This morning was spent hanging out with the passat. Spent some getting to know it time while waiting for the glass folks to come replace the cracked windshield. First thing on the to tackle list was the air box. Well actually that was the second. The first was to see if this was one of the 96-99 passats with the key code on the lock cylinder. Nope. It isn't. If it was I could get that code, and have a new key made from the code instead of standard copy of the old slightly worn key.
So after finishing getting the door handle back together it was time to tackle the air box. I always remember the struggles the B4 folks had getting them in and out. Well i looked at it a bit, took the intake pipe off. Then took the MAF hose off. The pneumatic/vacuum vent line off for the N75, and then slid the 5th injector off the mounting (it is supposedly disabled, haven't tried just unplugging it to see if I get a code or not). Box doesn't come out. Right. Well Then I guess we take the top off. Cool. Take the air filter off. And well with that metal pipe headed to the warm air intake (the hose like thing pointed back by the exhaust manifold) it still doesn't come off. Hey there are two loose screws in the air box. Seems that they were meant to attach the metal pipe to the box. There is only one screw to remove instead of three (holes for three). Pipe comes out with a bit of struggle. The snow screen is packed full. Literally. I think it may be more of a rodent screen but "we've" always called them snow screens. Some people like to leave them in. I can see the benefits of leaving it in, but I've had mine out in the other car for, well almost 9 years. not really a problem.
Taking that thing out and the massive packed nest of fibers, hairs, acorn shells, leaves gave the car an instant power upgrade. it has OOMPH. But it still is dropping a pair of oil stains... Gotta get up under there sooner than later. I've go the oil and the high capacity filter. And I have a magnetic drain plug that i had for the Golf but since I used a temp sender in that car instead of a drain plug well I've got a nice magnetic plug to stick in there.
Coolant levels haven't dropped since the long trip back up from getting the car. I moved the coolant return hose to the proper position between the boost pipes instead of rubbing on the MAP sensor, and maybe that was all it took. The hose does need to be replaced. The wear is very severe, but I'm sure that the special molded rubber hose from VW is about $50 or $60. I think a $2-$4 section of regular radiator hose will work just fine. Right now there doesn't seem to be much decrease in level. Oil's going down a bit. Really slowly but it is going through it. Could be oil pan. Could be valve cover leak I suppose (on the back side - front side is clean). The spots are sort of mid engine, making me think it isn't the crank seal. Could be a turbo oil return line or oil filter/gasket? Like i mentioned - i really want to get under there. Except my ramps seem to have vanished off the farm. Gonna have to go jackstands I guess.
While the guy was there doing the front window I got the rear wiper blade spring loosened up. But found the shaft to be rusted and corroded. Giving me a bit of hope (trying to be positive) that the motor is fine and just the shaft needs to be replaced. Granted they are probably all one unit for the rear wiper motor.
I hate having a car here and not being here for the 10am shuffle. If ya ain't here for the shuffle, finding an all day spot w/in a mile is a crap shoot. And it is too nice of a day to be stuck inside a metal box instead of on top of a metal frame.
heddwch
G
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
in the world of Holy CRAP no way
In 4-diet study, all lost weight if they watched their calories
That's the USA Today version for one segment of the population...
This is a NY Times version for probably a different...
Study Zeroes In on Calories, Not Diet, for Loss
And for the crazy "elitist" "uber-intellectual" "scientists" we have the original source article that the "news" sources are writing their copy from...
Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates
The titles are all dramatically different, no?
But heck the abstract there at NEJM isn't exactly encouraging. Of the 80% that finished the trial they only lost an average of 4kg (8.8 pounds) over two years.
Yes the popular news reports state that but they wait until after dropping the eyecatching bombshell of the opening line.
Calories in Calories out.
Pretty simple. cut out fat? sure go for it. cut out carbs? sure what ever. Doesn't matter if you aren't cutting total calories. But it does matter what you are cutting out - ya need fats and you need carbs (ya just don't need as much protein, people eat too much of it).
Will this wake people up to the need to count calories? Maybe. Me? I tend to count calories. But I'm back to having the metabolism of a hummingbird and I'm usually more concerned with getting more and more and more calories. It is hard for a 200# hummingbird to eat enough food.
Well that's not quite true. I could certainly eat enough food to tip the balance away from my eerily stable 200-205# weight fluctuation lately, but it would take quite a bit of work.
back to that article. I much prefer the way the NYTimes concludes their analysis, quoting the lead author in the NEJM paper instead of the USA Today's use of a dietitian. It is quite true:
How do you determine your basal metabolism rate? Well you really almost have to do the whole head in a plastic bad study, humans are so variable that guessing on your basal rate is going to be pretty challenging...
weird tangent...
i guess that's what a headline i supposed to do... distract your focus long enough to read the article...
But going back to the NEJM article... This is the key:
Diets tailored to "Personal and Cultural preferences"
it don't work if you can't make it a lifestyle
-G
That's the USA Today version for one segment of the population...
This is a NY Times version for probably a different...
Study Zeroes In on Calories, Not Diet, for Loss
And for the crazy "elitist" "uber-intellectual" "scientists" we have the original source article that the "news" sources are writing their copy from...
Comparison of Weight-Loss Diets with Different Compositions of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates
The titles are all dramatically different, no?
But heck the abstract there at NEJM isn't exactly encouraging. Of the 80% that finished the trial they only lost an average of 4kg (8.8 pounds) over two years.
Yes the popular news reports state that but they wait until after dropping the eyecatching bombshell of the opening line.
Calories in Calories out.
Pretty simple. cut out fat? sure go for it. cut out carbs? sure what ever. Doesn't matter if you aren't cutting total calories. But it does matter what you are cutting out - ya need fats and you need carbs (ya just don't need as much protein, people eat too much of it).
Will this wake people up to the need to count calories? Maybe. Me? I tend to count calories. But I'm back to having the metabolism of a hummingbird and I'm usually more concerned with getting more and more and more calories. It is hard for a 200# hummingbird to eat enough food.
Well that's not quite true. I could certainly eat enough food to tip the balance away from my eerily stable 200-205# weight fluctuation lately, but it would take quite a bit of work.
back to that article. I much prefer the way the NYTimes concludes their analysis, quoting the lead author in the NEJM paper instead of the USA Today's use of a dietitian. It is quite true:
“The effect of any particular diet group is minuscule, but the effect of individual behavior is humongous,” Dr. Sacks said. “We had some people losing 50 pounds and some people gaining five pounds. That’s what we don’t have a clue about. I think in the future, researchers should focus less on the actual diet but on finding what is really the biggest governor of success in these individuals.”Dropping weight isn't really about what you eat. It is about what you do. And how your brain works. However someone overcomes the bad habits or what ever it was that got them to the point that they feel the need to drop weight, well that's how it will work. calories in and calories out is the surest bottom line... but then again, that's easier said then done.
How do you determine your basal metabolism rate? Well you really almost have to do the whole head in a plastic bad study, humans are so variable that guessing on your basal rate is going to be pretty challenging...
weird tangent...
i guess that's what a headline i supposed to do... distract your focus long enough to read the article...
But going back to the NEJM article... This is the key:
Such diets can also be tailored to individual patients on the basis of their personal and cultural preferences and may therefore have the best chance for long-term success.
Diets tailored to "Personal and Cultural preferences"
it don't work if you can't make it a lifestyle
-G
bike free day
call it a rest day maybe. last night was a motorpacing session. except i was the derny going into the wind for a co-worker who was running late. we had a nice headwind all the way down. I had to wait up a few times so he could catch back on but he did a great job at sitting on my wheel, esp for someone who doesn't ever really do that. Usually when we're riding in, it is side by side chatting (single file to pass people/bikes/on the road). He had a flat, changed the tube with a not so good patched tube and was struggling alot with the bead I guess. Man he will hate the schwalbe tires if he ever tries them, esp the Marathon Plus. That tire does not really like to go on easily. I will say that after 6 months or more of being mounted up it was much easier to get it on and off. So maybe there's some break in period with the PLUS belt.
It was a nice ride all in all. Had to use the headlight there at the end of the commute but soon, very soon the need for lighting to get home will be finished, and I can stop lugging around the battery pack.
I may bemoan the lack of Packzi around here, but a certain pastry has more than made up for it. Stollen. Yes, delicous, wonderful, dense, sweet Stollen. So I'm a few days late on the whole Fat Tuesday thing. But I did have a few slices of Stollen on Tuesday so that counts. I just had three fat slices (with some marzipan in them) after lunch.
