: only from the entry title for the 11th: RAT SALAD
cronoman might be one of the few to associate that properly w/in a millisecond or two...
and partly as its discussing the whole iPod thing... don't ignore the fact that the iPod will greatly degrease your awareness of your surroundings and those many ton metal boxes driven by people drinking coffee - reading papers - crackberry'n - text'n and generally doing shit they shouldn't be doing while driving, esp driving where you might be riding...
Oh and file this under "that figures" as soon as i get bothered enough to link greg reain's blog... sumbitch goes and creates a whole new site. Well - dat's cool and all... props to him for doing that all and shit... but yeah well... its what it is
Oh and from nicomachus.net there's a great article for the ladies about cycling - or for guys dating/married to them... ala the bike seat... it wasn't a link to this story - just a link to all the bicycle related stories that popped up in the NYTimes recently...
i think i'd better NOT comment on that - could get into areas i shouldn't... I'll let MIF's mind wander and Zooziq can sit and scratch his head wondering
peace,
i'm gonna eat... lunch...
ah super double secret grasshopper. one day you may learn.
research - data mining - them shit's skills ya learn from being a science major back in the day when journals were in the library and ya traced back through sources... it required a couple things - reading fast (yeah i can do that), thinking creatively and looking for maybe not obvious ties or allusions... speaking of mining - don't miss this shot - i was there (i think) and missed this photographic opportunity to capture (on a ccd) that gal that makes CTodd get all wiggly in the knees (it's over on Clara's page for context and words to go with)
so on with todays linkiage... cause last year finding a whole host of great sites to read happend around this time - so here it goes...
is it because cyclists are mentally checking off the bike and socializing now? come summer they all spend too much time outside or are brain dead tired alseep or too busy shoving mountains of pasta in their mouths to write?
and lemme try it again... HERE IT GOES (gewilli - stop adding shit)
Kinda Tom Brown like with the research. Tom Brown, everyone's his stuff, right? Maybe not everyone lived that book. (holy tangent batman) The Tracker was a book i read and kinda lived by when walking in the woods. Thinking about foot placement, sounds, sort of living the leave no trace mantra. Although - for damn sure i was no tom brown and prolly left a trail like a herd of elephants for him to follow.... others - maybe not so obvious.
One trick i started employing lately has been a gold mine of cross blogs and stuff - although - i'm now kinda over-saturated (fortunately few people provide content on a daily basis, and fortunately the blogs i prioritize mostly have been pretty quiet, lately).
Anyway two that HAVE to be mentioned. And i no - they must have been calling him Tonkinator (i did the search on Trebonator, which reads better than it says, unlike Tonkinator).
So up off the bat: TONKINATORS
its got a great video of Tonk or two and some pics... I didn't actually find it there first. Its here where this line grabs me
How does an American cyclo-cross racer get a Belgium fan club? Good question…just be yourself.
also the lead link for that thread is here at Kona World filed under CXBE (ZooziQ, that stands for cyclocross belgium)
Another one - can't miss: only from the entry title for the 11th: RAT SALAD
cronoman might be one of the few to associate that properly w/in a millisecond or two...
and partly as its discussing the whole iPod thing... don't ignore the fact that the iPod will greatly degrease your awareness of your surroundings and those many ton metal boxes driven by people drinking coffee - reading papers - crackberry'n - text'n and generally doing shit they shouldn't be doing while driving, esp driving where you might be riding...
Oh and file this under "that figures" as soon as i get bothered enough to link greg reain's blog... sumbitch goes and creates a whole new site. Well - dat's cool and all... props to him for doing that all and shit... but yeah well... its what it is
Oh and from nicomachus.net there's a great article for the ladies about cycling - or for guys dating/married to them... ala the bike seat... it wasn't a link to this story - just a link to all the bicycle related stories that popped up in the NYTimes recently...
Really?
The Claim: Bicycle Seats Can Cause Impotence in Women
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Published: December 5, 2006
THE FACTS For several years, scientists have known that traditional bicycle seats can cause sexual dysfunction in men. Although female cyclists had not been studied directly, it was widely assumed that they, too, could suffer that fate.
