Check out what Kerry's written about it.

She has some pretty good points.  Anyone remember watching the women attempt it at MRC last year?  How about the giant clusterfuck first time over it at Ice Weasels?  No Flyover and RMM doesn't look like a giant spazz losing minutes because everyone packed into each other.

I just hope it comes WAY late in the course, well after a good number of bottle necks to spread the field out.

Steven's is a mad genius at times and other just flat out full baller nutter (esp when it comes to Crossresults.com ranking - at least as of last year).  Hell we are all quirky.

I went through everything already.  Add the wet.  Toe spikes are required for muddy run ups, hell that loamy earth even when the rest of the course was dry was not affording much grip w/o them.  Toe spikes on wooden steps?  Not just the Steven's steps held in with 2x2 stakes, talking full on constructed wood.  Wicked cool and all.  Neat.  Maybe could be helpful in making the course new and unique, but also a solid recipe for disaster.

I'm very curious about what I will find when I arrive there tomorrow morning.  Excited, anxious...  all of it.  Bring on the racing pain and the fun and challenge.

Today is Christmas Eve (if you open presents on the 25th not the 24th for some reason if you open them on the 24th then today is like the 23rd) for New England Cyclocross fanatics.

Tomorrow is Christmas, New Year's Eve, Easter, Valentines day and Fourth of July wrapped into one weekend.

Aka Daytona 500.  Often called New England Worlds, it is pretty close to that.

We've got an international field.  Sure, no Nys or Stybar or those other monsters but hey, we go to watch our friends get destroyed by the course.

I have a feeling that it is going to be so much less of a grass crit this year that people will actually kind of wish for the old days of power riding and going fast.  Some people will.

Here's the list of rumors:

Flyover (look in between the dude with the goggles and the hood of Steven's truck - or here over the thumb)
Steven's Stairs
Barriers
Crazy sea wall run up
Sand Pit*
Hell that's quite a bit esp since most years the sand pit is packed like concrete.

AND it is supposed to rain.

Is this going to be insane or what?

Prep?  For that? What do you do.  Sort of like realizing the final exam isn't just covering the material from the last test but from the whole year...  the day before the test.  Ooops.

This is going to be completely f'n nuts with 110 35+ dudes.  Going to be some crazy first few laps. Oh to have the legs and points to start up front.  Going to be a mental challenge.  Go hard, don't blow up, don't fuck up, pedal to the end.  Destroy the legs where I can pedal and only be douchy in the corners with Nick and Jerry.

Made a bit of breakfast this morning.  Figured I should eat.  Why not.  My brother's stopped by yesterday afternoon following the hospital adventure (no big deal it turned out) and dropped off a mostly empty 12 pack of Harpoon IPA.  And well, you know what?  I had to have a couple.  This week has been, almost, a wash as far as training goes.  Close to the point where I could retroactively call it a rest week.  But I seem to have too many of those lately.

Life is supposed to settle down into a routine.  Yeah.  So much for that.  Sick days galore with all the doctors and dentists and what not these last three weeks.  Training?  Huh?  Who has time for that?  Mid-week racing? Yeah right.

What did GeWilli eat for breakfast? Coffee.  Hah

no actually I did eat more than that.  sauteed a bit of onion and some mushrooms in some butter and olive oil with one habanero pepper (seeds removed because they were funky and black).
Added some rice, napa cabbage, radish greens, hoisin sauce, shoyu sauce and two eggs.

Looked pretty much like dog puke.  Even I was slightly put off by the appearance (needed more bright red peppers or something, ah shit, should have put a pile of turmeric in there -damnit - i knew i forgot more than just the garlic).

BUT it tasted not so bad.

Wound up riding with Tatar on the way in this morning.  Solid case of half-wheeling each other.  We just kept ramping the pace up until we were doing 23mph and talking...  my heart rate was slowly climbing to 150 after a couple miles and with both remarked that we planned to ride in easily...  oh shit, neither of us really intended to half-wheel and we ain't newbies.  But talking about Gloucester has a strange influence.

Of course we had to race up the hill to the parkway...  got the HR to the max and kept it in Zone 5 until we hit the down hill.  legs felt better than lungs, but now legs are feeling it.  either way - calling it a great opener for this weekend.

Broke down and just grabbed the 47s off the shelf at the shop.  There's these nice orange Bontrager RL shoes there.  Not the fancy XLs or anything, the cheap ones.  But those old specialized shoes are dead after two years of CX and two years of commuting.  The toe spikes are frozen in there and worn down to nothing.  Can't even fathom the Sea Wall Scramble w/o spikes.  Taking the eSoles out and replacing it with the ancient Sidi insoles that have migrated from my 1996 Dominators did wonders for fit.  Toe box and shoe volume is still a bit roomier than i would like and the ratchet is at or near the limit but wow.  The difference is way more than I realized.  Those old shoes probably were robbing me of 100 watts (kidding).  And well, if the LGs actually ever show up I will have two pairs of shoes to go back and forth with.  And the orange detail matches the road kit for bonus points.

All over the place today huh.

What the HELL is Boudreau using THIS for?

This weekend is going to be

off

the

hook

See you there.  And yes.  Big Orange will be in effect.  If anyone has a line on an orange skinsuit let me know, warming up in that would be easier than the coveralls.

heddwch
G

Ghillie Suit.... and a dollar dollar dollar is what i need...



Thanks for the link @JoachimParbo

Food, cook it up, it is good.  Soothing.  Mellow.  Like wrenching bikes or trouble shooting microscopes.

Roast 1 Anaheim Chili, 1 Poblano, 1 red pepper.

1/2 a big onion

some ground beef

pinto beans (soaked over night with some Kombu - then cooked for a bit with the kombu in fresh water until being mixed into the chili).

1 can of crushed tomatoes

a pile of fresh ground cumin, and another pile of ground chili (not chili powder), dash of cinnamon, and cocoa powder.

some salt

and a handful of cloves of fresh garlic pressed into the chili.

let it all simmer (put all the stuff in the right order)

oh and some corn (frozen works if you don't have any ears laying around)

when the beans are soft, or to desired tenderness, eat.

To add to everything...  Yehuda Moon is finished.

That's kinda sucky.  I read two comics.  Frazz and Yehuda Moon.  Now I read one.

motivation no where to be found. legs actually decently rested, good night sleep but the head isn't in it.

planned to do the sprint intervals today and twenties tomorrow.

that didn't happen.

oh well.

The Midnight Ride CX race is going to be off the hook insane.  For about 2 min I thought about single speeding the bike and making the haul.  But yeah, that's not going to happen.

The ride in this morning started off pretty mellow, then a colleague caught me and I upped the tempo.  He was going pretty good and I was feeling good and still keeping the HR down in Z1 at 18-20mph on the 300# fendered croll.  I allowed myself to match his pace up the one little rise and recovered well.  Physiologically I think I am actually recovered and ready for training.  Mentally?  Nope.  Not even close.

Oh well.

Somethings never change.

As a meal plan anyway.  If you are okay with globs of trans-fat and sugar Little Debbies are probably pretty cheap eats but a meal they do not make (talk about heart disease in a plastic wrapper - even if you are a healthy individual with a Body Fat % down in the singles)...

Mark Bittman has a great article up today

So many good points.  The core problem about how cooking is stressful is somewhat sad.  it can be stressful, but most of the stress is in just figuring out WHAT to cook.

Part of my week that I spent way to much time waiting in an office/lounge I picked up some of those magazines, Real Simple or Parenting or heck I don't remember what.  I did manage to read most of the New Yorker Article on Jock and the Rwanda cycling team so it wasn't all food.  But one "helpful tip" was to have the same breakfast every day.  Seriously?  Why not have the same dinner every night?  How about the same lunch every day?  Why bother with diversity...  The tip's logic was doing the same thing reduced the stress and thought when you are just waking up.  And yes, skim milk with a high protein cereal (still cereal) was one of their suggestions.  I'd say if you're going to have the same thing every morning go with a hard boiled egg (make a weeks worth some time while you're screwing around on the internet or watching TV some time during the weekend).  They are easy.  Put them in a non-reactive pan, cover with cold water.  Bring to a boil.  Once boiling turn the heat off and set the timer for 12 minutes.  Rinse em with cold water and stick em in the fridge.  Peel and eat.  Done.  No thought, simple.  Cheap.

Another super simple breakfast that takes no time and if you're cooking for one or two makes some left overs for a day or two.

