John, a high level corporate executive, had just been offered a big promotion. The only downside was that he had to accept a transfer from California to Detroit. He has never been to Detroit, and was very concerned about the move. He decided to visit the Motor City, and check out the place for himself. On the flight out, he began talking to Carl, who was seated next to him on the plane, and had lived in Detroit for many years.

John: Man, I heard Detroit is a rough place. The murder capital of the world. My wife is really worried. I hope I can find a safe place to live. My kids are in good schools in California, are they going to be safe in Detroit? All I hear about is violence, and gangs, and drugs.

Carl: Oh, don't worry. I've lived in Detroit my whole life. My parents grew up in Detroit. It really not a bad place. All that bad reputation is really a lot of overblown media hype. The people in Detroit are great. Once you get oriented, you'll be fine.

John: That's great to hear. I've been really worried. So, you've lived in Detroit all your life, what do you do for a living?

Carl: I'm a tail gunner on a beer truck.

Climbed into bed at 9pm last night. My dog wandered upstairs at 9:30 wondering what the f'was going on. In bed already? She plopped down on the carpet for a few minutes then decided her couch was much more comfortable and headed down to check the kitchen one more time and then sleep some too.

I don't think I really fell asleep much before 10pm but it felt good and by 5:30am my body was letting me know that sleep wasn't going to happen any longer. I tried to push it but there are times when you just give in and get up. That and I'm sure the dog was ready to go outside (she was).

The rest did some good. I still rode in basically as slowly as I could. so slow in fact that my toes were cold by the time I got in. Even wearing the fancy winter boots. I guess pedaling hard into 30 mph headwinds at 17 degrees keeps your feet warmer than riding like a wuss at 23 with calm winds. The rest of me was fine but man it took me almost 50 minutes and I was on the bike path. Yes. 3rd consecutive trip to/from the city via the bike path. It is nice. Really amazing how beautiful the ride is through there. All the waterfowl and what not.

The time playing road warrior drives home just how lucky I am to have such an amazing commute (when it is passable). There are still some good stretches of ice, but I've taken my bad judgement, turned it into experience and then now have some good judgement to follow as far as the ice and I've been pretty solid since.

There's some great reading out there. Even inspirational stuff. Fast dudes who can write (not fat dudes, they are kinda lazy about it lately). Tilford's bit about Alexi and Raul and the two Velonews articles he links in there (you might have to go to the source to get the Alexi one - Steve's link didn't work for me).

And well you've got JONNY BOLD's dissertation. Maybe you can find something to object to and debate against in there, I certainly can't. That is right up there with grumpy dipshit's dopers and kids post.

Okay - there - i've called g-ride a grumpy dipshit and solobreak fat, mission accomplished for the day.

Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner tonight...

G

hard core

Today, whammo!

Problem was I hit it sometime between my morning session and teaching class. Tough to get through it, but the tank was just completely on empty. My work brain feels like John Isner looked in that tennis match. Not the marathon one. The following match. I'm mid-tournament (semester) and feel like I just used everything, but still 3-4 weeks more of this intensity. Tomorrow is going to hurt, hopefully I can get fall asleep early enough to work in some brain recovery rest.

It did help that I was finally able to ride in on the bike path. AND ride home.

Pretty awesome actually. So beautiful. So peaceful. Still plenty of ice but hopefully these next two days will work some magic on the remaining sections.

Came home, cranked out some food, ate... now, feet up, chillin listening to the radio.

So...

bachelor padding it this week...

making food every night is tough, last night i survived on left-overs (chili) and salad. I made enough salad to go with the fish soup for lunch and as a first course tonight. The fish in the soup at lunch today was not good. I mean it wasn't bad but it was all mealy and pretty texturally unappealing. Good think I don't give a crap. It was pretty good for lunch yesterday not as good as fresh out of the pot.

But hey. What can you expect for some sustainably farmed Tilapia (or so some major food retail lead me to believe). Still good.

