The posts I want to write.

The whole creme/taint condition catch 22.

Now I have a good coffee dialog resulting from Twitter this morning - it brewed and stewed in my head on the ride in.

Also on the ride in a don't to this to get faster stronger post.

Like don't decide to put one 20# rock in a trailer and ride all the way to work with an extra set of clothes tons of food and too much stuff in a heavier than average trailer when it there is a strong headwind.  And by all means don't shift into the big ring for the whole ride esp with the hills.

That and I just realized I pulled a double.

Two weeks in a row, no car.  Which also means two week (since the 16th) that I have pedaled the bike.  Only one of those days was without a trailer (Monday's 128 mile ride), two of those days were smackdowns one was the velosprints.

I got some sweet pictures Wed night that haven't made it over here yet.

Getting backlogged.

oh well.

no want for content.  Content that I want to write.  Content that anyone wants to read? Not my problem, not my motivation.  Just need to find time.
Hmm... ain't it funny how that works.

heddwch
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I saw Brants on the way home tonight.  Haven't seen a single one all winter with the bike path closed.  No rides along the waters edge.  No birds.

On the way home from the Smackdown tonight they were there.  I snapped a few shots off.

Was awesome seeing them.

I've missed them this year.

Rises again.  The Quantum Pro has been resurrected.  Okay fine, it never died, just went into a Coma after the last road race last year.  Hmm that would have been Mystic Velo on the 15th of May last year.  Long time to be hanging from the rafters.

Took a bit to find the bits removed from it.  First the Reynolds Carbon brake pads that I sold with the Reynolds Strikes (had to pay for CX season somehow) were removed, but I didn't put the old pads, and the cassette was removed, and well both have been sort of MIA lately.

A bit ago I did find all the bits of the cassette (chain is still under 0.75 on the park tool for stretch) mixed in with a 10sp one.  Easy enough to sort out.  And last night I got ready to steal pads from the Tektro 720s to put in there and I found one block, then two, three and finally dug some more and found the 4th.  Funny that.  They were right where I had put them and thought that I put them, but some how the light or something was right and I saw them.  Yeah I should clean up the kuck piles.  I'd rather ride bikes or get paid to work on bikes or cook food for the family.  Maybe I'll get to it sooner than later.

End result? It is functional, it carried me into work (with the trailer even), but man these bars are wicked strange.  Old Mavic 350s.  Yes.  Mavic 350s.  They be old and stuff.  Like me.  Old but still functional.

Feels strange to have my knees near a top tube instead of brushing the top tube with my calf (on the blue, yes maybe the bike is too small).  Enough drop that sprinting in the hoods isn't a handicap, but yes, I can still get in the drops.

No bottle cages for tonight.  Fox didn't ride with one last week "Who needs water for an hour long ride?" Good point.  That and I didn't want to swap shit around or put the ejecto-cage on the seat tube with a few of the rougher roads we ride on.  Just took the wheels off the blue, swapped cassette and boom, in business.

The bike actually felt pretty might spot on, saddle might be a tiny bit too far forward, but not by much, reach and drop feel good.  But after 8 hours with the new (2010 shimano) levers these old 7700 hoods are strange, but not foreign.

A big question for tonight is how the legs are.  The bike is ready to go, but do I have any snap after monday's slog in the wind?  Tough to say.

Weather looks to be clearing though. Which is good. I forgot the front headlight AND the selfish fender, hoping i don't get striped on the way home.  Better than showing up at work with a dripping crack.

heddwch
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one incident stood out this morning...

heading in, past the school, I have to go from the right lane to the next lane over so I can go straight.  Problem is there isn't really room for cars to go around me and they often back up in the 200-400 meter stretch there.

Today wasn't much different.  normal day.

But there is this taurus there, I merged over and he pulls up along side and matches pace and out of the corner of my eye I notice his window rolling down...

then he draws even with me, i look over at him and he rolls his window up without saying anything and heads off north.

first thought: this massive amount of facial hair scared him.
second thought: maybe he rolled his window down and realized it was too cold to start something (i love cold winters that keep the motorists from rolling them down and shouting)

I get that a bit, a few honks shaking of heads, esp with the trailer.

this morning was just rather interesting.  maybe the beard is getting to be a bit too scary.

heddwch
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Yesterday was nuts.  Plain and simple.

Looking at the calendar a week out, the only days I had options on for meeting the challenge of riding to Boston once a month until CX season starts were Monday and Tuesday.  Monday seemed the better choice. Seemed it at the end of last week.  Mostly because the wind should have been pretty calm to start the day and Tuesday looked to just be f'n windy all day.

The plan was to ride up and have coffee with Nick (lunch just makes you fat™) in Cambridge, then swing over and finally try the Barrington Roaster's coffee over in Fox Point.

Team mate Dean agreed to join me.  Dean's a wicked cool crazy amazing guy. Professor of Sculpture at RISD,  and not a shabby bike rider.  He's headed up to Battenkill because that's home turf, and he had the day to spend on the bike and figured why not.

I was headed up to battle the wind regardless of company.  Dean tagged along well prepared (couple sandwiches, blocks, bars, money, tubes, tires) he was rolling on a sweet painted 'Nago with Campy, with some Ultremo DD rubber.  And he's not terribly short.  A passable draft.

All good things.

One thing in the back of my mind leading up to it was the fact that I had ridden the bike every day since the 16th.  All with the trailer, sometimes full of rocks, but usually not empty, groceries some days, stuff others, rocks, and then there was the Velosprints on the 19th, Smackdown on Wed.  Saturday AM I was late, so I blitzed it to work.  Worked both Sat and Sun at the shop.  Hit the store Sun AM and loaded the trailer up, for some reason I didn't want to have an easy ride home.

today:
long ride with +dean snyder 

Providence RI up to Cambridge to meet +Nick Czerula for coffee.

Then headed to Barrington Roasters there on Congress (Fox Point), and home.

Left at 7:40am, Got home at 5:50pm

stats from the old fashioned bike computer:
128.5 miles
7:57:05 pedaling time (yeah 7 hrs 57 mins)

If you are in Southern New England today, well it is windy. Not just a little windy. Like 20+ gusting to 40 mph windy. From the N over to the NW. The way up was all the way in the wind. 

Not an easy day. But man, what a day on the bike.

time to eat all the food, actually not so hungry, mostly just f'n tired.  And wow... the wind.

I've been watching the buds swell for a few days now, this morning is the first morning I would say they are in bloom.  I like data and would be curious to see a log for when a small local population, just to see how their timing.  Degree day information is out there as is daylight, but botanical triggers for flower opening, but those are less tangible metrics.  There is something a bit more beautiful and variable about tracking flower blooming.

