As I was scrolling through the open tabs over a quart of my veggie/squash/lentil soup, Danielle Musto's title made my red x box clicking finger pause.

Fisk Knob TT.

It is that early season halmark in Michigan. The first race for most everyone, usually. Or not. I think I knew at least one person I would call a friend or at least a riding partner who has done that race for the last 13 years. And yet, I never did that race. Not once.

Along the same lines, I had always wanted to ride to work one day. 75 miles really isn't that far. Heck I was just a couple miles shy of 80 on saturday. But, to get there and back in one day is 150 miles, and well, the logistics of either leaving the car there coupled with riding home and being forced to ride back to get the car coupled further with my complete lack of fitness after one winter of putting 150 miles a day on the TDI's odometer were insurmountable hurdles (each successive 'winter' made it worse and worse). So we moved and now I commute every day (almost) by bike.

That fisk knob deal was always pretty mystical. Weather was always challenging. Stuff I relish now with eager anticipation, but then? I'll admit. I was soft, and more interested in watching NHL and NASCAR than riding outside in Feb/March on the weekends. Inside? On the Trainer? Yeah right. I can barely even do that here and now. Thanks to commuting my base never really goes away.

I also read Maynard's essays and while they are all worthy of loads of commentary about what they make me think about and all the myriad of instances of relate-ability I find in my interactions and experiences the one about 'Pro racer style - from the early '90s' really hit home. Yes, some folks have been defining PRO vs notPRO lately. Some using 'white tape' as the definition of PRO. But very simply it seems to boil down to Maynard's well crafted account.

It ties in well with the 5 years to make a cyclist. When you start racing (or start racing again after a loooooong hiatus) each race carries great significance. Each year adds more race experiences on the pile, till slowly, each race matters less and less. I'm not suggesting the importance of each race diminishes, but in the context of a lengthening "career" the odd mechanical or bad race tends to have lessened negative impact. It is sort of a 'duh' for lots of very experienced folks out there, I know. And if I had sat down and thought about what it means to act like "Pro" and what would be the best attribute to take away from it all, it would be that attitude that Maynard described. Maybe that isn't the norm in the current pro-peloton. Maybe people aren't as laid back anymore. But, it strikes me that maybe they should be. I know i certainly could stand to be a bit more relaxed about things.

Maybe I'll be a real bike racer someday. Maybe. Certainly not a road racer at the rate I'm going now. Esp since i've yet to miss a training race in New England! (that's sarcasm - as in I've yet to attend a training race in New England).

And I finally got my ass in gear and renewed my USAC membership. Battenkill is coming up soon. Might as well have the real liscense instead of a printed "you can ride" thing. Seeing my racing age makes me feel old. I guess I am.

Shifting gears (as cyclists are oft to do).

Burlingame.
I dug through the archives to see what I wrote about the course. Seems almost nothing? I remarked on my 9th place in my category (out of 22). And not much more. I wondered if the full suspension would have given me a few seconds and thought maybe not.

The cliff notes from what I remember last year? You ride about a mile to the start. Wait with a bunch of folks. Head off down the course. The first part is pretty east coast. rocky rooty but not as bad as some places, pretty tame (for a MTBer, prolly pretty knarly for a roadie and somewhere inbetween for a CX'r) over all. But once through that first section with the rocks and the pair of rocks some guys said everyone gets stuck in and a few minor 'climbs' (the trail goes up a few feet) that are faster to run than ride (yeah yeah, bad CX'r) it seems to me that it smooths out and gets really fast. Ya head out to the road and bury yourself, back into the single track, back out to the road and then back in and I seem to remember the finish being a slightly up hill sandy drag race. Lots of sand IIRC. And the finish line wasn't right there at the end... it was a handful of yards beyond where it seemed to be. Check the map. Before you head south and back north - that's where I seem to recall most of the technical stuff ends. The rest is just hard ass pedaling. Hopefully I can improve on my time of 37 minutes from last year. We'll see. It will be an interesting marker for the fitness level going into Battenkill.

Anyway. Time for a nice ride home in the rain.

heddwch
g

well i guess i'm done being 'punked' by the master punker

and

here it is...

www.gewilli.com

actually goes to www.gewilli.com now.

Pretty crazy.

as in four hours forty five minutes...

on saturday...

at about 4:30 into riding the pace, the hills, and the wind seemed to take their toll and the last couple hills saw me drifting off the back... (okay i didn't exactly drift off the back, i fell off the back like a good 90kg guy is supposed to when riding with 57kg guys).

twas still a great day on the paramount - 28 miles straight into the wind all pretty much slightly up hill all the way, only to sit in with a fair group of fast dudes and a fast gal. One other in the bunch rode before, and well he raced and had about 10-20 minutes more saddle time than I did at the start of the 3 hour tour of rolling Mass/RI.

Good stuff. And yes. My bike was older than one of the guys on the ride. And like legolord I had a single ring up front (he went with a 42, me on a 40). I still managed to hit 39 mph while pedaling and applying power going down hill. For those without a number brain that know a 40x12 is 87.6 gear inches and to hit 39 mph you need to be able to pedal 150 rpm. And yes. It is possible to do 150 rpm smoothly with 180 mm cranks. I think I can get it even faster (rpm). As a point of reference the 42x12 has a gear inch of 92 and to hit 39 you'd be pedaling 142 rpms.

So yes. So far just an average "i went for a ride" post.

nothing amazing... but... it was a great ride with folks I haven't seen since cross, all a damn good group of folks. Kick ass post ride food as well. My compliments to the chef(s) involved in everything. I was still 6 pounds lighter Sunday morning than I was Saturday morning (back up to Saturday morning weight this morning). But it felt great to be out that long, even if the first ~30 miles kinda sucked riding it alone into the wind (yes I rode smack due north east).

Wind for the 29th:

• Wind Speed 13 mph / 21 km/h (NW)
• Max Wind Speed 23 mph / 37 km/h
• Max Gust Speed 29 mph / 47 km/h

Next time I'm riding the Klein. And I'm gonna eat more during the ride. I was pretty well under-fueled. Explaining the power loss after four and a half ours. Okay the other side of the power loss is that i'm pretty tall and pretty heavy and really not that fast.

It did mark the first time since September/October that I had anything resembling a feed back device on the bike. Not sure I like it. I've really gotten to like having nothing but the clock on the wall at the start and the end of the ride to provide a metric of how 'fast' it was. And the feelings in my legs to tell me how hard it was.

KOB on sunday. Whooo hooo.

Gonna be fun. Hopefully I'll get a few minutes in the saddle of the Adroit before then.

heddwch
g

Oh a post 'publish' edit.

The whole ride up to the ride and any time in the ride I was sitting behind someone I was wishing Jim Frost was there with his child bearing hips (as he called em). Frosty was in the 'hood' back in michigan before bolting for AZ to be a teacher or something. He was only about 6'4" from what i remember but damn he was as wide as a sheet (of) rock. I could sit in on his wheel and actually get a draft. Soops kept saying "it is like riding in a vortex on your wheel gewilli - hard to pull through" or something. Anyway, the luxury of a nice draft is something that is rare. Even back tucked into a pack i've gotta keep my head down or i'm catching a fair bit of wind. it would have been great to have Frosty there on the ride on saturday, just to give me a good true draft. But. Hey. no draft didn't make it less fun...

damn eagles song....

REI has some good stuff and i've been a member long enough that people look at my number and go "WTF" when entering it. Phone service at the store? Well if you have someone on the phone it isn't so bad. Waiting for someone to get to it. Well that's when the whole Take it Easy song plays. And gets stuck in your head.

Ah well.

All worth it.

Seems kinda funny that Peanut gets her copy before me. Must be faster to mail something to BELGIUM than freaking Rhode Island. Sure, she's a contributor and probably had special delivery. But still. Man alive.

Harder than waiting for cross season? Yes. Why? Well, here's the deal. It would be like not racing till mid november while everyone around you has been racing since august. People have read and re-read their copy, heck maybe even piled it into the recycling (god forbid) or the bookcase weeks ago now.

But. Everyday. I go home. Eagerly scanning the house for the tell tale pile of junk mail, bills and whatever else the postman decided to put in our box. Everyday.

Hoping.

that... it will be there...

and my eagerness is tarnishing, it still glimmers as I look around for something magazine like.

Oh and seeing as everyone is talking all about what is PRO and what is not. I don't get the whole white bar tape thing. I don't even really understand going with anything other than black cinelli cork. No matter how many times someone says it is cool. I see white tape and I just shake my head.

Ah man. I just saw this. Carbon tubulars AND a complete clown size bike? Where's my secret pile of bike cash. Wait. I don't have one. Crap.

Don't let the sound of your own wheels, Drive you crazy...

if it was only my wheels driving me crazy... if it was only those wheels...

gotta put the new (to me) bike blinders back on I guess...

i'm only 1/2 through getting to the point of turning back into a cyclist, right? 5 year journey. Sure I've been racing since '90 but that 5-6 years off really basically put me physically back to square one in lots of ways.