Happy Tummy.
heddwch
G
It was a nice ride all in all. Had to use the headlight there at the end of the commute but soon, very soon the need for lighting to get home will be finished, and I can stop lugging around the battery pack.
I may bemoan the lack of Packzi around here, but a certain pastry has more than made up for it. Stollen. Yes, delicous, wonderful, dense, sweet Stollen. So I'm a few days late on the whole Fat Tuesday thing. But I did have a few slices of Stollen on Tuesday so that counts. I just had three fat slices (with some marzipan in them) after lunch.
Happy Tummy.
heddwch
G
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
a good one
Who Knew???
1. To remove a bandage painlessly, Saturate the bandage with vodka. The stuff dissolves adhesive.
2. To clean the caulking around bathtubs and showers, Fill a trigger-spray bottle with vodka, spray the caulking, Let set five minutes and wash clean. The alcohol in the vodka kills mold and mildew.
3. To clean your eyeglasses, Simply wipe the lenses with a soft, Clean cloth dampened with vodka.
The alcohol in the vodka cleans the glass and kills germs.
4. Prolong the life of razors by filling a cup with vodka And letting your safety razor blade soak in the alcohol after shaving. The vodka disinfects the blade and prevents rusting.
5. Spray vodka on wine stains, Scrub with a brush, and then blot dry.
6. Using a cotton ball, apply vodka to your face. As an astringent to cleanse the skin and tighten pores.
7. Add a jigger of vodka to a 12-ounce bottle of shampoo. The alcohol cleanses the scalp, removes toxins from hair, And stimulates the growth of healthy hair.
8. Fill a sixteen-ounce trigger-spray bottle with vodka And spray bees or wasps to kill them.
9 Pour one-half cup vodka And one-half cup water into a Ziploc freezer bag And freeze for a slushy, refreshing ice pack for aches, Pain or black eyes.
10. Fill a clean, used mayonnaise jar With freshly packed lavender flowers, Fill the jar with vodka, seal the lid tightly And set in the sun for three days. Strain liquid through a coffee filter, Then apply the tincture to aches and pains.
11. To relieve a fever, use a wash cloth to rub vodka on your chest and back as a liniment.
12. To cure foot odor, Wash your feet with vodka.
13 Vodka will disinfect And alleviate a jellyfish sting.
14. Pour vodka over an area affected with poison ivy To remove the urushiol oil from your skin.
15. Swish a shot of vodka over an aching tooth. Allow your gums to absorb some of the alcohol to numb the pain.
......And silly me! I've only been drinking the stuff.
Hard to argue this logic
http://www.owlfarmblog.com/blog/2009/02/buy_locally_herb_s.html
there are a few things on the list there at the end I won't be spending money on, but you'll be damn sure I'm doing what I can do to buy the stuff from the USA. Always have, always will try.
there are a few things on the list there at the end I won't be spending money on, but you'll be damn sure I'm doing what I can do to buy the stuff from the USA. Always have, always will try.
can't believe it
totally forgot about Fat Tuesday.
No pollocks around = no ever present signs of Packzis. Damn Shame. I found some last year or the year before at Stop and Shop and they weren't anything like the ones out of Lansing or Mt Pleasant. Never made it to Hamtramck the center for Packzis supposedly. But hey, they were everywhere.
And I would LOOOOOVE to eat a dozen of them now. Or I should have eaten them yesterday as today is Ash Wed i think.
Mmmm there are some redeeming things about Michigan, like Packzis on fat tuesday.
Pokoj
G
turn down the knob
the idiot car driver sensitivity knob specifically. Gotta let the stuff roll off. Need to get back to the no harm no foul mantra.
Need to find the, ah, no worry let it roll, again.
The time on the bike path, being so segregated from the cars lately has tweaked my meter a bit. Tolerance for jackassedness is far too low. I've got to make it through the day without the urge to chase down a car and yell at them.
Too much time spent riding on the idyllic bike path, or with good friends on the deserted roads in NW Rhode Island.
But hey, last night someone was sweeping the stretch of shells closest to the parkway. Very cool deed they were doing. I was late and had to suffice with a vocal "thank you very much" in passing.
That and I got so busy i missed Frazz and Yehuda, not to mention the rest of the internet.
heddwch
G
Need to find the, ah, no worry let it roll, again.
The time on the bike path, being so segregated from the cars lately has tweaked my meter a bit. Tolerance for jackassedness is far too low. I've got to make it through the day without the urge to chase down a car and yell at them.
Too much time spent riding on the idyllic bike path, or with good friends on the deserted roads in NW Rhode Island.
But hey, last night someone was sweeping the stretch of shells closest to the parkway. Very cool deed they were doing. I was late and had to suffice with a vocal "thank you very much" in passing.
That and I got so busy i missed Frazz and Yehuda, not to mention the rest of the internet.
heddwch
G
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
woa
what happened to the day?
rode in with a straight on head wind, didn't bother to put booties on or anything more than one layer over the legs even though it said 20 degrees on the temp and the local news said the wind chill was around 7°F. toes got cool but the Blaze socks kept em warm. maybe should have put the booties on. wasn't a long enough ride to worry about it too much.
still one section of road I hate. it is signed to go down to one lane except everyone keeps driving like it is two, well not everyone. some try and do the middle thing and by the time i turn right off of it everyone is all riled up, me and the drivers. not a good combination.
the tail wind on the way home was wicked fun last night. turning the 53x12 over with a bitching tailwind (20-30mph) blowing right off the water, that's some solid motor pacing conditions. and it marked the first night leaving late and not needing a headlight all the way home. it was pretty awesome...
now if it would just warm up a touch...
the giant felt a bit heavier this morning but with being underdressed going into that wind, well i just pushed hard and steady... hitting the ouch painful range but not the holy shit i'm going to die level. but then that's not really a description of training, it is just a way to characterize how the ride in was...
time to set sail and catch the breeze home...
heddwch
G
rode in with a straight on head wind, didn't bother to put booties on or anything more than one layer over the legs even though it said 20 degrees on the temp and the local news said the wind chill was around 7°F. toes got cool but the Blaze socks kept em warm. maybe should have put the booties on. wasn't a long enough ride to worry about it too much.
still one section of road I hate. it is signed to go down to one lane except everyone keeps driving like it is two, well not everyone. some try and do the middle thing and by the time i turn right off of it everyone is all riled up, me and the drivers. not a good combination.
the tail wind on the way home was wicked fun last night. turning the 53x12 over with a bitching tailwind (20-30mph) blowing right off the water, that's some solid motor pacing conditions. and it marked the first night leaving late and not needing a headlight all the way home. it was pretty awesome...
now if it would just warm up a touch...
the giant felt a bit heavier this morning but with being underdressed going into that wind, well i just pushed hard and steady... hitting the ouch painful range but not the holy shit i'm going to die level. but then that's not really a description of training, it is just a way to characterize how the ride in was...
time to set sail and catch the breeze home...
heddwch
G
Monday, February 23, 2009
Worry
Worry is an improper use of imagination.
Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but gets you no where.
Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but gets you no where.
A Glaze
An orange balsamic vinegar glaze for chicken, tofu, veggies or what ever the hell else you want to put it on.
Ingredient list:
Olive oil (extra virgin of course)
Sweet onion (or shallot)
Thyme (fresh or dried)
Balsamic vinegar
Water
Orange juice
Sugar
Lemon Zest
Home made chicken/veggie stock
Corn starch (organic non GMO) or arrowroot
Clarify the onion in a couple table spoons of oil. Add the thyme and lemon zest to the oil after a few minutes.
Combine ¼ cup vinegar, ¼ cup orange juice, ¼ water and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Pour into oil and reduce, way down, at a low simmer.
Strain onion and thyme, pour back into sauce pan (use stainless, not aluminum).
Put 1 teaspoon of starch into cold water, add cornstarch to reduction (or omit for a thinner glaze) and ¼ cup of chicken stock (or veggie stock) and some more lemon zest.
Bring back to a simmer and then drizzle over whatever you want to eat.
It is even sweet enough to serve over a desert (omit the stock and replace with orange juice).