Before going to bed, get your pot out, put 3 cups of water in with a dash of salt and bring to a boil.  Once boiling dump 1 cup of steel cut oats in there, and once it is back at a rolling boil, turn the heat off, cover and go to sleep.  In the morning you will have perfectly cooked oats.  Turn the heat on the burner for a couple minutes to warm it up and serve with whatever you normally do.  (Yogurt, frozen blueberries, cinnamon, and a dash of sugar if it is race day for me).  Pop the rest in a container (or pop what you aren't going to eat in the container before you re-heat it to speed the re-heat process) and eat it later.  Microwave it if ya want less thought.

Simple.  Easy.  Once you empty the pot stick it in the sink full of cold water, when you come home from work, 2 minutes with the sponge and it is clean.  Yes it does mean leaving a pot in the sink for the day, but that shouldn't be a stretch.  And it is all about making it easier.

The article has some great points.  I'd suggest reading it.  The last paragraph in the Bittman piece today puts into words into my actions as of late.

What’s easier is to cook at every opportunity, to demonstrate to family and neighbors that the real way is the better way.  

Cooking is fun, it doesn't have to be crazy complicated to be good.  It doesn't even have to be organic.  Obviously that's the ultimate goal (as he says) grass-fed beef and locally grown potatoes, but if you can start with plain old beef and whole potatoes, well that's a huge departure from the fast food chains.  Get your friends and family to do the same if they don't.  Baby steps are the easiest.  Slowly replace one packaged Item with one you make from scratch once a month maybe.  Slowly, until you're overwhelming preparing everything yourself.  If I can find the time...

heddwch
G

One race kicked my ass.  Or maybe it was just the heat.  Nick set up a great course, total New England Jungle cross complete with roots, rocks, buckets of turns and solid cyclocross features.  It didn't have the flow for me that Quad cross did.  I think maybe the reason was Quad had a decent mix of power sections between the technical stuff, this seemed a bit biased or split. power on one half and technical on the other.
I had trouble doing the whole power and ride technical lines (lack of mt biking probably).

I should have finished a bit better but I was a touch tired from the week and seem to be slightly stuffed up and kind of messed up the race day eating.  Not enough to fully explain it all but wow it kicked my BUTT!

So hot. The humidity was insane and the temps were high.  It's 80 right now down here.  I started off with the glasses on, but they were fogging up after two laps and I ditched them at the S/F line.  It helped at the start in the pack but after that they weren't needed and i was raining sweat from my helmet all over the bike.  So hot.

I don't think a short sleeve skinsuit would have helped, the course was slow in enough sections with that level of humidity it was hard to get enough cooling.

No crashes, no mechanicals but hopefully my new shoes get here before G-ster and the monster run up because i'm just slipping out of them on the run ups.

Drive wasn't really all that bad and other than a possible tire vibration the car functioned quite well.

Time to clean up...  the bike first maybe then me.

So tired. And as much as I want to punch nick in the balls for a brutal course that didn't suit me very well, it was a great race.  Good venue and while we could have stood maybe another 10 guys in the field, over all the attendance worked perfectly with the park and the parking.

All good.

Next up, Gloucester.

heddwch
G

I haven't really had many this year to be honest.  It has been dry on the bike mostly.

Tonight it was wet.  It was dark, but it was not cold.

And it was AWESOME!

Felt so good on the bike tonight, saw a frog (almost squished it), and a snake.  I scared something that made a big hissing noise in the bushes at me.  And a rabbit tried to run in front of me but then managed to turn and run parallel until veering off and back into the scrub.

Great night on the bike.

Tomorrow early I'm loading up the race wagon and heading north on 93 to Concord.  Going to race just once this weekend.  Just how the cards were dealt.  G'ster will be both days and then Providence.  Not sure I can swing the Wed Night races sadly.

And I probably should sit down and look at the rest of the season.

See those of you there.  Going to be wet.  And wet.  lets see what kind of mud they have at White Park.  I really hope it is compatible with the racing ralph tubulars.

heddwch
G

Or I should say 'MY' brain.

VT weekend was a telling contrast.  Day 1 with people, or people in sight.  I still got passed by a couple in the end but I was pushing well beyond what I was doing Day 2 when post crash I wound up in no mans land, with no visual motivation.  No one to chase or follow through the corners and no one behind, poof, my brain said - hah no way we can catch anyone, lets just pedal around and lose 3-4 minutes in two laps.

Article

Starting faster than is prudent in a TT actually seems to be good for me, puts me up where I mentally push myself.  But the back of the grid full of the fastest guys over 35 not doing the Elite race, well it is daunting.

Gotta go back to Dave V's words from this summer.  "You don't Suck."  No, I don't suck and I am going to work harder at sucking less.  Dog Gammit.

Gonna give it a try Saturday.  There are lots of people who are headed to Burlington but I can't do that two weekends in a row.  2 hours is going to be tough but at least a 10am start means I can get back at a reasonable time.

Can't swing both days this weekend.  And Suckerbrook really isn't much closer, although everyone will be there I've made the tough choice to race Saturday.  That and I've been asked to cover for one of the guys at the shop on Sunday.  So.  It is tough to miss this year's edition of Jack and Justin's race but it looks like they've got quite a full registration.

heddwch
G

http://newenglandbuildersball.com/

Be there.  Firefly says there will be a big surprise for those who are attending.

Check the builder list.  Hot shot builder Mikey Z! will be there.  As will the local boys from Circle A Cycles.

Friday night.  8-10pm is kind a late for us old racer types but maybe you'll catch a few old f'kers there.

That was the meter for the ride in...  I know I've posted it before, but that fan noise there, the percussion along with the banjo...  maybe my chain was making an allusion to that sound this morning.  I had meant to post it earlier today, but not until riding home did it click again and I started singing the song.

"Get your self a sweet Madonna..."

Goosebumps man.  Goosebumps.

Holy smokes.  I disliked day two's course very much.  The lines were easy enough to figure out, but I just wasn't able to let my brain let me go down hill fast enough.

You'd think that one of the biggest guys, at least the tallest, would have no problem going down the hill as fast as the little guys.  Well it didn't work out so well.  I still prefer to go up hill than down.

Short version of Saturday's race:

Pre-rode the hell out of it.  Figured it out.  Didn't figure on how fast I would have to go down the hill though.

Lined up basically last row. Far outside.  Sullivan lines up next to me.  We trade spots.  I give him the far outside lane.

Frank McCormack lined up 50 yards behind everyone (and still finished well into the points). Shawn McC was on the other side of the row from me and Sully.  GCDavid was NOT right in front of me.

Whistle blew, Sully blasts out as soon as we are outside the snow fence but there was a guy bouncing off people and carreening off to the left once out of the shoot.  I missed him somehow and just dug down and pedaled.

Got in line and motored and there was sully all curled up around a stake.  "shit."  that didn't last long.  0/2 for the weekend.  I had no idea he got another ride in a meat wagon.  Busted collarbone.  Again.

So first lap went fine.  In control, following lines.  It was okay.  Mostly.  Not too far in the red but it wasn't coming easily.  So second time past the rockledge downhill a gap opened (maybe it was the 3rd time) I dunno. I had put Nick and his gaggle of friends around him in the back.  Closed the door on them and was moving in on the next gang, hauling ass across the start stretch (if you stayed in the grass it was faster, the mud was wicked slow) flew around the 's' turn into the wide sweeper to the right there in the field.  Hauling fucking ass and loving every second, making up time on who ever that Corner Cycle guy was that lined up back there with us.

And then my rear wheel caught a hidden zipper, that little skinny track, and I was in a power slide and then totally out of control, 'fuck, i was going down' shit...  and boom.  Down I went. hit hard and rolled a bit.  Got up, walked back to the bike as Nick and the guys he was with rode past me.  Collected the bike, it was fine.  I was slightly scraped (crashing on damp grass isn't the worst thing in the world) but fine.  Helps i guess to know how to crash.  Being that far away from the ground gives you plenty of time to plan the landing.  Sometimes.  This was one of those times.

But with the crash, the group I was chasing was gone.  Nick's group was gone.  And I was left to pick up the pieces and along came Shawn.  And I rode with him for a while.  Closing the gap everytime it went up, and getting gapped every time it went down.  ratio of up to down was not good for me compared to the day before.

So even mailing it in for the last 2-3 laps (basically) I still finished better than years past.  And even with the crash no chance of getting lapped.  Another nice change.  All positive.  Other than letting the crash screw up my game a bit. Shawn eventually put so much time into me on that long downhill that I was riding alone.  And I don't race well alone.  It kind of sucked.

Day 1 course was much better (for me).  Maybe some day i'll figure out how to ride the damn bike with stuff like that.  Give me hard punchy leg bursting short climbs and flowy stuff where speed doesn't get wildly out of control or hell i don't know.  What I do know is I seem to be going significantly better this year.