Just a random short thought sipping a cup of coffee looking out the kitchen window over the sink at the Forsythia covered in yellow flowers.

I tried to get a snapshot, but the overcast morning light and shooting through the window are a less than successful combination.

Another botanical pondering recently was about the beard.  Winter beard must be more like a Blue Spruce than an Englemann spruce.  Two very similar trees.  Some have suggested that there is continuous variation from one to the other with significant overlap and potential ability to cross-pollinate (as in they aren't distinct species in the sexual (reproductive) isolation sense.  There is a practical difference that works to isolate them, the timing of bud/flower breaking.

Englemann spruce (Picea englemannii) tends to set bud as soon as it "warms up" once a certain degree day accumulation has been reached and the daylight is appropriate - the vasculature starts up and the cells in the buds begin to swell.  They are all tiny and small cells for plants, no vacuoles, meristematic by definition.  The initial expansion isn't driven by division, but by cell growth.  Division happens, but not initially.

The bud scales do a great job of insulating and protecting the vegetative of reproductive bud inside, but Englemann spruce is a high altitude, rocky mountain species.  It breaks dormancy aggressively, at first warmth more or less.  And in the native habitat that works, esp with such a short growing season.  If it waits to make sure it is for real, it misses out on critical days or weeks of growth.  This same thing makes it terribly unsuitable to grow anywhere else.  You see it in trees planted at low elevation, early bud sets routinely get killed by spring frosts.  Trees that primarily cue off temperature get in trouble like that.  They wind up ugly and stunted.  Not the majestic specimens they can be in their native habitat.

The Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) is different. This is a clever tree with a mechanism that allows it to succeed where the P englemannii fails.  The trees wait.   Patiently.  They know at lower elevations they have a bit more warmth, water, soil, nutrients, they can grow faster than their counterparts up higher.  And they've figured out that the first warm day never signals the end of the winter.

They wait.

The know it will get cold again.  And finally they break bud and go like gang busters.  By May the female cones are erect, pink and dripping with resin and ready to exude their pollination drop.  But sometimes they hold out a bit longer or go a bit earlier.  I found that out the hard way one field season collecting female cones.  Timing is variable.  And thus I needed an extra year to collect the data that I needed.

And in a few too many words, my winter beard is going to be more like the Blue Spruce.  A bit patient, not ready to reveal the face hiding under the fur. Easter may be too long to wait, but unlike the Spruce trees I can look at the long range forecast and see that we've got a 20°F morning coming up next week.  Would be a shame to have to put a balaclava on for the first time all year now.

Time for a bit more coffee, get cleaned up and then a slow ride into the bike shop for the day.

Heddwch
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Tried a bit of SEM therapy today.

Imaged some of the Zanconato milling scraps:

http://nanoscape.tumblr.com/

well call it a bad forecast of the end of the week.

Just a couple shots.

Ditched the rocks, and even finally hosed the dirt off the Blue that has been there since the last big ride.  Of course now the BB bearings are crunching.  Guess I need to order another set of BB30 bearings.  The boxes of tires and tubes worked well enough, rode home w/o them though.

Rode home after sunset.  Worked a bit at the shop tonight after the other work and well the sunset was pretty spectacular.  Weather is insanely hot, for March at least.  I'm not complaining, just observing.  I shouldn't be riding to work in short sleeves and shorts at this time of year and arriving sweaty. Not right, but hey, it is what it is, could be 35 and raining, I'll take this over that.

Heddwch
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And what was sitting in my belly at the start of the ride.  Yeah I ate a pint of my final mix at 3:30pm, a mere 90 min before the start of the smackdown.  That or be famished on the ride.  Catch 22 situation.

Right so what was it?

This

Except not quite that.

I didn't have scottish oats but the Bob's Red Mill Scottish ones I tried at Bend Nats were pretty awesome.

I used some steel cut oats.  I toasted them on high heat with the butter till it smelled toasty and the butter was all absorbed.  Certainly could use Coconut fat or other veggie fat to make it vegan.  Cooked it up nice and toasty, popped in some water, brought it to a boil, and covered and set it on the back of the stove for the night.

Best to add a touch of salt with the water.  Why not.  Helps with flavor, esp if you use unsalted butter (if you use unsalted butter make sure you're purchasing butter w/o the flavor added - if it needs flavor the butter is shit quality - not real food IOW).

For my 'toppings'

A bit of Bob's Red Mill ground flax seed (store in fridge)
Rasins
Sugar (brown or vegan usually)
dark chocolate peanut butter 

I added a touch of whole milk at the end of the morning cooking.

But simple. Melt butter, put in oats, crank heat, toast, add water, bring to boil, turn off heat, cover, put on back of stove, wake up in the am, crank heat back up to boil, finish cooking (couple minutes) and dress it and eat it.

So

good

yum

but a bit dense to eat 90 min before the smackdown

Thanks to a wrong turn I managed to claim 3 of the 4 sprint lines.  We were back across the bridge 68 min after leaving.  That includes a mellow cool down for the last couple miles after the State line sprint.

Mark Nicholson Smackdown March edition tonight (5pm Waterman Circle).

So yesterday I weighed them.  15, 20, 20, 25 lbs.  The rocks that were in the trailer on the ride home Saturday night.

Or was it Sunday.  I don't remember now.

With velosprints yesterday I headed in with an unloaded trailer.  Okay loaded with clothes, lunch, stuff.  But no rocks.  The ride home was made fun by the headwind and tagging along with a friend.  Mostly trying to keep up.

This morning, well it looks like I'll be off the bike Thursday and Friday so that leaves today and tomorrow for some work, and tomorrow is smackdown (5pm Waterman Circle) so rocks it is.  Got the leg speed yesterday, today was torque.

But I didn't put all three in there.  I left out a 20 pounder. Three of them only.  That was enough to make me work pretty hard on the hills, hard enough that I was not just at the limit with the low gear up the grade, but heavy enough that I still could create a trailer load of torque.

Glassy calm on the way in, that was nice.

Popped up to grab some Turmeric and rescue a waterbottle left at the Ballet studio last night, with the trailer, up the hill, after lunch.  Felt good.  But again work.

Work good.  Work as in physics not paycheck. I was doing that today, first with the regular stuff, then a whole lot of sitting around first waiting for the service engineer to show up, then for him to finish.  Oh well.  Sometimes things are more mellow than others.  It balances out the insane days (like tomorrow and Thursday are lining up to be).