Ingredient list:
Olive oil (extra virgin of course)
Sweet onion (or shallot)
Thyme (fresh or dried)
Balsamic vinegar
Water
Orange juice
Sugar
Lemon Zest
Home made chicken/veggie stock
Corn starch (organic non GMO) or arrowroot
Clarify the onion in a couple table spoons of oil. Add the thyme and lemon zest to the oil after a few minutes.
Combine ¼ cup vinegar, ¼ cup orange juice, ¼ water and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Pour into oil and reduce, way down, at a low simmer.
Strain onion and thyme, pour back into sauce pan (use stainless, not aluminum).
Put 1 teaspoon of starch into cold water, add cornstarch to reduction (or omit for a thinner glaze) and ¼ cup of chicken stock (or veggie stock) and some more lemon zest.
Bring back to a simmer and then drizzle over whatever you want to eat.
It is even sweet enough to serve over a desert (omit the stock and replace with orange juice).
only $162?
That's a deal... and i wouldn't have a team mate tell me he can't do a double!
But yeah I don't think it is in the plans for this year.
But yeah I don't think it is in the plans for this year.
Cold and windy today
Took my gloves off to snap a few shots with the ancient digi cam and my fingers froze. The shots don't capture the intensity of the wind unless you are used to reading wave reactions.
Rode in w/o the marathon plus tires and was tip toeing over the shell strewn areas. I've got maybe too much confidence in the Schwalbe tires but they haven't let me down yet. These other marathons are supposed to be almost as good but since I don't have full coverage fenders I'm wiping the tires after each pass through the bombing fields and sometimes mid-field.
The Q-Pro seemed light and responsive. Didn't need to bail out of the 53 on the way in. Felt good. I felt pretty good too. The bar position is different than the giant, a bit lower on the QP but not that much different. No problems adapting to the position so far.
Oh the fun lunch time reading is this. Cool stuff.
A few shots. I got a few good ones from the friday night commute home too. They might get up later...
Heddwch
G
Rode in w/o the marathon plus tires and was tip toeing over the shell strewn areas. I've got maybe too much confidence in the Schwalbe tires but they haven't let me down yet. These other marathons are supposed to be almost as good but since I don't have full coverage fenders I'm wiping the tires after each pass through the bombing fields and sometimes mid-field.
The Q-Pro seemed light and responsive. Didn't need to bail out of the 53 on the way in. Felt good. I felt pretty good too. The bar position is different than the giant, a bit lower on the QP but not that much different. No problems adapting to the position so far.
Oh the fun lunch time reading is this. Cool stuff.
A few shots. I got a few good ones from the friday night commute home too. They might get up later...
Heddwch
G
Good Luck and God Speed
To the gang at BikeReg.com.
BikeReg.com suffered a major hardware failure this weekend. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
back on the cars
in a way, the new TDI acquisition has brought me back in touch with a bunch of friends from the old car club. or maybe what I call my cycling vacation era. when I sort of let the commute time edge out cycling and I got fat, but i learned how to work on TDIs. Learned lots of pretty cool stuff about motor oils, fuel, how diesels work, why they make sense. And no, the new stuff isn't dirty. Heck this old '96 only gives a tiny puff of smoke at start up. I can't really even make it poof soot out the back under load.
those old days of driving, not cycling weren't so healthy for me. The seat time in the car took up all my cycling time. Waking up and getting in the car when it was dark and getting home when it was dark for months at a time was pretty depressing.
But that time was what adapted me to a 15-16 gallon tank in the Golf. That tank was small in comparison to the new wagon, and hence me wondering where the fuel was all going on Friday, but that tank in the golf getting 48-50 mpg (highway driving at ~78mph) got me where i was filling up just slightly more frequently than once a week.
The passat wagon should be in a similar fuel economy range with the extra gallons that's a good decent number of miles between fueling. That and we're mostly a one car family, with one or two days of the week when two cars are needed. it works for us and alternating between cars we literally go at least a month without needing to fill up either of the cars.
Yesterday I added all the fuel economy numbers to the spread sheet for the last six months. Number of fillups: 19. But for much of the fall I was topping up the tank once a week or every two weeks depending on how far away the races were. Even driving with B100 (100% biodiesel made by Newport bio, purchased at TH Mallory in cumberland) with the bikes on the roof and the rack on all the time and nearly all city driving when not going to races, i was getting 38-40 mpg. not great but considering bioD has slightly fewer BTUs and the wind drag from bikes on the roof is pretty significant, i'm very happy with that. going back to regular diesel or maybe a tank of B10 from REC fuel i only saw an increase of 3-4mpg. But hey, not too bad for a motor without any hybrid stuff going on. It was a big shock too because in the last six-eight months fuel prices dropped two dollars/gallon. That's crazy. But even at the highest price point running B100 my fuel costs were just at ten cents/mile.
It all feels good in a way. A balance. A balance between the cyclists and the auto mechanic car geek. Took a long time to establish the balance. The pendulum swinging first one way then unexpectedly far another way and then back finally circling somewhere in the middle. Maybe the perpetual connotation of the pendulum isn't quite right. Maybe a beam balance is a better way to describe it.
I did manage to get out and ride yesterday even. Found a hill that one of the Locals likes to use for hill repeats. It is a staged roller. not too steep but done in a 53 it can be pretty solidly tough. I got the Q-Pro out for the first ride since Jamestown. And it was nice. The shells had me a bit nervous and brushing the tires, but the marathons held up well (not the unflattable as they call the marathon plus tires but still pretty hardy stuff). I did three repeats using a progressively harder gear each time. The final time I hit it with the 53-14. The bike felt great under me. The first little riser isn't hard but it gets a bit harder, then you get a slight reprieve but really just a chance to pour on the coals instead of coasting down to the base of the steeper section and up to the top. I probably should have done 5 or so but I did 3. Not wanting to overdo the intensity going into a week of riding every day. Rest is important. And during these months w/o competition on the weekend I try to take advantage of days off the bike to rest and it seems to be working well. At least in the endurance building perspective. The strength one has yet to be measured. Heck even the girls were out riding their bikes yesterday. Hopefully I can get out for another long hilly ride next weekend. The Q-Pro seemed a bit more responsive and quicker accelerating than the giant Cyclocross bike, but that could mostly be due to the lighter tires. still it was nice to be back on that bike again.
Still have to get the oil changed and coolant flushed in the wagon, get the rear suspension changed in there. And get it in for inspections to finish making it legal here (have a few more days left to do that). And then the fun stuff begins, like making the rear wiper motor work again, the sunroof motor work. That and i still have to source some factory rack feet so I can get the thule cross bars installed.
St David's day is coming up. I should call it Dydd Gwyl Dewi. Lots of cool stuff going on in the Boston area. I did have a chance to catch the celtic sojourn's broadcast. Some great tunes indeed were played. And this sounds like it would be a pretty awesome concert.
alright, time to focus on other matters...
heddwch
G
those old days of driving, not cycling weren't so healthy for me. The seat time in the car took up all my cycling time. Waking up and getting in the car when it was dark and getting home when it was dark for months at a time was pretty depressing.
But that time was what adapted me to a 15-16 gallon tank in the Golf. That tank was small in comparison to the new wagon, and hence me wondering where the fuel was all going on Friday, but that tank in the golf getting 48-50 mpg (highway driving at ~78mph) got me where i was filling up just slightly more frequently than once a week.
The passat wagon should be in a similar fuel economy range with the extra gallons that's a good decent number of miles between fueling. That and we're mostly a one car family, with one or two days of the week when two cars are needed. it works for us and alternating between cars we literally go at least a month without needing to fill up either of the cars.
Yesterday I added all the fuel economy numbers to the spread sheet for the last six months. Number of fillups: 19. But for much of the fall I was topping up the tank once a week or every two weeks depending on how far away the races were. Even driving with B100 (100% biodiesel made by Newport bio, purchased at TH Mallory in cumberland) with the bikes on the roof and the rack on all the time and nearly all city driving when not going to races, i was getting 38-40 mpg. not great but considering bioD has slightly fewer BTUs and the wind drag from bikes on the roof is pretty significant, i'm very happy with that. going back to regular diesel or maybe a tank of B10 from REC fuel i only saw an increase of 3-4mpg. But hey, not too bad for a motor without any hybrid stuff going on. It was a big shock too because in the last six-eight months fuel prices dropped two dollars/gallon. That's crazy. But even at the highest price point running B100 my fuel costs were just at ten cents/mile.