Ah man. Petr Dlask's bike? Shoot. I hope it sells for like $2000 so i don't feel bad. If it goes for under a grand i'll be grumpy...

time to ride my bike and forget about Petr's...

heddwch
g

That tune pops in my head more often than not when riding. A lively rendition. The best part about the tune is that it is simple. It is often the first song my step father uses in his celtic harp and hammered dulcimer classes. But.

Like most very simple tunes. They are often the hardest to master and to play well. To play them with life and emotion. I just sampled a handful of the you tube versions and most are pretty painful. Out of tune flutes. Plodding dulcimers. Ouch. There was a good one. On a banjo no less. Oh the banjo. I made an absolute ass of my self and probably ruined one 4th of july at a country club function i went to with a high school girl friend and her parents. Man. Talk about one of the painful memories that you would love to get back. Or at least go back in a time machine and slap your pompous know it all sounding jack ass self. Anyway. There was a time I thought it was a horrible nasty wicked (woops heading down a gollum path) instrument. But something changed (in me) and well. It certainly has its place.

Anyway give it a listen.

That's the tune.

A good one.

With that in mind. Make sure you get it on your calendar and show up (ifn you are local).


And no. Gotta hit the bikes a touch before the coffee cup is empty...

It was dry on the way home. The roads were wet on the way in, but barely a sprinkle of rain. Not really even enough rain to make me wet. Spent the ride this morning in a mellow groove. Just chilling and spinning. Ticking the pedals over at a mellow 90-95 rpms. Not real spin. But for an easy effort it did the trick. I've been sorting out logistics for tomorrow's big ride. The plan is to ride up north, meet up with a group starting a longish ride. Just have to sort out the timing and the route. Some say Rt 7, seem logical and most direct way to get up there, others suggest it is too infested with trucks. Then I have to couple observation day into the mix. Ah well. That's me, the over thinker. One thing is for sure. I'm determined to get the miles in. Already planning breakfast. Gonna be a big one. Yum. Oops. Now despite the three medium RI Red local hard boiled eggs I just ate (yeah, easter eggs, they weren't cooked till late saturday - still taste pretty good actually) I'm hungry again. I guess it is probably time to bust into the last bit of stollen . There were two loaves of it at home last night. One properly prepared (buttered and rolled in the sugar mix) and one plain. I busted into the plain one. Ah heck. With the Marzipan in there. Wow. Mmmm tasty. I just wish I had a toaster and some butter kicking around here. Well, ya know a few seconds in the nuker just to warm it up, and wow. This is good stuff.

sticky fingers + keyboard = not good (i'm gonna eat)

heddwch
G

Yes.

JV (afore mentioned guy with the tip to grab on to the back of the truck) has a nice simple tip:

Keep the RPMs UP! (I can't get that shit to work in the Firefox browser - so ya may need Internet Exploder)...

If ya haven't gotten the message yet?

SAY OUT OF THE BIG RING.

Leads me to think, Molly's suggestion last year about Zabel's supposed train in the 39 and race in the 42 or was it the other way around. I'm thinking probably it was train in the 39 and race the 42. More miles at higher RPM in training probably isn't a bad way to go... RPMs is RPMs.

Next club ride i might limit screw everyone out of the big ring (insert evil laugh)...

And not to be jealous of the PDX scene, but... Hell between the mud and weather they get for cross races and this. How can any decent cyclocross fan living outside the reaches of that funky city not be jealous.

Anyway. Urban Velo #6 is available now. Got Dirt Rag in the mail last night. No CX Mag yet. UV#6 is in my hands now.

And seems I'm on a winning streak. Contest after contest. This one was even better than winning iPods. Video master Delux hooked me up with my vid of choice. And a couple 2001 titles.

Cross goodness. Do you need a fix? Order a few videos for your own library. It will keep you getting on and off your bike cross style all season, even as dangerous as that might be with your fancy road shoes (yes - i find it much more awkward running in road cleats before jumping on the bike than the mt shoes).

Hoping maybe to get some monster miles in on Saturday.

Now the radar is showing clear skies over head right now. We'll see how accurate some computer is at telling me what it is doing outside - no i don't feel like leaving the cave to check until it is time to leave.

and for those long legged freaks out there looking for an outboard bearing 180 or so mm crank set Surly has the Mr Whirly on the web page! Mmmm sure, it ain't campy. Sure it will look retarded on some Ti Serotta with campy. But. No creak and 180mm is pure goodness... (saw it in UV#6)

And then getting to page 6 of issue 6 I'm reminded of the fantastic piece in Dirt Rag, a tribute to Sheldon. With a very passionate and appropriate illustration.

And um... page 7 is hot. Just not sure what it has to do with anything. Other than her gloves? Um. Damn Aussies. Getting us all worked up over... um... gloves. Wonder if there'll be letters to brad and jeff about that one.

Well. Maybe I've delayed enough that the rain drops will fall on my commute and the section that "...was like the forest of Arenberg for a stretch there" (as said by a very fast NE CX masters racer of a part of my route home) will be slimy and muddy.

Fifty one out there. Tempting to just go short sleeves around.... Tempting.

Get out and ride. eh?

heddwch
G

sure feels like it. And even that on a short week.

K-man is changing up the look. And suggesting you go read something I read yesterday. Aki's always a good one for a long story. The latest on Drafting is worth reading. Keep in mind the advice of Vaughters:

One tip that might save your life, if it doesn't kill you: Should the car does slam on the brakes, the best thing to do is grab onto the car. I know how crazy this sounds, but this is a technique I learned from Spanish pros early in my career. They'd be drafting these big dump trucks and, rather than smash into them, would jump and grab onto handles, ladders, racks, anything. Their bikes would get ruined, but they'd be okay. I once had a teammate who did this, but the oblivious driver of the truck just sped up again. My friend clung to the truck for his life, screaming in terror for miles before the driver stopped.

Or you just wait for the cops to pull you over.

Monique has some more fitness/fuel advice. Actually pretty darn good advice. I just wish she would cite her 'studies' the way the folks at PEZ do. Citations are critically important. Although with most 'mentions' of specific studies it is possible to spend some time searching on your own for the reference. But, as professional courtesy it is best to provide the references so those who are interested can go dig it up.

And no - i don't always cite. But I'm not getting paid, nor writing for anyone but my own sanity.

Jacquie is dissin Kleins. But sounds like for good reason. I've never ridden a Cunningham, probably never will. So no basis to compare. But for some giant big jackass (me), the bike is none-too-stiff. (check out her vintage mach 5 fork!) And now somehow I'm craving a big pile of cookies.

Brooke has a hysterical video up. Nice find.

I ain't got much today. call this a fluff piece...

But I will end with saying just how darn nice it was to ride home last night in shorts and short sleeves no gloves no base layer. Ah it was brilliant! Supposed to rain for the commute home. It will be both "daddy you are WET" and "Daddy your bike is wet AND dirty!" And I will reply "but you are nice and dry in the buggy, Right?" "YES"

heddwch
G

Sure, there is Kozy Shack, the occasional Coke, or fig newton. But...

there is a commercial that gets me all worked up (in a good way) everytime the music starts playing...

it is for a product that i don't really need... but oh man is it cool...

Think early 80s UR Quattro Coupe cool.

That's the level of coolness. Okay - Think Sven Nys's bike cool.

What is this item of luxury and obscene consumerism?

A MacBook Air

Sure it costs a couple grand. Doesn't do anything that I need that our trusty old Dell 600M can't do. But. Man alive. Is it ever flipping COOL!



That song maybe makes it? Issa good one. Nice job scoring that gig Yael Naim

Ah well. I might as well fantasize about getting Zank to build me a custom frame in time for the season (in case ya didn't know he's leaving New Belgium for a bit, sounds like he's leaving all his tools here). I would have a better shot at bribing legolord or yogurt boy for their spot in line than acquiring a MacBook Air.

But it is all good. Getting what ever you want when ever the whim hits is the sure path to misery. Far more satisfaction to be found in making what you have work for what you need.

Heddwch,
G

PS Does anyone have a set of Speedplay frogs laying around they aren't using anymore?

I'm not the first or only one with the link to the NY Times story.

But. it is a damn fine read. Quite passionate.

Speaking of reads. Maynard. Man. He just keeps unloading gems. That's cool.

Although i feel compelled to contribute the gewilli content to this mess of words around.

Riding home last night. Ugh it was tough. Head wind on the way in. Even stronger headwind on the way home. My wife said she walked down to the bay over lunch and it was dead calm. Glassy. Well. There were solid white caps on the way home and a fellow commuter caught me and so we road together, me riding well above my comfort level at that moment, him riding slower than he would have been. That trailer makes a big difference.