Next couple races will tell.

Those 303CX wheels are f'n awesome though.

I have finished a whole pot of coffee and it isn't even 1pm yet.  This afternoon is going to be brutal. BRUTAL.

I should put the weekend down in a saga form and maybe I will, but then again, maybe I won't  I did get a better night sleep at G-ride's compound but still it was a very interrupted and not great night sleep.  One of these times I'll figure out how to actually get some rest.  Solid weekend of racing and ripping legs off.

Time to recover and not do anything stupid until I am.

heddwch
G

that race was brutal.'

i didn't think they could make more climbing per lap than previous years...  but they did.  they did.

too tired to write much... when Frank McCormack came flying past on the 3rd lap he bridged to the group of Jerry, Gary and Wade and suddenly Wade turned it on and those guys weren't one turn ahead anymore.

It hurt.  The results though. 41/48 finishers with 50 starters isn't much of an improvement but, i was only 6:33 down and the laps were LOOOOONG.

Last year I was the last guy on the lead lap in 46th, today i finished 41st.  A few more people today and while it looks like the leaders finished in nearly the same time as last year I was way way faster.  And I swear there was more climbing, like 2x more climbing.  Even the winner thought it was way harder and more climbing.  It was brutal.

Legs are cooked, it was ridiculously hard.  Live results are super cool. Pretty kick ass that those with a smart phone (team mates) were checking results from the parking lot after a cool down ride.

props colin and JD.

time to be less anti-social.

legs

sore

heddwch
G

Big Orange is headed north tomorrow morning in the Geek mobile. (hitching a ride seems to be working okay).

Didn't quite make it all the way to the full 20 min TT effort this morning.  The trainer already busted one weld.  This one, well this one is more terminal. No wooden bracket will stabilize it enough to pedal.  Here's to hoping we can find an engineer with a welding torch that can make it right again. Would kind of be a pain to not have a trainer for the whole season.

The effort was a bit odd.  Got a decent warm up (10min) but HR was wicked low to start off with and then I pegged the speed at where I've been trying to hold it (this old unit has more resistance than the newer ones it seems, which is good for a CX bike and the shorter gearing). But I'd have to borrow a powertap to be certain or to at least calibrate this unit.  Plenty of Fluid2 power curves are online but not for this one.

Either way about 5 min into the 20 min effort I was completely drenched with sweat.  Yeah yeah doing a trainer interval outside when it is 75 F is maybe kind of insane, but, well I wanted to do it on the CX bike and I only have one set of wheels with the firecrest width and braking track angle.  HR stayed low, until about 5 to go, then the blood started pumping.  I guess maybe I need more than 10 min in the morning unless I have more coffee and sleep to get the HR up from the start.  Either way the legs were torched and I couldn't have gone any faster.

Every 5-8 minutes I would stand up to boost the speed and change the muscle recruitment, and then with 1:30 to go I stood up to just use ever last mg of glycogen in the legs (and the rest of me, i was wicked dizzy and twitchy when finished).

Pop 19:58 on the interval and the bike got wiggly. The rear weld there let go.  I tried to soft pedal to cool down but after 2 min of holding onto the table to keep everything steady I gave up and headed to the showers. Taking the bike off well, that was a problem. Unclamping busted the other side off. Oops.

At least it waited until I was finished with that interval.  It is an old system but the fluid unit is still working *knocking on wood* and has more resistance than the newer ones.  And it is paid for.  Maybe I can get it welded up for a bottle of Sailor Jerry.  If not? Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

It got me thinking about warm ups and what maybe the best approach will be for this weekend.  The almost three laps I managed to sneak in before the noon race were great, really hard openers on the course following and catching people.  I got the HR up but not too much and got a good feel for the awesome course.  Vermont.  What will Vermont bring.

The 1pm start time on Saturday will feel a lot like Quad, and hopefully getting there with time to get Burke ready to race will afford me a good pacing for both seeing the course and also warming up. The problem with the length of the typical/historical course is that you can't get very many laps in between races.  Maybe one sometimes.  That isn't a big deal on a familiar course and with a 40 min race going off before the 45+ dudes there should be time to get two laps in.  We'll see what happens though.  But based on this morning 10 min spinning on the trainer just isn't enough.  10 min futzing around followed by 15 min of hitting the course at speed actually should be about right.  Trainer? Who needs a stinking trainer.  Other than to do intervals and warm up under the tent if it is raining.

And the weather is looking okay for the weekend (right now).  Maybe a bit warm.  But hell I was sweating on Sunday but nothing like this morning.   I can survive another hot weekend, maybe.  Surviving a night at the compound?  I should practice sleeping with ear plugs in...

Cyclocross season, underway.  Oh and Geo had a killer observation about me and the flat tire:
       "There was no cloud of negativity for which the flat might become a lighting rod"
Truth.  I was having a blast.  Oh well.  And the thought wasn't 'oh that is going to suck too much to run to the pit with 2 to go." it was "No way I want to screwup someone else's race, this was good enough."

To be honest I'm contemplating putting the HRM on the bike for CX if just to try it out and see if it helps me push harder at all, keep focus and what not.  Definitely need to start more aggressively than I did on sunday.  Tail-gunning for 1/2 a lap is a sure fire way of slipping a few spots at the finish.  The argument has been made in the past that you will finish where you finish no matter the start position and if you start slow you have more for later.  Back and forth on that a bit still. I can see the logic on both sides.  I guess the goal is to go hard enough to get to where you are comfortably killing yourself but not so hard you destroy any last lap power.  Seems pretty mater of fact put like that.  And not really a razor sharp edge.  Pretty broad.

Can't wait for this weekend.

heddwch
G

So a while back Ted King created a make it work Breakfast Oatmeal+Muesli Pancake.

I tried it.  Wicked eggy.  But I didn't use a gallon of maple syrup.  But it did give me an idea.

I made it a couple times for myself for breakfast.  And then once for my daughter.  She didn't like the eggyness and you know everything is about finding the balance.  If they don't like it, well they won't eat it.

We do pancakes in the house quite a bit.  the same one who didn't like this has also started making pancakes and she's gotten pretty competent.

But teaching her i realize how much goes into making them that I take for granted.  Texture, consistency, needs more of this, more of that reasoning why it is critical to measure somethings precisely and others not so much.

Bigger issue with making a batch of pancakes is even if you cook half a batch, well it takes time.

Doing this Ted King Skillet Cake is quick, simple and good.

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/3 cup whole milk (yes, milk, whole homogenized cows milk, experiment with others at your own risk)
dash of salt (1/8 tsp maybe less)
1/3 cup organic whole wheat flour
1 tsp Bob's Red Mill ground flax meal
1 tbsp quick cooking organic rolled oats
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp melted organic unsalted butter

Put pan on med to med-low heat to warm up (i use a 8-10" all clad stainless skillet for this).

Beat egg and milk together with the salt.

Add flour, flax, oats, baking soda and powder.  Add all these w/o mixing until the last one is in there.

Mix just enough so there are no lumps.  Then put just a bit more than 1 tbsp of butter in the pan to melt it.  Then pour the melted stuff into the batter, mix.

Now: Add frozen blueberries, chocolate chips, nuts, fruit, anything fruity/nutty/chocolately that you want but they should be cut small enough that they allow the batter to do its thing and not turn into a big jumble.  Mix the additives in and pour the mix into the pan.

Let it cook until the edges are dry and the center is bubbled.  Flip, finish cooking and then pop onto a plate, drizzle with some maple syrup and eat.

serves 1.

Takes almost no time at all to make.  Esp with practice.

Stick it in the breakfast rotation.

And always: Eat Good Food.

heddwch
G

New CX teammate nick found this little nugget this afternoon.  Why?  I have no idea, not sure I'm appreciative or not.

It is good info.  Solid.  And of course just dumping it into FB creates a nice instant reaction.  Good bad and indifferent.

Suggestions that skim milk and frosted flakes can't be worse than the guy who has a Mt Dew and a cigarette for breakfast.  I'm not sure there is a difference.  Even if the skim milk and the frosted flakes are organic and made from all the most special processes.

A not insignificant part of the benefit of drinking organic milk comes from the balance of fats in the milk.  They are just better for you (the lipid profile in organic milk that is).

So the link.   The obvious choice is to just skip the milk altogether.  And for good reason.

But if for some insane reason you actually need to purchase milk, buy the whole stuff, or the stuff with the cream on top, or be very selective and only drink raw milk.

There are levels of stuff.

I was thinking about this riding in this morning.

Nothing is black and white.

There is always something better, worse and in between.  When I make a blanket statement like 'NOTHING is worse for you than skim milk and frosted flakes."  Well that certainly isn't completely true.  And it bothers certain people to no end.