It all feels good in a way. A balance. A balance between the cyclists and the auto mechanic car geek. Took a long time to establish the balance. The pendulum swinging first one way then unexpectedly far another way and then back finally circling somewhere in the middle. Maybe the perpetual connotation of the pendulum isn't quite right. Maybe a beam balance is a better way to describe it.
I did manage to get out and ride yesterday even. Found a hill that one of the Locals likes to use for hill repeats. It is a staged roller. not too steep but done in a 53 it can be pretty solidly tough. I got the Q-Pro out for the first ride since Jamestown. And it was nice. The shells had me a bit nervous and brushing the tires, but the marathons held up well (not the unflattable as they call the marathon plus tires but still pretty hardy stuff). I did three repeats using a progressively harder gear each time. The final time I hit it with the 53-14. The bike felt great under me. The first little riser isn't hard but it gets a bit harder, then you get a slight reprieve but really just a chance to pour on the coals instead of coasting down to the base of the steeper section and up to the top. I probably should have done 5 or so but I did 3. Not wanting to overdo the intensity going into a week of riding every day. Rest is important. And during these months w/o competition on the weekend I try to take advantage of days off the bike to rest and it seems to be working well. At least in the endurance building perspective. The strength one has yet to be measured. Heck even the girls were out riding their bikes yesterday. Hopefully I can get out for another long hilly ride next weekend. The Q-Pro seemed a bit more responsive and quicker accelerating than the giant Cyclocross bike, but that could mostly be due to the lighter tires. still it was nice to be back on that bike again.
Still have to get the oil changed and coolant flushed in the wagon, get the rear suspension changed in there. And get it in for inspections to finish making it legal here (have a few more days left to do that). And then the fun stuff begins, like making the rear wiper motor work again, the sunroof motor work. That and i still have to source some factory rack feet so I can get the thule cross bars installed.
St David's day is coming up. I should call it Dydd Gwyl Dewi. Lots of cool stuff going on in the Boston area. I did have a chance to catch the celtic sojourn's broadcast. Some great tunes indeed were played. And this sounds like it would be a pretty awesome concert.
alright, time to focus on other matters...
heddwch
G
Friday, February 20, 2009
Filled up the wagon (the TDI formerly owned by LVG) myself for the first time today. The only other previous fill up since i got it from the dealership where she traded it in for a used newer Jetta TDI wagon was at a Hess station in NJ with ridiculously low diesel prices, and well that's full serve. No making sure the tank is filled to the brim, which is fine in diesels because the fuel is an oil and has essentially zero vapor potential compared to gasoline, and unless you fill it to the max and see clear diesel in the fuel neck your calculated mpgs are way off. Anyway...
So here I am, pulling up to Mallory fuel, stop at the B20 pump. Tank needle is sitting just over the 4 mark (I sort of assume that there is somewhat of a relationship between the numbers on the dash and what is in the tank) and the 4 mark is spaced above the red zone.
And start fueling.
and fueling...
and fueling...
and fueling...
At 20 gallons I look under the car, thinking wtf, is there fuel going somewhere other than in the tank?
Nope. All dry under there. Good.
Mind you now the dash indicator maxes out at 18 gallons.
22.5 gallons is what I put in the tank.
Have to wait a month or more before I fill it up again to get any accurate idea on the fuel economy.
that's one HELL of a big ass fuel tank for a damn car... esp one potentially capable of 50 mpg...
In other fun news I got the QPro shoe'd up, the 50 swapped onto the giant Cyclocross bike, the awesome Grammo Tubolari CX wheels with the tubbies glued up washed (bearings are still wicked smooth and silky after just being hung up post NBX racing). Swapped the conti 4 seasons onto the battenkil race wheels, stuck the 500 gram marathon 28s (not the plus) on the QPro for 'training' even washed the giant yesterday (weather was too nice not to). No riding, call it rest/recovery.
Gonna wind it up with this... from Lee, thanks!
heddwch
G
So here I am, pulling up to Mallory fuel, stop at the B20 pump. Tank needle is sitting just over the 4 mark (I sort of assume that there is somewhat of a relationship between the numbers on the dash and what is in the tank) and the 4 mark is spaced above the red zone.
And start fueling.
and fueling...
and fueling...
and fueling...
At 20 gallons I look under the car, thinking wtf, is there fuel going somewhere other than in the tank?
Nope. All dry under there. Good.
Mind you now the dash indicator maxes out at 18 gallons.
22.5 gallons is what I put in the tank.
Have to wait a month or more before I fill it up again to get any accurate idea on the fuel economy.
that's one HELL of a big ass fuel tank for a damn car... esp one potentially capable of 50 mpg...
In other fun news I got the QPro shoe'd up, the 50 swapped onto the giant Cyclocross bike, the awesome Grammo Tubolari CX wheels with the tubbies glued up washed (bearings are still wicked smooth and silky after just being hung up post NBX racing). Swapped the conti 4 seasons onto the battenkil race wheels, stuck the 500 gram marathon 28s (not the plus) on the QPro for 'training' even washed the giant yesterday (weather was too nice not to). No riding, call it rest/recovery.
Gonna wind it up with this... from Lee, thanks!
One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it. The six-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Good morning Alex.'
'Good morning Pastor,' he replied, still focused on the plaque. 'Pastor, what is this? '
The pastor said, 'Well son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.'
Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque. Finally, little Alex's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked,
'Which service, the 8:30 or the 10:30?'
heddwch
G
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Pro attitude
Talk about balanced, professional and committed to the sport, even in the face of adversity:
Plenty of folks around the US are finding themselves without a job or a contract, here's on instance in the cycling community. I'm sure LVG will find a way to continue kicking ass and winning this season. her win at San Jose, and then being an animator in the chase group at the Amgen women's crit. It would be pretty cool to see LVG and Lloyd lining up together and dominating.
Gotta wish a big public good luck to Laura and her team mates scrambling for a ride for '09.
heddwch
G
Van Gilder said, “I know that I love racing my bike, and I want to continue to be able to do that this season. It’s just a matter of getting the word out there that I have the passion and enthusiasm to race and represent sponsors. Ride, guest ride, mentor and guest ride, as I did this weekend [with Sugar CRM] – these are all things I’m available to do … I’m going to be positive and optimistic and move forward. It’s just a shame. I don’t think any racers should be put in this position so late. It’s a reality with the economy, and it’s difficult to get sponsors, but we’re professionals, and we should conduct ourselves in that manner. I’m not through racing yet.”
Plenty of folks around the US are finding themselves without a job or a contract, here's on instance in the cycling community. I'm sure LVG will find a way to continue kicking ass and winning this season. her win at San Jose, and then being an animator in the chase group at the Amgen women's crit. It would be pretty cool to see LVG and Lloyd lining up together and dominating.
Gotta wish a big public good luck to Laura and her team mates scrambling for a ride for '09.
heddwch
G
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Headlights into the snow with a headwind
It was a unique ride. Cold as hell. 33 degrees. Wet, wet, wet, snow. And big flakes. Problem with riding into a headwind when it is snowing hard is, well pretty obvious. Snow is flying in your face. The snow is hitting your legs and melting seeping through the lycra, wool socks soaking up cold water spray from the puddles of almost frozen water constantly resupplying the frozen water before it could warm up. I probably would have been warmer with simple lanolin on the legs without the thermafleece bib tights.
Sure it was just a ride in the snow. But it was dark. No light. And headlights have a way of reflecting off those big wet flakes. Handle bar mounted lights aren’t that bad. Often the light bounces off the wet roads enough so you can see where you’re going.
When your headlight is on the helmet. Riding into a stiff headwing with giant wet snowflakes. Well it is pretty much blinding. Not only were the wet flakes stinging my face, soaking my legs, coating the brake levers and every other leading edge surface of the bike, I couldn’t see.
The nice thing about a fresh fallen snow is contrast. Contrast between the black wet asphalt, and the white snow sticking to the soil and grass on the sides of the path. Even with a full cloud cover there was enough contrast that I wound up turning the headlamp off as soon as I was on the path. Riding through the streets I was more focused on being seen than trying to see through the blinding flakes.
But the intensity the headwind forced, and the need to ride hard enough to generate enough heat in the legs to keep from getting frozen was a nice way to clear the head from today.
Feeling better with a touch of food, still overwhelmed a bit. But the ride was pretty awesome.
And Make em laugh, the funny business of comedy is on. Time to kick back and try and relax.
