almost...

so many good comments to make - but then - i've finished lunch and haven't read 1/2 of the stuff out there...

Kerry's comment: "I am going to look like a freak at New Bedford."

made me start to think "um... Kerry? the tan lines ain't half the story!"

Big Jonny's got some great email about how retarded it is to run a Fixie w/o brakes (for 99.9% of the people runnin like that) not to mention Exit17 has hit the big time... Drunkcyclist Linkatude!

MegA finally posted more of the pictures solobreak immortalized her as being famous for... lots of boxes with a big 'X' heck most of the descriptions that go with the envelope looking X sound pretty good... maybe she's teasing us...

I ripped it up on the way in today... cadence solid kicking at 105-110... felt fine... starting to feel like 100 did the first time this season... 120 sooner than later? no problem... maybe...

Riding home i got thinking - most road wheels when ya stick the bike in the repair stand and crank the crap out of it in the 53x11 you get some wicked oscillations as in some serious outa balance shit going on. Do those freaks who hit 250-300 rpm carefully balance the rear wheels! I hope so.

Figured out how to have the little yellow buddy display the averages and not factor the zeros in... makes for wicked damn higher numbers on the display... RTFM it doesn't seem to help the PowerAgent junk program figure out the "avg" numbers that way... but at least its on the head display... kinda cool...

A few crazy hours of Feb left to cover - scopes are starting to move, playing general contractor in addition to everything else and splitting time between three buildings right now is killin me...

Three weeks and the shit will be moved into the new place and i'll be back down to running between two buildings...

*sigh*

respect!
g

so, this food thing, i'm tired of feeling pooped half way through the ride and being dead when i get home...

so...

i decided that this morning i'd take a tub of Kozy Shack with me... The littlest has stopped asking for Kozy Shack, so i figured it was safe for me take and scarf down.

Was planning on just eating 1/2 the tub today and the other 1/2 tomorrow...

I have two bites left of the tub. No, just one bite now.

624 grams (22oz) of vanilla rice sweet goodness... its euro style of course...

What that means is i've just now consumed 720 calories (+/- a few).

Mmmmm

Here's to hoping that little bit of food makes for a less draining ride home!

respect THE KOZY SHACK
g

There’s a reason that world class track sprinters start their accelerations from 140rpm or higher—because they get more total power that way. Some of those guys can spin up to 300RPM; I know guys that can ride hands free on the rollers at 180.

140 i can fathom... 180? dats pretty damn high... 300? Physically possible? 300 contractions a minute in your biggest muscle in the body?

i ain't no track rider... i ain't no fixie owner...

anyone got more than hearsay to back up suck lofty claims of speed?

all i found was the cycling forum... folks boasting of 220s and 275s and what not...
http://www.cyclingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-98179.html

I think maybe to approach 200 rpms ya probably have to go to shorter cranks...

well it makes the goal to hit 120 sustained for duration seem rather modest and slow...

but then sprinting vs sustained...

how long can ya sustain 200+ 5 seconds? 10 seconds? I know i hit 160 (using a Vetta w/ cadence display) on the rollers with my 180mm cranks once that felt pretty damn fast for me...

but... thinkin - if i'm making 400 watts at 90-95 rpm or 400 watts at 140 rpm... with my current conditioning i'd be able to sustain the 90-95 much longer i'm guessing... and even then at what point (me just thinking aloud here) at what point would i hit my physiological barrier of diminishing returns? Or is there one, is the limit purely training/conditioning based? If i work on boosting RPMs by 5 a week, will i eventually be comfortable like lance climbing at 120 rpms for hours?

Hmmmm maybe i need that granny gear afterall..

a few pics to end the day from the ride in on Monday


and some of the bike...

Peace - have fun out there - be safe - eat well - love and laugh

respect!
g

I was all set to head out early and discovered that the trailer had a flat tire. But not until we were strapped in and ready to go… “Panic” o man I don’t have a 20” Schrader valve tube… patch kit… where’s my patch kit…

now the patch kit that resembles the one solobreak busted out for his trainer bike
i used once... the glue was completely gone - dried out - barely enough for the first patch i needed it for... So fortunately at some point i had located a vintage Park Tool glueless patch kit. Vintage in that it probably was among the very first run that they made... ages ago. No glue... no mess... scrub clean, peel and stick...

The wholes were paired - poked out two chunks of glass embedded in the tire. Maybe i do need some of those 4" tires... prolly would fit!

so anwyay just finished patching when I looked down and saw the front wheel for the jogger kit… inflated with a nice fresh 20” tube in it… oh well – its patched now... yeah - i coulda grabbed the front wheel - and swapped...

20" plastic mag wheels are wicked easy to swap tires on...

So that set me back a bit (15 minutes or so - 5 min looking for the damn patch)

Hitting the trail... in the crunchy rutted stuff fresh snow on old frozen snow– ooh man – that sucked about 100 watts draggin the trailer through it.

I could do without all the road sand between the bridgeand my final destination and So could my drive train, not to mention what little is left of my brakes…

moving scopes today - i have pics...

cause i like pictures... will post maybe while sucking down lunch

RESPECT
g

as a quick forward... i'm a microscopist - i look at the inside of cells, i pay attention to what i eat, but i am not a nutritionist, but i'm also well aware that all it takes is some quack to write an article in a magazine and boom whole new diet craze, macrobiotic, probiotic, paleo-diet, atkins, south beach... blah blah blah, trans fats, fat free, fiber, anti-oxidants, blah blah blah - anyway - what i am about to post(what i wrote last night) is just some rambling thoughts working sht out in my head not a recommendation or advice on what to eat or not eat

So this Sans Auto guy…

I got thinking… he’s one of the whole grain folks. Eat whole grains, grind flour just before using and all that – or keep it in the freezer…

But then… what happens when the stuff is “cooked”

The mix of 7 grains cooked for 30 minutes… the precious trace oils and “good” stuff is still there? The comment that touched it off was the bit about shelf life of wheat oils and the rancidity and all that…

I did grow up on fresh ground flour. We had a grinder, and big sacks of whole grain wheat and if we wanted to make pancakes or waffles one of us would go out on the porch and grind some flour… good good good good stuff.

Oh while I’m thinking about it – send some thoughts and prayers over to Suds. He needs some good vibes from the looks of his last post on Monday.

So back to cooking the crap out of the whole grains for 30 minutes… sure some of it will stay in the water or get entrained in the starchy matrix… but… ya know… processing it there by cooking it ain’t all *that* different.

Think about some nice organic natural beef, fed organic grains and grass… cows actually have stomachs designed to eat and process raw grasses and grains without cooking. So the natural beef you get from say Whole Foods, gets the good stuff, makes some kick ass muscles and basically cellular components that we need and then we eat the beef. MMmmmm tasty beef. Or lamb, or pork. The chicken thing is different. We ain’t got chicken muscles. We ain’t birds. We is mammals. We are predators. We are the top of the DAMN FOOD CHAIN HEAR ME/us ROAR… mmm meat!!!

Funny thing, when ya think about it. Meat. Good stuff. Sure – don’t eat too much protein. But ya know – carbs - in essence for cyclists who churn out a thousand or two calories a day on top of basal metabolism – are just that – sugar sources… The whole grains are key. He made some point about eating an apple, eating apple sauce or drinking apple juice. 100 calories each and the group eating the apple ate less food at the next meal. Maybe the study looked at it but I’d wager part of the mental trigger, or a majority of the mental trigger is duration of consumption. Apple takes longer to eat per chew and bite than apple sauce which takes longer than drinking 100 calories of juice.

I ain’t no nutritionist. But damn it, I do eat well. And I look marvelous… if not funny looking… okay – maybe not marvelous and definitely funny looking…

So here’s where I’m going… the plants. Their cells die very quickly. The seeds are designed to support the growth of a plant, just long enough to make a pair of leaves that will then start making energy to fuel the growth of the rest of the plant. Sure – ya eat enough seeds and ya’ll be okay. But then lets look at the cellular structure in meat. Pick beef. Mmm cause cow tastes NUMMY! Well I like it. I have many vegan friends, and heck even a vegan brother and his whole family. I respect their choices as I hope they respect mine. That word again. Respect.