This morning we hit a few sprinkles of rain. But while windy it was a pure cross wind. Nothing too terrible. But that inkling of fatigue was creaping into the legs. Not the same as I felt last thursday before the start of the euro hills. I had wanted to get on the trainer last night. to do another set of intervals... but plans are never well kept. Maybe this is an off week, as prescribed my life around me, not my intentions. KOB, soon. Battenkill, soon. Then what? I am not quite sure. With school, summer vacation, day camps, races, life, everything up till christmas already taking shape, it gets overwhelming fast. It is about to the point where I have to have my cyclocross season already planned out. And it is still March!

Josh had hinted about spinning in one of his previous columns (see #29) over there at PEZ. His latest entry goes into it more. I read it over last night and was struck by the juxtaposition it had with the Maynard piece on spinning I quoted yesterday.

Spinning. Good stuff.

heddwch
G

Read this!

No excuses. Just read it.

The best things are invisible: Love, laughter, hope, joy, respect, honor. I wish you houses-full of each. Sadly, you can’t hoard any of them, nor can anything you CAN hoard, even cool bicycles or old French saddles, secure them for you. Stuff is no substitute.

The best things are invisible. You want to fly. Stuff is hard to get off the ground. More stuff is worse. If you have more stuff than you use, there’s no time like the holidays to pass it along. Give stuff away. Get light.

Fly into the New Year.

END

Posted by Maynard at 10:53 PM

And this next one. so many true-isms.

We did have time, and old-timers who advised patience. "Takes five years to make a bike rider," they said. We didn't want it to take five years, but we trusted them. They'd been right about so many other things.

So we bent our elbows. We wore tights until it reached 70 degrees, and we spun low gears for miles and miles. Most of us are still spinning today, 20-odd years later, and we will be, until some doc says we can't.

END

Posted by Maynard at 10:13 PM

Five years to make a cyclist. Or in my case 5 years to rebuild. I'm in year two and a half.

And i do believe there is a wee bit of suppleness in me legs. Tis true (read the whole thing - both of them but mostly this is the second) technology can't help you pedal smoothly. The powertap's cadence stops working if you are pedaling properly. Cylocross is the ultimate gear mashing endeavor. Best to approach the start of cross season with supple legs and hope to finish with more supple legs than you did the year before, till, maybe after five successive seasons of attempt you do finish as supple as you started. Chances are, your results will be as impressive as your pedal stroke.

I'll admit to loving a big gear. The extra teeth engaged in the chain, but. This enforced little big ring is amazing. More so riding with others. Long after the rest of the group has shifted to their 50, 53 or what not, I'm still spinning away in my 40. That snap certainly is important. Spinning down to the Red bridge from the city, I'm gaining on cars in a 35 mph zone. Sheldon says that at 120 rpm with my 40x12 i am going just a hair over 31 mph. I was going faster than that I'm guessing. But maybe not. Snap.

There is an overwhelming number of times when i've been over geared vs under geared. How many sprints (town lines and what not) have you lost from shifting too early or at all? I've set my best TT time at the bikeworks course with a 50t, not the 55t. First hand at Sterling racing with only the 49 my legs were fried and I was slow.

Spin spin spin. Spin spider spin.

Damn I'm glad maynard is posting great stuff to read! (it makes my headache pierced day tolerable)
heddwch
G

That would be me.

Why?

My oldest figured out how to do the bike thing. She's been flying around on training wheels for a long time. Last summer efforts were made, very unsuccesfully to get her on two wheels. We got her a new bigger bike as incentive. Didn't work. Recently a few times we'd gone out in the street in front of the house, back and forth, me running along holding on. Saturday we started again.

She was determined. But also very frustrated. Emotions run strong in this child, hmm I wonder where that came from?...

She couldn't figure out the whole going forward thing beyond pedaling. K-Man's counter-steering explaination video gave me the words that worked for her. I was finally able to communicate to her what was so natural to me that I wasn't sure how to describe it. Turn the bars in the direction you feel like you are falling, but not too much. Then we did a little me holding bars her balancing and practice. And.

She was off. That was all it took. Soon she mastered the pedal up starting from a stop. Then she got the stopping down. And a couple dozen trips up and down the street on Sunday helped followed by Monday. And Monday was the day. She was tired of the street. Back and forth up and down our block. Her confidence was lacking a touch, not able to make the turn around on the street easily. So. We headed over to the park and took over the basketball court. I cruised around on the cross bike, dismounting, remounting, turning, riding in the sand, picking up garbage. She rode circles around the court. And around and around and around. And pretty soon, well she wanted to go farther. Out to the bike path and over to the other park, and back, and repeat, and on and on and on. almost 2 hours. And she was not ready to stop.

SO. Cool.

Somethings you can't force. My father still remembers learning to ride a bike. His father spent 2 weeks working with him one summer. No progress. Finally one of the kids in the neighborhood said something and boom. Instantly riding.

I have no idea how I learned, kind of remember my bikes. I remember more the store where they were purchased (in Port Orchard) than which one came first. I remember the constant scrapped knees of my summers. But I don't remember the first time.

It isn't of much concern to me if my daughter remembers this weekend of learning to ride and getting it. What is important is she got it. She was having so much fun. And I'm just super proud.


first ride from gewilli on Vimeo.

Oh and I got to the base of the parkway Friday and boom. Some line of thought presented me with the story I'd been trying to remember! Fist banging handlebar excitement. As soon as I got home I grabbed a scrap of paper and started jotting it down. And it is still in my head. Just need to sit down and get it out.

Props and thanks to the Blue State coffee house. FREE refills! YES! I should be able to survive. Maybe. Oh and also excited because there was a stack of today's NYTimes next to the recycle bins... SCIENCE TIMES! WHOOOT. Yes. Now if I could just rid myself of the headache I'll be doing GRRRRR-8

heddwch,
G

need my coffee... but... the stuff I bought this weekend for work. Is still at home. Damn it. Time to dig through the change in the bottom of the bag to find enough to get me at least one cup for this morning. And finally, I don't have to be nice to 4bux anymore. My little sis ain't working there no more.

So I'm off to get some.

But friday's ride home. the brilliant sun, the howling wind. Amazing. Absolutely gorgeous.

Three days off more or less. Sat though i got out on the Hard Tail. Tooled around the trails here. Worked on variations of the cross course and a few other back more heavily rooted trails. Discovered seat to be low and angle of saddle not right. I seem to remember finding that out when I raced it last year. Well got that fixed but an hour just tooling around was great. Got a few all out efforts in for the heck of it towards the end. No riding sunday. Monday though. Breakthrough. Saturday my daughter wanted to ride her bike. But well anyway that's for later. Got about 1-2 hours of tooling around first on the cross bike. Man that bike is awesome. Then swapped it up for the adjusted hard tail. Ahhh much better fit. But holy shit does it have a high bottom bracket. Oh. Right. Klein Signature. High BB. Maybe it is better that he never made a production cross bike.

Coffee is calling. I need to quelch this headache that is beginning to throb.

heddwch
G

that my wife reads this...

and realizes that there's a whole host of shit i talk about or have opinions about or just want to talk though that she doesn't really care about...

years ago we'd hang out with friends - and if they rode (one in particular) we'd spend hours literally talking about bike stuff. Heck face to face meeting with solo and 45 minutes passes in a blink and we've just been talking about bikes - and I seriously think neither one of us was lacking for something to talk about. My wife likes riding her bike(s). Appreciates lots of it. She just doesn't care about gear ratios, frame materials, technique, stuff like that. She's an athlete. A real one. Able to push so far into the pain threshold for results it is incredible. She kicked ass in crew. Captain of all the teams she was on. She new how to turn the brain off and just go. I think too much.

Last night after the talk about % grade, gear ratios blah blah blah she said "you are SUCH a dork"

guilty.

bike dork with an outlet... and outlet that doesn't depend on boring random people in person for long durations... when something comes to me I can get it out of my head and focus on task at hand...

I find it rather complementary that people (solo and Colin) find it easy to parody my style. That means #1 I've got an identity here that even being punked by G-Ride can't take away #2 someone's actually reading this shit I'm writing and it is sticking. Maybe not the message or the meaning (sticking) but even that stuff is getting through. I believe that, even if you don't like those (opinions) on the edges - the extreme folks, listening to them helps you become more self aware. Helps you to make more informed opinions. If you know more about what other people think and why it is easier to live in peace with them. Anyway - not sure where I was going with this. I am often never sure where something is headed when I start it.

I spent the whole ride home last night racking my brain, what was it. The pick in the sound box. WTF was the story I had bottled up. I have no idea. The plan to write the story overwhelmed my memory more than the story itself. Still nagging at me.