Eddie Murphy as Buh Weet… classic…
Time to chill…
Heddwch
G
Sure it was just a ride in the snow. But it was dark. No light. And headlights have a way of reflecting off those big wet flakes. Handle bar mounted lights aren’t that bad. Often the light bounces off the wet roads enough so you can see where you’re going.
When your headlight is on the helmet. Riding into a stiff headwing with giant wet snowflakes. Well it is pretty much blinding. Not only were the wet flakes stinging my face, soaking my legs, coating the brake levers and every other leading edge surface of the bike, I couldn’t see.
The nice thing about a fresh fallen snow is contrast. Contrast between the black wet asphalt, and the white snow sticking to the soil and grass on the sides of the path. Even with a full cloud cover there was enough contrast that I wound up turning the headlamp off as soon as I was on the path. Riding through the streets I was more focused on being seen than trying to see through the blinding flakes.
But the intensity the headwind forced, and the need to ride hard enough to generate enough heat in the legs to keep from getting frozen was a nice way to clear the head from today.
Feeling better with a touch of food, still overwhelmed a bit. But the ride was pretty awesome.
And Make em laugh, the funny business of comedy is on. Time to kick back and try and relax.
Eddie Murphy as Buh Weet… classic…
Time to chill…
Heddwch
G
is there a big race going on?
Where? Somewhere?
I haven't noticed. Other than hearing about lance's fancy bike getting yanked. Suuuure they didn't know what they were getting. I'll wager his bike will be showing up at that Malibu Tri that the "celebrities" all do under some unsuspecting tri-dork.
What's going on in the ToC? Beats me. I've heard that Lance ran into the back of his on personal photo moto, that VS coverage was cut short for a hockey game. Sounds good to me, esp if the Red Wings are playing.
Yeah, i'm supposed to be geeked about a big pro race in the states. I should be. I suppose. But i just can't get excited about it. Can't really get excited about talking about the sensation in my legs anymore either. Mr. Buzzkill did a good job of all that. random ponderings about what works or what doesn't... tough in a way.
Problem is, as soon as you make the statement you don't have anything left to learn (and that includes saying "I know all I need to know") you instantly lose all credibility. I never had any in the first place so I don't know what I'm worried about but it has been on my mind. No one I know asks me how to train, what to do, how to get faster. I'm the last person to ask. I can tell you about lots of stuff with pretty solid authority. How to make delicious meals, sauces, pizza. Commuting clothes and strategies to stay alive in traffic. That kind of stuff. Training? I don't no shit. I think I stumble on ideas now and then. I have some sort of "i wonder how well this would work" moments and sometimes try stuff, but it is my process. Yeah - you can say it's been a weight for a while. Trying to shrug it off with out addressing it but, lately, my brain is too overloaded to devote the resources to that process. I gotta get it out quick and dirty like. And that means writing the shit down. Going through the process of trying to expressing the instantaneous feeling so it will go away and I can swing the pendulum back, or get that swing back off of the moody button.
Got the car on my mind. Dealer's being a pain in the ass, and really slow, about doing the registration. The good news is the car is running great. Bad news is it needs shocks BAD. And it is not trivial to do on that wagon. Trim from the doors back has to be removed. Seats and everything. Even the seatbelt anchors. Then you've gotta work inside and out to get the springs out. A not to bad job in the sedan, but the wagon is a pain. Could be worse though i suppose, worse would be paying someone else to do the job and then being at their mercy hoping that they don't fuck up any of the plastic bits that need to come out, hoping that they replace all the gaskets and bolts and seats and stops that are completely toast after 200k. Need to get some thule feet for the factory roof rack rails on top of it all. The back is big enough for me to stuff my bikes inside easily, but with the fam (meaning dog too) we'll need the luggage box on top... add to this mix broken scopes, service contract engineers that can't show up for a week or two, demands out the wazoo AND winter break? Yeah it is a fun week. That 6 hour ride was a bissful escape from it all. But now it is going to be snowing on the way home. Fun.
Yeah just not feeling it. that overwhelming feeling of trying to dig out of a deep hole in this exhausted state... that feeling is a heavy load on my shoulders... The change in weather today isn't helping. Walking into a 3 hour intense session with bright and sunny skies, and back out into dark overcastness. Which normally I don't mind. But today it added an element of funk to my funkiness.
So yeah. The lack of giving a shit about the big race in ToC is a symptom of a something else... It is great hearing about the race from the Team Type 1 doctor... He got to ride around in the lead car and had all kinds of crazy stories. That's really cool. So there. I'll focus on that personal positive side of things. The race reporting just doesn't do it for me. I don't read many of the "write ups" about the pro cyclocross races but I eat up the reports written by the first person, adding their own feeling and thoughts to the mix. Making it real I guess.
trying an old trick right now... not expecting anyone to not get it, or figure it out, but what the hell... i need to get it out so i can move on... we all can't be noble and perfect even if some of us (me) hold others (companies-ideals) to higher standards than are historically personally attainable...
Yeah I know ToC...
just not feeling it...
oh well...
time to go ride in the snow
heddwch
G
I haven't noticed. Other than hearing about lance's fancy bike getting yanked. Suuuure they didn't know what they were getting. I'll wager his bike will be showing up at that Malibu Tri that the "celebrities" all do under some unsuspecting tri-dork.
What's going on in the ToC? Beats me. I've heard that Lance ran into the back of his on personal photo moto, that VS coverage was cut short for a hockey game. Sounds good to me, esp if the Red Wings are playing.
Yeah, i'm supposed to be geeked about a big pro race in the states. I should be. I suppose. But i just can't get excited about it. Can't really get excited about talking about the sensation in my legs anymore either. Mr. Buzzkill did a good job of all that. random ponderings about what works or what doesn't... tough in a way.
Problem is, as soon as you make the statement you don't have anything left to learn (and that includes saying "I know all I need to know") you instantly lose all credibility. I never had any in the first place so I don't know what I'm worried about but it has been on my mind. No one I know asks me how to train, what to do, how to get faster. I'm the last person to ask. I can tell you about lots of stuff with pretty solid authority. How to make delicious meals, sauces, pizza. Commuting clothes and strategies to stay alive in traffic. That kind of stuff. Training? I don't no shit. I think I stumble on ideas now and then. I have some sort of "i wonder how well this would work" moments and sometimes try stuff, but it is my process. Yeah - you can say it's been a weight for a while. Trying to shrug it off with out addressing it but, lately, my brain is too overloaded to devote the resources to that process. I gotta get it out quick and dirty like. And that means writing the shit down. Going through the process of trying to expressing the instantaneous feeling so it will go away and I can swing the pendulum back, or get that swing back off of the moody button.
Got the car on my mind. Dealer's being a pain in the ass, and really slow, about doing the registration. The good news is the car is running great. Bad news is it needs shocks BAD. And it is not trivial to do on that wagon. Trim from the doors back has to be removed. Seats and everything. Even the seatbelt anchors. Then you've gotta work inside and out to get the springs out. A not to bad job in the sedan, but the wagon is a pain. Could be worse though i suppose, worse would be paying someone else to do the job and then being at their mercy hoping that they don't fuck up any of the plastic bits that need to come out, hoping that they replace all the gaskets and bolts and seats and stops that are completely toast after 200k. Need to get some thule feet for the factory roof rack rails on top of it all. The back is big enough for me to stuff my bikes inside easily, but with the fam (meaning dog too) we'll need the luggage box on top... add to this mix broken scopes, service contract engineers that can't show up for a week or two, demands out the wazoo AND winter break? Yeah it is a fun week. That 6 hour ride was a bissful escape from it all. But now it is going to be snowing on the way home. Fun.
Yeah just not feeling it. that overwhelming feeling of trying to dig out of a deep hole in this exhausted state... that feeling is a heavy load on my shoulders... The change in weather today isn't helping. Walking into a 3 hour intense session with bright and sunny skies, and back out into dark overcastness. Which normally I don't mind. But today it added an element of funk to my funkiness.
So yeah. The lack of giving a shit about the big race in ToC is a symptom of a something else... It is great hearing about the race from the Team Type 1 doctor... He got to ride around in the lead car and had all kinds of crazy stories. That's really cool. So there. I'll focus on that personal positive side of things. The race reporting just doesn't do it for me. I don't read many of the "write ups" about the pro cyclocross races but I eat up the reports written by the first person, adding their own feeling and thoughts to the mix. Making it real I guess.
trying an old trick right now... not expecting anyone to not get it, or figure it out, but what the hell... i need to get it out so i can move on... we all can't be noble and perfect even if some of us (me) hold others (companies-ideals) to higher standards than are historically personally attainable...