So these cells. The muscle cells. They are more or less almost still alive, at least before they are cooked. And cooking doesn’t change them nearly as much as cooking plant stuff. Well maybe sort of not quite but still… point being, those nice essential fatty acids and amino acids and all the complex stuff – stands a better chance of making it to your system intact by cooking for a few minutes in the meat than for 30 minutes in the grains.

Now, that respect topic triggered another thought. Religious wars are fought because of irreconcilable differences no? Why? Because people don’t respect each other’s traditions…. And yeah – so peace = respect…

Respect ain’t something that happens accidentally.

I offer my humble respect to the ambivalent masses…
G

PS – for a nice write up about how “us” New Englanders stack up against those Cali boys check the Turk’s (Murat) blog.

the best take on Jan's retirement...

i'll give Yogurt boy a B for being the first to email the link to me...

exit17 gets decent marks for originality but the standard deduction for such overt negativity that isn't coupled with enough humor... call it a B

Me?

Jan or no Jan... *shrug* what-ever (said with true 80s valley girl emphasis)

and yes - i'm doing pretty much every odd thing i can think of while working on the damn lecture - student to teacher - procrastination is the name of the game... okay - more on vacuums and filaments and accelerating voltage and working distance!

REEEE-spect
g

Fatmarc

why? well some of yall may have caught the transition from signing off with peace to respect a bit ago...

it hit me...

fm's been signing off with respect...

it was an unintended use, although i would be surprised if we were the only two doing it...

just needed to acknowledge the fm and also hope he never posts pictures of country fried steak again... :puke:

'spect,
G

SNOW - wasn't expecting to see 3-4 inches of the stuff...

made the ride in a bit more of a power work out - the torque numbers have to be killer...

even with the weekend off my legs are feeling it...

i would have had some images but the cable to get them off the camera is not here...

there is a weekend update coming down the pipe here soon... it'll be following this post...

clarification:
ToC... i'm not saying all the pros are on dope, if they are or not, whatever... like solobreak said... it comes down to me just not caring who wins. And unlike cross i am not just geeked about the racing. That and i can't watch it.

Also...

breaking news:
check the rider list for the 30+ group at BKR... some old school New England races might recognize the name of an unattached rider... a ringer flying in from California for the race!

stay tuned for the weekend update.
respect,
G

When is a bicycle like a violin?

When you change the cables… Why draw a parallel to some seemingly in the moment only the newest will do with something that only reaches a prime after 200 years…

Well strings and cables. Both are something you should never change before requiring the performance to be at the peak… Never change strings just before a performance, but also you don’t want old dead strings as the sound is… essentially dead. Never change cables and housing on the bike before a big race.

I changed the cables a bit ago, yeah when I wanted to I did actually get it done. So the cables and housing have been stretching and seating in a bit. I think I got it tweaked up and looking good despite the collection of sand on the drive train bits.

Violin strings stretch, bike cable stretch… sure you can pre stretch both, but the cable is only part of it. The housing and whole system, the tension from the derailleur springs…

The trailer needed some adjustment… tightened it all up, got it a bit less wearing on itself. The bolts wearing through aluminum rails on the frame…

It would be so cool to have access to some nice quality light chromoly tube set, and to weld up or braze a nice solid frame that will last longer and be stronger than the current rig… but then the current rig still works. And I should be able to keep it going for a long time… much longer than really I am sure it has been designed to be used. Which is curious. How much use was this really designed for? Is there really a trailer that is somewhat affordable that is designed for daily use on bumpy streets. Can I find a really giant balloon tire in a 20” size? Is there a nice 2-2.5” tire out there? Add a bit of suspension. The bearings in the wheels are a bit rough, but not serviceable and certainly seem not to be easily replaceable. Although I suppose it would be possible to press them out and find replacements.

Shout out to Kahn in tonight’s academy award ceremony… he’s up for documentary short feature… he missed out on the academy award for My Architect to the movie the fog of war… I hope he gets the award for the film tonight. It sounds pretty amazing. Would love to see the film sometime…

It is somewhat hard not riding on the weekend. I miss the camaraderie and the dynamics of riding with a group of people. And I can’t think of when I last went on a group ride. Races don’t count… not the same thing. The commute has been getting me two hours a day on the bike. 10 hours… I knew that, but now I know more than just the time, I know more. Friday had me with a completely empty fuel tank. It was hard riding home. Energy levels were depleted completely. That hunger cycle sans auto talked about and attempted to diagram seems not to affect me. Mentally I’ve managed the ability to have that feed back not matter. But energy levels cannot be ignored. If you have no chemical stores it becomes hard to function. I find that with as much as I’m riding daily if I miss just a few calories during the week they come back and bite me hard at the end of the week. Yes… I’m skinny, too skinny to miss calories. I don’t know what my body fat % is, probably not very high. And my weight can’t get really any lower, which is counter to what most of the cyclists out there seem to report. Anyway, when I know there’s a bit group riding heading out with the team to hook up with the fred’s like Il Bruce I feel like I’m missing something. But I think my legs are appreciating the rest. They do need time to repair and rebuild and recover after a week of work. But something else about riding I really feed off is riding with people. Talking, chilling, the social nature even without verbal communication, the flow of a draft, the intangibles of a group… and a the occasional sprint… and the knowledge that I am a very different rider than last time I went out with a group… I feel pretty confident that I’ve made some pretty major gains in strength and fitness over the fall. Still not to the level of the elite masters folks… but to a level I haven’t been at in a long time, if at all. That and it’s a brilliant day out there, sunny, warm… almost warm enough for a shorts ride… almost – it would be tempting to give it a go in shorts just if nothing else to make the triple layered folks shake their heads… Acclimation. Live in a cool house, wear a layer if ya need it, better for the environment, better for your health.

Speaking of health. A certain yogurt boy wants to attribute not being sick this year to his probiotic lifestyle. I’d suggest his health and vitality has much more to do with the commuting to work in all weather. For me the ever present possibility that the bugs living in my sinuses will take over and render me outa commish… they’ve usually manage succeed in the winter, but this year, the riding, the cold aiding the process of flushing I’ve made it this far… some people I know keep those bugs at bay by flushing the sinuses with saline solutions, my sinuses are such that if I attempt it I just get a head full of saltwater. Riding in the cold, blowing snot out each morning on a ride long enough to generate the health benefit of cool weather exercise seems to be my ace in the hole… Assuming I can keep enough food in my system even getting as tired and run down, which in the past has nuked my defenses allowing predatory virus and bacteria to grab hold, seems to not be quite the same problem. Is it diet? Is it the good food? Is it the 1.5-2 hours in the cold every day? Is it the satisfaction in the job without mental hang ups and longings to be anywhere else? I really do actually like going to work everyday. It is a mentally stabilizing and satisfying experience. Life is good. Having your health is good.

Food… I got a waffle recipe for folks. Made a kick ass batch yesterday… to make these really taste impressive you MUST use fresh and high quality ingredients. The food you make is only as good as the crappiest ingredients that you put in.

To start:
3 eggs (fresh, fresh, fresh)
Beat them up in a large bowl till just mixed
2 cups milk (organic 2% or whole milk)
1.5 cups whole milk plain yogurt
Mix well

½ teaspoon vanilla (pure extract – no imitation crap)
½ cup Unsweetened applesauce (organic of course)
½ an apple finely grated (organic)
Mix well

Add to the wet ingredients but don’t mix until final element is added:
2 cups unbleached flour (I use King Arthur)
1 cup white whole wheat flour (King Arthur again)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Just mix until it is mixed.
Then add 6 tablespoons of melted unsalted sweet cream (organic duh) butter and incorporate.

Add milk or apple juice to thin if it is too thick.

Cook and enjoy with some maple syrup…

There is not salt or processed sugar added… and you’d never know it.

They are tasty.

thanks to 32sixteen

nice link

http://www.blackbirdsf.org/cx/

might have been posted before but its worth another hey check it out...

i think i need a shift... shift energy drink...

not a Spike... that stuff sounds pretty wicked... and wicked not in the Down East expression

Looking at the Airborne stuff my wife was given for Xmas they list gin-sing(sic) as an anti-nausea aid...