Speaking of memory. I tried to recall racing in college. There were two races I remember almost completely, both, in fact UCONN races. One was their crit, and one was the 'Tokeneke' road race. I remember more about the subway we had lunch at than the stage race up in Amherst. The only part I remember is the road race, heading down somewhere and doing a looping uphill right hand turn and the Army guys in their black and yellow bumble bee kits. I remembered the Army road race. Cold. Wet. Wicked down hill with a left hander back up. Probably was in a park. I think I remember the parking situation. But What I remember most is the downhill and then uphill. I know I did more than those races though. At least I think I did. I never did particularly well in the races, in any road races. And it seems from all intents and purposes I'm working at keeping that streak going strong. Just odd. Looking back and not being able to remember stuff. Part of getting old? Or more a sign of what my brain filed away. With visual cues, results sheets, what nots I probably could work on uncovering the memories locked away. (I'm trying not to get all stuart smiley here).

I'm still waiting to get my second issue of CX mag in the mail.

I suppose i should go back to blabbering on about cooking and food and what not. Instead of the racing and all that. Kinda funny that the history of my pasta sauce making is pretty easily recalled, but the racing is not. Cyclocross? Well that is a different story. I can remember pretty well at least snippets of every cross race I did back in Michigan.

The season starts when?

"People who don't do it, don't quite understand it.
People who do, know, intrinsically, as soon as you try it you are hooked on it.
Once you race cross, it is hard not to."
-Pure Sweet Hell

How long till we get to race in cross conditions? Will we even get them here in NE this coming year?

I should clean the cross bike. I finally abducted the Rolf Vector Pros off the Croll, pulled the Racing Ralphs (showing more wear on the knobs than I expected after a season) off and put on my Conti fat boy tires (28c 4 seasons). 247 grams of goodness in each tire. Stuck the pit wheels on the Croll in hopes that I'll keep hitting my course with the knobbies. I keep seeing the Carbon Mantra hanging behind the wheel-less Quantum Pro. Taunting me with "are you gonna race KOB on me or the Adroit?" Just what GeWilli needs: slightly ambiguous choices.

full on change of pace...

by now I'm sure the whole cycling web log following world has stumbled upon Liz Hatch and her web log. Now some of you might be regular PEZ distraction fans and saw that gal wearing the vanderkitten shirt? Well. She's got a refreshing take on this sport, from the point of view of a 'beginner', and the passion of youth. Just don't be a basher, Eh?!

And ain't Andy's bike just fahking COOL?

i just noticed erikV of the Voldoil company has a 'Cross countdown. Ah man.

And Maynard is making even me feel old. At least with the last line of his into:

It occurs to me that this piece may be older than you are, dear reader. It's so old that my big chain ring was a 52! Oh, well... I hope you like it despite all that.

Before that he was talking about floppy disk and WordStar.

Craziness. And yes. Very funny to think that the paramount I was riding up and down the hills might have been older than a few of the kids who showed up for the ride. Yikes.

I put off starting Omnivore last night in favor of just reading a story from Half Wheel Hell. It was about getting a flat, not having anything, in the cold on a group ride. A good story, as all of his are. His reasons for pursuing the blog are equally as good as his writing. I for one, am glad he is one of the ones raising the quality of this whole blogosphere.

It is too bad in many ways, and probably good is more, that another literary idol of mine has passed on. I want to imagine that Edward Abbey would have made a great web logger. Despite his solitary seemingly technology limited life, I think he would have grabbed hold of the medium with vigor and force. Although, it is most likely, if he had made it to now, that he wouldn't have gotten into the digital age of this self publishing stuff. This would have been roughly his 81st year on the planet. And I don't think he would like much of what is out there right now.

Maybe I secretly am trying to embody what they say about him:

Meet Edward Paul Abbey, twentieth-century polemicist and desert anarchist, a character of elaborate contradictions and eccentricities whose words either infuriated or delighted his readers.

You are what you eat/read?

could be true...

eat...

food...

I'm really hungry - I'm always freaking HUNGRY... so frustrating... even 1/2 pound of fig newtons later (yeah - packaged, processed, prepared and preserved even wow - pure violation of the 4 Ps AND it has HFCS in it). Ah well. I can always fall back on the popular cyclist-ism "fuel is fuel" well... there ya go one of the "elaborate contradictions"...

on that...

i will end

heddwch
G

I had a great title come to me while riding in. It is gone. The winds were seriously howling. Rare to see white caps as consistent and powerful as they were today. Knock you over sideways kinda wind. Killing myself for leaving the camera at home as the little coast guard boat was blasting through pushing white spray off the bow easily as big as the boat on either side. Brilliant Sun, wicked wind, cold power days. Them is the type of conditions made for big 90kg riders. And actually I think i'm over the 90kg mark again. From visual clues though my body fat % is down. So I guess that is a good thing? Double edge sword. Esp when the terrain goes up. Anyway. That sort of brings me to a point to clarify from yesterday. About the gearing. Being able to climb anything in the 39x18. How? Well I think the key was being a tall skinny freak. 6'6" and 165 pounds is a heck of a lot of leverage and not much weight. I couldn't really sprint. I wasn't fast. But I could climb with anyone I rode with (which might not be true it just seemed that i rode away from more people than i got ridden away from on the hills). I didn't have anywhere near the power needed to deal with the winds in michigan when i got there. So, all in all, Me saying I could climb anything with a 39x18 basically means not much. Don't read anything into it more than that. Oh and i was not much for spinning in those days.

Now the gearing. I mentioned BCD. That really is the critical issue. Campy and others set a standard of 144. I forget the minimum tooth # for that but the norm was a 42. When I got that 39 on the P-mount back in '91 or when ever, most people were still running 42 on everything. Campy's grip on the cyclists was strong and 144 limited the chain ring choices.

In other parts news. Stock up on tubes now. Buy em in bulk. And I predict a rise in patching vs tossing. Well for many. I suppose any price increase in an industry that can support products like SRAM Red and LEW wheels... the raw material cost of butyl and steel are so insignificant that, well, $20 tubes wouldn't even cause them to slow down the speed at which they type in the gold card # on a web site.

And those Bike Radar sunsofbitches are tormenting me with the turquoise can of Heinz beans. Vegan and wicked tasty. (look closely in the shopping basket in the link)

Last night my motivation was slipping to get on the bike. but a good nights sleep and i was on the bike and rolling away happily. So much for self regulating motivation. Legs didn't even feel too tired. Over the last seven days i've had one day off the bike and amassed an almost respectable 16.5 hours on the bike (if i count just riding straight home tonight). And it has been fun. A handful of those hours were really slow spinny things. A leg or two with the trailer that I just rode, small gears, just enjoying being on the bike. A few efforts. Some leg breakers in both the uber high cadence (dropping someone on a decent with the 40x12) and uber high torque (coming to a dead stop even with 180 cranks trying to push a 40x23 up a 30% grade at the top of a 10-15% grade). A range that is new for me. No it probably won't pay off. I'm definately not one of the super egotistical types that Burke mentioned here:

COTBR: What advice do you have for a young rider trying to break into the Pros?
Burke: Tragic Optimism . . . Seriously. You must have an almost tragic belief in yourself because 99 out of 100 races you’re likely going to fail miserably, but as long as you learn from your mistakes and keep trying, there’s that 100th time when you don’t fail and it makes it all worth it.

I almost fall under the tragic pessimism.

Ah well.

We all can't succeed at everything. But damn it. We can have fun trying.

Heddwch
G

And well - to better understand the Pollan way of thinking about food.

Watch www.storyofstuff.com/.

Don't forget to give ol' G-Ride a call. He sounds lonely in his last comment.

And the thinking about gearing gets me thinking about Tim Krabbes book.

All the stuff talks about (old days) gearing that would make people buckle now days.

Granted. When I was 22 there wasn't ANY hill i couldn't get up in my 39-18. Seriously. But i was 165 back then. add 30 pounds and well, i can GO much faster on the flats and generate way more power, but i can't climb like that kid can anymore.

Maybe there is something to the whole smoking thing. Those guys rode big gears - smoked (well they had some nice dope too but anyway)...

Some thing is nagging at me. Like that itch I can't scratch. An idea i can't shake out of my head. Some thing rattling around that won't fall out. Like dropping you pick into the mandolin. Sumbitch is in there. You can shake and shake but sometimes it just doesn't want to bounce out.

maybe it'll pop out on the way home. overcast 45°F and a steady wind out of the NW at 25 mph. Gonna be a fun ride home.

Heddwch
G

Damn little kids and their damn little gears. 40x23 is just kinda hard to push up 25+% grades after a handful of 12=15% grades. Once. Sure. After a handful, not pushing my 90kg ass on a 12 kg bike. Ouch. I've been spinning so much lately that this extra force is different enough to really hurt. But finally, my legs are dying before my lungs. That's something new.