There may not be a problem getting enough saturated fat in the american diet, but quality saturated fats? More than likely yes there is.

It is undeniable that low fat products seem to sell more than full fat versions.  Just look at the shelves at the super market.  Take the yogurts for example.  Look at the ratio between whole milk/lowfat and non-fat on the shelf.  That's a solid indicator of the fat consumption of the nation.  And that's among those who eat "healthy."  Because we all know only healthy people eat yogurt.

Heck look at the milk.  Not at a wholefoods with pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) organic milks but at a regular old national chain.  Ratio of skim/2%/whole.  Check it.  Or sour creams.

Dairy products are a great place to start but what else do people get fats from?  Oh.  ground meats.  lets get some of that jenny-o 99% fat free ground turkey.  Yeah that's good for you.  Put it on a fat free bun with some lettuce and a tomato.  Perfect.

Lets cook with less oil.  Here's a frying pan that you don't need any oil to cook with.

Damn i'm getting away from myself.

I wish I could remember the clever flow I had this morning on the bike.  It will come back to me at the most inopportune moment.

Go for the no replacementism. instead of veganism or something else.

And if you really actually like to drink milk.  Try an experiment.  Don't drink it for a month.  And then taste it and see if you still like it.  Most people will not.  It is not a flavor we are hard wired from birth to seek out.  Unlike fat and sugar.

Like Cereal, once in a while is fine and isn't going to do damage.  It is the routine consumption, the daily, more frequently than that issues that come up.

part of me wants to have the motivation and the focus to do what others have done but from my perspective,. write a book.  compile my own primary sources have full citations for my 'feelings' 'statements' and what not.

If you aren't hungry during the day at more than a few points, you are eating too much.  Variety is key.  Seek it out.

Spend time cooking.  Not just for dinner.

Ted King skillet cakes coming up to add to the breakfast mix that you make for yourself or others.

I would challenge anyone who is doubting this to go three weeks without cold cereal and milk (or milk substitute).  See what happens.  After three weeks add in one day with cold cereal again.  See how ya feel on that day verses another.  I don't expect anyone to take the challenge but if you do, you will see a difference as long as you don't replace the cold cereal with a dunkin donuts bagel/donut and double double hot/iced.  And don't forget, veggies are for breakfast too.

My brain hurts - this probably sounds like a f'n disaster.  esp since i've been chattering on this topic on FB and G+ in various posts/circles/threads.  Oh well.  Some day I'll actually write it for real.  And with an editor it might actually be readable.

heddwch
G

Quad Cross kicked off the season for me.  Race #1.  And yeah lets cut right to the chase.  I didn't finish. And to add insult to humiliation, they made sure I was scored in the results as DNF'ing.

But before my race was over with less than 2 laps to go, there was a bit happening well before that.  Quite a bit.

Heck back up to 6pm on Saturday night and I didn't have the bike ready to go.  Honestly though what that meant was the new wheels were not put on and brake pads needed to be changed and adjusted, cassette swapped over and a Plant Bike Superflash Turbo tail light needed to be removed.  So I go to put the cassette on and realize i didn't check the directional arrows on the tubulars. Not so big deal on the front but the rear? All well and good, I got lucky.  Tires went on the right direction.  Phew.

Bike actually went together pretty cleanly.  It wasn't in bad shape really.  Brakes worked if a bit loud.  But what the hell it worked.

And I sort of even managed to get a good night sleep after the day's events.

Woke up feeling not horrible.  And this time at 5:45 I stayed awake.  The dog went right back to sleep after eating.  Coffee.  Made some Bob's Red Mill 10 grain hot cereal.  Only problem? It was too early and I was too tired to measure out 3 cups of water using a 2 cup measuring device. seems i just filled it up twice and thought "that looks like a lot of water" and set it about boiling.  Then adding one cup of the grains and letting it cook still left a bit of water in there.  Damn.  Handful of quick cooking oats in on top and it was actually pretty freaking good.  Gotta provide fuel for the engine.  I don't care if you do the tests or not, CX is by far a glucose/glycogen burning exercise unless you are doing it wrong.  You can't race at your best w/o some good quality complex carbohydrates in the pre-fuel window (3-6hrs prior).  With the late start and everything being ready to go I even had time to make some more Ted King Cakes for the oldest.  The first time I made them for here they were a bit eggy, so this time we experimented and got it down to a single egg and stuff to make a pretty damn good single fluffy pancake.  Recipe to come at some point.  Takes about 2 minutes maybe to make the pancake from scratch and makes a full serving for an active 11 year old.  Simple enough for her to make now that we have the ratios down.  Cooks pretty quickly too.  Flip once and eat.  So good.

Anyway.  I knew eating even a big pile of hot grains (i actually added a bunch of butter and brown sugar and cinnamon in my bowl) I would need something else.

So I popped some oil in the small pan, sauteed some onions and green pepper with turmeric, cayenne pepper, black pepper, garlic cheese and a couple eggs.  And made a pair of burritos to be eaten at 10am.  Unfortunately I didn't quite eat em until 10:20 or so.  A bit late. And I was going to just eat one but good god they tasted so good I had to eat both in the car on the way up.

Now I did manage to get out on time, mostly because I was meeting Bo Fuller to drive up together.  We too his mini-max, he said, "My car sounds better."  True dat.  Rusty race wagon was parked at the shop and we piled into the mini.  My gear bag, tool bag, skinny white dude's tires, tubes and valve extenders too.  And me.  Loads of room in those cars.  Pretty nice, very comfortable and probably more relaxing than driving the anxiety mobile.

Good drive up chatting with Bo.  Got there and it took forever to get from the car (we parked near Greg Z and Skinny and then Mark G pulled in on the other side wearing his nice black kit) to registration.  So good to see everyone.  The Women and the kids were on the course at the same time and I witnessed a handful of huge issues, putting the kids after the 3/4 field is one thing.  Putting them with Mo and Rebecca and Anna and Guilia is something totally different.  Little Savage seemed to handle it in stride.

Some how I managed to make it back to the car, pin the number on, and get on the course to get nearly three laps in on the course before the start of the Sandbagger race.  Lead prominently by team mates Nate Morse and Chandler CycloWHAT Delinks. So we just managed to screw around and talk and then wound up politely staging outside the start grid with the rest of the masters.  We all were given numbers based on crossresults.  But Bill Dolan isn't so much a fan of the hassle of staging people and he said - lets get this going.  People hesitated but when he said it is up to the promoter to be there to make sure staging goes properly, well 'we' all crowded to the front of the grid.  Hey cool.  Back row.  Sweet.

Oh well.  Front row would have been preferable in this 42 person field.  Esp with the 45+ dudes bearing down on us 60 seconds later.  That's cool.  I'll just pass people.

And that's what I did.  But not until the long downhill stretch.  And then I only got in front of one or two maybe.  Right off the start though I nailed the rail-road tie there before the finish line.  I'd Pre-ridden in the middle, and I was wide right.  Thunk Thunk.  Shit that was hard and unexpected.  Oh well.

In pre-ride I rode that hill with the little splinter maker at the bottom.  Every. Time.  And in the race? Even way way in the back, I rode that fucker. EVERY. TIME!  And it was awesome.  Some dude dismounted a few laps from the end I was riding up on his wheel and full on GeWilli top of the lungs blast yelled at him "RUN FOREST RUN" and flew past him.

The Wheels were fucking awesome.  Awesome in that I didn't think about them, and awesome in that they held up to all the fucking rocks on the course.  Rear tire? Not so much.  About 1/2 way through I noticed i was squishing in a few corners and thunking on stuff I wasn't at the beginning of the race.  Oh well, I just kept railing.

Bonus starting in the rear? No pressure.  Okay tons of pressure actually but not mentally.  I was fired up to just pass and pass.  And that's what I did.  I think I was going to easily honestly.  Everytime I drilled it through one of the hard sections I was recovered before the next hard section. Never felt at a limit.  Mostly limit of traffic and the people in front of me.  Never alone.  And that was fucking awesome.  Coming through the finish seeing 2 to go and sitting w/in striking distance of Chabot and feeling awesome I was starting to salivate for the kill.  I was hauling ass in the grass section and the barriers? ONE FOOT DOWN IN THE MIDDLE and running to the top of the hill, remount, left foot outrigger then right sweeper and drive to the top and back down and hard core fly around past the start grid.  It was pretty awesome.  And Wicked fucking fun.

The course was brilliant.  Only detraction?  The big fucking rocks at the start of the two track and other places.  The roots are fine, but the rocks move around all over the place. I don't like that.  But hey I should have started with more pressure or with some fresh Doc Blue in the rear tire.