Yeah I know ToC...
just not feeling it...
oh well...
time to go ride in the snow
heddwch
G
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
NYT
Nope - not going to mention that Di2 article that was "the most emailed" at one point. Heck my wife printed it out at work on Sunday to bring home and show me.
No. Something that probably won't make the most emailed list.
The article on Women's Pro Cycling. Favoring heavily on the TIBCO team as a story line it was a good little short piece. Heck LVG came down to Cali, joined up the SugarCRM team, won the saturday crit in san jose (I don't see those results on cyclingnews but then maybe it isn't PRO enough - even though it was a stacked pro field). Heck if a race hands out an oversized check - shouldn't that be pro enough to be listed somewhere? Then in the rain soaked crit yesterday Lloyd did well and represented with a podium. Super D nat champ. CX national podium. and now finishes 3rd in one of the most stacked fields in all of women's cycling? That's cool.
LVG got a bunch of shots in Cyclingnews. Rarely do you get to see photographic evidence of an attack. Or a racer deep in a corner sticking her tongue out looking like she's having blast in the rain.
It is pretty funny. It takes Lance's TT bike getting stolen for the Tour of Cali to get any air time locally. But sure enough, it almost lead the local morning news. They can't be bothered to cover the race but if his bike is stolen. Well that's news. Can't really deny that he is really just the most famous cancer survivor first. And way down the list a pro cyclists. Now if cycling could touch as many lives in a positive way as cancer does in a negative way, this earth would be in much better shape.
Hopefully on the ride home i won't have the Marines' Hymn in my head. Sing it with me now... or not. I guess I just sealed the deal that it will be there. oh well. Could be worse. could be that gummie bear song or some over played jack johnson tune.
heddwch
G
No. Something that probably won't make the most emailed list.
The article on Women's Pro Cycling. Favoring heavily on the TIBCO team as a story line it was a good little short piece. Heck LVG came down to Cali, joined up the SugarCRM team, won the saturday crit in san jose (I don't see those results on cyclingnews but then maybe it isn't PRO enough - even though it was a stacked pro field). Heck if a race hands out an oversized check - shouldn't that be pro enough to be listed somewhere? Then in the rain soaked crit yesterday Lloyd did well and represented with a podium. Super D nat champ. CX national podium. and now finishes 3rd in one of the most stacked fields in all of women's cycling? That's cool.
LVG got a bunch of shots in Cyclingnews. Rarely do you get to see photographic evidence of an attack. Or a racer deep in a corner sticking her tongue out looking like she's having blast in the rain.
It is pretty funny. It takes Lance's TT bike getting stolen for the Tour of Cali to get any air time locally. But sure enough, it almost lead the local morning news. They can't be bothered to cover the race but if his bike is stolen. Well that's news. Can't really deny that he is really just the most famous cancer survivor first. And way down the list a pro cyclists. Now if cycling could touch as many lives in a positive way as cancer does in a negative way, this earth would be in much better shape.
Hopefully on the ride home i won't have the Marines' Hymn in my head. Sing it with me now... or not. I guess I just sealed the deal that it will be there. oh well. Could be worse. could be that gummie bear song or some over played jack johnson tune.
heddwch
G
recipe for cold toes
Wash wool socks in the afternoon.
Hang them to dry.
Put them on while they are still damp the next morning.
Don't put booties on.
Ride for 40 minutes into a 6-10mph headwind at 25°F.
A way for even the people with great circulation to have cold extremities.
Oh and it is getting to be an epidemic. All these cyclists and RUSH. I can say I've put in hours and hours of gerbil miles listening to Chronicles. I got a taped copied of it from a friend in college and those two tapes were always top in the rotation.
For perspective Brentani's three state ride has more elevation gain than the 2009 Tour of Battenkill. And I think from the sounds of it adding Buck Hill (far NW corner of RI) increased the elevation. Hell I just realized that the freaking race is running backwards this year. Which means the wicked killer descent after the long dirt grind up hill is going to be rather tough. And that looooong dirt downhill there (on Ferguson) is really going to be sketchy... It is one thing to be heading up that hill. Going down is going to be a blast. And it is going to be fast. over 10 mph of slightly down hill road. I'm even more jazzed about it now. Looking more closely - there ain't no way to make the three state loop compare to Battenkill. Maybe the heavy tires helped compare it, but there wasn't anything on that ride nearly as challenging as Joe Bean Hill or Juniper swamp. Two years ago I was good about getting to my PVD hill circuit. Last year I did it once maybe. Going to need every last repeat on that hill to prep. Lets see if I can muster the discipline needed not to be destroyed on the 18th of April. There is a big difference in the ride profile looking at the mapmyride version compared to the profile on the offical pdf map.
At least it provides a nugget of focus. At least my recovery is still doing pretty well. No significant soreness yesterday anywhere. No aches or pains today at all on the bike. That has to mean something. Esp since I haven't ridden for more than an hour at a time since the big cold ride that Murat peeled off early from. Time to get that 50t back on the bike though.
heddwch
g
Hang them to dry.
Put them on while they are still damp the next morning.
Don't put booties on.
Ride for 40 minutes into a 6-10mph headwind at 25°F.
A way for even the people with great circulation to have cold extremities.
Oh and it is getting to be an epidemic. All these cyclists and RUSH. I can say I've put in hours and hours of gerbil miles listening to Chronicles. I got a taped copied of it from a friend in college and those two tapes were always top in the rotation.
For perspective Brentani's three state ride has more elevation gain than the 2009 Tour of Battenkill. And I think from the sounds of it adding Buck Hill (far NW corner of RI) increased the elevation. Hell I just realized that the freaking race is running backwards this year. Which means the wicked killer descent after the long dirt grind up hill is going to be rather tough. And that looooong dirt downhill there (on Ferguson) is really going to be sketchy... It is one thing to be heading up that hill. Going down is going to be a blast. And it is going to be fast. over 10 mph of slightly down hill road. I'm even more jazzed about it now. Looking more closely - there ain't no way to make the three state loop compare to Battenkill. Maybe the heavy tires helped compare it, but there wasn't anything on that ride nearly as challenging as Joe Bean Hill or Juniper swamp. Two years ago I was good about getting to my PVD hill circuit. Last year I did it once maybe. Going to need every last repeat on that hill to prep. Lets see if I can muster the discipline needed not to be destroyed on the 18th of April. There is a big difference in the ride profile looking at the mapmyride version compared to the profile on the offical pdf map.
At least it provides a nugget of focus. At least my recovery is still doing pretty well. No significant soreness yesterday anywhere. No aches or pains today at all on the bike. That has to mean something. Esp since I haven't ridden for more than an hour at a time since the big cold ride that Murat peeled off early from. Time to get that 50t back on the bike though.
heddwch
g
Sunday, February 15, 2009
binge - me too
Early this week Brentani called for a big 3 state ride for staturday. I figured, there's an okay chance I can get out for it. And things lined up and I made it... Left at 8:15 to get there. And of course it was a headwind all the way there. 10-12 miles or so to the start point there on Atwells, by venda ravioli. The ride turned into a 65 or so mile tour of all the hills in NW RI, venturing into Mass and CT. We passed the point where colin took a nature break on the Ronde de Blackstone valley with legolord last spring. This time at least i had something bigger than a 40, but not much. The 46. I realized that I haven't had the 50 on the Giant this whole time. so my hill estimations were off. Only a 46 big ring. But. Despite being dragged up Buck Hill and everything inbetween, and trying like hell to get back on any time the road went down. It was tough. The marathon plus tires at 700+ grams each on some standard hoops with the big full coverage SKS fenders probably wasn't the best thing to try and hand on a Fuji SL1 with reynolds assault wheels ridden by a 155# messenger and general fast guy on our team. Scott from the CB team was laying the hurt down too. It was tough. The heavy bike didn't make it any easier. I waited too long to eat the Pretzel and Cherry PRO bar and the two cliff vanilla shots (man they taste horrible). But Trial #3 in three bottles lasted the whole ride. 62 miles where what scott had on his dashboard device a mile or so from out start point. Added to the ride home and back I was on the bike for 6 hours and 5 minutes. 80+ miles. On the heavy bike. Brentani's route made certain there wasn't a flat road other than the bike path, and that was a crazy headwind on the way in.
it was fun, i was exhausted, and next time i'll take the extra hour or so to make the QPro functional before one of these rides... which hopefully won't be too far off...