Anyway. Salad was a good way to start.

And while the above freezing part of the food preservation box was devoid of most protein I went into the sub-freezing part and found some old chicken. Hmmm

Chopping time:

onion (1/2 of a sweet one)
2 serrano peppers
2 stalks of celery
4 smallish carrots
2 mini heads of broccoli
6 cloves of garlic
2 jewel yams
8 brussels sprouts

oven at 350 convection

in big pyrex pan (I started with the small one but with the onions and the carrots I went for the bigger one) went some bacon fat (rendered from some Trader Joe's or 365 cancer salt free bacon) and olive oil.

Carrots and serrano were sliced, yams were quartered length-wise then sliced, garlic sliced thinly, brussels sprouts were halved...

tossed all that shit into the pan after I had melted the bacon fat (i keep that shit in the freezer) in the pan.

Added some soy sauce (need some glutamate) and dried thyme (i don't have any fresh stuff). Popped it in there for 30 minutes - tossing and mixing every 10.

I'm doing this all while I'm wondering why I don't have the cojones to go to the Flogging Molly show at Lupo's tonight in PVD alone.

Anyway. So protein right? So i had pulled out some chicken that needed to be cooked and some Maine shrimp. Based on the veggie side of things and the oven I put the shrimp in the non-freezing part of the box and went with the chicken. Once thawed (while the other crap was cooking in the convection oven) I added some soy sauce (can you even have enough glutamate?) ginger powder and dried Thyme leaves.

After about 30-40 min in the oven i popped the chicken on top.

and am currently waiting... i set the timer for 15 min and it just went off. Time to check.

Going to publish THEN come back and report on progress (just for you RSS jackoffs)

Mmmmmm

so good

added some extra hot cayenne pepper powder on top and wow - holy smokes this is good.

Enough for lunch tomorrow too.

Good stuff.

Okay.
Food - finish eating and then sleep... if the dogs allow me to...

fortunately no peeing all over the place today.

Who's coming over for dinner this weekend. I'm cooking and it will be good.

Heddwch
G

I got home last night (rode the bike home) to find the extra dog wasn't prepared for the whole day (aka dog pee all over the kitchen tiles), and by the time i got it cleaned up and looked at the clock, realized I was hungry and tired and my face still hurt, there was no way I was getting the trainer wheel on the bike and it and me loaded into the car to drive in for the trainer session at Caster's PVD.

Okay that sentence is a little long. Meh. So what.

After the hours on the bike on Sunday and no need to pile on the intensity after spending 90 min on the bike already on Monday (with the commute) pulling the plug was the right thing to do. When I called Freddy to let him know I wasn't going to make it Hans was there and had Freddy ask what size skirt I wore, "One size bigger than Hans'" was my reply.

This morning i got an auto email saying Marvin Z had a new article over at PEZ: "How much is too much?" Well i haven't quite read it yet, but there are just times when you know it is the right thing to pull the plug.

This cold is getting annoying. Heck this morning I thought it was the 28th. But no it is only the 22nd. Damn.

Okay so I just interrupted this post by 2 hours. Awesome.

So on the way in since I was thinking it was the 28th, it meant that I only got 1/2 of a commute and not even a full half, in all of Feb. oops. one more week.

Maybe it will thaw/rain enough by Friday that I can ride home on the bike path again.

The road isn't so bad though.

anyway - gotta eat - fooooooood

from the linked article:

Remember Mark Twain’s wise words: “How do you acquire good judgment? Experience. How do you acquire experience? Bad judgment.”

in light of yesterday's face-plant... so true

BUT

snow on top of ice today? Well that got me pretty damn good.

After friday's adventure ride on the path home I figured on trying it again today. The slush that was hard to ride should have frozen solid and the studs should grip like they have been. No big deal right?

oh. yeah we have just under an inch of snow on top of that.

no big deal...

except it seems that the magic amount of snow it takes to prevent the studs from doing their job is that amount.

not even 50 yards onto the path...