Headed home, short sleeves.  legit shortsleeves.  no arm warmers or knee warmers.  And I was even sweating with that.  This was no borderline lets just wear them because.  it was warm.

So I'm cranking up the entrance hill at the Vet parkway and one of the Brown kids rolls up along side.  No idea that the path is still closed so here I am, dragging sixty pounds of rocks in the trailer, into a 10-20mph headwind.  At least he's just out for a mellow ride.  So I show him the way around, how to connect the bike path with the closure.

Except he's on a sweet Scott plastic bike with wicked fancy HED wheels.  And well yeah, I'm on the Croll with the trailer full of rocks.

But let me back up. Just for a second.

Before I hit the washington bridge, I passed this:

And thought, damn there are some nice rocks in there, they would make great trailer weights.

What? Are you listening to yourself? You're thinking about more rocks? Adding MORE? But those do look good.  Nice and dense, either some granite or gneiss.  Look good.  Obviously there are a few that are more than 100#s and the trailer has a published limit of 100#s.  I wasn't going to add any more for the ride home (good thing in retrospect), but I thought it was funny enough that I thought about it that I turned around and took a picture.

Rocks for brains.

Anyway.  So we head down around past the construction site and then we start up the rollers to the top of the hill by the mental health hospital.  First one is long and gradual, second one is steep.  I'm at the limit on the first one, but I'm talking with him, answering a few questions as he lightly spins up.  We hit the second roller and my HR is pegged and it is all i can do to keep up.

We hit the red light and I roll in front and set tempo into the wind.  18-22mph the whole stretch, HR slowly creeps up and I'm cooked by the time we hit the Dairy Bee.

Good over all soreness fatigue level in the legs right now.  The other thing is, hauling the trailer with that much weight is a great core and arm workout climbing out of the saddle.  And it is specific. And that's not a bad thing.  Although unless a miracle happens and I find the 9sp cassette I took off the Klein Quantum Pro tonight I'll be gear limited for the smack down tomorrow. 46x12 should be plenty of gear...  we'll see though.  I would like to get the thing up and running though.  Esp after this morning's twitter fest with the Klein Adept hybrid/flatbarroadbike/touring/hybrid.  It was cool.

So yeah.  Rocks. I might have to spend some time converting this trailer into cargo specific before too long, and re-working some of the fabric, it is getting pretty tired.  Couple blown out zippers aren't helping matters either.

Taking the rocks out for tomorrow's ride in though.  Still with the trailer though.  I'll try not to flip it (not as stable when empty).

Time to be making the food for the troops.  Right now I'm thinking pasta, sound good?  It does to me.

Heddwch and creigiau am byth
G

How the heck did I survive from 2008 until 2011 w/o drinking coffee regularly?  I'm totally and completely dependant on it again, which while slightly scary is mitigated by the fact that it is plant sourced and so far as long as I don't go David Grohl and drink multiple pots every day I should be okay.  Sleeping is fine and all that so there's that.  Day off? What?  Weekend? Worked right through it.  Yeah, you hear people say they work two jobs for their kids, that's me.  At least neither are crazy high stress, and I enjoy them both.

Taking a rare lunch out of the office today.  Heading to McFadden's for the Velosprints.  The thing I was in the paper about.  That cover shot.  Yeah that's today at lunch.  Normally it is straight through here, on call, answering questions while my lunch gets cold or ignored.  Which is fine.  I'm used to it, doesn't bother me.  Tunes, internet, food, answering questions, it works.

If it wasn't for the bike commute I might mind it a bit more.  The ride in and the promise of the ride home get me through the day in the office w/o windows, in the basement where I never know what is going on outside.

Yesterday's commute was nice, on the weekend there are more people out there on bikes on the bike path. I almost prefer the current detour on the surface street with the bike path closed as there are no walkers, joggers, dogs on leashes in the street.  Just cars.  Going in my direction, some 2x as fast as I am, some a bit faster, but mostly far more predictable than the bike path traffic.

Twitter's been lighting up discussing/complaining/observing the changes out there that the new season is bringing.  "We" used to have the roads/paths/lockers to our selves.  Cold shitty weather is "our" weather.  We ride year round, and when it gets nice, all the rookies, amateurs and part timers come out and mess it up.

Yes. It is awesome that they are on their bike.  Getting outside, getting some exercise, riding to work, for fun, for whatever.  Awesome.  Great stuff.

But this time of year, us regulars, are reminded of how nice it is when the weather sucks and we have our bike path all to ourselves.  Or the Bike lane.  When we can ride, stop at stop lights, yield at stop signs, go with the flow w/o having someone mess it all up.

I was close to being t'boned a couple times this morning at 4 way stops by other people on bikes.  Really.  Come on.  At least make an effort to appear like you could stop if I had been 2' further through the intersection.  I guess they are lucky that my brakes work and I know how to use them.

Frustrating but at the same time, I wish more people would be able to find the joy I do commuting by bike.  Yes, it would mean it is more crowded out there.  But after a few months everyone will be used to it and how it works and won't be as much of an idiot.  That or I will slowly be desensitized to the stupidity and my tolerance will increase to the point of acceptance.

I really would like to see more people out there.   The bike path south of us was a mad house yesterday with the weather as warm and sunny as it was.  Like 4th of July crazy from what I heard.  So many different users, walkers, joggers, runners and then the various speeds of cyclists, from too fast to too slow and everything in between.

So many people with bikes on the back of the cars going south on the road while I was going north.  Why can't they just get on their bikes at their house?  Why drive to a ride.  I really don't like driving to a ride.  To a race is barely tolerable and I only rationalize it to myself because I'm driving that ancient rusty race wagon burning Biodiesel (20-100% bioD) getting 35-50 mpg (city -highway, again, it is old and imperfect, like me).

I'm trying not to think too much about the TJROW gang.  Getting fed all that Lim and Biju food.  I might have to try making those rice cakes sometime.  But hey - hopefully they can all live up to the promise and not just turn all this fundraising and riding into a big exclusive frat party bike ride from BOS to DC (trying to be optimistic and not letting my jealousy color anything towards the negative - so wish I was riding with them honestly).

It is getting on close to sunburn season.  I'll get a post for the taint and sun at some point.  I know.  I keep saying I'll write the taint care for chipstick but it hasn't happened yet.  suncare/sunscreen might happen right after, or before, or since everyone here has probably heard me talk about it before maybe never, but hell, it is important...  Spin time.  Be good.

Heddwch
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If that doesn't get the blood flowing, what a way to prep for a commute in. MSR, what a race.