I wonder maybe, shift is the ultimate hangover cure-all!

my eyelids are wicked damn heavy... somehow i think sleep is about all that will cure my condition...

too bad there isn't a nice couch here in the lab... that'd be kick ass

respect
g

so i have fat cyclist blog in my open taps... and honestly i often don't read it... there is always content... kinda the nytimes of stuff...

but... usually i'm not super geeked about reading through his long entries...

Today... i read... and found another blog - sans auto... looks good...

Carbs and hunger...

i've read the first part but his stuff actually (the little i've read) makes sense... and yeah... i should read the whole thing before linking...

but...

ya know... time to post and time to read are diverse... it will take me much of the rest of the day to get through his stuff - due to interruptions and what not, but i will read it and while i may not learn anything new - it could be a new approach to explaining stuff to people...

basically teaching...

right?

How do you teach someone something? Well i've found that it depends on who the person is. Ya gotta approach the student with an attitude of a blood thirsty salesperson... you ain't letting em walk out until they've bought what ya selling, i mean learn what you are teaching...

Granted, this works well with one on one or small groups, where you can target and focus the education. But part of being the teacher/salesperson is reading the customer/student... ya gotta be able to pick up an angle that gets them hooked...

Sure, in my side of things, the students i see generally have at least some interest, more often they are quite interested. But the problem is our classes cover lots of different stuff and there is bound to be at least one area they need to learn that isn't initially exciting. And this method for me is a killer on the brain energy. Zombifies me at the end of a day of doing this. Its not even conscious really anymore... it is automatic.

So, this relates to sans auto in that to make the method i use successful, you need to be an encyclopedia of knowledge on the particular subject. Ya gotta know the in and out - start to finish. But you also are always trying to pick up new ways to explain things, so what better way to learn how to explain stuff than to read how people explain stuff. Not to mimic, but to absorb and store and mix around with the stuff in your own brain...

Anyway...

for those "kids" looking for quick diet fixes, or the old folks working on the spare tire... reading about nutrition is good... reading different view points is good... most aren't wrong, but few are 100% right and 100% unbiased. Problem is, you can't remove bias because it is the human filter/element. Each person is slightly different and requires slightly different needs... Some people over express iron, and can scrub every molecule out of the food... some people can't get enough... anyway...

Yall go give that guy some traffic... auto free (cause sans is french... never mind if ya ain't that cerebral i prolly shouldn't translate)...

Respect
g

coffee free mornings...

lack of headache is just coming on line as i'm sippin the first cup of coffee this morning... yes - coffee break time.

The union guys i'm meeting with to finalize a bit of our installation are on theirs now - so might as well have a bit of coffee now...

Slow ride this morning... bitchin headwind...

i think the trailer is starting to get a bit wobbly... time for some take it apartness this weekend maybe...

maybe this adobe thing will make me excited about the tour...

of course it would mean i would actually have to be sitting here at the computer for more than 30 seconds at a time...

The facility move is coming up... moving sucks... coordinating the move of 5 research mircoscopes and the rooms of support equipment is just not a stress free time when juggling teaching in addition to the unchanging demands...

way too many cool things out there in blog land - today... not gonna do a big jonny link dump... they are out there... start with big jonny and go to Patty Og even the mandytee has some decent stuff up today...

peace - respect and all that freaky jazz...
g

Relief... in the form of me not being single dad for much longer...

It has been great, but it is a bit of work... props to the parents who do it all alone, yes, even the parents who are married but one spouse doesn't contribute to the child care, housework, dishes, cooking, laundry - that's like being a single parent...

But like anything, the first few days of a new routine are always the hardest. It takes time to adjust and figure out what works for all involved and before long it is second nature and the load is barely noticed.

Sunday to Thursday is not long enough to get settled into a routine. It has been fun.

it has been trying

it has been filled with little sleep

i hit the pillow last night and passed out

only to be called out of bed at 4am "DADDY I WENT POOPY" I blindly walk into the room, pick her up, stick nose on the diaper, inhale... "there is no poop in there?!"

she replies sheepishly "no" in that 'i know but i wanted you to get out of bed and take me into your bed' tone of voice...

So i get kicked, headbutted until about 6am... when i get out of bed to turn the alarm clock off before it goes off... she won't sleep w/o me... so well... lets get the morning started!

Now to the childless adults it may be outrageous to fathom dealing with this stuff day in and day out... but let me tell you... i wouldn't want it any other way...

Kids are amazing. I still offer mucho respect to all those out there doing it alone...

Time to saddle up... The radar looks funky, it might just be wet roads, or it might be rain... either way - its only 38°F out there - i ain't wearing just shorts...

RESPECT!
g

i rode home in shorts!

showin off the new team kit colors!

if ya are concerned about your team kit looking faded over time... just start out with colors that are pre-faded...

It was great riding in shorts... quite liberating...

But

last night i was reminded that there is something far worse, far far worse than the seagulls feasting on mussels and clams...

other path users... runners, walkers, lovers, dogs... damn it... where'd all the people come from...

Please... lets stay below freezing as long as possible. I will gladly wear the tights if it means i don't have to play dodge the iPod wearing jogging with their dog and partner oblivious to the other folks... the cyclists with no lights weaving all over the place...

*sigh*

man...

its gonna suck when it gets busy on there - i guess i can go back and remind myself of the complaints i had in the early fall... some folks who read this on occasion can probably recall it better than I...

power...

Did yall read M Barry's thing at v-news?

On average I have been producing about 3000-4000 kilojoules each stage but the peaks and valleys in download profile are very interesting and completely different to what I see on the training graphs. While leading out the sprints we are accelerating out of the corners at about 500-700 watts and then each stage I hit a maximum of about 1000-1200 watts when I do my final acceleration on the front in the last kilometer before pulling off.

Numbers look pretty mortal... although... how much does he weigh? (google's cool... link's old but still might be close enough) 149... or right around 68kg...

i'm 88 or so... 20 kilo difference...

1200w/67.7kg:1200w/87.8kg
17.7:13.7

that's a smoking 4w/kg different

that is a HUGE difference...

So... lesson to yall number happy/hungry freaks... if ya read a watt... don't take it at face value...

I got some work to do... but then... i ain't Michael Barry, and i'm sure as hell no Magnus (in size and weight i am but... )

Anyway...

Just a few random thoughts...

Respect!
G

yes...

and since these are the op-ed columns of our times... as well as breaking news stories read no where else, or more often read and linked somewhere else...

Some former New England Junior cycling standout who's gone around the world more times than anyone but an international pilot, who solidly was focused on cycling till a certain friend of mine in college, who was wisked away in the middle of freshman year to go translate arabic on a frigate in the gulf in pappy bush's war, gave this guy an upside down margarita and turned the straight edge clean cut freak into a party animal that 6 campus saftey officers were unable to subdue, who is now living in the sunny state of cali - living the life of a married childless (meaning lots of adult toys (cars, bikes, stuff) and travel) mid 30s athlete... *deep breath* is seriously considering trekking across country to make a go at the Battenkill in the 30+ group...

How freaking cool would that be?

I'd maybe hazard that solobreak knows already who i am talking about... cause yeah solo and me both know this guy... kinda funny- damn freaking small world eh?

Yogurt boy, (who stands ready to kick eveyrone's ass with his new commute - we are screwed - scratch that, I am screwed), Cali boy wonder, and the rest of the psyco's lining up with the Cat 1-4 youngest of the old farts... gonna be a kicking race...

Now back to the top - about this being the new media and shizzle...

i've got a host of linkages that needabe blacklisted for lack of content and all that... not that the blog "authors" are required to post drivel everyday, and honestly maybe many (me) would be better off NOT instead OF ... but if ya gonna deserve open tabs space and linkage (not that anyone clicks the tabs on the left but you could if you wanted to) ya gotta roll the content.

Many thanks to the abrasive anti-Treefarm Adam Myerson for driving Ryan off air seemingly permanently. That's what ya call bullying. Trying to improve and getting advice and then leaving cause ya get too much advice is the internet... difference? Yeah... very... And yeah there are prolly other reasons the Treefarm is not writing stuff anymore... and they are his reasons... No worries. And yes. I could ride his damn bike pretty much without changing a damn thing on it (i think).