Skip to next paragraph
Leif Parsons
But that may not be the case. For the first time, a study this month looked at avid female cyclists and found that bike seats may affect them differently. Like male riders, many women in the study experienced tingling, pain and decreased genital sensation. But they did not show symptoms of impaired sexual function, possibly reflecting a lower susceptibility to sexual side effects than men.
The study, published in the journal Sexual Medicine, looked at 48 healthy, premenopausal cyclists who biked about three to four days a week for two hours at a time, then compared them with 22 runners.
In men, traditional bike seats compress an artery and nerve that supply the genitals with blood and sensation, increasing the risk of impotence over time. Because the same artery and nerve are crucial to sexual function in women, assumptions about female cyclists are often extrapolated from studies on men.
But Dr. Marsha K. Guess, an assistant professor at Yale medical school and the lead author of the new study, said female cyclists may benefit from anatomical differences that produce less compression. She also stressed the possibility that sexual side effects in female cyclists might be noticeable only in longer-term studies.
THE BOTTOM LINE Bicycle seats can cause decreased genital sensation in avid female cyclists, but the latest study suggests they may not cause sexual dysfunction.
i think i'd better NOT comment on that - could get into areas i shouldn't... I'll let MIF's mind wander and Zooziq can sit and scratch his head wondering
peace,
i'm gonna eat... lunch...
Thursday, January 11, 2007
damn html
writing websites is fun - but if you go through the whole thing testing only in one platform and then after its up (well in beta form at least on the server - away from prying public eyes) ya go through in another platform and somethings majorly fucked up... ARGH just frustrating...
nah not this site - its why i like blogger - as quirky and sometimes down as google's blog thingy is, its still way better than writing and dealing with ya own site feed from the ground up...
and about the whole blogger rules thing...
crusin over to Mandy's (Yeah the link is up over there now) ya hit this entry:myerson is god...
specifically this:
Horseshit.
that rule might fly for that uber trendy sexually predator filled place called m y s p a c e where everyone has to have a HOT icon - even if they aren't - sure leaving comments to yourself there is stupid. M y s p a c e is not for me... maybe its for the adam miester. . . i'll leave it to the gwazd miester to find the better content over there - i ain't mining that creap zone. I feel dirty (not in the good sense - in the creapy can't wait to take a shower and wash the filth away sense) when i click over to m y s p a c e ... granted i some of the bands/musicians have pretty decent web pages... but they don't seem to be the norm... ah well... i ain't hip, trendy or any of that stuff... i'm old... and slow...
Oh and one person will get this reference - i tried checking the hostess web site to see if they list ingredients for the Ho Hos... nope... guess i can check on that later...
Its warmed up a heck of a lot today. /sarcasm
just a tick or two above freezing with a really nice headwind. Great. SUPER.
Although it looks like its just gonna get warmer and warmer - might top out around 50 degrees tomorrow. Damn.
Winter where are ya? Oh - next week. the 15 day is suggesting that we actually might be cold again. The cold is nice. Its a good hardiness filter. When temps drop only the hardiest folks venture out. The rest stay all closed in getting sick.
Well we'll see who i run into on the bike path
Bike commuting freaking RULZ YO - remember its alot easier to warm up riding a bike than sitting on your ass in a car - even with heated seats ;) with the assumption that ya dress proper like.
Don't forget the three Rs. Reduce Reuse Recycle... (in that order - ideally there shouldn't be anything left to recycle... )
peace
-G
nah not this site - its why i like blogger - as quirky and sometimes down as google's blog thingy is, its still way better than writing and dealing with ya own site feed from the ground up...
and about the whole blogger rules thing...
crusin over to Mandy's (Yeah the link is up over there now) ya hit this entry:myerson is god...
specifically this:
1. apparently, i must keep a healthy distance between myself and my readers by NOT commenting on THEIR comments within my own comments section.