Hearing King Kelly call the race on saturday was pretty awesome too. there's magic in them bike racing.

Is what everyone seems to think seeing this photo.

That pair of rocks I picked up on Wednesday after the Smackdown when taking the sunset shot are bookended by a pair I picked up tonight on the side of the path.  random odd and scarred by the mower blades laying there at the start of the path.  and they were heavy.

So i have a bag with change of clothes and shoes, my backpack with thermos, stainless mug, laptop, and assorted shit, and then the rocks.  Heavy f'n rocks.  The trailer hitch is pulled basically straight down there was so much tongue weight even with the largest one sitting on the frame in the back cargo area of the trailer.

It was slow going up the hill and actually hard work on the flat sections too (good bit of drag in that thing i guess).

I don't particularly like the gym.  I don't particularly have the time to go somewhere to work out and lift weights even if i did enjoy working out, inside, with other people.

With the Velosprints tomorrow I'm leaving the rocks out of the trailer for the commute to the bike shop today.  Two weeks ago I did 5 4-6 min 53x12 standing max torque intervals in the middle of the 60-90 min on the trainer watching TV and I could definitely tell i wasn't in form for the roller racing.  Still didn't post a shitty time, and it got me in the paper, but I'm thinking today, as a bike day, will be mellow, slow and easy.  Although I probably have to pick up a few things from the store on the way home, esp since I'm not doing a weekend food run, so that will add a bit of weight for the ride home and standing all day certainly isn't the same as feet up eating, but hey...  life, it is what it is.  The benefits seem to be there.  I'm going to see if I can get 5 runs in tomorrow too.  Hopefully i'll be able to walk after the 5th one tomorrow if i make it that far.

I've been doing remarkably well at building speed and strength lately but I can feel that it is going to be more of a challenge adding weekends to the work schedule on top of the normal week.  Have to do it, opportunity is there, need is there, and yeah, I'm one of those who is working two jobs to be able to let his kids follow their passion.  Oldest is going "en pointe" and that means toe shoes, rumor is they aren't cheap and they don't last long.  Man is she excited about it though.

The day has started off on the cold side, but there isn't a cloud in the bright blue sky and from the looks of it very little wind at the moment.  It is supposed to warm up.

Winter beard is in danger... weather is getting warmer.  Now it is just a game of chicken and timing.  Can I make it to April?  Do I want to make it to April?  It would be cool to line up at Ninigret with it but I think that's going to be pushing it too far.  Looks like this week has a packed schedule.  Going to have to be next week.  If Chipstick is reading he has a second chance, to hop on the GeWilli road train (Aussie reference btw) Firefly to RSC (leg two for the March edition of PVD-BOS-PVD).  Last week in March, looking like Monday or Tuesday at this point.  Will winter beard make it that far? we'll see.  We'll see.

MOAH COFEETS time, gotta make some FRESH POTS and then get some pedaling in and some bikes built and sold.

heddwch
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RSS peeps - you can click through, or not, whatever, if this doesn't get you to check the linkage you'll be missing out on keeping your index shifters working properly (unless you have SRAM, in that case just break them like resultsboy does and get new ones when they stop working right), missing out on a killer write up about Cilantro including references to a book that I never read and am not sure I want to, then you have some killer shit that Steve wrote, and after last night, that stuff he wrote sinks home a bit more (RUN ON SENTENCE FTW - fuck it who needs a period, they just get in the way #TWSS <-- had to be said)

Oh and some stress and the last bit being the most important - but then if you're RSS'n this you're probably already hooked into the #TJROW thing just 'cause that's how connected you are.  (it is lunch - I'm going to be writing for a bit - lots of words most likely - oh well - some days you write - some days you don't)

Tough ride tonight. A very solid showing for the humble PVD.  Good mix of Brown Collegiate racers and old dudes.  That Eddy kid has a motor on him.   Dang.

Felt pretty awesome.  We rolled back into the city with a bit of attrition.  The legend himself Kipp Bradford showed up on his Cyfac, but bailed after the Pine street sprint and headed back early, electing to skip the insanity that was to follow shortly.

Curious about the ride? I dunno if these are visible or ya gotta be strava enabled or what, but here's the ride from two different people that were there:
http://app.strava.com/rides/5217881
and
http://app.strava.com/rides/5221341

The KOM they 'won/tied' was the only sprint line I won tonight.  That said I turned myself inside out riding the whole time, no saving it for the sprints, if I had it? I had it.  And even coming up Hillside I lost contact for a touch, fell back a bit but still managed to keep Dave Kellogg and Eddy and the rest visible.

Dave's riding a brand new beautifully painted (by his brother) Spectrum.  Di2 with a slick mounting location for the factory shimano battery and internal wiring.  Really neat bike.  That and I forget just how skinny pure climber types are.  I counter jumped his attack on Rocky Hill and won the sprint from Eddy, only though because I knew where the line was and he wasn't quite sure.  I probably won't be so fortunate, but hey he got the other three sprint lines.

Fox kicked ass and hung with the gang.  Did better than I did up Hillside, but then he did run a 17:30 5k on Saturday.  I unloaded when we hit Read.  Sat behind Kellogg there as we turned but #1 he is almost not worth drafting, and #2 I was coasting in his draft and hell I like that downhill run and a couple minutes at 33-34 mph is always fun.

The three old dudes who wore their Prov Velo Club kit did not get dropped.  Syl (mt biker dude), Derdowski and me.  Eddy, Yi Peng, and one other Brown kid hung on, Andrew, Fox the two free agents and the unstoppable Dave made up the group of 9 that rolled across the Henderson together.  The other's either got dropped or in Bradford's case bowed out due to prior engagements to return to.

What a ride though.  Ripped my damn legs off.  I rode dumb for a guy who was trying to win the sprints but,  I haven't hit the cramping from exertion in a while like I did there.  So good.

Couple shots.  First one is a Beard Documentary:

I got to Waterman Grill a bit before everyone else and heck what else do you do, take pictures of course.  I had meant to get a photo of the group to post, but I forgot.  Oops.  Next week maybe.

After the ride I headed back to the office, picked up the trailer, put on the LS jersey on top of the armwarmers, put some knee warmers on (should have worn them) - it was getting cold, and headed home.

Sunset.  Perfect timing.  Stopped at the one good clear treeless vantage point and shot a series of images as the sun was emerging below the cloud line.  This is the one I liked the best tonight:

From the bluff overlooking the river.

And there were two big flat rocks there, ah hell I should put them in the trailer or someone is just going to roll them down the hill.  I put them in the trailer.  Just what I needed.  More weight.