The ride home was much wetter than the ride in yesterday, but it was slow and fun. Between tuesday nights Stage 11 (3x8min) and riding in every day i had planned this morning to be super mellow. I was so excited when the temp said 52 out there. I almost went in shorts. But, it dropped to 48 by the time we were leaving and so i stuck the knee warmers on. And then one of the commuters with his new fast bike showed up and so i didn't take it too mellow on the way in. Ooops. Well i was plenty warmed up at the start of the ride. And 5 other crazy people joined me and all pretty much proceeded to kick my over geared ass once the toll was taken out on the first three hills... I'm absolutely taking the 42 back off the Q-pro. Heck might even dig around and see if i have another 38 130 bcd kicking around (doubtful, i do have a 110 bcd in a 38 that i'll prolly put on the P-mount now so that at the very least i can use the 25...).

Meg - i checked the source last night. It indeed was the '84 paper from O'Dea, but also a '94 article as well. Amongst a whole host of them. I got thinking on the way home "why doesn't diet and exercise fix 100% of type 2?" and I hypothesize that people have been so overloading the insulin pathway, milk with cereal in the morning for example, their whole life that like an alcoholic or a drug user they've destroy the ability for the insulin pathway to recover (drugs typically will do the same to other things in side ya). I guess the point is to limit sugar in the kids so they don't overload the insulin pathway at a young age, even if they stay thin, it doesn't mean that they wont be messing up the whole glucose system for their health down the road.

The 4 Ps. Minimize them. Make a choice on lessening the balance. Whole wheat flour is better than white flour. Wheat berries you grind yourself are better than whole wheat. Maple syrup is best if you make it your self but then the pathway of options goes from a 'farm/producer' you know is better than stuff from a big company, and that is going to be better than something with other kinds of syrups. And of course (not to pick on canada) but some local Syrup guys will hint at formaldehyde used to prevent spoilage in stuff coming from up north. So preservatives should be checked (on the list).

Time to start reading omnivore's delimma. The In Defense of Food is a remarkable book. Very well referenced (inside - as in you can find his primary sources and read the original studies and draw your own conclusions) and well written. Nice big words used well.

Less serious matters. I need to hold my own fundraiser. Someone is holding my identity hostage! Hmm. I guess this is more serious than less. I should give my lawyer a call.

And it has to be cool for Tristan S and the gang to have a new kick ass team mate! Sweet news! Party at SKW's house on the East Coast swing of the JP gang!

My legs are killing me. Dats a good sign (i think). Gotta keep stretching and stay hydrated and eat today.

Food. I'm gonna just eat lunch now I think.

Oh and It is spring. Finally.

heddwch
G

UPDATE: much better ride report than my rambling nonsense here over at Brent's hill log: Here

Paris Nice or T-A?

I have no idea. Yes I can look. I could click and if I had been paying attention to the images on Velonews I might just actually have noticed. But I didn't.

After writing the bit including John, Maynard, Patrick, Sheldon and Jacquie, I started wondering. Who would I call my racing heroes? Do I have any? Phil Anderson, Frankie Andreu and Sean Yates come to mind immediately. Sean Kelly even Big Mig I guess. But have these individuals shaped my passion for cycling the way the writers have? Not really. I got thinking then. Maybe those Mt Bikers were really the ones I revered. Tinker, Missy G, Julia Furtado, J Tomac, Gunnar Shogren.

But I sort of realized, it is about the bike. It is about the feeling of being on the bike. Being inexorably part of the bike when you are on it. Human and Machine, connected in a beautiful way. There really isn't anything like it. The limitations of the machine aren't displacement, horsepower, weight. The limitations of the machine are more often limited by the human on the saddle.

The bicycle is about finding your limits and pushing them. But it is a whole hell of a lot more. Sport is fed by hero worship. Cycling, itself, is seemingly above the individual. Driven, no doubt, by remarkable individuals. But that passion you see in the film about the tour of flanders everyone has been posting and linking (molly to greg to liz) is about cycling as a whole.

I wonder if i'm making any sense at times - I think i might just be confusing myself today....

Ah well. I guess you have to be pretty nuts to kit up to ride home in 40°F Rain. At least my clothes have all dried from the ride in.

Speaking of more nuts - toss in some Stephen Cheung for the afternoon/evening reading. I printed out a copy to read tonight. Go check it out.

I finish with a joke - gearheads will get it:
Q. How do you slow down a hooker?
























A. You put a governor on her.
(good joke lee- good one)
Heddwch
G

I couldn't have said it better. Well maybe I could have. But it would have taken me 10x as many words, explaining stuff in too much detail. (click for link)

I'd suggest not using BoeSheild for chain lube. It gets just too damn sticky. I've used it off and on but last year I made a focused effort to use it exclusively. And while it works. Man o man does it create a sticky mess of crap that binds to the chain. No real issues with lack of lubrication (except if I didn't apply after a ride in the rain), it just built up more on the non-chain parts of the bike.

I strongly suggest either going with the Voldoil company's EVerlube or if you prefer a dry lube, there is really only one to use: Slick Willy Slick-n-Dry. Bill's got a damn good product there. When applied on a new chain, wow. It is amazing. Clean, dry, quiet, well lubed. Everything you want and nothing you'll find in most dry lubes.

Now I just gotta get me some Oderless mineral spirits.

Heddwch
G

These are to be avoided at all cost when selecting what to eat:

Preservatives
Processed
Prepared
Packaged

The worst is obviously all four combined. Think microwaveable meals.

The last one. Always best if what you eat is purchased in its own packaging. But that is hard to avoid and only serves to make 4. But still, very important. The packaging is critical to the amount of impact humans have on this earth. The first three are more for the person, the last is for both the individual and the planet.

There are plenty of diets out there. Plenty of guidelines. I've railed against preservatives in the past. It shouldn't take much to understand that it is best to buy foods that have not been processed. And the preparation really should be done in your own kitchen. Time you spend cooking is time you can't be sitting on your ass watching TV or surfing the internet. No packaging and your family of four will make barely more than 13 gallons of garbage a week (I think we are averaging just over that amount).

It is easy to remember. So next time you go to your stupormarket see if you can avoid all 4. Or at least keep as many Ps out of the basket as possible.

Heddwch
G

So many reasons to pick today as an off day. But. I've got this nagging sense that I need an overload week or two. Get some solid kJs in over a good period. It would have been a great day to drive in. But we rode. Started off in the snow. It changed to a drizzle with a slight breeze. After the drop off it was sleeting. And that stuff hurts sometimes.

It was a great ride. I took it pretty mellow. just spun the 40x19 most of the way in. Cranked up the couple grades with the loaded trailer in the 40x23. Darn good ride. Felt great esp considering last night. I did something odd. I actually got on the *gasp* trainer. Now that I own an iPod I can actually listen to the CTS 2006 Do the Tour . . . Stay at Home.™ I had downloaded them back in '06. But the crappy little psuedo player i had only did mp3s these are something else. iPod likes em. And damn if stage 11 isn't a good workout. Sitting in the bike room, a way too warm 47 degrees, it works. three eight minute climbing intervals with ten minutes inbetween. No cadence read out, no speed read out, no power read out, no heart rate. And you know what I found? I didn't need any of those. When I really mentally focused on what I felt was right - turns out it was. I managed to gauge each effort so that I stayed in the same gear and held the cadence and speed for the duration, feeling like i was gonna blow a gasket with about 30 seconds to go in each one. I had brought the indoor outdoor thermometer in the bike room because it has a little digital clock with seconds that are easy to read. I periodically checked cadence the old way, counting pedal strokes for a given period of time. Good solid big of effort. Even dinner didn't seem to slow me down much. Legs felt pretty good. I've only taken Sunday off since the last day off the bike on tuesday last week. I'm hoping the rain finishes up by tomorrow morning so the Ronde de Providence will happen on dry roads. But if it rains. Well Wet cobble stone hills worse than the Koppenburg. They aren't the longest climbs. But they come one after another and they are steep. Tough difficult steep pitches. Adding water means the rider must be vigilant about weight distribution and power application. They are steep enough that too much rear weight and you will flip over on your back, not enough and you spin the rear tire. It is good stuff.

Riding in the rain. Good stuff. I will conceed my feet were a bit cold when I made the drop off. The Blaze socks from DeFeet inside my sidis were working but that water getting in there was melting snow... cold. I probably would have been uncomfortable on a ride longer than an hour. Booties probably would have been a better idea. Or at least sandwich bags over my socks in the shoes.

Used up the last of the frozen blueberries in the freezer making pancakes this morning. Mmmm mmm they are super yummy. I love this recipe, esp with blueberries in it. Ya don't even need to put boiled tree blood on them to enjoy it.

There is one thing I think that might be making a difference in they way i feel this week on the bike. I have started taking two 20x bottles of gatorade on the bike in the morning. Drinking em both before lunch then having some extra water for the way home. Seems to work. It also helps burn through the gatorade so I can 'justify' making up my own fancy 'sports' drink.

Along those lines I say the "sale" price for one of the fancy ones that puts super processed, refined, milk protein in their hydration beverage. Almost $40 for 30 servings. WTF?