I'm riding thinking things are going okay. I can change direction pretty well, I'm avoiding the ruts from friday... and then

FACE PLANT.

That's the two words that went through my brain before

CRUNCH

when i made a hole in the snow and ice on the side of the path with my face.
dozens of little bloody puncture marks on my nose. My chin has a good cm size bloody patch, one under my right eye below the glasses... lip wasn't broken just squished and feeling funny.

Top of my left knee took a hit and then now that I got to work my right shoulder, the muscle in back seems to be strained and sore.

The ride in the slush on the road the rest of the way sort of sucked. Esp when the water started seeping down the sock into the boot.

ice? fine. Snow on ice? not so much.

It was chad's idea a while back to ride together before his travel began. And today was an open day. The first full day of me chillin at the pad with the dog for a bit. Yeah just me.

Cooking what ever I want. Inventing stuff (like tonight) aka recipes.

It is getting somewhat to the point where I've hit that confidence level in my cooking that is pretty neat. Pair up some ingredients, and make it work. Playing off simple standards but making them my way.

I was down right famished after the ride. It was a coffee fueled 3.5 hour ride time ride. 3/4 of a bottle of water was consumed my me over the whole ride. But then it was pretty god damn cold, and I hydrated pretty well through the night and before I left at 8:19am. Didn't get home until 1:42pm.

We spend about 30 minutes at Seven Stars Bakery firs waiting for folks to show and then waiting for the sun to work some magic.

The reports of the temperature ranged from 15-20 degrees F and the wind was a steady 20 mph gusting to 30 at the start of the ride. And we were riding right into the teeth of the wind.

So, we waited a bit. Caught up and then rolled out.

This would be the first test of the LG 0 Ergo Grips. And I'll say this, my feet were cool at times but not once from the time I left the house until I got back were my feet ever cold. Not once. And i was just wearing the boots and a pair of swiftwick wool compression socks I had gotten for Christmas (on my feet that is).

Oh and a Balaclava makes your winter kit sort of like a Stillsuit for heat. My hands were pretty much sweating the whole time and my core was right toasty. On many of the hills and esp Tower Hill Road I had to unzip the jacket to keep from over heating a bit.

It was cold though. Chad and Brent killed me and burke and hans on the hills, but it felt good. Legs were surprisingly good considering they were under a ton of bundles, and that i was riding on coffee and not other fuels (fueled until we started climbing SalesHill/Iron something at 146 - the light at Anchor Subaru). Started feeling the reserves get low. At some point we waited for Burke and I busted out a Cocoa Mole Larabar.

The ride was great. It was dry, only a few patches of ice. But that ride home after Chad and I stopped back into Seven Stars to have a bit of a pastry and yet another coffee (for me) was actually pretty tough. The legs were dead and the wind had swung around from being a dead on my nose headwind when I rode in at 8:30ish to blowing in my ear hole the whole damn way home.

Dog is sleeping and I'm not far off.

Time to sign off, clean up a few things and sleep...

yes

i had some more ice cream tonight... it is pretty damn yummy stuff.

heddwch
g

oh and dinner was one that i wanted to just keep eating:
pulling from a status update somewhere else:

Dinner tonight:
felt like soup so I made a whitefish, cavolo nero, cannellini beans, hannah yam, mirepoix, crimini mushrooms. Touch of rosemary and thyme and some red pepper for heat.
Serving it with some ciabatta bread.

I nailed it, if I do say so myself. The fish might be slightly overcooked when I re-heat it for lunch but, ya know? It was perfect tonight and that's what counts (I think). Not too brothy, pretty hearty and yummy.

I won't bore anyone here with how to make it... it was just a soup.

this is worse than the first CX Race of the season. Nothing's ready to go, commute? fine but i've been on the damn studs and I can't run those. No. We're headed to Tower Hill, probably a couple others (Brent's coming) and since everyone knows how much those things weigh, and even being as big as I am that's significant, and I need every advantage I can dig out of the pile of old shit in the bike room. On go the durano plus tires.