And position... speaking of riding a damn bike:
saddle height. The cross bike had been set up a bit lower than the klein. but see'n as i ain't got knee prollems, and seein as i'm more or less conditioned to the length and extension now i'm gonna try and remember to drop the QP saddle down to match the croll...

And bar position. Funny thing is? With the longer stem (yeah still haven't changed the bar and stem away from the 'sub optimal' Cyclocross Nationals disaster) i'm able to hook up in the drops better and easier than ever before!

Maybe i've been riding bikes that are too damn short my whole life, no wonder the drops sucked... definitely a power position, and one i can sustain most of the ride now... which should help in the frontal area department and all that.

okay - there ya have it - lunch is over... time to gear up the voice and get through a double training day!

And yeah... maybe the BP issue is enough to get me to cut back on coffee... i'll start when i'm not a single dad (for a few days), yeah... GeWilli, single dad... till tomorrow night at least... the little one is doing well but still wondering where mommy is and when she is coming back... but its been good times... good times...

respect!
g

Yeah - whole bike path - solid black ice except where the sun had hit it, and then it was just patchy solid ice...

Yet no traction problems. I passed one commuter/cyclists who had stopped to look at the ducks and other waterfowl, i said "Mornin" and he replied something like: "it is slippery out there today"

I was thinking... really? I've had perfect traction, no issues.

Then the regular trio of morning walkers (they show up at the top of the hill in a Prius and a Camry) and i usually wind up passing them as they are heading back to the car. And this morning rather than being spread three wide across the path i watched as they went from the side of the path to very very slowly and gingerly crossing the bridge to going back to walking on the side of the path. (Yes this was in Fallujah, i think i'll start calling it that rather than the fahking seagul drop zone). I said the normal cheery good morning and they cautioned me about the hill being very slippery and to watch out...

I get to the hill... no problem... spinning up at 85 rpm making lots of torque no problem, not sun hitting it yet but no problem.

Maybe it is because i'm some big fat ass heavyweight and my force per square cm is pretty high or...

maybe its cause i'm so smoooooooooth, like buttah... pedaling with a trailer with the feedback helps immensely with pedaling in circles...

Thus starts the day today... it was a spinning morning - head fuzzy from last night (making pizza with my little bro means drinking a bit of wine and not eating much food till everyone else has eaten... not best combo), so with fuzzy head a spinning ride was in order. High cadence, 95 and over was the target. And i think obtained (except in the city and heading up the hills)... dare say i hate to say it but a little lower gear with the trailer might be nice, however i will fall back to saying if i had a lower gear i would use it, i would go slower and i would generate less power and that means i would be sucky and slow, not some mad Welshman who can climb a hill but that's about it...

Don't Take Gneiss for Granite...
RESPECT!
G

why i don't give a flying leap about the Amgen Tour thing in Cali...

i think partly it is showing that i like cross... and am so cynical about the pro-ranks that it just has zero attention draw...

people showed up at the kit party and were like "Did you see the coverage?" um... i don't have cable #1, #2 daytona 500 was on (far more exciting) #3 its AMGEN and its Cali and um... i don't care

i tried to get excited to follow the headlines... but... meh...

other stuff to be excited about...

oh and...

training program i lined up last week? Out the window... i do what i can when i can and go on the perceived effort chart based on how i feel... feel good? go hard, and quantify and sustain (with that goofy attachment) no feel good? do a recovery ride type of effort and wait till feel better... and hope that one day soon i can go for a nice 2-3 hour ride... although... by rights with the duration of saddle time i don't think that will be as critical as doing the real work, the interval work... both the power and the cadence work... Would be nice to hit the point where i can hold 3.5w/kg for the length of the bike path while ticking the pedals over around 90 rpm...

Oh and that reminds me - was just gonna say the only thing about holding 90 is the constant pause to brush fahking clam and mussel shells off the tires riding through the war zone... and that reminded me...

This morning the realization hit: I REALLY like the cries of the seagulls and their chatter... hard to find a more melodic sound. Maybe it just reminds me of growing up or something but anyway - meant to make note of that earlier today...

so...

lemme watch the Canvas backs and Mallards and Canadian Geese and the Buckle heads and what ever else is out there (saw two loons this morning even) instead of some skinny kids riding in some race in kalifornia...

Respect (to the waterfowl)
G

Not quite the same ring as Matt Lauer or Carmen Sandiego...

Great weekend... hangin with my mother and my youngest, hitting the team kit party, briefly, multiple trips to wholepaycheck...

the most recent one we scored the best ground lamb we've ever had... not enough in the meat case there and one of the 'butchers' stocking the bacon told the gal behind the counter that there was some cut offs that could be ground up... they had just stocked the case with some wicked damn good looking New Zealand lamb... we got the leanest kickassedest best tasting ground lamb in the world... shizzle made some awesome curry! Thanks to my mother for making the stuff - its a nice change to have something different... totally was amazing. I'm not going to make excuses for eating the baby sheep. Yes baby sheep are some of the cutest, most friendly baby barn yard animals... the wool is soft and warm, they've got these big eyes and the bleets are soo sweet... but damnit... they TASTE YUMMY! I grew up eating lamb. We had a "flock" 3 or 4 ewes and one ram, lots of nummy lamb chops in the freezer. My dad never liked loading the van with the lambs and driving em up to the slaughter house. Ripped his heart apart. Me? Ha, they tasted nummy. Some wild dogs eventually took out all but one of the sheep one day. And the one ewe that was left wasn't really fit to bear more lambs... Anyway, the biggest problem with all that is i grew up as a lamb snob. So many Americans have crappy old nearly mutton flavored lamb and never experience how it should taste. Sure, its a baby animal, but think, it didn't have the whole lifetime of captivity to look forward to ;)

harsh... but... ya gotta eat and well... Food is good.

One of these days i'll get a panda shot of the new kit... Damn XL verge shorts... i can get maybe one finger under that stupid elastic, two is tight, around the leg band... insane stuff i tell ya... and rumor is that Verge base layers are in fact no different than Craft base layers... we all scored a nice sleeveless base layer with the team kit order.

And yeah- i'm gonna be freaking boring and say 25°F wearing the team jersey and the Warsaw jacket (bib shorts and bib tights) was too farking warm... i was overheating!!! Little ice, not much left anywhere... just on the bridge... should be gone as temps are already at 45°F

Fourty FIVE!!! INSANE!!!

Not as insane as spending the whole morning replacing a damn filament on the TEM. Its one of those things, i KNEW it was going to go just as the students were ready to start using it heavily this week. And sure enough. KABOOM. burnt out... i'll get a pic so you can see just what i get excited about.

And writing - mentioning the students reminded me. I started reading their first assignment. THANK YOU! Finally. FINALLY... i am somewhere that the majority of the students can actually FREAKING WRITE? It is a blessed event and a happy realization! There is HOPE for the world yet.

So, KL and Solo had some kick ass things up there that i had a chance to peruse while waiting for the damn vacuum to recover. In a way he's right, all these people bitching about bloggers talking about the weather, the power numbers, how many minutes spend doing this or that or whatever... kinda funny... the bitching people are the ones more often with little or no new regular content ;) but that's okay - its their blog, i may feel obligated to justify mine, to myself or to the hords of negative fahkers out there but that stuff ain't changing what i write... And i was floored to get a hard link from Meg's. While not the plethora of massive content her stuff definately does NOT suck, never has... it even has been known to get me all verklempt...

Congrats to Jill for finishing. Hell Congrats for starting the damn race! That and we've got some mt bikers on the team that are gung ho about doing a few longer endurance races... i'm geeked about that possibility... cause ya know... if ya don't have some measure of toughness required (cyclocross, 8-24 mt bike races) then... its just riding the damn bike. Not that riding isn't just the best freaking thing to do in the world... it certainly is... but the adversity and the fact that most people probably can't/won't do the hard stuff - the stuff that pushes you not just physically, but mentally as well. Overcoming elements, cold, mud, rain, darkness, barriers, sand... not just hills and corners and other Phred's on bikes...

okay - the pre-lunch dip in blood sugar is causing me to succumb to ramblingitis(sic)... and my lunch is sitting in the microwave waiting for me to unleash it...