Sugar, if you buy the bulk Turbinado, is about $0.90/pound. From my figuring, that is about 30 servings of sugar base. salt? Well, by that fancy fancy fine crystal sea salt for $5-$10 and you've got a pound (and enough for quite a few years of mix). And I would probably put the vitamin C, calcium ascorbate powder on the list of things to buy. Heck that stuff will last longer than the other two big ingredients and it really isn't that expensive. I dunno how good this source is, but it is pretty darn affordable. 2.2 pounds of Calcium and Vitamin C goodness for, what? Twenty three dollars? No way. That'll help with the free radicals. Keep ya from getting scurvy. And that form of calcium is generally considered to be well absorbed.

Cool thing about Calcium, it does some neat activation in some cellular processes, not a important as Potassium in active transport, but still pretty darn important for muscles.

Anyway. There ya go. For less than the price of some hyped up stuff from some companies you can have a year's supply of unflavored sports drink. And ask yourself.

Do you really want to be drinking that much coloring and flavoring? Even if they are "natural" flavors or colors, they are still processed and isolated. Are they really needed? I'll tell ya what I think after I make up the first clinical trial batch. Heck, who knows. maybe GeWilli should ninja market his sports drink. Sell it in ziplock bags. All mixed up for people: ready to use. Hmmm. If i use all organic ingredients, well, holy crap I should be able to sell it for $50/30 servings. Then it would compete with that 'recharge' natural sports electrolyte drink, esp if i get a hold of some potassium citrate or other potassium salt sources ;)

Just remember to eat well, get enough sleep, and the rest falls into place.

Heddwch
G

Check this out. Ever wonder if there is real "drug testing" research done using your herbal supplement? Click here. Granted folks like Sailorboy won't want you believing that anyone but Pfizer types have the answer or the cure to your ailment. If it isn't sold by a big (or small) drug company, well it is junk and worthless.

Sure there are plenty of worthless supplements. Grinding up plants or extracting stuff from them is easy. Not much profit in saying Olive Leaf or elderberry reduces or prevents viral attacks. Nothing in there to patent.

Patents make money. Not plants. Unless you are Monsanto or DeKalb and you have a seed that you can't plant again. Old farmers used to be able to reserve a portion of their crops to plant mixed in with the next years purchased seed. It helped keep a bit of diversity. But if you are using Round Up Ready seeds there is a risk that the summer's seeds won't have the resistance gene and well. No gene and you plant and then spray, well those plants are dead. Oops.

In other big company news. I'm sure you've read John's obituary for Inside Communications. I got to the last paragraph and was left feeling pretty empty. It seems like a good thing.

It got me thinking more a bit. (doesn't everything?)

I've recently started reading Maynard's blog. And it seemed that as soon as I did, his cycling content started increasing. Old stories that he published that I remember distinctly reading in the back of Velonews. The letters in response to his Rivendell Reader articles are very thought provoking.

Then of course there is the ever present checking in on THE mad dog. His entry about the velonews bit linked above first had his original cartoon "the season starts when?" I sure hope they keep cutting checks to that crazy bastard. He's about as funny as they come.

And, last to kind of complete the circle of influence. Gwadzilla put up a link to Jacquie Phelan's weblog. So I've read a bit lately there.

It had me reflecting on these folks. John Wilcockson certainly has impacted me, in much more of a subtle way than either O'Grady or Hershon or Phelan. But combined it is a telling line of influence on my perspective of cycling. Maynard and John's references to Winning (the magazine) and all, these folks in a way are my heros and here I am trying to emulate them but not really. No hope I suppose of ever attaining their level of influence and prosaic mastery.

Wrap it all around his latest posting: From 1988 - Jacques Anquetil is dead... and it reverberates the loss of the greats of late.

Sheldon Brown. Hiss nuts secure my Kingsbridge tire saver on the Paramount (or winter bike as Brent calls it). His life was cut short, and even in his declining health, it was not how anyone expected it to happen. Suddenly he is gone.

Life is fleeting. Not nearly as drawn out as it seems in the early years of our youth. The years spent at college riding, partying, studying seemed to last forever. Now as I tip towards another decade under the keel, 4 years passes in a blink of an eye. I don't have a plan where this is going. Like most of my pecking (or more precisely flowing, these words flow quickly and effortlessly from my finger) I don't have a predefined begining, middle or end to this entry here in my web log. Outside of the bounds of my scientific writing that's the way it has always been. The yin to the yang. My verbose ramblings contrasted to the concise defined scientific statements, which, admittedly are too far and few between. From the start with the link to the NLM at NIH to talking about Sheldon's nuts (yes, i am aware that I'm dropping the word 'fender' from the descriptor- much funnier that way).

And this act of linking to Sheldon's fender nuts has me sadly thinking the cycling community will greatly miss Mr Brown on April 1st.

Heddwch
G

No more slots. Congrats to those who got their ass together and signed up early!

It is gonna be a roaring good time. Best part of MTB TTs is that it doesn't matter if ya race Expert or Beginner - times stack up as times. Good way to sort out who is where.

All the best races seem to fill early. That's a good thing.

Now. I guess I need to dust off the MTBs and start hitting some trails of some sort.

to read in the new Pollan book. Really wanted to finish it up last night but, sleep. Needed sleep. And, sleep is a good thing. A very very good thing. Get what you need.

I swear this guy must have taken all my ideas for the book. Darn good reading. I spent much of the morning ride in thinking about eating habits I've observed. Balancing the influence of the American goals to buy as much food for as little currency as possible with buying only as much of the best stuff as you can afford (the latter will be far better for you in the long run).

And I realized I have solidly internalized the eating habits of people around me. It is something I have noticed. Food has been something I've always been in tune with. Maybe from the beginning I understood quite well where the stuff came from that we ate. I grew up raising a huge bulk of the food we ate. Our little 3-4 acre chunk of land in Rural Washington state gave us chickens and eggs, rabbits (to eat), garden veggies and lamb. Mmmm lamb. It was good stuff. It seemed to bother my dad more butchering the animals than it did me as a kid. We also went fishing quite a bit. Limited out on trout when we would go hit the stocked lakes. At least that is how i remember it.

So for me this whole eating food (not processed food products) is what I grew up with. We had a stone mill for grinding flour. Big metal cans on the back porch with the grinder that had the bulk bags of grain. I loved heading back there on a cold morning filling up the hopper with wheat and was fascinated with the movement of the grains as they feed into the stones, watching the last few bounce around - shooing them in, waiting for the sound of the stones to quiet down. The smell of freshly milled wheat. The warmth and softness of the flour. It made some damn fine waffles, pancakes and bread growing up.

And yes, it takes time to do this sort of thing. Making waffles should be a fun part of breakfast. Dumping some mix into water/milk/soymilk isn't the same.

Food is delightfully simple.

So is riding a bike.

Eating 'food' (as defined by Pollan) and riding a bike CAN change the world.

Heddwch
G

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.
- Stephen Jay Gould

And then a link from a friend: See how you do.

First off the Vid that Greg posted that he got from Molly about Flanders.

Non-slip green bike lanes. Very cool. Now THAT would be something worth looking at to help make the BLVD lanes more effective and I think safer. Heck any bike lane in the greater USofA. Although what is the environmental cost of dumping that much paint on the roadways?

Maynard has a handful of some of his best essays posed/reprinted on his blog. In fact. If you haven't been reading over there lately (thanks for the link Bruce) and you ride, go read. Read it.

You ride anyway. Yes. I ride anyway. This morning's wind was one of the "I rode anyway" days. Go read the rest of the stuff posted over there.

K-Man's Review of Cornering in the Cat 6 corner ain't bad.
Gotta love this line - although there are so many good ones there:

• Always leave room for the rider on your inside to navigate the corner because, if you don’t and they crash, they will carry outside into you and you will both crash. It is a pretty good rule. Don’t forget it.

there's other good stuff around like Michele making me homesick nostalgic.

go find some

i hate scheduled power outages - never fails that one or two systems get hosed in some way. grumble

heddwch
G

Oh and I forgot till just now:
Check CTodd for some new postcards. The wind he is talking about there in Haarlem: think Michigan...

Caught a bit of Andy Rooney talking about the death of two of his friends. One being Bill Buckley. His comment about never ever being on the same side of an issue with Bill got me thinking about how differently my Grandfather's generation did things.

When my Grandfather retired finally and moved out of LA for good, back to where he grew up (in the summers) in Camden, Maine he would meet with a group of similarly aged friends he had over time become very close with. Maybe some he had served with in World War 2, some he knew from Sailing, H. Scheel was among the group for example. But aside from Scheel's name I didn't know who the others were. Just that it was a group of men who grew up in the depression, lived through the wars and made something of their life.

My grandfather was as articulate as Buckley and an incredibly successful businessman. And just as conservative. But most of these men he met with and called his friends were as liberal as they come here in New England. As Blue as he was Red. Yet, somehow. Like Andy Rooney and Bill Buckley they were friends. And they talked at length in person about these issues amongst each other.