Of course the wheel i was going to put them on is pretty beat up (the tied and soldered spoked wheel). True as can be but it seems the spoke tension is a bit slack AND kind of shocking, or not, the braking surface is nearly to the bottom of the lawyer groove. I'm going to have a Ryan Kelly type blow out if I don't pay attention to this damn thing.

But it will work for now.

I've had some bearing issues on the BB30 lately, clicking and clunking. So I did a quick swap of the bearing that seemed to be crunchy. Either the new bearing or the disassembly and reassembly will hopefully keep it quiet on the ride. If not? That's two variables eliminated.

No, I'm not riding on the Reynolds. I'm not ready to stick the valve extenders on my tubes. Although until I wrote that I was thinking I don't have tubes... (need 80mm valves for these things) but of course I think I still have a pair of extenders.

Hmm. Still not going to use them.

And of course the slight off road and mudding I did yesterday on the way home to avoid the worst of the ice and snow on the bike path (yeah I was able to ride the bike path home last night - all but a short section along the Vet Parkway). Oh and someone chipped all the ice off the bridge. I just about ran over Mark J yesterday morning when he wiped out on the crown (ice was pretty sketchy) and he is on those Nokian studs.

Nearly back to the old commute dealing with the fucking sea gulls and their shells instead of the grumpy motorists.

SO.

bike, needed cleaning - windex and paper towels will have to work. Hose is still hiding from me...

Okay - status? Tires mounted, rear wheel sort of true. Bike somewhat clean. Saddle bag w/tube and pump found. Computer? Lets see what I can make work. Hell might as well gather some sort of metric. Why the hell not.

An hour twenty later I'm done. I think, ready to ride. Now lets check this weather forecast.

Well at least it will be sunny and we will be riding into the wind to start the ride... might as well get some sleep.

Or have some ice cream. Hmm.

Tough choice.

heddwch
G

I was putting something in the garbage or the recycling bag on the backside of the fridge and I noticed a small bit of a list that caught my eye.

This list is hidden behind a stack of recipes that I have tried, annotated and generally collected there on the side there facing the stove, and is one I haven't really used for a few years.

It is a Race list.

Looking at it the second header, "For Race" followed by the first item "Team Jersey (and clean one for..." suddenly made me realize that I actually miss the race. Miss the routine of getting things together, the purposefulness of the race bag. Cyclocross has a whole extra set of stuff and honestly the stripped down beauty of a crit race kit is immensely appealing right now.

And obviously this feeling was strong enough to get me to sit down and write it down.

I haven't really thought about it, or even realized I missed it for a while. I've been riding. Commuting every day so far. Only getting a ride to work once, and then of course the sick (daughter's appointments) and snow days might not have seen me on a bike, but every day I've been at work, save one, this year 2011, has been via my legs. The ice has been horrible on the Washington bridge.

Yes, it is getting worse. Last night's ride home even the studs were kind of sketchy (no they aren't wearing down), the ice is just turning into a crowned, bumpy, but progressively more polished and flatter surface. Which really isn't good. When the only texture is a slope perpendicular to the vector you are trying to achieve it is tough. That said I probably would be okay with 35psi instead of 60 psi in the tires. i might go and let a few pounds out before attempting to cross the bridge this morning.

At least the wind is calm, even if the temp dropped a degree from 16 to 15 F since I woke up. I'm dubious of the forecast warm up to 41.

I am going to try my new shoes today. I hope I got the cleats right on these 0 Ergo Grip LG shoes. I'm glad I got the 48s (i usually wear 47s in sidi and specialized) because they seem to fit about like the 47s do but there is a touch of to wiggle room. Today will be a good test of them if I can ever stop writing. I'll make another cup of coffee. That will get me off my ass. And yes. Coffee. My dear old friend is back. I have however traded the coffee for the beer. Except on maybe a rare social occasion I've cut the ETOH consumption to zero. And honestly it is working pretty well. Not so much for weight loss, mostly budget shrinking and health reasons...