Horseshit.
that rule might fly for that uber trendy sexually predator filled place called m y s p a c e where everyone has to have a HOT icon - even if they aren't - sure leaving comments to yourself there is stupid. M y s p a c e is not for me... maybe its for the adam miester. . . i'll leave it to the gwazd miester to find the better content over there - i ain't mining that creap zone. I feel dirty (not in the good sense - in the creapy can't wait to take a shower and wash the filth away sense) when i click over to m y s p a c e ... granted i some of the bands/musicians have pretty decent web pages... but they don't seem to be the norm... ah well... i ain't hip, trendy or any of that stuff... i'm old... and slow...
Oh and one person will get this reference - i tried checking the hostess web site to see if they list ingredients for the Ho Hos... nope... guess i can check on that later...
Its warmed up a heck of a lot today. /sarcasm
just a tick or two above freezing with a really nice headwind. Great. SUPER.
Although it looks like its just gonna get warmer and warmer - might top out around 50 degrees tomorrow. Damn.
Winter where are ya? Oh - next week. the 15 day is suggesting that we actually might be cold again. The cold is nice. Its a good hardiness filter. When temps drop only the hardiest folks venture out. The rest stay all closed in getting sick.
Well we'll see who i run into on the bike path
Bike commuting freaking RULZ YO - remember its alot easier to warm up riding a bike than sitting on your ass in a car - even with heated seats ;) with the assumption that ya dress proper like.
Don't forget the three Rs. Reduce Reuse Recycle... (in that order - ideally there shouldn't be anything left to recycle... )
peace
-G
updated links
and yet again...
further refined -
Peanut's prodding about ranking and all that forced me to get at it...
oh - now i just remembered i was checking Mandy's over break but didn't get the link translated over here...
well - look for more soon... more links or just more changes - we'll see
further refined -
Peanut's prodding about ranking and all that forced me to get at it...
oh - now i just remembered i was checking Mandy's over break but didn't get the link translated over here...
well - look for more soon... more links or just more changes - we'll see
"Do you have a heater in there?"
I was asked this morning dropping the littlest off. Sure it was in the low twenties. Prolly below that when we set out.
Last night i hooked it up with some 3mm closed cell foamy stuff (left over underlay stuff for the ikea flooring), doubled it up on the back to cover the vents and wrapped the inside in a single piece. Cutting slots to feed the straps through.
The normal two gatorade (yeah from the CX nats) waterbottles filled with hot tap water were sitting on either side of her and i added a third between her feet. Gloves were put on under the jacket to prevent removal and snack was not allowed on the way in (no temptation to take gloves off and eat). With her fuzzy fleece one peice suit on under the jacket, and a nice wool knit hat under the helmet - she was freaking TOASTY when i pulled her out. The exposed face was cool but not cold. warmer than my fingers that were inside the gloves. The rest of her was uber toasty.
We got at least another 5-10 or more degrees of tolerance maybe more... Kinda funny - she stays awake almost always along the path - once we hit the "city" Zzzzzzzz (that is if she falls asleep at all).
That and for me - having the trailer assures that i will work hard enough to stay warm. How hard?
Well we'll see some day.
That and that gewilliesque comment from Solofreak about the worry'n about tire weights and power and all that -
I finished the darwin book finally last night. One of those books ya don't want to finish because you know when its over ya feel a little let down. At least i do when i read a book. Esp a good book. Its depressing finishing a good book. I never want them to end. But of course they have to. And this morning it trigged a thought.
Doubt, questioning, looking for answers. Are very good and important things. If you take everything for face value, never wonder, question, investigate, hypothesize, discover - ya won't learn, ya won't expand your knowledge base. Even asking silly questions - is a process - even if ya know the answer - going through the Q&A process is helpful.
Like getting ready for a race:
Do i have my license...
Do i have my shoes...
If ya don't ask yourself those questions before ya leave - you may find ya lacking shoes just before the start of a cross race... but if you have a wonderful and understanding wife not that far away and with the shoes - ya really lucky and ya bacon gets saved...
If you don't ask the question you are likely to make an assumption. Take the shoes. If ya don't ask you assume that they are there. Cause you always put them in, why would this time be any different? Its the uninformed assumptions that get ya bit in the ass. When you assume... as Mr Leigh VanEtten always said (he was my high school chemistry teacher for both advanced Chem and AP Chem) "when you assume you make and ass out of u and me"
Of course he wrote the word assume on the board and drew hash marks saying the phrase ass out of you and me: ass/u/me
I know it ain't new, and most everyone's seen that once or twice before. But it really is important. And it is linked strongly to asking questions.