Oh and even with a 46 and a bail out 38 - it was a complete church of the big ring ride. Not once did the left shifter drop the chain down to the little ring. HTFU and pedal. Stand up and make those muscles work. Not a touch of leg soreness today, general fatigue isn't too bad either.
There was a general thought on my part that I would suck it up and get some tires other than those fat 28c Conti 4 seasons to race on, but I'm going to have to stick with them. The team sponsor recommended Schwalbe Ultremo DDs in the 25 are killer tires and seem to be custom designed for the Tour of Battenkill (go get some if you need tires for the race) but the realization of our situation is that unless I can turn parts into cash, I'm riding what I got from here on out. Means that for the Burlingame i'm running the Adroit, not the Mantra, because of the mechanical issues on that last lap of the 24HOGG.
heddwch
G
it was fun, i was exhausted, and next time i'll take the extra hour or so to make the QPro functional before one of these rides... which hopefully won't be too far off...
Oh and even with a 46 and a bail out 38 - it was a complete church of the big ring ride. Not once did the left shifter drop the chain down to the little ring. HTFU and pedal. Stand up and make those muscles work. Not a touch of leg soreness today, general fatigue isn't too bad either.
There was a general thought on my part that I would suck it up and get some tires other than those fat 28c Conti 4 seasons to race on, but I'm going to have to stick with them. The team sponsor recommended Schwalbe Ultremo DDs in the 25 are killer tires and seem to be custom designed for the Tour of Battenkill (go get some if you need tires for the race) but the realization of our situation is that unless I can turn parts into cash, I'm riding what I got from here on out. Means that for the Burlingame i'm running the Adroit, not the Mantra, because of the mechanical issues on that last lap of the 24HOGG.
heddwch
G
Friday, February 13, 2009
"The only way to go"
A guy went zooming down the hill as I was coming up on Valley to Bow and with a big grin on his face shouted "The Only Way To Go" as he wisked down past me on his beat up old 10speed, knit cap, jeans and an old jacket.
He's right. screw the jackasses who constantly berate silly not serious comments about soreness and feeling. Pain is a perspective. I don't delineate between ouch and just noticing when i make a comment. Training to the point of not being able to walk is one thing. Training to the point of oh hey, i can feel my muscles working, i think is different. Maybe too fine of a point for the point someone else is trying to make by interpreting what I wrote.
High School English class continuing into any interpretive reading class in college always found me questioning the teacher/professor about the "accepted" intent and meaning from a book. I prolong discussions to irritation sometimes but I was never satisfied that we had really actually learned what the author's true meaning of the passage. I find that often the most irritation I get from this whole process of getting ideas and thoughts and musings out of my head, ie web logging, is when my reaction is solidly that's not what i meant coupled with it is alot more complicated than that. When something is written down is it always a complete and stand alone idea? No. Often it is a short hand. A catalyst for the memory.
Meaning can be inferred. Sometimes there is absolutely a message, and sometimes not. Wondering about the popularity of spam when organic tofu is still cheaper/pound, isn't meant to put down those who choose spam, it is more an incredulity of wondering. When the big NH yogurt company starts a "campaign" to suggest their sweetened yogurts don't have THAT much sugar using an argument that "it is better to eat a sweet product loaded with calcium, protien, and probiotics" doesn't really seem to build their original contention that it doesn't have THAT much sugar. All you have to do is pull a label of sweetened and a label of the plain. I've done it before. Sure it doesn't have the 19 tablespoons of sugar in a 20oz Mountain Dew, but it is still sugar, and not an insignificant amount.
Meaning. Interpretation.
It was very clear what the cryptic phrase meant this morning. But out of context, "The only way to go" has no direct relation to the bicycle as a means of transportation.
This man's joy and pleasure screaming down the hill on his bike brought the words "He gets it." As I crested the hill, the slowest and lowest gear of the week, after battling a fucking 15-20mph headwind all the way along the bike path, I couldn't help but be buoyed by his obvious passion. I thought you know, there's a guy likely in his 40s who's having absolutely as much fun on the bike as a kid does.
Sometimes a quote or an implication is pretty clear. Adam's comment about American Apparel Jeans is clear. That is a testable situation. My comment: "Just having fun making my legs burn for 4+ hours post intensity effort" didn't imply pain. It implied that there was tons of heat being given off by my legs. They were so warm that burning was the most appropriate adjective to describe it. After doing those 20 pushups to see how many i could do comfortably a bit ago, that was pain. But those were muscles i don't employ very often, and never train. I just used them for whatever I need them for. But explaining all that takes away from the flow and the rolling off the tongue/fingers.
Maybe I've been reading that philosophy book too much lately. I am argumentative by nature, quick to lash out, with a delay before intensely introspecting with reflection. Not always a good combination.
But the scaups are back. A big giant raft of them in the lee of the bigger island to the south of the light house. thousands of them... a giant floating carpet of birds. It was a great sight.
Something you don't see from the car. From inside the big metal isolation chamber with the radio on and fancy climate control and sound proofing you can't hear the wind carry the cries of the birds. The protests of the sea gull as it has to rise away from it's precious mussel shell cracked open on the path.
Being on the bike is a pretty amazing experience. Heck I even just wore jeans over my bib shorts this morning. Yeah. I rode my bike wearing jeans. Legs were perfect. The wind and the temp is a tough balance for plastic clothes. The cotton denim was the perfect fit for the temp.
that's all i got for now
heddwch
G
He's right. screw the jackasses who constantly berate silly not serious comments about soreness and feeling. Pain is a perspective. I don't delineate between ouch and just noticing when i make a comment. Training to the point of not being able to walk is one thing. Training to the point of oh hey, i can feel my muscles working, i think is different. Maybe too fine of a point for the point someone else is trying to make by interpreting what I wrote.
High School English class continuing into any interpretive reading class in college always found me questioning the teacher/professor about the "accepted" intent and meaning from a book. I prolong discussions to irritation sometimes but I was never satisfied that we had really actually learned what the author's true meaning of the passage. I find that often the most irritation I get from this whole process of getting ideas and thoughts and musings out of my head, ie web logging, is when my reaction is solidly that's not what i meant coupled with it is alot more complicated than that. When something is written down is it always a complete and stand alone idea? No. Often it is a short hand. A catalyst for the memory.
Meaning can be inferred. Sometimes there is absolutely a message, and sometimes not. Wondering about the popularity of spam when organic tofu is still cheaper/pound, isn't meant to put down those who choose spam, it is more an incredulity of wondering. When the big NH yogurt company starts a "campaign" to suggest their sweetened yogurts don't have THAT much sugar using an argument that "it is better to eat a sweet product loaded with calcium, protien, and probiotics" doesn't really seem to build their original contention that it doesn't have THAT much sugar. All you have to do is pull a label of sweetened and a label of the plain. I've done it before. Sure it doesn't have the 19 tablespoons of sugar in a 20oz Mountain Dew, but it is still sugar, and not an insignificant amount.
Meaning. Interpretation.
It was very clear what the cryptic phrase meant this morning. But out of context, "The only way to go" has no direct relation to the bicycle as a means of transportation.
This man's joy and pleasure screaming down the hill on his bike brought the words "He gets it." As I crested the hill, the slowest and lowest gear of the week, after battling a fucking 15-20mph headwind all the way along the bike path, I couldn't help but be buoyed by his obvious passion. I thought you know, there's a guy likely in his 40s who's having absolutely as much fun on the bike as a kid does.
Sometimes a quote or an implication is pretty clear. Adam's comment about American Apparel Jeans is clear. That is a testable situation. My comment: "Just having fun making my legs burn for 4+ hours post intensity effort" didn't imply pain. It implied that there was tons of heat being given off by my legs. They were so warm that burning was the most appropriate adjective to describe it. After doing those 20 pushups to see how many i could do comfortably a bit ago, that was pain. But those were muscles i don't employ very often, and never train. I just used them for whatever I need them for. But explaining all that takes away from the flow and the rolling off the tongue/fingers.
Maybe I've been reading that philosophy book too much lately. I am argumentative by nature, quick to lash out, with a delay before intensely introspecting with reflection. Not always a good combination.