I guess maybe seeing the Reynolds Strike wheels on the Klein hanging in the bike room is stirring that race bug, either way, it is a damn gorgeous looking bike set up like that. Sadly they don't seem to make a carbon compounded V-Brake pad. I might just have to race the Klein, or stick the 720s on the Blue (they stop well enough I think).

Heddwch
G

http://www.yehudamoon.com/index.php?date=2011-02-14

Hmm

So you know there were a few raffles this year to help send people to CX Worlds. Right?

The one for Jeff and Gunnar. Well I bought a couple tickets for that to support them.

Then there was the one for Sue Butler that I only heard of by noticing a rare tweet by ErikV. So i bought a ticket or two for that one.

And the last thing really wasn't a raffle until a wicked cool wheel company called ZIPP jumped in with a raffle prize for all donors.

The one for Jeff and Gunnar drew first and my name wasn't among the list on the BikeReg email blast. I was honestly a bit disappointed, maybe deep down I hoped for one of those super fancy coaching packages or something. I dunno.

Then there was Sue's. Honestly I skimmed the list and send the money in not as a chance to win, but to send some support to a deserving athlete who's organizing body doesn't see fit to support 100% of the travel cost to get to worlds. I did notice the "out of town winners are responsible for shipping charges of larger items." and figured, bah, why worry about that.

Then of course I got an email from Sue on the 2nd:

You are the proud winner of a fancy new wheelset. I said I wouldn't pay for shipping on large items out of town. You are about as far away as you could be. But they are sweet wheels. Still boxed up from Reynolds. Are you willing to pick up the cost of shipping? Let me know.
Thanks.

Sue Butler

And I just about pooped my pants.

I had to go back to the webpage just to figure out what wheels i just won. But seriously. ME. I WON WHEELS? What do i need more than any other bike stuff? Wheels.

Once I Figured out that they were a set of Reynolds 2010 Strikes i had to check to see if they were Clincher or Tubular (aka Road or Cross).

Clincher. But hey. My road wheels are completely hosed. It is pretty sad actually. My good "race" wheels exploded from overuse and just age (Rolf Vector Pro circa 1998). After the 4th broken spoke on the front and 4th on the rear and being stranded a couple times... well... they aren't getting ridden anymore.

leaves me with a 105 32 hole CPX22 wheelset i bought off Il Bruce a good 4 years ago or so that I've already had to replace the rear rim on and currently is my tied and soldered commuter wheel.
then my old 105 laced to a Sun MA14 or something (label is faded) that i built up in 1997 using 3 different groups of spokes (fat pulling, super skinny static and oval bladed radial for non-drive side).
then i have a set of neuvation off branded wheels. bladed spokes but heavy as hell and I've broken a good number of the spokes in the rear already (the rim is kind of fucked), but I got them along with a useless front and the heavy ass rear wheel that I have a training tire on for $80 two years ago.
Oh and the front wheel that I rebuilt after the brake track broke open in Maine using teh Open Pro rim i bought off JLS.cx for $20 at Turtle pond last year. That rim is laced to a 1985 campy front hub with 32 2.0 straight gauge spokes.
There is of course the matching set of ultegra and mavic open wheels on my wife's Lemond that I don't touch.
leaving only my tubulars (i'm doing this all from memory).
My Tubular wheels, the Grammo CX, were sent to me to test by Thom K (now of Service Course Velo), aka free. But then the front one was destroyed in an unfortunate incident (being understated). Chip came through with a front wheel loaner and G-ride gave me a wheel destined for the garbage, an old campy rim that he raced on in highschool. But it made the tubular set complete.

This is all from memory mind you.