So here I was, tail-gunning past the pits, driving into the long downhill section, chill and relaxed and then CLUNK with the rear tire, "ooh that wasn't good" and by the time I hit this little dirt chicane in the middle of the downhill run the rear tire was completely flat. No. Air.  None.

Race over.  Done.

i was pretty damn far away from the pits.  And it wasn't open field between me and Mark and his neutral support magic.  it was nearly 100% single track.  With 2 to go, a very short lap and the prospect of fucking up someone's race with me trying to negotiate the trails, I turned around and walked back to the car.

Race over.  Done.

D
N
F

ugh.

But, you know what?  It is all good.  All good.  That race was so much fun before the flat that it couldn't deflate the joy of Cyclocross.  I definitely need to work on riding as hard as I do during a TT, and not letting up.  I'm recovering well enough that I should be able to go harder and faster (as always the mental game).  The bike felt dialed and natural. The wheels and tires hooked up.  But lets face it, you could almost have run road tires there and hooked up just fine.

I do wish I'd manage to finish.  I don't know if I could have gotten around Chabot but I think the chances were better than even for that to happen, even as douchey as he was riding.  Top 25 was w/in reach.  And that's huge for me.  And THAT is what I'm taking out of the weekend.

We headed back to the shop and I put some Doc Blue in there and what do you know, after a while of bubbling and hissing...  it stopped hissing.

And the tire is still holding air (or was this morning).

I left the trust steed at home with the race tires on it.  Took the Croll.  Wow is that thing long.  Way longer than the Giant was.  I need a 1" quill stem with a 25.4 clamp and 110 reach to match the position of the blue.

So in the whole process of unloading the crap and Bo checking in with Fast Freddie in the shop, I managed to leave the tool bag in his car, not to mention that despite telling skinny white dude that I had his tires with me, I neglected to actually take them out of the car and put them in his (there was one car between us).

I will hopefully re-unite with my tools and Skinny's tires tomorrow morning.

Maybe I'll even find my HRM before Wed Interval day.  School schedules are conspiring to keep me from organizing the skills clinic this week but hey - there's next week right?  Most of the people interested killed themselves at landmine yesterday so lets give them a week or two to lick their wounds and heal up before jumping on and off their bikes.

And yes. I am as skinny as I sound when I say I'm 190 this year.  Last year? I started the season at 207.  Yes.  That's a good bit of weight.  Nearly all of it Body fat.  I am almost as skinny as Perham. Oh btw, did ya know he's wicked ticklish?  don't ask me how i found out.  or ask me in person in VT.  I was really hoping that no one would notice I didn't finish.  Or at least the officials.  Nope.

Hell Mark McCormack noticed and as I was over there off the course he asked "What happened to you, Why didn't you finish?"  Damn.  I'm taking that in the positive light.  I'm not invisible out there.  And there were lots of people out there shouting encouragement.  It was awesome.  Someone even there in the Comics pit shouted "Nice Wheels."

Yes.  Those are some wicked fucking nice wheels.  Wicked fucking nice.

I had some far more clever write up planned but it got away from me I guess.

There is a chance I will try and go through the course and the race blow by blow but I don't know if I will do that.  I do need to flat out go a bit harder from the start, or get a better start, esp in VT.  But we have to get to the weekend in tact, rested and ready to go.

heddwch
G

The 2011 cyclocross season has kicked off.  In style.

The walk from the car to get the number and back took a LONG time.  And it was all good.  Seeing faces I hadn't in a long time was great. Really pretty amazing.

But lets back up a touch.  Quad Cross was race #2 for me this weekend.  If you can call Saturday's disaster a race, but since I paid some money, pinned a number on and the blue poloshirt folks were there, well it was a race.

Maybe back up further to Friday.  Not a race, no but to pick up where I left off (in the saga started in the web-log).  Did the dog let me sleep? No.  Did it matter? No.  For some reason it took forever to fall asleep and then  it was a fitful horrible night sleep. Woke up four or five times, and then the dog woke up on cue at 5:30 and I, being super smart, just said, "fine, lets get you some breakfast." And promptly went back to bed. For 90 minutes.

The bike prep for the Time Trial didn't really go off as planned.  The 66mm carbon clinchers were sold/delivered on Thursday leaving me scrambling for a wheelset.  I borrowed a teammate's Reynolds Assault carbon clinchers and while lighter and more aero than any other front wheel I had in commission and ready to race on the road they are a far cry from those strikes.  Pretty awesome wheels really.  Ah well. I've got some Zipp 303 CXs.  Talk about a dump truck full of awesome, those 303CXs are special beyond special.  The rear wheel from the set was laced up to a Powertap hub.  I was handed a head-unit with a dead battery to go with it, but my HR strap didn't work with and not having ridden with power the metric would be useless, and my wheel covers on my lighter spoked wheel was the same weight.  So I spent some time getting that thing on the bike and the bike race ready.  Meaning putting the bike computer on and pumping up the tires.

Saturday morning rolls around and I get out of bed for the second time.  And start making everyone breakfast. Me included. And then 7am turns into 8am and the next thing you know it is 8:45 and I haven't even started loading the car. Haven't even started gathering all my shit together for the race.  You know where this is going. Bye bye pre-ride.  Going to hit the course sort of blind, which is never a good thing in a Time Trial.  But 8:45 quickly slid to 9am and I couldn't find my HR chest strap anywhere.  Didn't seem to be at home.  WTF.  I must have left it at the shop or in the office (just cased the office - not there).  Shit.  I checked at the shop on Saturday but didn't see it.  Awesome.  Not that I need it for CX (would actually be helpful I think), but definitely need it for recovery and interval rides.  Yeah.  So by the time all my shit is packed into the rusty race wagon and I've given up on finding the HR chest strap it is 9:30 or so and I'm rolling out.

Get there with time to grab the number, slap some sunscreen on, suck down some more coffee, head out for a warm up couple rides.  And well I was not feeling great, but not terrible.  Zen Cycle was the only one there rocking equipment as old as mine.  except he was running a fixed gear.  But it was somewhat to be expected that all these old fast dudes would show up on some pretty fancy bikes, that or sign up for the EM class.  I had optimistic hopes of doing well.  And kept those hopes up until about mile 2.5. This was hard.  Trying to save something a bit but not too much and well.  It was what it was.  It was brutally hard.  Kept my 30 second guy in sight until just past the other school there at the old finish to the Bob Beal Circuit race (hill). By the time I hit the crest he was out of sight for the rest of the ride.  But it was downhill, and I pedaled.  But not super hard because pedaling to go over 35mph takes a lot of watts and I knew it wasn't flat coming up.  But it is also a longish downhill stretch.  Might have been better to pedal wicked hard through there anyway.  Guy Z caught me on Route 1 I think.  He was my 30 sec man. And I just kept him in sight to the finish.  It was very painful.  And coming down the hill only to look up at the tent at the top of an overpass like bridge/hill thing? Fuck me that was demoralizing.  At least I was going nice and slow so they were able to clearly read my number.

Rolled back.  Rode a good cool down for about 20 minutes, ate some food, drank a ton of water, ate a bit more food.  And waited for results.  And waited.  And waited.  Was good chatting with Ned C.  Good guy that Ned.  They were posted and I was 7th.  Out of something.  My time was good enough to finish one place in front of the Wee-bike Turk and I think finish just in front of the monster Solobreak.  Wild Bill Shattuck managed to grab the last hardware spot for 3rd in the 40-44 group but I couldn't tell you where anyone else finished.  I made a bee line to the car after Kyle Wolfe posted the results and headed north.  To the shop.  Where I then proceeded to stand around on concrete for 4 hours.  Perfect recovery/prep for CX.

But hey it hurt like crazy racing and I was going as hard as I possibly could and left it all out there and got a 33 minute all out effort.

Headed home, and started working on the CX bike.  At that point it was 6pm and I dinner wasn't started yet, and had not even begun to get the Blue Norcross EX  ready for racing.  The Zipp 303CX wheels were glued and ready to go though.

That's as far as we get here.  Quad Cross report to follow in a bit.

heddwch
G

I will reflect on the events today.  But I will not allow myself to let the emotions turn to hate.   I may allow myself to be angered by the lack of what seems to be defined peace in the conflicts that erroneously spurred from those events.  Conflicts fueled by hate and lies.  It is what it is and we each have a responsibility to change it.

HHDL's message today is quite poignant.

After Sept. 11, yearning for peaceful co-existence

September 11th 2011

Today, as we mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th 2001 attacks on New York and Washington DC, let us remember all the innocent lives lost and ponder the continuing impact of that tragic day. September 11th reminds us of the horror we human beings can unleash on ourselves when we allow our human intelligence and powerful technology to be overtaken by hatred.