And its about respect folks. Peace = Respect.

You can't have peace without starting with mutual respect...

Respect your fellow folks, on and off line... respect... drop the entitlement sh!t... you ain't entitled to NUTTIN... work for it... you want to be fast? ride yur damn bike... alot! You wanna be fast at the starts? Do lots and lots of simulated starts! Answers are simple. But people are not. Answers often are stupid or insulting... but then... so are people. But even then, the annoying ones, the insulting ones... give em some respect... give em a nugget of positive feedback every once in a while... and you'll earn respect. Being a passive uninteractive chair potatoe can be easy... read this... read that... never say anything... even if you disagree... heck more people are likely to say something if they dissagree (evidence KL's power meter rant response) than if they agree.

I will try to fire off more positive comments and if including a negative one even well intended i will strive to add at least one positive element...

Without lofty goals... we will never reach lofty heights...

I really need to eat some food...

RESPECT!
g

More ice...

Sublimation occurred on most all of the path... Still a bit of patchiness, none that could not be skirted around the edges, except the bridge. The Bridge is still a freaking sheer sheet of ice. Which actually i was having no problem riding across... i started off with one legged peddlin but soon after realized i was pretty solidly stuck to the ice...

Very very weird sensation hopping back on the cross bike, even the monster wide bars on it (for a road bike) felt wicked narrow after the 26" or something sickly wide on my Mantra. Also way low down... fun factor was decreased... chalk it up to 1) i've done it so it ain't new and 2) the mt bike has a wicked serious fun factor going on... That and the 38c tires are about 2x sketchier than the 2.35 death grips... and yes for those of you not old skool enough to know about Klein and their Death Grip tires... they are indeed called, Death Grips. Search if ya wanna look see... kinda rare... wicked damn cool tires... ANYway...

No photos - wicked howling wind lastnight and today... I'm starting to thing gettin a set of studs would be a good idea... just gotta decide - for the cross or mt bike... prolly cross bike cause well... i dunno makes more sense... We'll see - on the other hand buying a set of tires just for a few days a year when i CAN make it with what i've got seems kinda like a waste of resources...

But it was still better than driving... And it reminded me... i'd LIVE for the days when the snow storms swept through michigan and i had to drive the 75 miles one way to work... the Golf with the Nokian NRW tires was like a snow cat... sure footed and fun... faster than a snow cat thing so... anyway... maybe i just thrive on adverse conditions... hmm... maybe that's why i love true cross, cold, shitty, muddy, snowy, that kinda stuff... its a RUSH! this panzy ass weather we got for cross season kinda blew (hmm did i just jinx it for next year? i hope not).

Well...

Back to running around and all that - and yes i would have taken the Mt bike but i gotta blast between here and the other facility today and while the Mt bike would be fun i don't have a lotta transition time and all that... speed is important... not that i'm fast... but anyway...

BKR registration for the 30+ race has broken the 50 person mark...

(anyone notice no power numbers listed?)
It kinda figures - as soon as i kinda even sort of hint at a weekly plan/objective the weather comes in and kicks that plan out on the ice... I did ride with yellow buddy today but... ya know... i didn't even look at it for anything other than what time it was...

peace, and all that schmoopy jazz eh?
G

maybe we need to call it the best Press Release BEAT down in history!

kerrylitka diary 15 Feb

It is reassuring to find other people that are bothered by little sh!t the way i am... I didn't read that till mbutterfly pointed it out in a comment here... and as i mentioned already, it just made my head hurt... bad writing for me, just is a no go... i don't read it... i skim, or ignore it... subconsiously i have embedded the proper written stuff, in so much that i have an affinity or mental warm and fuzzy for well written stuff. Bad stuff? I can't read. Like this tancook schooner book. Could be one hell of a story, and from the half the book i forced myself to read it is. The author shouldn't be allowed to write books. Too bad there is no darwin award for published authors... if they write bad stuff can we ban them from writing anything else?

Esp Press Releases.

Growing up a well written Press Release was the only thing between a good turn out and no one showing at a concert. Press Releases were agonized over for days before release. Word placement analyzed, double meanings, even veiled implications considered and minimized. Brevity is important, but so is content and even tho not everyone goes to the OCD extremes of KL in breaking down a crappy PR they will respond more favorably to something well crafted.

So...

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE...

i'm gonna go give the skating rink a try... gonna work on seeing how well the sun and the wind was able to sublimate the ice away on the path... and hope that the shady spots still offer the same grass and leaf traction they did on the way in!

Mt Biking is fun...

If it ever warms up enough i think we need to have a Spring Mt Bike Blogging summit. Ctodd, Solo, and anyone that feels like venturing out somewhere between boston and providence for a mt bike ride... Lincoln Woods? I'd say arcadia or what ever that park place is south of Providence but that might be too far... but then Solo is down a fork... (hmm... i might even still have the 1" fork from my old Chill, threaded but might be long enough for solo to use it threadless until he gets that sweetness welded back into shape)...

peace out folks...

good luck to the ticket holders in the raffle for that bit of love...

g, out!

Yeah- i'm prolly nuts...

but is it possible to have that much fun on two wheels?
Yes! I was giddy with the pure funness of the ride in. Kept saying, man – riding in is a great part of the day but this much fun? I was whooping and hollering with joy!

Riding home yesterday I noticed climbing up to the Washington bridge that it looked icy, but I was riding up… and I made a mistake. I put a foot down and nearly spilled catastrophically. “Hmmm this is strange, I can ride right up the icy slope but I can’t walk.” No I didn’t have studded tires on my current commuter (my cyclocross bike), just the 38c Serfas Vida’s (I got them at the hub off the shelf). I was running around 50 psi, not too low, certainly should have gone lower, but I found it workable. Getting across the bridge was a bit different. It had already mostly frozen into a sheet of ice. Some crunch left on the inside edge, but not much. Pretty slick skating. But I did pedal across. I found it much safer and more stable to be on the bike than walking it.

Once off the bridge on the way home the EBBP was still crunchy (I left a bit earlier around 4:40 or so). No new tracks on the starting to freeze solid slushy mess that was the path. The only solid ice spots at that point were the bridges and that surface would have made any Zamboni driver proud (as in very smooth and slick).

For a while last night I debated driving in, or getting a ride in. But, nah, I can’t give up now! Can’t let a little ice keep me off the bike.

I made a bike swap this morning. Knowing the paved section of the path would be more or less unridable I would be taking the “shoulders” where the leaves and grass managed to poke through affording a bit of traction. I pulled out the rear suspended mt bike (yes just rear suspension, no front suspension – long story not related to this topic). On that bike I have some 2.35 tires, Klein Death Grips specifically. Brilliant tires except in wet sticky mud (knobs pack up and don’t self clean very well). I put 25-30 PSI in them front and back and rolled out. And found them to be sticky grippy fun!

The splashy frozen tracks made by Mark’s Studs last night were great traction down the middle, and the sides of the path were no problem. One near wipe out in the windswept last stretch just before the hill up to the parkway (I was momentarily distracted), no big deal…

I found that I could even brake and slow down perfectly well heading down the hill after the parking lot near the end. And the most trepidation was the Washington bridge ‘sidewalk’ it was okay, the rear wheel slipped around a bit but I was still able to pedal and stay up right and ride along (I didn’t ride much faster than a walking pace tho). I made one concession to the ice and walked down the ramp off the bridge.

It took a bit longer to get in but I really had about as much fun as possible on two wheels… I even stopped to take a few pictures!

Commuting by bike? Nothing better!

No yellow buddy, but climbing up the rise to the vet, i realized i had still out of habit put the HR chest strap on... it made me chuckle... I wasn't crazy or pushing my limits, i was having fun... but then i have done this sort of thing before... its not my first winter on two wheels, not the first time i've been on ice on two wheels.