So. Point being. My road wheel selection sucks. Esp for racing here in New England where the competition fucking off the hook and serious, and everyone knows I don't have the talent or the time to spend overcoming equipment deficiencies. But I still raced what I got because that's what I have. I may complain but it hasn't ever stopped me from participating.

Anyway.

These reynold strikes were going to be HUGE. heavy but for a flat course like ninigret or the thursday night time trial, or something else flat and fast. These would be sooooo needed and appreciated.

Then...

well Then Chandler CYCLOWHAT announced that Zipp was coming to the party with a raffle for supporters. Then he said they were teaming with therollercam.com to broadcast the raffle drawing life.

It was tuesday at 8pm. Tuesday (this week) rolled around and I got distracted and completely forgot until Timmie tweeted a reminder. And I totally needed it.

Hopped on there.

First name out of the hat after 60 minutes of chandler trying to get TJ's connection sorted out and other stuff was Mike Golay. That son of a bitch won a Westervelebvenwahtwehgthth 8. A kick ass belgie beer. But I'd made a point to stop drinking the week before and I was holding steady so I was wicked happy someone I knew won.

Kind of still reeling about that when Timmie pulled the next name out and it was mine. For the wheels.

The ZIPP 101s.

And

I

was

floored.

WHAT?

No way.

(again - no clue about them other than the video they played about them)
$600? crazy.

Wait. That's just for the front wheel.

Holy hell.

These are nice wheels too.

Two pair of nice wheels might seem kind of crazy, but man do I need them.

I actually thought maybe I should sell them. They'd make a very small dent and help a bit but... I really would use these. I really actually NEED these.

I was going to wait until I had photos of the wheels but as good as I've been posting photos, that's not going to happen.

Myerson says repeatedly enough that I associate the phrase with him "you make your own luck." And to a degree that is true. But there is an element of random chance that we cannot control, and for that I am thankful for.

Huge Thanks to Reynolds and Zipp for putting up the goods for the causes.

I will be appreciating them oh so much this year.

heddwch
G

Love that guy and his new Opinion page is good.

like links? check his latest:
http://bittman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/beyond-the-acronyms/

I'm pretty flabbergasted by the vegan shopping list there. W T F

The whole point (as i get if) of being Vegan isn't replacing your daily/weekly Hot Dog dinner/lunch with a processed Soy hot dog. CCC made some twitter comment about it when the big O unveiled the plan on her TV show. I guess he's a regular viewer, although he claims he was channel surfing and saw Pollan on there and stopped to watch it.

Bittman's not perfect, but he's also the first to say he isn't. But he has a big audience and that's a good thing.

And he strongly advocates cooking your own food.

I was going somewhere else with this. But I forget.

In the mean time, anyone hungry for some Calamari besides me?

Many of you who grew up here going to the schools of New England may have had a more direct education on the history of Robbert F Kennedy. I've never been drawn much into political history, or recent history for that matter. It will set a point when I say RFK's assassination happened before I was born.

Music is often my spring board for inspiration. Sometimes the songs don't lead me into much more than just entertaining tracks.

This song a bit more than that.

I've heard it before. But as with many songs, sometimes the lyrics don't strike a chord or you don't hear them a certain way until by some chance, randomly it seems, they click.

And when they click. Wow. They click. Maybe this was the first time that the sample from the speech really clicked.
"Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world."

Like I mentioned my framework of reference for that quote was a weak shade of gray. Many people probably knew instantly the reference. It took me a few minutes of digging to find it. and the full speech.

And before getting to that one I hit me was his Mindless Menace of Violence:

No, i never saw the movie "Bobby.

Listened to that... before hitting on his speech from Thursday, April 4th, 1968.



It struck me all in that I wonder, really wonder, if RFK's assassination wasn't this country's "A Sound of Thunder."

Certainly the Kennedy family isn't well loved by all, a bunch of bleeding heart silverspoon liberals. But some how, it seems, this one, Bobby, was different. Maybe he wasn't. I don't know his whole story, just the headlines. Just his speeches.