We need to learn from our painful memories of September 11th and become more aware of the destructive consequences that arise when we give in to feelings of hatred. This tragedy in particular has reinforced my belief that fostering a spirit of peaceful co-existence and mutual understanding among the world’s peoples and faith traditions is an urgent matter of importance to us all. We must therefore make every effort to ensure that our various faith traditions contribute to build a more caring, peaceful world.

The Dalai Lama
September 9, 2011

Originally published in the Washington Post on September 10, 2011.

Link is here.

Than a dumptruck full of awesome!
Get a T-shirt. It benefits a good cause. But even if it goes in the pockets of a VT resident and calls it good, the T-Shirt is still pretty f'n awesome.

Get one already.

--

in other notes, tires are glued. One minor "issue" that I'm hoping isn't. Someone nixed the can of Mastic1 from the order, not that it would have made a difference, the flooding and weather have royally screwed up all the deliveries.  It wouldn't have arrived yet anyway. So I used a different brand of clear glue.  And quite a bit of it.  Took a bit of getting used to with the can.
At the moment I am definitely more a fan of the tube for gluing than I am of the can.  But the economics of the can are hard to argue with.  By the end of the process I got used to the can.

Hopefully the fresh new rim took to the glue...  They are setting up now.  I'll check em tomorrow after the TT.  Or maybe I won't bother and will just show up and hope they hold.

Sounds like the field is filling up for Sunday.  I've got my course notes all set for tomorrow, hopefully the dog lets me sleep past 5:30am.

Heddwch
G

Cross season can't start until Pro Football starts. The seasons overlap. Anything before this weekend (last night officially) was pre-season.

Quad Cross is looking to be the first big show.
The first 'real' race (they are all real this just seems to be opening salvo of the season) before Verge gets under way in Vermont. Hopefully I'll be gluing tires up soon and everything will come together decently. Pressure is mostly off. Just going to go have fun. We'll see where I wind up this year. We'll see who I'm racing this first race.

Nice little opening ride over lunch, blew some junk out of the legs and while not as conservative of a ride as I was hoping, I didn't go too badly. We'll see if the no riding over this week and the wicked light couple weeks earlier will be a good sign or not. See ya there,

-G

1 minute.

 The pressure!

OH THE PRESSURE.

 Man I hope I don't see Carrington until after I cross the finish line.

At least Murat's up front and Foley is no where to be seen. Potter? Damn Dave Potter is going to be breathing down my neck too. Lets see if I can remember all the cue notes from the last time I did the TT there. It looks like it begins with the old Bob Beal TT and then uses the circuit race to finish it all off.

YEARS ago and I mean back in the dark ages of everything (2006) my second race back after way too many years off (6-7) I managed to drop a 7:18 in the TT. Some "Wolfe" dude in full TT gear passed me (he was 30 sec behind) and beat me winning the age group with a 6:15. 3 miles IIRC. slight uphill/false flat the whole way.

Murat was in that race too (he beat me in the TT by 4 seconds). I just had the original spinaci bars on the Klein, and the Vector Pro wheels and standard helmet. Solobreak laid down a 6:39 that day FWIW.

This TT is a bit longer (12.8 miles) and I'm wondering if maybe we're using the last two miles of the original Bob Beal course. Not that it matters much. Notes on the course are made, going to have to suffice, maybe I can get down there early enough for a warm-up pre-ride. See those of you crazy enough to sign up for that torture there.

heddwch -G

I needed that:


Things turned pretty pear shaped, this afternoon, got worse and worse.

Then.

Soccer was cancelled, suddenly we weren't about to rush out the door in 10 minutes, and CycloWHAT suggested some time on the trainer to make it right again. Initially I blew it off, bad mood. Was just going to eat thirds of dinner because, god damn it, it tasted GOOOOOD! But something simmered there in the back and suddenly I was swapping the trainer wheel on the Blue, grabbing the iPod and stetting up in the back yard in the 65 degree drizzle and damp. Simple work out. Nothing fancy. But I pedaled my brains out, at the limit, for a long time. Well felt like a long time anyway. Then the cool down.

What a difference. Sort of. Still not sure how/when I'm going to get gluing (maybe I should be gluing instead of drinking water and writing). Hey the night is still young... ya never know. I can't prep the wheels (out of cleaner and prep and only two tubes of glue at the house) but I can at least get a start on the tires. I gave myself a good couple of blistered getting the old ones off. At least I have some confidence in my glue job, even if I don't have any confidence in anything else, esp myself.

There is only an hour left before the close of registration. 12.8 miles of pain. Join in the fun!

heddwch
G

The national accepted norm is to have a pile of sugar with enough protein to cause a solid spike in insulin.

Aka cold cereal out of a box with some milk. And no, there isn't a good cereal. Granola and Grape nuts get close but still no cigar.

The reasons it is bad to habitually consume these is the same reason it is good to take advantage of it if you are racing that day (bike racing, specifically for a race starting before noon).

Last night I made the same statement in two places. Both actually generated discussion and questions and "eh'splain yourself Lucy" kind of stuff.

Heck it even got me a "why don't you have a food blog? or do you? if not you should." comment.

Maybe I should. Maybe I will. Someday I suppose. Damn it, back to the MMB

So how did it start?

Want to be healthier?

No more cold cereal. Period.

Not even granola or grape-nuts are good for you. esp the milk.

make a difference in your life and cut that crap out.

but will you? probably not. It is marketing man - the marketing departments have you thinking it is good for you. it isn't. not for breakfast anyway. as an ice cream topper for desert? yeah, it works there. Oh wait...

On posting of that inflammatory suggestion i managed a follow up off the bat (okay so I posted it one place, went to second and wrote this while others jumped on the first):

Whole grains are fine. If you take the time to cook them and make the flavors your own (even if that means maple syrup and brown sugar) it is still much better for you than anything else out there pre-packaged. No quick oats don't count (unless they are bulk and just oats).

Cereal aisles are one of the highest subsidized shelf spaces in the grocery store. High dollar goes to eye catching placement. And marketing? Have you watched TV?

Turns out honey nut o's are good for you. They cure everything.

And hey, can't have any fat so load up with some skim milk and make sure you really crank that insulin and provide zero fuel (fat) that can go into the blood stream right away.

Doesn't work.

Recent good review "article/blog post": http://pedalingzen.blogspot.com/2011/08/fat-metabolism-for-better-health.html

anything but cold breakfast cereal in the morning, well almost anything - honestly a snicker's bar probably is better for you. or a peanut butter cookie.

Now of course it tumbled here and there with people like Parke and Marcus and Brent with a need to interject some humor. Funny, maybe. Annoying? Mostly.

I'm not sure I have had enough coffee yet, and it is too early to try and lubricate the neurons with booze, so the synthesis of the comments into one nice solid cohesive flow probably is beyond my capabilities at the moment. So I'm just going to break[fast] it down into Question/Comment and response.

DG - OK Beanpole, I'll try dropping the cereal. What would you recommend in its place? Yogurt? I hate oatmeal.
My reply:
how about an egg? quick one egg sandwich, super thin slice of uncured ham and an ounce of cheese (gets you your calcium w/ deactivated milk hormones) on a whole grain english muffin?

Steel cut oats made with water (cook em the night before and it is almost a granola consistency). Add a splash of cream in the morning and some raisins. Muselix works (but usually comes in a box, but also is not sweet enough for 99% of Americans used to boxed cereal).

Yogurt is great if you can avoid the dannon style (aka stonyfield) super sweet stuff (plain, only plain and avoid the greek stuff).

Make some pancakes from scratch with the kids using good flour as a base, or waffles (I do). Oatmeal is all in how you make it.

Breakfast burrito,

make a scramble with mostly veggies, wrap it in a tortilla and add a touch of cheese and if you have left over cooked veggies you have a really awesome meal in less time than you think.

---
Two quick questions popped up together:
MA Dude if not for Raisin Bran I'd gain 3 pounds a day in the most horrible way possible. What's your replacement?
and
MF tell me more? what specific ingredients are so unhealthy in granola and milk?
My Reply:
MA, you like raisins right? make some oatmeal and put the raisins in while cooking. Like it cold? make it the night before and stirr in a bit of yogurt in the morning.

MF, have you ever made granola? loaded with sugars (usually from honey or other stuff) Granola is the sugared version of muselix. Aka americanized. And milk proteins elicit an insulin boost aka makes your body turn extra sugar to fat and screws up your pancreas. Fine if you've just finished a race and need to stimulate the storage pathway. Really pretty bad if you've just woken up from sleeping. (I added the Pedaling Zen Fat link here).