Jill's right, tho, riding her snaux bike on ice... sometimes you get lulled into thinking you have full control cause you often have just enough. Its pretty damn cool...

pictures... gotta share the shots (i'll add em to this entry after i process them)
G

Are you ALLOWED To have this much fun riding to work?

It was a freaking BLAST!

14°F wind at steady 15 mph (head) gusting up to 30 mph...

Brilliant sun... Deep blue water...

SHEER FREAKING ICE...

but...

i was prepared...

prepared to have a freaking BLAST...

took me more or less a whole hour plus a couple to get here - slow stuff... but...

no spills, one rear wheel washout, one rear wheel spin resulting in dismount... and one long bridge sidewalk with an inch or two of solid smooth ice to ride on...

no studs...

more later! (pictures too)
g

The passage below was written upon drinking the first one... Feb 8th

I dunno. The Berry Boost has a distinct flavor. Not unpleasant but different. Gotta be that acai puree...

Different than normal stoneyfieldfarms smoothies... thinner...

buzz?

energy?

i dunno... my caffeine deadened system prolly was unable to determine what to do with all that ginseng...

so it decided to go headache mode...

I may have skewed the results as i drank it to see if it would keep me going through and intense three hours, that normally i don't have a problem getting through. But now maybe its wearing off cause i'm getting really tired

So today... only time for one cup of coffee here in at work before sitting at the scope for 3 hours... (too far from office... i'd have spilled 1/2 the cup by the time i carried it over, that or finished it and carrying an empty cup around is kinda mental)...

Anyway... i gave the other flavor a try. POWER PUNCH. Flavor pretty good. Yogurty berry flavor. Kinda stonyfieldish. Ya know how some micro-brews all taste the same, the porter tastes like the amber ale (doesn't look the same) but tastes the same? Well stony stuff sort of all tastes the same. Maybe its the bugs that they use. I like this flavor better than the berry. I dunno if i feel any more amped but the caffeine was not missed.

One very curious thing was noted... one of the folks in the training session pointed at the bottle and remarked on the rather odd name... I had to get photographic evidence...



No wonder they are sponsoring the BOB team... bunch of Sh!theads sponsored by ORGANIC (new even) Sh!t

amazing...

not sure how that bottle made it past packing and inspection...

more on the day...

just wanted to say YEAH SNOW...

freaking a BLAST to ride in this am...

rode in with another commuter...

fun as hell...

well...

that's about all the time i have for today - no ranting on verizon's stupid "land line security" add going up against the cable phone people "our phones stay on when the power goes out" and they are showing a cordless phone... um... anyone tried to use a cordless handset when the base is unplugged or the power is out????

made heart pancakes for the girls this am...

-g

Well it would seem I’m an idiot – that or my little yellow buddy is trying to fahk with my head.

Turns out pluggin the little guy into the lappy… well there’s a ride from the 13th (today) and a ride from 1/1/2003… whadda ya know… this morning’s data was there. Cool.

Some one asked about the torque values… esp being so high… I checked… on the power agent software… peak is less than 100… around 76… nothing spectacular…

I’ve checked and it would seem that the old link software puts the torque on the wrong side of the graph… legend wise…

Feeling pooped but that run tonight was great… hard ass work, but I was feeling so shitty and drained I needed to purge the demons. That and someone was chasing me, sort of. A fellow commuter… caught up when I “shut it down” hitting the riverside center… I guess I pulled away from them climbing up the initial rise there just before getting to the blinky brigade’s meeting point (parking lot)… that was the power tap’s power… holding 550… and holding it to the top… kept the cadence pretty well up there too… felt good. Here's the evening ride:


And I’m still getting used to the fact that the power agent software is all metric and crap… I looked at it and was like “avg speed 23?” no effin way… oh… km/hr not mph duh.

Maybe I’ll get used to the whole km thing on the bike finally…

Another thing, trying to get the display back yesterday morning I just did the restore default… turns out it is averaging everything rather heavy… not the instant feedback I was seeing before. I think maybe I’ll leave it like this for now… it supposed to help when doing TT efforts – hides the small peaks and valleys gives a more stable display… also takes a lot longer to get to zero (makes setting/checking calibration tough).

So I’m realizing I’ve not quite mastered this device… but it is cool. Without it I have a much harder time motivating the efforts… Also seeming to feel like my LT is around 160 for some reason. Max HR is kicking at 181… pretty on target for some mid thirties masters racer that’s bigger than most…

This storm. Could be a problem. If it really turns into the storm they expect. We’ll see… we’ll see… most likely it’ll be me, no trailer… but heck ya never know till the morning… could be freaking mellow and just with a dusting of snow… oh well.

Dats about it… still turning that 43,000 figure around in my head…

Got this crazy urge to do the whole preacher on the green thing…

My voice don’t need no loud speaker when I get in the project mode…

But then I don’t really need to be spending lunch preaching the evils of cars and what not to some impressionable college students here on the hill…

Oh…

Reading Colin’s stuff and Meg’s stuff – about riding in the snow… not to mention Jill’s. Man Jill is headed off on a wicked damn cool race this weekend – wishin her luck!
I miss that craziness… snow… and mt biking in the snow…

Hell I just miss mt biking flat out altogether I think… bodes well for a team mate (or for me specifically) in that he’s a mt biker first and plans to be doin a few mt races this summer and should be good incentive to hit a few races with him… if not get out and train/ride the trails… gotta say one of the most fun rides of the fall (outside cross) was hitting big blue with solopants and the little cutie that he dragged along on that sorrowful rigid trek…

Alright – little one wants to type “What are you doing?” in her lyrical inquisitive voice… if I stop typing she tries to push my fingers on the keys… hard enough right now to keep her from pushing them herself.

Peace out…
g

Yeah i know - currently it is Tuesday, day before...

but...

i have a nice picture for everyone...


but what is it?

It is a 90 nanometer slice of the Apex of a pig heart...

cool eh?

all those muscle cells, and the red blood cells...

the cellular motors that drive the cycling legs (or the heart, not much difference and both needed for the work to happen) even a few mitochondria to toss in the mix...

Microscope: Philips 410 Transmission Electron Microscope... imaged on a pretty sweet CCD camera... only 1kx1k but still pretty damn freaking sweet...

peace out yall

i don't know if it was karma getting me back for shouting at the yuppie self-entitled moronic dipstick in the suit driving the brand new audi a6 sedan (black) who pulled out through a stop sign, didn't look at me, and then stopped while traffic coming the other way cleared enough for him to pull through... (moronic a$$monkey... at least the GEM excavation crew working at the corner got a laugh and gave me the nod/thumbs up)

or if it was the cold and a weak battery at the heart of my yellow training buddy...

or if the ride was just too gdamn perfect to deserve a graph and to be recorded...

Conditions out there this morning:
15°F
North Wind at 10mph

i was (as always) traveling north...

i head out and just start ticking over at 95... warm up for a couple minutes and tick it up to 100-110 for the rest of the way in before the little power climb up to the vet... well almost... between the wind and the 5 miles of sustaining 300+ watts with a loaded trailer (yes... the littlest was in there... she was so snug and warm she fell asleep! seriously... her hands and face were warm and the rest of her was super warm)... between the wind and the trailer i dropped down to the mid 90s as a 'recovery' before climbing the hill... (which i did standing up with a low cadence).

It got me thinking for a second, that, basically my legs will do what i tell them to do during warm up... if i warm up pedaling 75 rpms... that sort of sets the conditions for the rest of the ride... if i warm up at 100 rpms same thing...

So i make the drop off - little yellow buddy (power tap) has nodded off - i start rolling... punch a button... nothing... sh!t... punch it again... nope... keep pedaling... nuthin... take it off put it in the mitten, warm it up... still blank... fahk... put it on, start going... oh, now its saying something, but wtf is it saying... toggle through mx av... zippo... nadda... ride data gone... top it off readings are all wacked out...

(side bar) I do make a habit of ever ride checking the calibration... does it read zero watts when i'm coasting... and basically check from coasting if i pedal very softly does it show a low number... so yes... i am checking calibration, as much as i can.