His compassion doesn't seem fake to me. here over 40 years after his death, what would he say about this place, this country that he loved.

Would we have had to send friends like Eric Marro to Iraq? We are all grateful and fortunate that he came home and it is with a great bit of honor that we should remember Feb 7th in his honor and those who he fought with and for. There may just have been a different conflict, but maybe no conflict. Again, living in the past is only good if you can take it and use it to set a course for the future. Reflecting on the past helps illuminate a course.

I could tie it into food, but time is now threatening my conclusion. Not that I have one, other than maybe it is worth introspecting a bit on that RFK guy, and realizing how little progress we are making in this country towards compassion (can anyone say health care for all?) peace (using bullseye targets to identify "liberal" problems) and the rest...

I will close with this quote from RFK:

"For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter."

ah hell one more:

"Victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed."

heddwch
G

either too busy when i have inspiration

or

not inspired when i have a few minutes



I have images to post, i have a few stories to tell.

Some involve the fact that in order to win stuff you have to enter raffles or what not. If it means supporting someone like Sue Butler by buying a couple raffle tickets or spending some cash to see what 20#skull can come up with on his DVD.

Oh and it was 15°F out there this morning. Kind of cold.

But good lord am I happy with the studs. Have I mentioned that? What a winter to have them for. I've been on ice nearly every day.

Some gracious and wonderful soul ran a snow blower or shoveled a path from the road on Warren ave up to and across the washington bridge down to gano. Means no more hike a bike, but it also means 100% solid lumpy ice across the bridge. Thank you each and every one of those 480 studs on my tires for keeping me upright on sheer ice.

heddwch
G

Cold-Weather Warriors from Jay Mallin on Vimeo.

Hit pretty much all the extremes this week. Except the heat related ones. Snow, Ice, Freezing rain, Slush, Wind, cold temps.

And I made it in every morning this week on the bike. The only non-bike commute home was after the trainer workout at Casters in PVD. But I rode my bike from the office to the shop and then sat on the bike inside for over an hour. So I'm still calling it a perfect week.

BUT with the streets and the melting and the stuff- i'm walking to the remote location. It is a gorgeous sunny day out there right now!

If not you should:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/a-food-manifesto-for-the-future/

I am happy to have studded tires on the bike right now. W/O them the ride home would be pretty f'n sketchy!

Statement as of 1:27 PM EST on February 2, 2011

Special Weather Statement

... Flash freeze expected across most of Rhode Island this afternoon...

Sharply colder air will move south across Rhode Island this
afternoon and cause wet and slushy surfaces to freeze.
Temperatures may drop 10 degrees within an hours time. The drop
below freezing is expected to take place soon after 2 PM in
Providence. The freezing line is expected to reach the South Coast
of Rhode Island by around 4 PM.

Driving and walking surfaces may quickly become icy this
afternoon... and both drivers and walkers are urged to use extra caution.

Thompson

Ya know - for as much as I talk about them - it could be worse. Right? At least I'm positive about something.

everytime...

cracks me up hard core everytime the car starts...

i've seen it about 15 times in a row right now and can't stop laughing at that point...

Some people are posting this clip:


But this is the one to post, at least for the Movie fans.


And yes - just like every other day I suited up for the cold, and headed out into the sleet. It was 25 degrees. It wasn't going to be rain.

WRONG.

It was raining. I'd smugly thought how much it would suck to have your windshield ice up. 30 minutes later I had ice covering my glasses. Haha Jokes on me.

Oh and the tidal waves of frozen salty slush were actually pretty cold.

But I warmed up on the ride wicked slowly/walk the bike section over the Washington Bridge. So that by the time I got here, racing the plow truck up Hope (okay trying to stay in front of the city's F250 with the blade on the ground) only my toes were cold. These booties have officially blown up I guess. The cuff still works and that's worth it but I think it is time to make the investment in some winter shoes.