Good Old Brent started the humor off with this half serious softball:
When I'm in the desert I find that my ice cream melts too quickly to worry about toppings. And are you saying my Lucky Charms w/ strawberry milk isn't healthy?

My reply:
Oh Lucky Charms is the exception. Esp if you buy the hippie version in the corn plastic bag from the fancy store, and strawberry milk? Oh all that corn syrup counter acts any damage the protein might cause.

You'll be fine until you die from complications of pancreatic failure.

I don't agree with everything Bittman says but his Food Matter book really does kick some solid ass. VERY approachable solutions even for those who think cooking is women's work and are above doing much more than opening the milk and pouring some cereal in the morning.

So much of the cereal schtick is the habitualization. Actually it is probably a pretty good snack when you come home from school (as a kid) or a mid-afternoon pick-me-up snack. A bit of carbs, some fats from the whole milk, get you through to dinner if you are starving or have worked out and need something and dinner is a long way off. But to stat the day? Pretty stupid.

The ever knowledgeable and wicked skinny captain of the New England Chapter of the Manorexic association suggests a most logical solution:
well we could start with whole "just avoid grains" scenario and everybody would be healthier. some nice plain greek yogurt and chopped fruit w/walnuts. Perfect breakfast.

I'm just not sold on 'greek' style yogurt (even if some of it is made by a turk). And I countered with this bit.
Why go greek Kurt? I'm not a fan of the greek stuff. Not one bit. But then I like real yogurt. Seven Stars or Hawthorne Valley or any small local producer, plain all the way.

Avoiding grains is a good solution... a very good one actually. esp to start. slowly add back some oatmeal once or twice a week maybe...

mix it up, but never ever eat the same thing every morning. and by that I mean eating raisin bran rotated with oatmeal then granola then cheerios, then ____ isn't cutting it.

Bittman's Food Matter's book (the smaller one not the big one) is good, but there are still issues. variety, left overs, creativity.

you should be putting as much effort into your food in the creative sense of including as many veggies in Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner as you can.

And honestly.

You're far better off just having a cup of coffee in the morning. Black, or if you need to pop one sugar in there (real sugar) and skipping the food. Break the fast with something appropriate for it (like a lunch meal).

Or be super wicked smart and eat dinner meals for breakfast and slowly eat less and less during the day until you wind up with 200 calorie dinners (yogurt with some fruit maybe). But that is so SO against the grain and most people's psychological programming that it would be impossible to do.

Then one of the better questions, and one I'm not super confident about my explaination, but one that I feel is still pretty accurate. There is a good study that I found a while ago but I can't seem to find this morning that is less shaky than the one I give or can provide at the moment. Something just nags at me that it isn't an indefensible position that I've staked out on the Protein in Milk vs Yogurt (yes I admit to not being as solid on this as I would like - it is a process).

DS G, serious question: if milk is bad then why is yogurt ok? The same proteins are in each.
my reply:
The proteins in yogurt are partially digested by the bacterial culture. In essence denaturing the active/and hormone pathway chemistry. Like Parmesan cheese, or any aged hard cheese. The proteins are denatured and broken down into just about simple amino acid blocks.

Yogurt is digested milk. The bacteria do the pre-digesting for you. Rendering the insulin spiking hormones more or less harmless, and the harder to digest compounds in the cow milk into more human compatible components.

Animal milk from Goats and Sheep don't seem to have the same issue as cows. But then those animals aren't trying to turn a baby into a 2 ton monster in a year (okay maybe 1 ton in a year).
followed quickly by this:
DS I dunno. From my (admittedly amateur) knowledge of food science this doesn't make much sense to me. I thought that the action of the fermenting bacteria created lactic acid, which promotes denaturing so that the casein can form a network... hence the gel-like consistency. The denaturing doesn't alter the chemistry of the protein, just the shape.

Also, don't bacteria eat sugars, not proteins?

And lastly, according to this theory, you're saying that the proteins are either broken down into different compounds by the bacteria or changed in a way that prevents them from being broken down into the "bad" hormone-like compounds in milk?

My reply (the one I'm still pondering and digging for the original citation info):
DS, to make a protein group non-functional all you have to do is change its shape. even better? link it together. Bacteria certainly are fueled by carbohydrates (generally) but they need a bit more than just sugar to survive. once you change the shape of the reactive site and the functional groups the proteins may still be the same but they don't act the same anymore.

EH I *like* milk. And Cheerios.
Sure, Golden Grahams aren't good for you. But you don't need to eat soyjuice and fiber sticks just to stay healthy.

Besides, "not even granola?" Granola (mass produced) is usually one of the worst.
My reply:
EH - you're not getting it. No cereals, no milk substitute, no milk (except in small quantities -less than 8oz, more than that and you get more calcium than your body can absorb and you actually will have no benefit from the extra other than calories).

Like I've been saying (and the big reason it is so emotionally charged): the reason people hold onto it is because of a psycological need, nothing else. If you step back and look at it, there isn't anything worse you can start the day off with (bowl of cold cereal and milk - esp skim milk).
Wicked smart old fast dude (he might not be any of those but i'll give him the benefit of the doubt) ZC adds:
Whole milk gets a bad rap. Sure, if your diet isn't healthy to begin with and you don't exercise, excessive milk consumption can can problems -or rather, exacerbate them: whole milk alone doesn't cause problems except for people with allergies or lactose intolerance. But for people who eat healthy and exercise regularly, a moderate amount of whole milk is far more beneficial than detrimental, with a decent balance of fat, protein, and carbohydrate. I've been drinking an 8-10 oz glass of milk every morning for over 15 years now (as well as a 8-10 oz glass of OJ) and I drink a glass after a long hard ride as well. My blood work at my last physical was described as 'so normal it's abnormal'. Don't buy into the anti-milk hype, it's merely and animal rights activist campaign to attack the dairy industry.
my quick reply:
ZC your description of how you use it is atypical and not bad. Esp as active as you are. Whole milk is fine (still causes the insulin spike but if you aren't pouring it over sugar smacks it is less of an issue). And we've been over the orange juice before.

Here's a few of the links that offer some background. Milk isn't bad, it can have a place in the meal plan, just not on top of a big pile of frosted flakes. This is one of the earlier places, just one guy's blog but still pretty good.
There's actually some solid research in the AJCN. But the Paleo folks have done a decent job of explaining and identifying why milk is bad (generally worse when combined with simple carbs - aka my point - cereal, in a box, is bad).
"Conclusions: Milk products appear insulinotropic as judged from 3-fold to 6-fold higher insulinemic indexes than expected from the corresponding glycemic indexes. The presence of organic acids may counteract the insulinotropic effect of milk in mixed meals."
http://www.ajcn.org/content/74/1/96.abstract

This was lunch but add it to cereal in the morning? No wonder the Cereal nation is leading the obesity epidemic.
"Conclusions:It can be concluded that the addition of whey to meals with rapidly digested and absorbed carbohydrates stimulates insulin release and reduces postprandial blood glucose excursion after a lunch meal consisting of mashed potatoes and meatballs in type 2 diabetic subjects."
http://www.ajcn.org/content/82/1/69.full

Interesting read - good points in the Update. Especially profound is that spiking the insulin when you wake up may be a good thing, but not if you are eating a bunch of carbs and then sitting in a car or at a desk the rest of the morning:
http://4hourpeople.com/question/1110/tip-avoid-whey-protein-when-burning-fat

Now I owe Hill Junkie a solid thanks for offering the chance to steer that one thread back on track:
Diet fads change faster than clothing styles, dance moves and hair styles combined. Humans have been eating refined grain for at least 3000 years without detrimental impact. You'd think that if it was so bad, cultures civilized enough to support agriculture would have been selected out of existence. What has changed a lot in the last 100yrs is how sedentary we've become. How many Americans sweat hard in their daily jobs? When most of us used to actually make shit, we had to work hard. Regular exercise maintains good insulin sensitivity.

My reply, and almost nearly a concluding statement:
I'm not an anti-grain person. They have their place just not coming out of a box with cold milk in the morning, unless you've got a race or some other pending very high intensity exercise where you are going to be burning a pile of carbohydrates. Remember going for a walk will just burn fat. So does slow running/jogging. Cereal isn't good for that.

I let it stray a touch off topic but focusing on breakfast, the point being, changing your breakfast habits is a single simple way to affect a huge change.

highly active cyclists, aka bike racers fit in a different category, but until you hit the single digit body fat range take a look at your breakfast.