Rolling along I grabbed a quick panda shot:

Yes the Gripshift/SRAM trekking reflective stickers are a new addition to the commuter helmet, found em the other day.

Was a good ride.

A good day.

If you're in the area on Wed next week, join us. I'll try to rip your legs off.  But mostly thanks to those who showed up and did rip my legs off.  That was awesome.

Heddwch™
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#1 it is π day.  Yes Pie day.  And unless you're under a rock you've probably seen all the pictures of pies with the π to many decimal places on an actual pie.

#2 Einstein's Birthday.  Today. 1879.  Pretty cool that the famous smart dude was born on π day.

#3 A bit more controversial but non-the-less anticipated.  Steak and BJ day.  Yup, created by dudes to have a day of their own, one month after Valentines day.

Oh hell i forgot.

#4 First Smackdown of the year.  Mark Louis Francis Nicholson Memorial Smackdown.  We're having a special March edition.  22 miles of pure pain.  A different route until we get to April with the longer days that allow for the full 40 miles and the time to ride through the city to get out West.

Probably something else I'm missing too.  Although I don't think I will be eating any π pie or a steak or a birthday cake for Albert, so that leaves #4.

I will be at the traffic Circle by Waterman Grill (eastern end of Waterman in PVD) just before 5pm for a 5pm sharp start to the Season of Smackdown.  Here's the route if you're thinking of joining.  Only 4 sprint points, but three are at the top of an incline.  No real serious hills but Hillside feels like it after going up Pine and then Rocky Hill at full speed.

If the temp holds it will be shorts and short sleeves!  STOKED.

Maybe next week I'll get around to either re-commissioning the Quantum Pro, OR washing the dirt from the rainy and wet 138 mile ride in Feb.

Weather's good, plenty of good reasons to have a good day - have one.

Heddwch™
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I been saying dis for a long time now.  And the tall old freak in Boulder who writes for Velonews is now jumping on the promotional bandwagon.  Or at least is adding some information as to why fatter tires are better.

The tire pressure thing works too.  This old one. 

But then - as long as you're still riding, does it matter much? No not really.

That said I have yet to sell a fatter tire to a customer (the years in michigan, or locally) who was not very pleased with the result.  A dear and departed friend (from pancreatic cancer) went to a set of 28s on his road bike and always marveled at how much more comfortable the ride was, just a small change from his 23s that everyone said was the best.

And yeah - chip - if you're waiting on the butt cream post, it is in the works.  Maybe I'll have a chance tonight (yeah right).

Heddwch™
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COFFEEEEEEEEEEE




FRESH POTS

I might just make it through the day with a 'normal' amount of coffee today. At 11am I thought for sure I'd be out of coffee before lunch and would have to do a second small pot, which usually means NO SLEEP TILL MIDNIGHT. And that's not a good thing. Esp right now. Here I was all certain i'd be fine with the time change and the loss of an hour. Nope. Still feeling it today.

ouch hitting that wall hurt a bit

heddwch™
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you should be checking in at Fatmarc's blog.

Latest post about single-speed addiction has two most awesome Henry Rollins videos Teeing Off.  So awesome.  Both vids kick ass.

Yesterday I made my legs hurt so much that I wanted to cry when I got home.  I'm sure in part because I was slightly underfueled after riding 15 of 20 miles into a 20 mph headwind (avg speed was 15-18) on the Croll towing the trailer, then standing wrenching for 5 hours and hopping back on the bike for the return.  40 miles.  2:52 ride time, bonked with 5 miles to get home.  Heart rate wouldn't go over climbing the hill up to the hospital/squantum access road.  I was cracked.

But cracked so good.  they way down I was pushing well into the limits and finding new power.  Part of me is scared that what I'm finding isn't actually making me faster, i want to be faster.  I would love to do well in a crit or a road race or something this year.  But knowing ultimately that I hinge most of my success on the bike in CX season there is a loooooong way to go and what I'm doing now may not be as important if I can't keep building or can't maintain it.

Half way through march almost (the ides are almost upon us - hey does the #TJROW start on the ides of March?) and I haven't set aside a day for the next PVD-BOS-PVD marathon.  Who's in this time?

I'm thinking of something sort of insane at this point, I won't share the details, but it should be good.  There are three full weeks of March left.  Looking at probably pushing it to the last week of March. Maybe be crazy and pick a Monday, but Tuesday or Wednesday might be better.  Something other than Garbage day/Thursday.

Closing with, the local bird cage liner has a printed a photo of me in section D.  Might walk through a coffee shop or two to look for cast offs.  Funny hearing from different people that "you're in the paper" which, I suppose would be wicked cool if you didn't spend your childhood, being "in the paper."  Ah hell it is still cool.  Press is good.  As long as it isn't bad.

Heddwch™
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Oh and one person yelled at me out the window yesterday "Are you Fucking kidding me?" yeah it was someone I knew...  old Murat in his old white truck.  I guess he wasn't expecting to see me down at the 117/1 intersection with the trailer.

Somewhere between Boston and PVD..

please

so we can do this kind of stuff

Jonny Bold was a Tri-Model?

Looking styling man... stylin

Terrible run for me, but hey it gives you a more professionally shot video of the action.

So there is always debate.  Some wrap one way, some another, some crazy people think doing a cross-over under and around the hoods bunching things up and changing direction is the way to do.  Others think it is a sign of weakness to use the short bit of extra that comes in the box for the hood area.

Yes.  There is a good bit of tutorials out there on how to tape your bars on the bike.

But last night working on this bike, I just had to take a quick snapshot illustrating why I wrap bars the way I do.

No one has to worry.  RSS ain't going away.  Thanks for piping up and letting me know though.  It is appreciated.

"Jens might as well have tied him to the road and chopped his legs off" D. Harmon

Nice.

Day off the bike yesterday a few hours on my feet playing with bikes, and this morning I hitched up the trailer to the Croll and left it unloaded and headed in.  Popped on the path and saw Joe (Backpack guy) up 500 meters or so.  We had a bitching headwind this morning.  Maybe you were on the bike and noticed it.  It was a 20 mph sustained wind during the commute gusting to 25 and only lulling down to only 15.  Right in the teeth.

So I caught him there (+4 mph difference was needed to drag him back before Riverside Center) on the path, and then we hit the little rise, into the wind and it wasn't so bad until we got up by dunkin donuts the wind picked up and I had to work my ass off to stay on his wheel.  Couldn't quite stay in his draft though and the wind was brutal with the trailer.  Even the downhill into the wind wasn't much of a respite.  Got gapped big time coming up past the golf course and construction zone but I pulled it back in once we jumped back over to the bike path.