Question the Answers. Wait that's a MMB album Que pandora and my mighty mighty bosstones station! (Simmer down is playing)
Okay - that was stressful - on the phone with this entry open (and written to this point) and an unfinished draft in my webmail... and the computer decides to shut down and restart.
w/o warning (from what i could see)...
so here i am, hoping and hoping and hoping that Mozilla Firefox 2.0.x saves the entry, cause i didn't save as draft.... PHEW... totally sweet its here.
Now not only does Firefox 2.0 automatically spell check for me, it ALSO saves any forms/words entered when a session is closed like that, not to mention the whole open in tabs goodness.
That's about it. Content... just me - no MIF 3rd person dilution
oh
just to make it longer,
here's something i find rather amusing, showed up in the email from a good friend up in canada (no not suds... )
Last night i hooked it up with some 3mm closed cell foamy stuff (left over underlay stuff for the ikea flooring), doubled it up on the back to cover the vents and wrapped the inside in a single piece. Cutting slots to feed the straps through.
The normal two gatorade (yeah from the CX nats) waterbottles filled with hot tap water were sitting on either side of her and i added a third between her feet. Gloves were put on under the jacket to prevent removal and snack was not allowed on the way in (no temptation to take gloves off and eat). With her fuzzy fleece one peice suit on under the jacket, and a nice wool knit hat under the helmet - she was freaking TOASTY when i pulled her out. The exposed face was cool but not cold. warmer than my fingers that were inside the gloves. The rest of her was uber toasty.
We got at least another 5-10 or more degrees of tolerance maybe more... Kinda funny - she stays awake almost always along the path - once we hit the "city" Zzzzzzzz (that is if she falls asleep at all).
That and for me - having the trailer assures that i will work hard enough to stay warm. How hard?
Well we'll see some day.
That and that gewilliesque comment from Solofreak about the worry'n about tire weights and power and all that -
I finished the darwin book finally last night. One of those books ya don't want to finish because you know when its over ya feel a little let down. At least i do when i read a book. Esp a good book. Its depressing finishing a good book. I never want them to end. But of course they have to. And this morning it trigged a thought.
Doubt, questioning, looking for answers. Are very good and important things. If you take everything for face value, never wonder, question, investigate, hypothesize, discover - ya won't learn, ya won't expand your knowledge base. Even asking silly questions - is a process - even if ya know the answer - going through the Q&A process is helpful.
Like getting ready for a race:
Do i have my license...
Do i have my shoes...
If ya don't ask yourself those questions before ya leave - you may find ya lacking shoes just before the start of a cross race... but if you have a wonderful and understanding wife not that far away and with the shoes - ya really lucky and ya bacon gets saved...
If you don't ask the question you are likely to make an assumption. Take the shoes. If ya don't ask you assume that they are there. Cause you always put them in, why would this time be any different? Its the uninformed assumptions that get ya bit in the ass. When you assume... as Mr Leigh VanEtten always said (he was my high school chemistry teacher for both advanced Chem and AP Chem) "when you assume you make and ass out of u and me"
Of course he wrote the word assume on the board and drew hash marks saying the phrase ass out of you and me: ass/u/me
I know it ain't new, and most everyone's seen that once or twice before. But it really is important. And it is linked strongly to asking questions.
Question the Answers. Wait that's a MMB album Que pandora and my mighty mighty bosstones station! (Simmer down is playing)
Okay - that was stressful - on the phone with this entry open (and written to this point) and an unfinished draft in my webmail... and the computer decides to shut down and restart.
w/o warning (from what i could see)...
so here i am, hoping and hoping and hoping that Mozilla Firefox 2.0.x saves the entry, cause i didn't save as draft.... PHEW... totally sweet its here.
Now not only does Firefox 2.0 automatically spell check for me, it ALSO saves any forms/words entered when a session is closed like that, not to mention the whole open in tabs goodness.