Anyway... a great hard morning still accomplished, much more effective than it would have been had i not known cadence and power with the instantaneous display. But the loss of the recorded data is just a small 40-50 minute blip on the radar... of the whole year.

Two week retrospective:
time on the bike
15 hours, 17 minutes (roughly - a few gaps here and there but that's pretty close)
and ~10000 kJ of work...

Because of the cold mornings i've knocked a half hour off the riding time by not making the drop off and a few days i didn't do a pick up either... with warmer weather it really looks more like 1:20 a day riding... and well once we get through this "Nor'easter" we'll see what shapes up...

But man... i'm pissed - that data would have been helpful to boost the poweragent's 10 and 15 minute power max numbers... oh well... i guess i just have to do it again...

Thoughts tho planning the more focused weeks:
Monday, low power, relaxed pace... a warm up day
Tuesday, max spin (100+), work on constant power transition up hill (sacrifice cadence to keep work down) in the am... keep spin as high as possible heading home
Wednesday, mod spin (~95), maintain as high a cadence as possible up the hill and after until HR recovers in the am... in pm keep big ring turning dumping as much power as needed to keep RPMs above 90 (big ring being the 49)...
Thursday... Tuesday repeat
Friday... monday repeat

pretty narrow focus, but the longer intervals of sustained effort done 2x a day in theory should be very beneficial.. as always i'm open to suggestions if this sounds totally retarded... but gut's saying it should work to hone the motor's edge a bit...

Kinda odd the peanut gallery was so quiet yesterday... i guess the g-od_cast was super sucky or so pitiful it needed no comments LOL

Different gear:
I keep coming back to the 2005 stats in my head... of the vehicle related deaths in the USA... 43,000. How many people died on 9/11? How many brave men and women have we lost in Afgan and Iraq? And then i go back to 43,000 a YEAR. Annually that many people die in a car, just in the USA...

And i think... isn't a car just a massive and effective WMD?

So by riding a bike that's one less weapon on the road... cars may be getting safer but people are still dying in them at astounding rates...

Sure - there are other leading killers...
(1) Diseases of the heart heart attack (mainly) 28.5%
(2) Malignant neoplasms cancer 22.8%
(3) Cerebrovascular disease stroke 6.7%
(4) Chronic lower respiratory disease emphysema, chronic bronchitis 5.1%
(5) Unintentional injuries accidents 4.4%
(2002 stats)

And yeah fixing all the bad tickers in this country is a good thing...

but wait...

an active lifestyle greatly decreases your risks of more or less 1-4 in a way...

hmmm...

sobering thoughts for a car(WMD) bound culture...

-g

I dunno... so i'm saying "okay, um, yeah... " seems a myopic overview if there ever were such a thing...

but on the whole not a bad article...

sappy and retrospective a bit...

I still dissagree on the course thing but then...

i haven't ridden there, don't promote races, and just generally am a big loudmouth...

so there...

oh and according to ctodd i come across as a dumbass sometimes too...

:D

Time to walk the halls of higher learning and share some knowledge (decompression time is over)

DADDY'S GONNA EAT YOUR FINGERS ..
(This one is worth passing on.)
This one is for everyone who ...

a) has kids, b) had kids, c) was a kid, d) knows a kid e) is going to
have kids.

I was packing for my business trip and my three year old daughter was having
a wonderful time playing on the bed. At one point she said,
"Daddy, look at this," and stuck out two of her fingers.

Trying to keep her entertained, I reached out and stuck her tiny
fingers in my mouth and said, "Daddy's gonna eat your fingers,"
pretending to eat them.
Went back to packing, looked up again and my daughter was standing on the
bed
staring at her fingers with a devastated look on her face.

I said, "What's wrong, honey?"

She replied, "What happened to my booger?"

God_cast...

yes...

Todd can have a tod-cast... solobreak can have his nod-cast

gewilli gets a GOD_Cast...

muahahahah

wit'out ado:

Yeah... its only 30 seconds of data...

one sprint...

but not at the limit. No HR data...

no trailer... me and bike and batteries and bag...

in street clothes...

on the whippy flexy croll...

nice numbers tho...

gotta shoot for better... need to be making more power for longer...

Yeah... sports fans... Cycling is a sport, Right?

big content coming on-line (if it ever gets online... farking hell)...

mellow 'warm up' ride in this morning. Ticking over just fine barely below or slightly above the 90 rpm line when the phone rings... chattin with my bro while riding along the path (little one absent in trailer, instead i have lappy and the work clothes and lunch and stuff)... took it mellow... it killed the whole speed thing, basically rode for a couple miles no handed while chatting (yeah we talked for a while).

hung up as the seagulls (fahkin sea rats) were actively bombarding the path... went to put phone back in jacket pocket... (gloved hands) and slip crash... damn it... dropped the sumbitch. "Maybe it broke and i have to get a new one" stopped... its open... and perfectly freaking fine. the littlest grabbed the power cord and caused it to explode into tons of bits - boards batteries and screens everywhere... put back together... good as new... dropping left and right... survived the protective face being busted when helping with course set up at Nats... and its now still ticking. Battery is still working after nearly 3 years of constant use... reception still kicks butt. New phone? Yeah... one of these days...

riding home on friday i started thinking... i wonder when the last time i charged the battery on the headlight. Well i have the backup, but... that is not so good at just sitting uncharged... "well it looks good now"

heading down the BLVD i notice... doesn't seem to be as bright... hmmm... damn... definitely getting dimmer... make the battery swap there on Tabor... okay - looks good... now wait... that's getting dimmer too... fahking heck... I've got two dead batteries...

well there are no clouds... enough light to see... and i just take it slow (using the light for the streets and stuff so they can see me)... i still had the blinky green front light... it worked... got home... could see well enough and then used the light for a couple seconds to light up the path...

all charged now...

And the weather folks... kinda funny, they are working really hard to get us snow here... so far this is a record year for the latest (yet to happen) they've gone in Rhode Island and not gotten 1" of snow in a 24 hour period. Maybe wed morning... but i'm thinking... no farking way...

anyway
gotta get this up...

too much going on

Waiting on the other side…

That’s the lyric starting off this thought train…

Trying to arrest the runaway train…

Tired, despite getting a rare chance to sleep in a bit, I find that as nice as laying around in bed later than normal doesn’t really make me feel any more rested, esp after a night of waking up fitfully.

The ‘tap gives me an opportunity to focus the week’s riding to and from on the commute. So taking sat and sun off the bike probably are very good at this point in the “pre-season” in so much as the muscles need a chance to recover and rebuild a bit. Although missing the longer 2-3 hour jaunts on the bike may be a balanced edge… there are benefits but, getting two to three hours strolling along at the group pace of 14-16 (no more as the email demanded) for two even three hours probably would do little physical good. Although at this point today, it probably would do some psychological good. I kinda miss the time for me, even if its riding with a group… I’m not focused on everyone else and the impacts of what is going on. Maybe it was the two David Gray CDs back to back that got me all mellow and introspective and funky. Got a lecture to prepare, got a bike still apart with cables needing to be changed. Ya see that longer stem stressed the shifter cables a bit and now the front der cable is split and more or less I’m lucky to get it up into the big ring. I stopped at the Hub and got the cables and housing for the ders, need to get them installed. Also debating switching the brakes over from old school backwards cross to new school have brakes on left on all bikes… I asked Christine Vadaros about that, either something along the lines of “why do you run your front brake on the left for cyclocross?” and I got the biggest longest “NO ONE in Europe runs the front brake on the right, NO ONE switches them around anymore.” On and on… “Why would you run your brakes differently on only one bike? What sense does that make?”

Get the pictures? Well then I went and said… “I do”

Kinda funny the visual was of someone noticing a giant foot in their mouth. Although honestly placed and probably completely correct. No one really should be braking while in process of dismounting? Why? Well that’s slowing you down… dismount at speed (unless ya got short little legs that can’t get the strides in fast enough – and even then… slow before dismounting maybe). Carrying speed over the barriers is critical… for a while when my remounts looked like a peg leg pirate trying to climb into a hammock in a hurricane I was making up enough ground on the dismounts and speed over the barriers (by not braking) that it negated the loss of ground on the re-mount (at least in the ‘pack’ I was running in).