So glad I didn't add the box of books and the rock back into the trailer.

Felt good but man it hurt so good.  Sounds weird but I think I'm hitting on a decent combination of speed, strength, endurance without overdoing any of them.  The ride with Derdowski on wed night felt really good.  Despite the intervals on Sunday and Monday.  He did some big ones on Tuesday but when you ride with a friend and can peak as his Strava data and see that he was near his max HR sitting in my draft going into the wind and I was 10-20 beats below max.  There were some good solid sections of max effort and even heading home into the headwind with the trailer I felt wicked strong.

Was nice.  Legs almost felt more drained Wed night than they did after the 138 miles.  It just feels different pedaling, smoother, stronger a bit.  But of course no real tests.  I should be a bit better than last year at this point.  Time will tell and racing is the only metric that counts.

Today food is going to be a challenge.  Already ate most of my lunch, just a few pancakes, a tub of peanut butter and some sandwich bread left.

"glass cranking it" was my other favorite line from Harmon today.

Right now I could go for a huge stack of pancakes drowing in maple syrup, followed by a nap.

Better just have another cup of coffee.

Big Jonny said it best this morning: "How much coffee is enough coffee? It is C + 1."

great play on the how many bikes are enough bikes? N+1.

and yeah - gotta say, i like to ride my MOTHERFUCKING BIKE

When Firefly tweeted the link on the 7th it was at 611 views when I watched it.  And for a NSFW language vid it isn't doing too bad with 117k views so far.

Leaving it with a link to RTK's post...  and an observation that the warmer it is outside, the more likely the assholes are going to have a window down to yell stuff at you as they ride past.

And I will concur: "Bikes continue to be the raddest machines ever."

heddwch
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all like what, two of you? or one of you *cough* cait *cough*

There are plenty of reasons people write them.

A while ago people would RSS, get a notification and then go read.  Now you RSS the whole shit up on your Google reader and never actually land on the page.  Ads ain't got no place here (for now) those things on the left are because they are friends or/and I like handing out some free eye space.

Now granted, I haven't played with Google reader.  Maybe I should.  I'm still stuck with 'open tabs' i'll explore it some day and be more critical/supportive of it.  For now I'll pretend I know everything.

So - one thing a long time ago - web logs use to generate comments, much like Faceplace does now, and maybe that's why they don't anymore.  That or why many that used to no longer do.  So lack of comments means no one reads, or no one cares, or you said it all, or you didn't sufficiently increase solobreak's blood pressure with some nonsense, or they don't actually read the content on your page, they read it in an aggregated feed.

I suppose it would be nice to say turn on my iPad with a cup of coffee and go to me aggregated feed and scroll through everything without ever having to click on a web page's unique space.  But yeah - i don't have that stuff (sure i'd like to have it but i'm actually fine with it, right now I'm thinking about trying to find a decent price on some 24 or wider road tubulars to glue up on the 303s).

I'd say leave a comment as to why you like the RSS feed, and why I should keep it.  Although I don't think you can see the whole thing on it anyway.  Maybe Reader is different.  I dunno

I should write about the ride yesterday, but it was awesome and good and i started off still cooked from monday's velosprints but surprisingly felt pretty f'n awesome on the bike.  And Hillside has never been so easy (could be the 20-30 pounds I'm not carrying anymore).

nice day out there right now - if a bit windy.

Heddwch™
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thanks Kevin and Chandler

it is now in my head for the ride home

James Huang's photos are quickly overwelming the negativity from Moulton's perspective. I'm never going to ride them, so I'm just going to appreciate them for how beautiful they are.

Amazing stuff.

very good

Despite distractions the morning until coffee break right now has been kick ass productive.  At one point (well more than that) I had the TA race in one screen and the Paris-Nice in the other, and cranking through emails and scheduling and phone.

A good day.  Crazy finishes, and Fabian is f'n SMOOOTH on the TT bike.

Turn your webber kettle grill into a Pizza Oven? Say it ain't so! Brilliant. So cool. That would make summer pizza cooking much more pleasant inside the house.  I suppose I could go with the ErikV pizza screen method but this Kettle Pizza thing looks spectacular.  Watching the video but it looks a bit complicated, or the guy isn't as practiced as he could be.  Pretty slick esp if you don't have space to build your own backyard pizza oven.

Normally I'm drooling over the NAHBS pictures and galleries.  This year? I read Dave's blog about it.  And man did he ruin the magic.  Sure he might have a motive to promote his old brand, but his point, biased or not, still stands. Making a bike aesthetically pleasing or unique or cool isn't the challenge, it is making it both all that and still a perfectly riding bike.

So now I see a bike and I'm thinking, okay, that looks really cool, but how does it ride? The Firefly demystifying the ISP also kind of tweaked how I view those on non-carbon bikes.  On a carbon bike, yeah, no big deal, sticking a round tube down a plastic bike doesn't make that much sense.  On round tube bikes the Seatpost actually is pretty fucking functional.  It is pretty obvious, but not something I had thought about.  Adding more material where the seat post would have been on an ISP bike kind of seems to defeat the purpose of making it lighter/stronger/whatever.  And then on a bike my size? no way it will fit in a box/crate/shipping.  Maybe I mentioned this earlier.

I'm forgetting stuff.

no surprise.

some powerful potential in this film:

The opening deeply resonates with me. Except I don't surf. I ride a bike. And probably more than 300 days of the year I throw my leg over the saddle. Year in, year out.

It defines me in a very unique way. Call me a genetics appologist if you want, doesn't change the fact that I am unique, even in the world of the niche sport. Not alone, no certainly not the only one like me, and that's comforting to know others do get my point of view. Those who both compete in races and use the bicycle as a primary form of daily personal transportation.

I like that I'm not alone. Even when it feels like it some times.

This post is all over the map, just be lucky I didn't add the formula race car in the snow movie here (posted it over on G+ fwiw).

Rode in on the Blue with the impact attenuator hooked up.  Certainly pedals more effortlessly than the Croll, the small ring is a nice change of pace for the few hills compared to the Croll's 46t only up front.  over dressed meant I just took it slow, as planned.  Have to head to the kids school to see a short play that my youngest really wants me to see (means a lot to her) so I'll head over, then head back and then plan out a modified early sunset Smack Down route.  We're going to change it up a bit head east and hit Hillside and Rocky Hill.  "Sprint" points at the top of the hills to keep it with Mark's theme.  The ride will finish up with a flat out high speed sprint for the state line by the reservoir there on 152.  No, we won't take West so as to make sure we have a decent lead out.  A nice short 20-25 mile figure 8 loop.  Planning on a 5pm departure from the old PVC meeting point at the Waterman Grill.  Tempo ride for a mile or two to get through the heavier traffic'd areas, then boom, all hell breaks loose.  Or that's the plan.  We'll see what happens.