There was something between these gentlemen that seems to have vanished lately. Now you dare not get in a discussion with someone else about a sensitive subject out of fear of turning them away or never seeing them again. Do you dare discuss abortion? Or religion? Or similar veins of controversy? What if you are on opposite sides of the issue?

It struck me that, their generation had one thing above all others: Respect. They first and fore most respected each other. And within that range differences abounded and were tolerated.

Just something that hit me as an awareness. I often think about my grandfather, often it is more along the lines of not so much positive like the time the squirrels were harassing my grandmother's garden. He bought the most expensive pellet rifle in town. And he took me and my cousin down by the water to sight it in. Neither of them could hit the paper plate target. Finally my cousin nailed an edge. I gave it a try and was grouping them dead center with ever shot. This is a single shot lever pumped type pellet rifle. Shoot, break, load, close, shoot, repeat. So we went back up the field towards the garden looking for squirrels. My cousin and I are roughly the same age. We get up there, the squirrels are tearing around. My grandfather hands the gun to my cousin who manages to miss even the tree they were climbing on. But he did scare em away. It has always bothered me that I wasn't given the shot first. But writing this makes me wonder if my grandfather did that deliberately. It certainly would be a positive way to turn the situation. Did he not want me to kill the squirrels that day? Was that the whole point? Some times I think it was because I was carrying the gun wrong at one point. Yes, it was unloaded but I had the barrel not quite pointed down to the ground enough, and that got a reaction and a scolding.

I will never know what he thought or why he did the things he did that left such a huge impression on me.

But the loss of the influence of his generation seems to already be eroding our culture.

Heddwch
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Head wind. Man, not to mention wicked freaking cold. No I wasn't cold but when I took my glove off to snap off this and a few other shots my fingers were pretty darn numb when I got the glove back on.


This is about as close to midwest wind as you get when it is out of the NNW here. While this stretch is only a mile or so of hard core unblocked/mediated wind imagine that sort of wind (like it is coming across the water at the causeway) for 20+ miles. That's what riding in the Mid-West can be like. flat flat roads, and endless fields with few trees or big buildings to slow it down, sure there are a few fence rows here and there but they are not doing much to mute the power of the wind for you.

This morning is was NNW and strong. Saturday afternoon is was just about as strong but NNE. I still managed to get a decent 4 hours in on the bike. Met up with the Rhode Island Smack Down ride crew. It was a thin crew. The morning rain and snow must have scared a few people off. But save for a few puddles the roads were pretty dry. We (me and team-mate and climber type Brent) wound up hitting a few decent hills. The first one that cut our teeth and got the HR up was River Road coming off Valley. Not really much of a hill but it got us both breathing hard. Next up was the mellow Woodward, the one ya often hit if you leave from the Branch/146 area to start a ride. It was the first 'hill' on the Team Gumbie/NBW ride last summer. We then wound up riding around Lincoln Park and we cut over to the Blackstone bike path. And ticked away the length of it into that nice headwind. Side by side. Church of the Big Ring style. Heading up Mansville sucked. I managed to hold a pretty steady pace but it wasn't as fast as Brent's pace. That was demoralizing. West Wrentham, now that's my kinda hill. Motor city. I lead up and just kept the power up seated style and gapped brent before we hit tower hill road turn off. I was hurting so bad but it felt good to just beable to hold it to the top. Then it pitched down. Down down down. YES. Big fat ass me likes going down hill. Stupidly I usually attack on down hills in group rides. Punishment I guess. Sure it is dumb to do in a race but well you've just blown your wad going up hill, lets add some pain on the down. So I dropped it into the 12 and got a gap on Brent and took off. Heading down by the right hand turn at the stop light I looked back and uh oh. What happened. Who would have thought you can drop someone with a 50x11 using a 40x12. Don't let ANYONE tell you "you can't spin 180mm cranks" HA. (allow me one big of smugness) I CAN! I think he was just soft pedaling though. But we were going pretty darn quick (I was keeping pace with the cars going down the hill). So we tooled around, past the base of Diamond Hill and turned and went up Tower Hill Road. It is alot like Fire Road (iirc) back in the college days. Except narrower. Up and up, rolling, not steady. Brent dusted me pretty good. After the hill then the downhill and the tempo along the flat section i was pretty well gassed. Maybe it was the fact that i had the fenders with the duckbill tail on the back, or me just being hard ass moron, but I was up front most of the day. And man, i love it up there. Gimme some wind. Some incline. Lemme motor along. And thinking back I don't know if I ever noticed his sustained eighth note on the seat tube. It was a brilliant ride. No metrics. I have no idea how long I rode for. When I left the house at 12:15 i had no idea it would be 4:20 when I got back.

Made a very simple pasta after watching the last few laps of the Nationwide before the rain ended it. Medium shells tossed with bacon garlic black pepper and pecorino romano cheese. All fresh. The bacon, nice natural hippie stuff. REAL bacon. In fact It is impossible to get real bacon any more. Or at least finding bacon that isn't loaded with saltwater and/or nitrites and nitrates and HFCS is a challenge itself. And then thinking about that. I had to hit the regular supermarket. Needed an item that wasn't at the market (lasagna noodles - no i didn't feel like making my own). And so I looked over at the "butter" case. 8 feet long, 4 shelves and a big bottom one. Who knows how many different SKUs were in there. I sort of wanted to count. But I didn't. No organic butter in there. And the regular butter, land-o-lakes, shaws brand, cabot brand and even that fancy Kates stuff from VT, every single one of the unsalted butters have "natural flavor" added. Serious. The butter doesn't taste like butter enough so they have to add butter flavor? What the Fahk! Maybe if the cows actually ate grass instead of corn and soybeans the damn milk would make a butter that tastes like butter. Insane. Really really insane. How many products in that case? Every one technically a spreadable butter like substance. All but about 6-8 products had little or not actual butter in them. The rest pure imitation processed make you die sooner than later crap. Flat out unbelievable. Really flabbergasting. Then couple the whole new wave of TV adds talking about "managing your type 2 diabetes with drugs from this company or help from this pharmacy" um. HELLO. ANYONE HOME. Type 2 is generally and if not in all cases, most of them completely curable. Um. It is a disease that we have a cure for. Holy crap. no way. a cure? Oh, it requires eating differently, getting enough sleep, AND exercising? Forget that. Pfizer help me please because I'd rather dump drugs in my system with god knows what side effects than actually do something as difficult as stop eating my precious margarine and special K.

I was reminded of the reason Tofu is generally the only source of soy protein (outside of eating Edamame - but then those are green and unprocessed and small part of an occasional meal - and only when they are in season) in Japan and such. Well it is pre-digested. Think of it like Milk to Yogurt. Soy to Tofu. Milk = bad. Yogurt = good. Soy = bad. Tofu = good. Damn. Nice and clean. Still don't need much tofu though. Don't need much protein at all. Protein sucks calicum out of your bones. Yogurt and Tofu's proteins are pre-digested by the bacteria that make them. Meaning way easier to break down, less acidification = more absorbable nutrients. Ah what the hell.

I think I had another rant or two stored up. But maybe I'll just leave it out there. Kinda like Tony Jr did to Dale Jr. That woulda been sweet if he'd gone in for new tires. Definitely would have had a shot at the win if he had. Ya gotta love watching the racing at Bristol.

Different topic yet again... (referencing the whole beer thread on the NECX list from post Nats).

CCC has left a new comment on your post "Heaven simply heaven":

Sorry to dig up the dead, but I just finished off a 6'er of the Black Butte Porter here in Seattle and yes, it is just as good as the "$20/bottle trappist stuff." Good call.

The folks at Deschutes Brewery know how to brew a kick ass beer. Rather than raise a glass of fake Irish stout (okay the G stuff ain't fake but it ain't as good here as there - ain't the same), raise a glass of Black Butte Porter here on St Pats day.

But keeping with my deep celtic roots (pronounces Keltic not seltic ya bunch of dimwits) I'm just gonna say...

Heddwch
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Flowers?

Gotta be spring right around the corner, no?



Didn't realize it was outa focus till just now... doh. If the tree rats haven't eaten them already I'll try and get another shot.

Maybe the season will suddenly Spring into Focus!

Heddwch
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Hilarity.

And that Test vid - the UK one. Well everyone's seen it by now so i can say this:
i saw the "bear" but that was a crappy ass moonwalk and a crappy ass costume... oh and i got the answer right too... i couldn't have told you it was a bear or that it was moon walking but i noticed the extra person walking through the group passing back and forth. When they asked about the bear for a minute i was like 'wtf' thinking it would have been small or a real bear or something like that. Flawed. Good but flawed. Makes the point, I guess.

Steve brought up a good point about the 'make your own' fluid replacement beverage. It is a pain. Well here's the deal. Grab a container with a good lid (yogurt ones work, glass jars or what not). If you have access to a gram scale, great. And honestly, is there a bike geek out there without one? And honestly - it is best to cook with weight measurements, they are far more accurate and representative of the ingredient elements than a volume measuring device.