That's about it. Content... just me - no MIF 3rd person dilution
oh
just to make it longer,
here's something i find rather amusing, showed up in the email from a good friend up in canada (no not suds... )
By George Carlin:
New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates dot com! There's a reason you don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them! Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days: mowing my lawn.
New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Trout?
New Rule: Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards.
New Rule: If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you're a retard. When you're a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. When you're a grown man, they're pictures of men.
New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.
New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water.
New Rule: Stop f***ing with old people. Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue. Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.
New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n'-Low and one NutraSweet," Oooh, you're a huge asshole.
New Rule: I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, selecting 'Debit,' entering my PIN, pressing 'Enter,' verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want cash back, and pressing 'Enter' again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.
New Rule: Girls, just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just high.
New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport. It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting? Oh wait. They're already doing that. It's called "The Howard Stern Show."
New Rule: I don't need a bigger mega M&M. If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.
New Rule: If you're going to insist on making movies based on crappy, old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what's playing on the other screens. Let's remember the reason something was a television show in the first place is that the idea wasn't good enough to be a movie.
New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
linnk bar updated a bit
order still means nothing, but i've done a primary sort and added a few - more to add - might need to sort a bit more again, might - no definitely will have to...
ten dollars
Turning off the BLVD this morning i noticed a bill on the road - blowing about - first glance, that's not a single...
stop... back up... it starts to blow away - i grab it and - DAMN a Ten spot! Sweet.
Riding home last night - things going well - had the story board all figured out, and i meet up with Marky D on the path. So we ride together, he asks how the battery is doing. Well, i had just charged it and was saying how the microprocessor controlled charger revived the old NiCad battery pack... and i look down and the beam is a dull yellow. FUCK... oh well, fortune smiles on me i guess. Mark was there with his lights. Nice 10W old vista light halogen set up with a big lead acid battery, and a couple back ups. So well, Mark's not slow, but the trailer and going fast are different. So i worked my ass off the whole length of the bike path heading home. Legs sore. This morning figuring to work on the story board and document how gorgeous the ride is with a brilliant sun in the morning. barely to riverside center, here's Marky D! So... my 10-11mph mellow ride in the cold was ramped up to 15-16. that's a pretty big power difference with the trailer. And to make it all that much more fun we were headed into a nice 20 mph steady wind from the NWN (gusts up above that). So, i'm again pushing it as hard as i can while he's just toddling along. Mind ya Marky D rides a good distance further than me, basically the length of the bike path, and with/out trailer. Trailer is pretty amazing. Maybe one of those hub power meter things will help figure out exactly how much extra it is.
That and i started wondering (later after marky d and i went our different ways) can a power tap differentiate between a very heavy wire bead tire and a super light clincher? I would think so. as there is a noticeably higher power requirement to get the wheel rolling with increased mass... but then maybe the flywheel affect would negate any average power differences.
And i also at some point, might have been last night or this morning in the shower, started thinking about how people are training in the off season. And there are people doing mellow LSD. Working on getting miles in, optimizing the fat metabolism pathway to fuel the fast twitch fibers, while others are working on power only, doing weights or core work out.
Speaking of core workout. Check the FRAZ strip today (and yesterday) its a riot.
And so, well i guess i'm falling into the latter with the riding this week. Long intervals. power. maybe i'll start the longer distance sometime in February.
Also does it seem like a good time to dig up the old wolverine cycling club early season training program? Maybe Yogurt boy should be the one to try it out with all is recently acquired fixies...
and yeah - i figure if i quote it at least once a year maybe some day i'll actually do it:
65% - where does that fall in relation to power output. But then if we are talking about this "phase" as specifically developing capillaries, then heart rate could be a better metric to follow as capillaries are sort of related to the heart.
Colin's cross results are cool. It shows 11 of the 12 cross races i did this year (southington not there... 'cause wade's officials were challenged). And it also shows my steady improvement ;) (switching from A masters to B masters helps) and it shows my total collapse at the end of the season, that coupled with the increased competition. Can't wait to get the head to head working to see how i stack up against Rob and Bob. Sure - we aint the fastest trio but we typically finish pretty close to each other.