Okay now someone with a couple more races under their belt bitching about entry fees...  Tilford is always entertaining. 

do good, be well, and as always,

Heddwch™
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Chipstick Inc and FatmarcVanderbacon

both of youz

can we move on from the type in these illegible letters to prove you aren't a robot after comments?

Really?

please?

I don't and haven't had em on for a while now...  sure, i don't generate the bots that your sex and filth ridden excuses of blogs generate but, I get zero bots posting and when/if they do, well *zap* they ain't there no more.

I had to refresh 4 times before I could actually interpret what the stupid letters where saying with my Donnie Yen comment.

Oh and I like Tilford's POV on the whole Garmin/Strava thing.  I have posted a few things to strava, but they were collected on a borrowed Garmin.  Using something twice, a month apart, is no way to judge it.  But it was kind of a pain in the butt to upload it.  It brought flashbacks of me d/l'n every day off the power tap head unit way back when.  And I didn't like it so much.  I do have a computer that reads heart rates. A great and very helpful suggestion from Demarest to use the HR stuff to make the commute work more effectively for me.  But it doesn't record (no i never got around to putting batteries in the Polar after Nate gave me the Sigma). Someday I suppose.  Someday again maybe.  For now? It works.

One more thing.  No amount of practice is going to make you taller.  No amount of practice is going to make you faster than your potential.  Oh wait.  don't tell the clients of all those coaches out there...  And yes SOLOBREAK - so few people reach their potential that there is still plenty of work for the coaches to do.

i've been doing this sample prep and imaging for the electron microscope for 20 years.

twenty years

and yes, i am good at it.  very good at it in fact.  and, it is pretty cool.  take pride in your skill set.

from the very first time trying it was both frustrating and complex but man did all that suck me in.

a technique that seemed intuitively easy simple, but in practice is anything but.  I've taught hundreds of people how to do it, watched the range of people who were able to pick it up.  The best take a few months to get passably proficient, and six to twelve months to get good enough to be repeatable and consistent.  Some people never grasp it despite valiant efforts.

You think Cyclocross is a niche in a niche...  that's my professional career, and there's a demand, a small one, but one that is a good fit for me.

I still kind of wish the scopes were used in somewhere other than dimly lit windowless rooms, but hey, after 20 years you kind of get used to it.  Balancing the time inside with the commute on the bike is a good yin/yang solution.

I'm enjoying the extra moments of daylight, despite having the opposite of a perfect week last week.  Looking forward to getting home in the light.  Not looking forward to Sunday when the dog wakes me up in the dark.

The time change also sucks a bit because it moves the sunset after the normal commute.  I do really enjoy and appreciate the sunset.  Maybe you've noticed I take a few pictures of it.

anyway - twenty years - dats a long time.  need to hang some of the confidence and self worth on the shoulders of what I've accomplished in that arena...  This whole getting old and stuff changing is not easy to get used to and adapt to.  Working on it.

Heddwch™
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writing a response to solobreak's trolling and baiting i felt that i started to get a bit too deep for a comment...

so I'm moving it to a post alone... initial thread and stimulus for response is here.


I've seen fads in the mt bike.  I have one failed step in the evolution (high pivot URT full suspension).

29" wheeled bikes are not a fad.  This I decree.

It is a move to a consistent and ideal wheel size that the Roadies figured out many years before.

The fact that 20 years of 26" wheels chewing up the trails and making nice 26" wheel sized holes just makes riding around here that much less fun for me on a 26" bike.

If I had skills I could make excuses. I don't. I'm okay with not riding the mt bike at the moment. So precious little time to pedal that I'd rather not spend it in the car at the moment driving to ride.  Driving to race is different it seems.  Driving to race Cyclocross makes sense, strange as it may seem.

Do I miss mt biking? Yes.  Honestly I do.

I miss seeing the seasons change along a familiar stretch of trail.  I miss riding the same section and noting the progression of understory growth in the spring, and the transition through the sticky heat of summer into the night riding in Hunting season.

I identified first with mt biking. There is no denying it.  I was never good in the rock gardens, but in the sand, on the climbs, when getting traction out of a marginal section was required I could do it.  I could see the line in most things other than the rocks.  I never felt comfortable with them.  And that maybe explains my discovery and affinity for cyclocross.

It is what it is.

I will always remember the climb up the fireroad above Ashland OR in 1990.  We did it a handful of times during my class down there at United Bicycle Institute.  For the life of me I can't recall the single track downhill, other than, it was downhill and it went by way faster than the climb.  But the climb.  An hour on those 30 pound rigid mt bikes of ours.  That's what sticks in my mind.

The bermy woops at Highland Rec area, the sand at Ft Custer and the rolling trails through the beaver fells.

Meeting Kentaro in Ithaca for some night riding on my way home from Central.  We'd start in the light, work through the pine trails and turn the lights on for the rest of the ride.

I've tried connecting to the mt bike trails here in New England the way I have in other places of the country. But for naught.  Sure part of it is the wheel size, but in reality, that is probably a smaller component than I allow it to be.  And even with the perfect well fitting 29r dualie, I might not ride it much more than my Adroit or Mantra Carbon.

It is undeniable that I look like a freak on a bike with 700c wheels.  Put me on something with smaller hoops is just insanely silly.  Just looks wrong if nothing else.

I ride, and it is good. Where, on what? Does it matter?

maybe not

heddwch
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I went from the perfect week (i'm still counting it with the mental health day to pedal for 9 hrs on thursday) to this week.  Last week? no car.  Drove to help John get his TDI sorted out, then parked the car and Pedaled every day.

Saturday rolled up and I worked at the bike shop.  But not the PVD one, the one further away, and with the dog, and closing at 5pm, riding home... in the dark, wasn't what I felt like was best.  But then I still hopped on the trainer to work out the legs.  Sunday, same thing.  5pm closing, dog, yeah.

Monday the rest of the gang started filtering back from vacation.  Airport pick up on Monday, drop off kid on Tuesday, second airport run on Wed, Thursday shuttle kid #2 home while my wife stayed in the city at the Y working out while kid #1 had 3 hrs of dance, Friday, pick up both kids from school, head back to the office, finish the last of the BioSketch then cart the oldest off for 2 hrs of dance and then head home with the little one with a side stop for some lettuce, kale, parsley, red onion and tri-color pasta to make dinner with.