Which of course means that once they get here we'll be 40+ degrees until November.

And you know what?

I'm okay with that.

When Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France back in 1999, he showed us a pedalling style with a very high pedalling rate, even in the mountains. Many experts have referred to this technique as one of the main reasons that Armstrong could beat his opponents so easily. With a high frequency it is easier to remove lactate from the legs, but it requires a high degree of special training to be able to maintain a high pedalling frequency.

(source: here)

When I read that quote I think he could beat his opponents because he had the best doping program in the peleton and the best management organizing the infrastructure behind it.

It is a brief article, raises some questions - something to think about i suppose, and a good time of the year to think about.

Personally I still think no matter what your most natural cadence is, to sprint you need to spin a high cadence. But sprinting at the end of the race or for a prime or a town line or to jump away from the pack to try and break away, that snap, the quick acceleration is always best done at higher RPMs. You're going to be anaerobic anyway best to take advantage of the benefits of how to make horsepower. Torque is probably not as easy to train as is leg speed (certainly takes more time and effort, dedication, living like an athlete blahblahblah). Leg speed is pretty simple, esp if you are not trying to raise your preferred cadence beyond where it is comfortable, to raise for the ending sprint. Doesn't take much to work on coordinating the muscles to spin in excess of 150 rpms. Not that you would ever sprint above 150... but you know there's a lot of people getting beat by juniors and they have much smaller gears than you. Think about that (or not, esp if you've already thought about it 25 years ago when you started this crazy sport).

heddwch
G

http://gritandglimmer.com/blue-bucket-gratitude/

give that a read

Okay - so i guess I was only a few minutes from the ending. I mistook the scroll bar for representing the whole article and didn't check to realize that the comments went on for a good bit.

The ending isn't so bad. I hope Floyd can find contentment.

My ride home was pretty decent. Some sections weren't plowed very well if at all and this snow, when packed, is wicked shifty and it flat out is a challenge to ride on. There was a hell of a lot of two wheel drifting. Yes even with the studded tires.

But I have to say it is pretty exhausting to ride in that stuff. Fun and all that, but it takes way more watts than normal. Good. But frustrating in a way. Would be great if it was this hard to ride to work say in august.

It is what it is.

Dog is pacing back and forth wondering why i'm not feeding her. HELLO you eat at 5:30 or 6... but She's got other ideas tonight.

I suppose I should feed her and start working on dinner for the other girls.

heddwch
G

I rode in to work today.

It was a f'n blast. And a parking lot for those in the polluting steel cages.

Time to head home. My clothes are dry. People around here have vacated and I hear a plow truck caught fire and started exploding and what not over by the Hospitals, no way am I headed down the gauntlet to the remote facility.

I'm going to head down on my wicked low traffic sneaky route through the city, across the lonely and bumpy Washington bridge to a hopefully decently (well has been pretty consistently the best cleared stretch of road anywhere) plowed Veterans Parkway. It is easy to keep clear because there are no cross streets and only roads that T into it from the left (as I'm heading home) and the plows make a long easy sweep and have been good about keeping the berm all the way to the curb.

We'll see how it is this afternoon.

I was honestly hoping that the loop in the radar showing clear stuff would move overhead. But i's been staying over Norwich/Plainfield and not heading this way. Meanwhile the blue to red on the radar keep trading places and the line moves from south of the house to north of the city. The sleet's going to make it interesting.

I did have a chance to read the first 2/3s of the Landis interview over lunch finally. HOLY SHIT. Wow. But then, it sounds logical and completely believable. And the first thoughts were, Hey Monsanto=UCI or maybe it is Monsanto=Pharmstrong.

Sad.

truth, honesty, doing the right thing... don't matter so much to far too many people... and then when you're ass deep into your own manipulated lies, the shit starts smelling good... sigh - those are from the hip comments, unfiltered...

sigh

kind of depressing

okay - not kind of - really depressing

Time to hit the snow time to have some fun riding home.