Pretty easy to work backwards and make up and mix some pre-mix. So that your "real" drink stuff is easy (fights the lazy side). Yes, it is more or less not possible to do the flavoring in the powder. But, then, do you need flavor? Gatorade says you do, because it stimulates the metabolic desire to drink. That said, ya don't need the drink to tell you to drink. Do you?

Okay - So get your container. and work up from say Gatorade:
#1 8oz serving of liquid has a "scoop" that has:
0.110 grams of sodium
0.040 grams of potassium
14 grams of sugar

Sodium is a 1:1 ratio with Chlorine in Sea Salt (roughly - or should we say close enough for this application). So doing a bit of calculations (man i'm rusty but iirc Sodium has an atomic weight of 22.99 and chlorine is 35.45 - okay i looked it up - periodic table here on my desk). In this case we don't need to convert to mols because we have the gram equivalent of one and we just need to solve for how many grams of chlorine and add those two together to get how many grams of Sea Salt we need to get a 0.110 g of Sodium that is found in gatorade. Right?

Lets call it 0.170 grams. So.

For the salt we need 0.280 grams per 8 oz (240 ml) serving.

How many servings do you want to make up?
10? well Lets translate to bike water bottles. Assuming a 24oz bottle. That is 3 servings.

So. To make up enough for say 10 bottles we just multiple the base formula 30 times.

But. First. Mass (fancy more accurate term for weigh) out one serving and devise a scoop. maybe you need to mass out 2 servings or even better 3. Does one table spoon equal 1 serving? That makes it easy. But that's where the problem solving happens. And the good thing is? Do it once. All done. (FWIW 1 tsp of turbinado sugar is about 4 grams)

Now you know how big of a scoop one serving of the mix makes. Now. Make a big batch up.

30*0.28 grams = 8.4 grams (you'll find the bigger the quantity to mass out the more precise you get. it is hard to get 0.28 grams. very easy to get 8.4 and at 8.4 +/- 0.1 or 0.2 grams isn't going to screw up the formula very much).

Okay then the sugar:
30*14 grams = 420 grams (huh huh - four twenty).

So what about the potassium?
Well. Turbinado does have about 1/3 of the molasses left in it. Dark brown sugar might be better to use but the crystal nature of the Turbinado makes it more suitable for this application. So that bit of molassees left in there will give you traces (traces meaning probably 100% of those elements will be absorbed instead of a % of a supplement in mineral form - ala gatorade) of good stuff like calcium, iron, and potassium.

Sea Salt has traces of lots of good minerals as well.

Sweet sugar/salt water. Can ya tolerate it? maybe. maybe you want to squeeze a lemon wedge or two in each waterbottle to help it go down. Heck, lots of people like the unflavored/plain gels. Maybe you want to put a drop or two of some natural vanilla extract (don't use the corn syrup based stuff - yuck). Or a splash of juice.

Or maybe it is just too much trouble. You don't have time to take care of your body now with all that data analysis your coach is having you do with the powertap files. Here's the deal. Figure out how to justify taking the TIME to prepare your body (engine). You should really spend more time preparing it than analyzing it post exertion. Seriously. Look at the Race cars for example. If a team took care of the motors like most "serious" cyclists hooked up to all types of measuring devices take care of their own bodies, well there would be lots and lots and lots of DNFs from blown motors. Dat the flat out truth.

Take care of what God gave ya there. That sleeve of yours. We ain't in Richard Morgan's Kovacs books. You can't just get a new sleeve. Ya gotta make the one ya got work.

Heddwch
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about gatorade - and the lack of fake stuff free alternative powder, that isn't over priced to cover the processing cost at low demand levels (compared to gatorade).

Gatorade is basically pretty simple (powder that is) in terms of ingredients. So I got to thinking. How would I make one that would replace the sugars and salts needed. (caution - the lead into the gatorade talks about power and watts and powertap stuff...)

What do you need:
Sucrose
Salt

Ideally you should be getting enough potassium via food sources that you can get away with just replacing the sodium chloride that you sweat - and seeing as calcium is just as important for muscle contraction and all that (as K) sticking a bit of calcium ascorbate will balance it all out.

So.

Sucrose
Salt
Calcium Ascorbate powder

Add some fresh lemon and lime juice and boom.

A brilliant cheap drink.

Use some sea salt, and an organic fine crystal turbinado sugar and you get all the kick ass important micronutrients (from the sea salt and the stuff that is left in the sugar) and the benefit of juice from fresh fruit as a flavor agent.

Sugar, salt = cheap. You can purchase enough calcium ascorbate powder to last a couple seasons of just drink use for $20 or so maybe a little more. The Lemons, Limes (low sugar high flavor fruits) would certainly be the big cost. But even then. How many would you need?

And like the home made stock - yes - it is more work. But the return is exponentially higher than the input work.

It is good stuff.

(but then i can't see the lazy folks making it up - i'll refrain from lumping any group in that - obviously there is a market for products with little or no solid studies showing their benefit - accelerade for example {yes i know - they have studies - but all funded by the Labs that make the stuff - those studies don't count - EVER} anyway there is truth to the truism "any drink is better than no drink" or "the best drink is the one you use" something is better than nothing, but, is it really?)

Oh and just to dispell the purity of consumption myth. I did eat pizza for lunch and I had a couple small cups of Coke. Yeah. Preservatives (pepperoni) and High Fructose Corn Syrup. Ah well, once in a while, it ain't gonna kill me. Certainly not compared to the average population.

But then that brings up the whole conflict with eating out (the Sysco truck pulling out just down the road in front of me got me thinking along those lines). Food service stuff is bought in bulk. Big cans. Of medium quantity. High end restaurants really aren't all that different. Maybe in the combinations or the quality of the key ingredients (meat, fish) but the filler stuff isn't always at the same level. Middle level establishments still get a big portion of stuff from bulk not great suppliers. Not to mention the amount of waste and what not. And yes. I speaking from a diversity of background and personal experience with the matter. Like riding in the cold, I have a pretty solid framework on which my thoughts are grounded. Sometimes I obscure it with a big of fog but the foundation is there and is generally pretty damn solid. And. yes. There are always exceptions. My rule for riding in the cold. You need base your clothing choices on being able to stand outside, on the most exposed stretch of your ride, long enough to change a flat tire. That and a 90kg person holds more heat than a 60kg person (given equal or similar BMI). Just flat out mass. I got mass. So anyway. Never take anyone's advice without feeling comfortable following it with what you know. If it is unknown - look into it - see if others are saying the same thing. Few ideas are original. Hell this Pollan guy seems to have tapped into my brain regarding what to eat! Hey, at least he saves me from writing a book no one would read.

Heddwch
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Some times it takes doing something to know if it is right or not. Even when one can probably deduce the outcome mentally. Compelling reasons were sparse but effective.

That said. I was going to talk about how to make a killer soup out of the chicken broth... but, well, It'll wait.

I was thinking tho, on the ride in, about actions that stick with you. And how they make up your personality. Do you vividly recall every mistake and the emotional flood you went through? Do the opportunities you missed, that you didn't see until far too late come back to haunt you? Or are you driven by the good things in life? Do you work towards the positive fighting in that direction but are weighed down with the baggage of growing up as the sharp tempered easily provoked awkward self conscious skinny kid?

A bit introspective I guess this morning.

Pretty mellow, tired, what not. Surprised it is thursday. Certainly feels like it I guess. And yet, one more week gone almost. One week closer to Battenkill and Burlingame.

I did think about goals last night. And in a very positive re-affirming way. When I really just thought about it all, (goals on the bike) I'm pretty happy with the way things are going. No I'm not getting the ft+10% intervals in on a regular basis, hell at all. But, I am riding most everyday, I am focused on going hard, medium and easy. Balancing the riding so I'm not all one speed. I am more often than not leaping on the bike cross style still with perfect form. And that's a wonderful feeling. I'm still unclipping at stop lights so I can practice my Cross starts.

Cyclocross still dominates my focus. There is no way I can compete on the road against guys riding bikes 5-7 pounds lighter than mine, with aero wheels and 10 speeds and all that technology. Guy weighting at least 10-20kilos lighter than me. I'm not saying it wouldn't be possible to overcome all those obstacles. many people find mental fuel in riding crappy equipment. Every person they beat who has a bike worth 4x more than theirs is fire enough to train their ass off. To suffer just that much longer in the break. Then it gets to a point where that isn't fun anymore. Cyclocross is different. Mtn and Road are pretty similar, driven by what is new. Yes there are always exceptions. Always someone bucking the trend in equipment, riding something old, but that's really an exception. Being the exception your whole life is a challenge. Esp when even after over three and a half decades ya still haven't figured it out yet.

eat well, eat smart, eat real food

heddwch
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