CTodd's shit today is hysterical. If he can keep that entertainment level that high for the next 50 tod_Casts i'll be impressed.
Anyway - peace pimps...
Oh...
wait - yesterday found the top ten organic things ya should eat:
link
this is a brief run down of the list
Don't eat them non-organic... shit'l poison a person - esp a kid...
be green, buy organic, smile at people...
G
stop... back up... it starts to blow away - i grab it and - DAMN a Ten spot! Sweet.
Riding home last night - things going well - had the story board all figured out, and i meet up with Marky D on the path. So we ride together, he asks how the battery is doing. Well, i had just charged it and was saying how the microprocessor controlled charger revived the old NiCad battery pack... and i look down and the beam is a dull yellow. FUCK... oh well, fortune smiles on me i guess. Mark was there with his lights. Nice 10W old vista light halogen set up with a big lead acid battery, and a couple back ups. So well, Mark's not slow, but the trailer and going fast are different. So i worked my ass off the whole length of the bike path heading home. Legs sore. This morning figuring to work on the story board and document how gorgeous the ride is with a brilliant sun in the morning. barely to riverside center, here's Marky D! So... my 10-11mph mellow ride in the cold was ramped up to 15-16. that's a pretty big power difference with the trailer. And to make it all that much more fun we were headed into a nice 20 mph steady wind from the NWN (gusts up above that). So, i'm again pushing it as hard as i can while he's just toddling along. Mind ya Marky D rides a good distance further than me, basically the length of the bike path, and with/out trailer. Trailer is pretty amazing. Maybe one of those hub power meter things will help figure out exactly how much extra it is.
That and i started wondering (later after marky d and i went our different ways) can a power tap differentiate between a very heavy wire bead tire and a super light clincher? I would think so. as there is a noticeably higher power requirement to get the wheel rolling with increased mass... but then maybe the flywheel affect would negate any average power differences.
And i also at some point, might have been last night or this morning in the shower, started thinking about how people are training in the off season. And there are people doing mellow LSD. Working on getting miles in, optimizing the fat metabolism pathway to fuel the fast twitch fibers, while others are working on power only, doing weights or core work out.
Speaking of core workout. Check the FRAZ strip today (and yesterday) its a riot.
And so, well i guess i'm falling into the latter with the riding this week. Long intervals. power. maybe i'll start the longer distance sometime in February.
Also does it seem like a good time to dig up the old wolverine cycling club early season training program? Maybe Yogurt boy should be the one to try it out with all is recently acquired fixies...
and yeah - i figure if i quote it at least once a year maybe some day i'll actually do it:
Michigan coaching legend Mike Walden kept his road racers on a 42/15 fixed gear at a heart rate never to exceed 65% of their maximum until they had logged 1000 miles for the season, and he claimed a single sprint would negate all the "capillary developing" of this phase
65% - where does that fall in relation to power output. But then if we are talking about this "phase" as specifically developing capillaries, then heart rate could be a better metric to follow as capillaries are sort of related to the heart.
Colin's cross results are cool. It shows 11 of the 12 cross races i did this year (southington not there... 'cause wade's officials were challenged). And it also shows my steady improvement ;) (switching from A masters to B masters helps) and it shows my total collapse at the end of the season, that coupled with the increased competition. Can't wait to get the head to head working to see how i stack up against Rob and Bob. Sure - we aint the fastest trio but we typically finish pretty close to each other.
CTodd's shit today is hysterical. If he can keep that entertainment level that high for the next 50 tod_Casts i'll be impressed.
Anyway - peace pimps...
Oh...
wait - yesterday found the top ten organic things ya should eat:
link
this is a brief run down of the list
- High-Pesticide Food: Strawberries
- High-Pesticide Food: Bell peppers
- High-Pesticide Food: Spinach
- High-Pesticide Food: Cherries
- High-Pesticide Food: Peaches
- High-Pesticide Food: Mexican cantaloupe
- High-Pesticide Food: Celery
- High-Pesticide Food: Apples
- High-Pesticide Food: Apricots
- High-Pesticide Food: Green beans
Don't eat them non-organic... shit'l poison a person - esp a kid...
be green, buy organic, smile at people...
G
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