And now it is sort of raining and crappy out, 20 miles each way?  I could haul the trailer i suppose with extra clothes and shoes.  I might not be the softest marshmallow in the bag but I'm still not wearing cleats all day to stand on concrete floor. and shoes + lunch + clothes means big bag (yeah, funny that, my shoes aren't small and easy to pack) Plus wet, plus no decent place to dry clothes out for ride home.  I'm succumbing to the lure of the rattling race wagon and the couple gallons of diesel still left in the tank.

I'll pedal out the day on my feet on the trainer watching what ever is coming in on the bunny ears broadcasts tonight.  It hasn't been a total off the bike week, I did pedal a bit at least on Tuesday, can't remember if I rode on Monday or not.  Tuesday definitely because I watched Monday's Daily show with the science super star Neil deGrasse Tyson.  Tossed in some intervals and called it good.  But that's the last time I've pedaled.

Rest week? Sure, lets call it that.  Not that I'm building to anything.  Racing? Maybe a few of the Ninigret crits like last year.  That's about it though.  TJROW has been on my mind but the logistics are sort of a pain with the early start up there in BOS.  Would need to ride up the day before, do a bit of couch surfing, meeting the group at the start and then decide how far to go.  All the way would mean not riding back to PVD that day but spending another on the road, then riding home alone from Hartford to PVD while everyone heads the other way, not to mention blowing a Saturday.  The event is looking very pro too, some tall grumpy commuter probably should stay out of the way of those damn fast dudes.  Might have to plan a different day for the March PVD-BOS ride.  Maybe March becomes the coffee shop ride. Do something crazy like head to RSC first, then crank it into the City and hit barrington coffee and then blast home.  It would change it up and give me a chance to not get so lost leaving the city.  Ideas.  Thoughts. It is what drops out of my head.  I guess one of these days I'll figure out how not to be so damn negative.  But probably not.  At least my age is getting closer to matching the grumpy old man persona.

This morning cranking through the very active twitter feed, between Reuter Halll's teethversary and the tweets from Fisher, Bontrager and Huang from NAHBS it was full, but those shots from NAHBS made me really want to go check that out.  But then it is a bit like porn I suppose.  So many beautiful things you would love to ride, but can't.  Ah the joys of being a pessimistic realist.  But seriously there are some beautiful bikes out there.

So cool.

Zanc's reaction to the way I have the Blue set up has triggered an occasional, "shit that really is too small isn't it" flash.  So many spacers on that fork.  Well it hasn't broken yet but does it fit? well yes, contact points are where they need to be or I'd not be able to ride for a whole day.  Ah well.  It is just a plastic bike. If/when it breaks I'll figure out what to do next.

But that is a plastic bike that has served me well, rides very well, and has been good to me so far.

No complaints.

wasting a bit too much time this morning i guess. Best get a move on it.

heddwch
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Till everyone has seen it before I watch...  might as well spread it out now.  Because it has only been up since the 24th, and that's a new record for me to watch.  Usually I'll let it go a couple weeks before giving in and watching it.

Yes it is essentially an add for one of his sponsors, but they make cool shit so I'm okay with that.  Would be cooler if they gave me product and all but that hasn't happened yet so we'll just watch and keep recommending you pick up the Lezyne tools (their pumps are pretty sweet).

A Pile of good sports science reading. I guess that's what happens when you don't check a folder of bookmarks for a week.

Starting with Alex:
http://sweatscience.runnersworld.com/2012/03/beyond-rest-ice-compression-elevation/

http://www.therunningclinic.ca/blog/2012/03/discours-de-simon-bartold-analyse-simon-bartolds-speech-analysed/

http://nextlevelnutrition.blogspot.com/2012/02/ironman-nutrition-could-your-race.html

good stuff here - a couple good blog entries
http://peakperformance.runnersworld.com/

absolutely loving this one:
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2012/03/10000-hours-vs-training-debate-no.html

and finally some nervous system talk:
http://www.zone5endurance.com/?p=1675

I can't vouch for motives, marketing, or bias of any of the authors, but despite all that they are good reads and something to think about.  Yes some of them (all of them) are blogs and/or interpretations of papers from the author's point of view.  If you feel one or more need to be disclosed (maybe one of them is getting paid by vibram or something) please feel free to leave a comment to make sure anyone reading them can identify hidden bias.


heddwch
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BioSketch procrastination/break.

Need to stop for a second and what better way than to check out some crazy sweet bike related photos.

PPP#3 is a bit of background into the photo shoots for Peleton Mag by Natalia Boltukhova aka Natasha aka the Tiny Russian aka TR.

No matter what you call her she's as much a part of the NECX scene (or most so) than the crazy nut job in the orange jumpsuit.

One thing she said resonated quite a bit with me.  Too much introspection lately, all internal, or maybe not enough internal for a few people, sorry about that, but the words clicked with my past a bit:

It is pretty curious that most people who don’t photograph professionally, may not even realize how much goes into a good non-studio photograph.  Forget the composition, the light, background difficulties, etc.  When a photographer comes to shoot an assignment, an environmental portrait in particular, it has to have a plot, a story.   

Growing up as a performing family is different.  Photo shoots were critical aspects of promotion.  TV spots, interviews, on stage, back stage, at the beach, in the field, in the house, in a studio...  we grew up thinking about that, or maybe the rest didn't think about it but I certainly did.  We are all pro's when it comes to being the subject of a professional photographer.  We had photog friends do the shooting, we had real paid pros, we had pros shooting us for free. There are piles and piles of proof sheets through the years.  The most striking documentation is the photo for the Annual Yuletide Poster.  Often it would wind up as a Christmas card photo, and hey why not, it was all of us.

For us the story is easy.  The shooting and lighting always the problem.  A stage post concert, even with the lights still on may seem bright looking out at the lights but to most cameras it is barely sufficient.  So many frustrated photoshoots.  So many "there isn't a single good use-able image."

The "pro-ness" of my family was pretty solidly documented at my sister's wedding.  The photog (a solid good pro, impressive, and i'm hard to impress) gave very minimal instructions and we were there, the rest of the wedding party, friends, family who ever else? Yeah. Not so much.  It got to a point with the grooms men that the photog said "okay, see those guys? [me and my brothers] do what they are doing." They still couldn't get it.

Anyway.  Check out TR's images.  Pretty cool.  Kind of humorous that I read her post about Firefly a week after stopping in there.

Heddwch™
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