Looking back… favorite race might just be the Steadman’s one. Wrentham was up there too. Both top ten finishes more or less and both races I felt good in. They were races where torque really could pay a dividend.

Anyway… I feel more positive after reflecting on the whole cyclocross racing thing. Cross is flat out effin cool. And this being the last weekend they are racing in euro land… well fitting to spend a moment reflecting on it.

My ass is asleep in this chair. Damnit.

So, I think maybe if I can find one longish brake cable (incase re-use is not possible) I’ll be going all roadie style (meaning traditional). Gotta say, I ran mt bike brakes backwards for a long time too. Find myself more or less un biased where they are, but then I seem to be biased to the front brake way more than people I observe around me at anyrate… we’ll see

$2 for an energy drink. Seems like a lot of cash. But then… a $2 coffee is pretty damn inexpensive (if you get anything other than sm/med brewed coffee). I’m wagering that the price point of Shift and Red Bull and others are selected more based on the cost of coffee than economic production costs. As anti-buddist as you can get. But then if people didn’t make a profit the company wouldn’t be able to expand. So I guess that is more or less acceptable, heck, money is what makes this place go around…

Made waffles this morning, the little one and I got up and she sat on the counter while I did a dish or two and then started making the waffles… and she drank down a lot of the yogurt. Mmmm the maple vanilla Hawthorne Valley goodness. Which has been off the shelves since we last saw it there in January. Bummer, cause that stuff is awesome. Heck stir in some milk (about 10%) and ya have a smoothie to rival all yogurt smoothies. At a much more economical price. The littlest is sitting here on my lap. Much trama with the older sister for some reason. The oldest headed off to mass with my wife, and me and little one stayed home and hung out, read books and listened to some music, eating a few puffins and drinking some more yogurt. They all came back with a box of goodies from the bakery… The waffles turned out pretty well this morning, but I fear I’ve been a bit too critical maybe, wearing some frustrations on my sleeve a bit too much. Also am cleaned up a bit from the video shoot…. Beard is actually trimmed, less grizzly adams, more Kenny rogers (without the white hairs… yet).

Well its “playground” time, time to “put it off” as she’s saying. It seems we are spending more time at the playground (1/2 block away) now that its cold out than in the warm fall. Of course the fall had a few races on the weekends and playgrounds at the races, so.. well playgrounds are fun.

We’re gonna head off to them… This coming week looks to be just as busy as last. So comments, thoughts and hey look at this, may be sporadic and disjuncted in the few minutes I have here or there. The next week is going to be me and the little one, while the oldest headed to Disney World with my wife her sister and her parents… so it’ll be fun… and different.

Great fun walking around out there. Saw giant flocks of Mallards and Canadian Geese kickin it together around the un-frozen parts of the inlet, saw a small black and white woodpecker, played around on the sand beach above the frozen ice..

Ran around played a bit and came home and made some hot chocolate to warm up and then we ate some lunch. Lots of fun.

Lecture is coming along well, should be good. Lots of talk about electron wave properties and vacuum systems, rotary/mechanical pumps up to ion-getter pumps… and everything in between.

That and they (the girls) wanted some more music, so we popped the David Gray back in… kinda david gray day eh?

Still haven’t had a chance to get out in the bike room to work on the cabling on the bike. Oh well. Soon enough.

Got a menu plan rolling around in my head. We’ll see if it comes to fruition or gets a big veto by those who have to eat what I’m cooking. That’s the thing. I don’t want to make something people aren’t really in the mood for so it often leads to a bit of “what are we gonna make tonight.” Kinda spontaneous on one hand and a bit of a speed bump on the way to making dinner on the other. ‘sokay…
-mon edit - menu worked out fine...

here we go...

spin a thon (okay not quite but decently spin-ish with a touch of power, had a kick ass little sprint headed to the other facility... damn wicked fun... full in the drops kierin sprint with traffic... mmmm POWER... mmm (numbers on monday)

Here are the shots - the ice was diminished from its peak build up yesterday morning... but still pretty spectacular...

i've got a couple more shots to include maybe later...

That and i think i've got a cone for that p'tap, if this cone no work i cannibalize a semi-outa commish back up hub and replace that cone with one that's ordered...

anyway

yall have a KICK ass weekend...

g

so no one keeps checking back...

i'll be lucky to get even the tap pic up showing a nice chillin cadence of 100rpm for a long time...

no...

100 ain't a wicked high cadence...

and honestly it is getting more comfortable every day...

today...

felt slow ticking over at 80 even...

not sure how much more cadence i wanna push - we'll see... might try and get to the point of sustaining 120 for the ride in...

also, noting that trailer is about the difference between same cadence in the 38 vs 49...

decent amount of work... and what that means - while work might be equal, speed is slower and thus duration is longer... and same effort over longer time means...

nevermind... rich is right... i might just be one crazy mo fo...

and as the Bosstones sing "I've got pictures to prove it!"

peace!
G

Why?

Well if you pick "I commute by bike to help the environment." then the benefits for the air quality are dramatically insane in the winter. It has to do with how absolutely piss-poor efficient the gasoline engine is in the winter. Sure fuel mileage may only change a small %. However emissions change by a much greater %. Catalytic converters need to warm up. lots of bad sh!t out the tail pipe in the winter compared to the summer.

That and ya way warmer riding a bike than sitting in the car. Sure the car will warm up, eventually. But... on the bike, if ya dress with even a modicum of intelligence, you are if anything cool at the start and warm very quickly.

Not to mention the personal health benefits of being outside, exercising, even maybe catching a few rays of sun on what ever sliver of skin is exposed, even just breathing some not filtered/heated air and getting your heart rate up in the winter is worth it. In the summer people tend to be much more active, and people need the winter activity more than ever. Stressing in the winter, esp with tax season in full swing, is a reality, and exercising definitely helps with the stress...

So. Commute by bike.

/PSA

pictures of the ice and path this morning coming... just for twisted MIF and co... real pictures (okay, maybe one graph of power tap too)

peace (i think i won't do the peace be with you... sounds too churchy now)
G

yes - fielding questions currently - but while waiting for the expected next one...

i check email and see this...

and like the rest of today...

ain't gonna let it go...

hows this for a winter adaptation...

maybe it would help yogurt boy on those negative numbered mornings!!!

Fast Boy's got some killer shots... the Black and whites are often the best, but the Thunder Fuc'er Karate Monkey kicks ass...

Great flickr stream to keep tabs on...

mouth watering drool pictures of bike parts... done with a powerfully aesthetic eye!

DC has add space in Dirt Rag... how about that... Big Jonny gone big time eh? ;)

and Reading DC today after the training (having cup of coffee) i hit something i couldn't not get down here...

its about a massive icon in our 'industry'

well not really an industry icon... more of a real live folk hero....

Sheldon Brown.

Very very few cyclists have not heard that name. Few 'net savvy cyclists have not found helpful useful information on his expansive web pages. People use his data to settle arguments, and to prove points.

I'm in admiration of the man. And I am still kicking myself having passed up a chance to ride with him and sit and listen to the guru afterwards. The trade off seemed worth it at the time... now... not so...

Doom and gloom? I dunno, he's going through a lot. As the email to fahkstick (big jonny) said: "We should all send him our thoughts and prayers to get better."

Yes we should. We should indeed.

Links:
http://sheldonbrown.org/journal/health.html

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=267659

speaking of cycling icons
read a bit of MadDog's vacation ramblings... i love what he calls the RVs he shares the campgrounds with...

i see gwadz got his Dirt Rag as well... i'm not wild about that cover art... i mean it could be wicked damn sexy as in HOT... but the portions are all off... and the perspective is messed up... at least with the figure... yeah better than i could do and obviously good enough but... if ya gonna go and imitate the pin-up art... do it right. The best part of pin up art was the portions and the scaling of the figure, yeah exaggerated a touch here and there, but always in scale and pleasing to the eye...

Speaking of pleasing to the eye... look for a stand alone entry...

peace be with you (i like that tag line a bit better than the peace, or peace out... more true... peace needs to be with you, carried by you and shared with others as that phrase connotes)...

-G