Grains have a place, even for breakfast. But we've only been focusing as a culture on this breakfast cereal as hard core as we have for the last 20-30 years. The bagel/muffin/donut bit is still more or less cold cereal in a different form. Whole grains. Steel cut oats, even steamed and rolled are quite different.

Simple changes can have a profound effect.

Bad ass defined


It is time to race some bikes my friends.

Thanks Kurt P for the link.

Come on, you know you don't want to drive to Burlington (well unless you're chasing points or the dream).

Head to the Concord, NH race at White Park. Going to be awesome. Think Waterville Valley CX quality (that course was fun - if a tiny bit short).

Make it a NH double weekend... This is the sort of thing Jonny Bold was trying to explain when someone decided he wasn't. Big Money race somewhere in New England and then a small low key race to offer the 4s some value for their money.

It isn't too far from Boston... not much further than Suckerbrook really. UCI points chasers are obviously headed to Burlington but not me. Don't get me wrong, I think it is great that Chabot has another race in his backyard. That's pretty sweet. And a big UCI event, also very cool. I'm not trying to take anything away from that. But instead of having Bandit Cross race 6.0 at Ski Ward (why do I have a feeling Chip is going to be having a bandit race there anytime there isn't a race w/in 30 miles of his pad) head up to Concord and check out the 'hill' rumors is it will be called cockberg with prizes for the first to mount it. Just don't spill your mayo in the mud or people will start to get confused.

White Park.

See you there, unless you're racing Burlington. Oh and just go ahead and Pre-Reg for this one.

Guess I should rip some tires off the old rims.

And on a more serious/different note. Does anyone want to purchase a set of Reynolds Strike 66mm deep carbon clinchers? 11 rides on them. That's it. Comes with blue brake blocks. For a fair offer I will include a pile of 80mm schwalbe inner tubes. Have to make things work, with the 303 CX tubulars getting ready for glue I can't really justify hanging on to them.

Email about the wheels - don't post here (if you don't mind) - i can deliver to any CX race or look for me after the NE TT championships.

Time to move on to the next event! Aka start of the cyclocross season.

First up I think I have to show up for the TT championships. Why not? Years ago (2006) I tried to start racing on that course as a circuit race in the Bob Beal Stage Race. This year it is a TT and a Crit championship. One on Saturday, one on Sunday.

Thing is Quad cross is on Sunday. Last year it was the opener, I think. I don't remember anymore.

So where do we race. TT age group championship race sounds pretty sweet. Can I really pass that up? No, not really. can I race both days this weekend? No, not really. Esp leaving for VT for the whole weekend the following. But how can I not. Here's the conundrum, eh? Pretty much have to show up for both, no?

Now fold in to the mix me and the girls alone until Thursday night. Riding? What? Call it rest. Wait, I've been doing that. Rest, yeah I have rest in spades. Base? Seems I actually am okay with base. What else? Oh the intensity. I should be able to fit it in on Wed... maybe? We'll see.

Had a killed ride Saturday morning. Miles showed up and proved VT boys can climb. Even if they have twin daughters.

Ifn I'm racing CX on Sunday I should glue up the season's rubber. Can't be racing on last year's glue job now can we.

or can we.

will have to see what there is time for.

what ever happens? it is cool. Gonna be awesome. Cyclocross starts at some point, has to.

It might mean stuffing the TT bike into the trainer for the 20min efforts, although really, who's kidding me, I'm all about CX, might as well focus on the main show.

This is all assuming I make it through the next few days...

heddwch
G

is so totally living up to his potential this weekend...

going from winning Battenkill in the 5s to doing sort of okay (sarcasm) in the cat 2 field at GMSR.

wow

seriously wow

but not shocked

Ride like the wind you tall fucking wicked skinny freak of nature!

Pulled from the latest Fast Boy post. Thoughts are with Ezra.

Allegory: you are trapped in a dark room with a homicidal maniac. He might put a knife to your throat any minute — or he might get bored and head off to a bar. You have the option of wrapping yourself in shit and stinging nettles because word has it that homicidal maniacs hate that combination. Or you can ignore the bastard and make some fish tacos.

I'm supposed to be writing other stuff. (It isn't flowing very well - very confusing, forms and formats that are not my devising take a few more than minutes to sort out in my old feeble slow ass brain).

And I thought writing here would help.

But I got stuck here too.

I did read two things that made me go "right the fuck on"

First one coming out of Pedaling Zen about Fat.
Hopefully everyone remembers there are multiple sugar pathways, which is why you want roughly a 1:1 blend of Fructose and Glucose hitting your small intestine (of course if you're trying to stay hydrated you've got to watch the water/sugar uptake issues). The Brick shithouse has some good bits esp the point about gels being originally designed to be consumed with water (as a replacement for messy sports drinks in your bottle - but few of the kids sucking them down remember that fact now).

Side track. Fat. Is Fuel.

You may have noticed that's a theme i've been nudging over to for a while. Protein is pretty dangerous in large quantities. Hormones are proteins. Y'all knew that right? What do hormones do? Well think puberty and all that. Hormones are both good and bad. Animal proteins are pretty sketchy unless the source is well identified. Anyway. Carbs? What do they do? Spike your insulin. Oh and hormones (like the ones in milk) spike your insulin too.

fat? what does fat do? fuel our body when the HR is below Zone 2. Oh hey. What the fuck? Wait. Hmmm.

So if I just finish a race and I'm not going to be racing again for a couple more hours or riding in a couple more hours, that Cola might taste pretty damn good and refresh me but, it's just going to set you back. Anyway. I won't get into more along the lines of my post ride/race fueling strategy. I believe there is good evidence to do as the brick shithouse suggests (super skinny old fast dude aka mini-skeletor agrees) following a race IF you are going to race the next day.

But after a training ride, or say your Wed night workout or the sunday after that race. no. skip that shit and just eat a sensible and well timed meal.

Like I've been saying, I need to get this shit out of my head sooner than later.

But

the other thing. The lost art. And I'm not referring to the 24x30 prints that are framed but stored in the back room at the museum right now agonizing me with the delay.

The Lost Art of a Group ride. This is a 'new' post. On an old subject. MKR talked about it a few times. Hell how many of you know fast guys who go on lots of group rides anymore. They ride, certainly. But mostly alone or with a few select others. I can't say I'm much different. But not riding and riding as infrequently as I am lately had made me selective for other reasons.

To ride for months each year in the small ring.
To take your cycling shorts off immediately after a ride.
To start with a humble bike, probably used.
To pull without surging.
To run rotating pace line drills and flick others through.
To form an echelon.
To ride through the top of a climb.
To hold your line in a corner.
To stand up smoothly and not throw your bike back.
To give the person ahead of you on a climb a little more room to stand up.
To respect the yellow line rule.
To point out significant road problems.
To brake less, especially in a pace line.
To follow the wheel in front and not overlap.

It is a good read. Maybe getting it out to the "social medias" will help. I've got a pretty strong feeling that anyone reading it here is going to be more of a "preaching to the choir" than "oh wow i hadn't thought about that."

Thing is, most of 'us' fall into the category of 50k+ mile riders. Hell I would doubt even the most fastidious of us (cronoman or solobreak) have recorded every mile ridden. I can extrapolate that I'm certainly WAY over 50k lifetime mileage. Easily. And I've had a good handful of years off the bike as an adult.

Anyway.

I'm trying to coach myself more with feedback. Probably means under trained but maybe fresh. Certainly not fast. at this point i'm really close to just busting out the trainer and cranking the HR to 170 and pedaling for 20 minutes. The roads still have a ton of shite on them from Irene and w/the new schedule and the travel and everything else it is just proving to be impossible to squeeze anything in. I could get 2 twenties in between when everyone else leaves for School/work and when I need to be here. But I can't fit riding out to one of the many TT loops and getting ONE 15-30 min effort in and still transition, esp if I want to do it w/o a backpack on. One thing I know about myself is that I have a pretty good track record of being able to push myself on the trainer for X min intervals.

That and I tweaked my groin yesterday and then in the one game of volleyball i play a year I pulled it further. Feels passably okay today, but man, I turned 40 on Tuesday and Wednesday I start falling apart. That and now I hear Gloucester is NOT going to be a grass crit this year (more dismounts and running from the sound of it). Son-of-a-bitch. Sort of like Tom Stevens and Paul B noticed I decided to bag running this year and did this just to spite me and teach me a lesson. Oh well. It is still a bike race and being fast on the bike still counts for most of it all.

Well shit. I wrote a few words. Said pretty much absolutely nothing (as usual) but hey, maybe I can transition the active typing motion and habit into sorting this other stuff out.

Oh i'm still wicked tired from the wedding weekend. The retreat food yesterday set me back a few pounds too. Salad for lunch for the next week!

Heddwch
G