But the scaups are back. A big giant raft of them in the lee of the bigger island to the south of the light house. thousands of them... a giant floating carpet of birds. It was a great sight.
Something you don't see from the car. From inside the big metal isolation chamber with the radio on and fancy climate control and sound proofing you can't hear the wind carry the cries of the birds. The protests of the sea gull as it has to rise away from it's precious mussel shell cracked open on the path.
Being on the bike is a pretty amazing experience. Heck I even just wore jeans over my bib shorts this morning. Yeah. I rode my bike wearing jeans. Legs were perfect. The wind and the temp is a tough balance for plastic clothes. The cotton denim was the perfect fit for the temp.
that's all i got for now
heddwch
G
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Did you race cross at Nats?
Tell em what you think.
Here's a good way to offer some props and to get BikeReg the gig... folks i talked to were confused by the sportsbase thing compared to the awesomeness of BikeReg that we are all used to. What would we do without BikeReg?
Roller races tomorrow night in Providence.
And Saturday leaving the usual spot there by Venda Ravioli at 9am is Brent's 3 state Loop: "The loop is about 65-70 miles, and has many tough hills. We need to finish the ride in about 3.5-4 hours, so that means we'll be keeping up a pretty tough pace."
BTW - nothing worse than intermittent CAN BUS errors...
-G
Here's a good way to offer some props and to get BikeReg the gig... folks i talked to were confused by the sportsbase thing compared to the awesomeness of BikeReg that we are all used to. What would we do without BikeReg?
Roller races tomorrow night in Providence.
And Saturday leaving the usual spot there by Venda Ravioli at 9am is Brent's 3 state Loop: "The loop is about 65-70 miles, and has many tough hills. We need to finish the ride in about 3.5-4 hours, so that means we'll be keeping up a pretty tough pace."
BTW - nothing worse than intermittent CAN BUS errors...
-G
Quotes of the day
If you can fit into American Apparel jeans, it means you don’t actually ride enough. Your legs should be too big for them. - Adam Myerson
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. - Ernest Hemingway
The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half. - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one whose answers I accept. - George Carlin
Ah George Carlin. He was on the PBS show last night: Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America.
These two episodes ran... Pretty outstanding work.
I missed big parts of it here and there with everything going on, but what i caught was impressive. Wound up the night re-reading the first chapter or so of this book.
got a bunch of stuff back loggin in the head to get out...
later...
heddwch
G
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. - Ernest Hemingway
The second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half. - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one whose answers I accept. - George Carlin
Ah George Carlin. He was on the PBS show last night: Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America.
These two episodes ran... Pretty outstanding work.
January 21, 8 p.m. (ET) Slip on a Banana Peel: The Knockabouts
Physical comedy and slapstick have always found rich soil in America. From the mastery of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to the computer-generated antics that helped transform Jim Carrey into a human cartoon, slapstick has evolved into a sophisticated art, stretching the boundaries of time and space. This episode explores the comic genius of teams like Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges, Martin and Lewis, and the Marx Brothers, and the one and only Lucille Ball.
January 21, 9 p.m. (ET) When I’m Bad, I’m Better: The Groundbreakers
In the ongoing war against hypocrisy, conservatism, political correctness, prejudice, prudery, censorship, sentimentality, liberalism, extremism, and complacency, it was always the comedian who led the first wave of attack. Rather than using risqué jokes and four-letter words simply to get a rise out of an audience, the most audacious comedians – from pioneers like Mae West and Moms Mabley to 60s and 70s bad boys like Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and George Carlin – invoked what the First Amendment of the American Constitution calls “freedom of speech” to bring the biggest and most dangerous laughs to the American public.
I missed big parts of it here and there with everything going on, but what i caught was impressive. Wound up the night re-reading the first chapter or so of this book.
got a bunch of stuff back loggin in the head to get out...
later...
heddwch
G
Its is OPEN! The bike path is CLEAR!
Rode home on it last night. My Muse is back. The ride in was awesome. At least along the bike path. A lady got close enough that my leg hairs were touching her bumper so I tapped her hood and she stopped and started yelling at me. I stood there for a bit, trying to say I had as much of a right to be there as she did and that as it was a two lane road, AND there were cars parked in the shoulder, AND the sand was 6" thick before the cars, not to mention the big orange barrels, well where was I going to go? She came up along side as I was holding my lane to go straight (there is a right hand turn lane)... maybe if i'd done the drama point before she came up along side she might have waited a second. But no. Ah well. She didn't try to run me over any further and well it was uneventful all the way in. Except for a few old bats that forgot their turn signals.
Even that kind of - not so positive interaction - can't put a damper on the ride along the bike path. A few hairy "oh shit this is 2" of solid lumpy bumpy ice and I'm now going sideways" moments but mostly, pure awesomeness. The sound of the birds. The waves crashing and lapping the shore and the rocks. The flying rats chattering away overhead.
The light house. Oh and ya know I couldn't just ride by today without taking a picture. Had to get a shot. Actually got a few of them. I felt reinvigorated on the path. A really positive wash of "wow I'm very lucky to have this" kind of feeling. Don't get me wrong. Living somewhere w/o the path I would still choose to ride my bike. Even amidst single occupant big black SUVs here in the state of Hope and Anchor. What Cheer? I dunno if that driver qualifies as cheery. Heck though even that wasn't enough to pop the bubble i was riding around in.
I can't really describe it, ya either get it or not.
Here are some shots from the morning... maybe it will get me to stop rambling on and on...
I'm very glad I've got Marathon Plus tires on... Schwalbe... thank you for making this tire!
heddwch
G
Even that kind of - not so positive interaction - can't put a damper on the ride along the bike path. A few hairy "oh shit this is 2" of solid lumpy bumpy ice and I'm now going sideways" moments but mostly, pure awesomeness. The sound of the birds. The waves crashing and lapping the shore and the rocks. The flying rats chattering away overhead.
The light house. Oh and ya know I couldn't just ride by today without taking a picture. Had to get a shot. Actually got a few of them. I felt reinvigorated on the path. A really positive wash of "wow I'm very lucky to have this" kind of feeling. Don't get me wrong. Living somewhere w/o the path I would still choose to ride my bike. Even amidst single occupant big black SUVs here in the state of Hope and Anchor. What Cheer? I dunno if that driver qualifies as cheery. Heck though even that wasn't enough to pop the bubble i was riding around in.
I can't really describe it, ya either get it or not.
Here are some shots from the morning... maybe it will get me to stop rambling on and on...
I'm very glad I've got Marathon Plus tires on... Schwalbe... thank you for making this tire!
heddwch
G
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Web site is live
Legend Bicycle's web page is now live (went up today). Jack even has real biz cards too. Nifty ruler on them even.
The shop keeps changing a bit as I come in. Looks good though.
The weather is warm enough to temp me to be an idiot and ride home in just shorts. I mean it is 57°F out there today! Might even try and hit the bike path on the way home. As much as I like the extra hill, i miss the peace and quiet and inspiration the bike path provides.
mini-post today...
time to hit the road...
heddwch
G
The shop keeps changing a bit as I come in. Looks good though.
The weather is warm enough to temp me to be an idiot and ride home in just shorts. I mean it is 57°F out there today! Might even try and hit the bike path on the way home. As much as I like the extra hill, i miss the peace and quiet and inspiration the bike path provides.
mini-post today...
time to hit the road...
heddwch
G
start with a laugh
An Irishman is sitting at a bar in New York and looks at his watch several times in the space of a few minutes.
The woman sitting nearby notices this and asks.... "Is your date running late?"
"No," he replies, "I have this state-of-the-art watch. I was just testing it."
The intrigued woman says, "A state-of-the-art watch? What's so special about it?"
The Irishman explains, "It uses alpha waves to talk to me telepathically."
The lady says, "That's interesting. What's it telling you now?"
"Well, it says you're not wearing any underwear."
The woman giggles and replied, "Well it must be broken, because I certainly am wearing underwear!"
The Irishman smirks, taps his watch and says.....
"Bloody thing's running about an hour fast. Can I buy you a couple of drinks?"
The woman sitting nearby notices this and asks.... "Is your date running late?"
"No," he replies, "I have this state-of-the-art watch. I was just testing it."
The intrigued woman says, "A state-of-the-art watch? What's so special about it?"
The Irishman explains, "It uses alpha waves to talk to me telepathically."
The lady says, "That's interesting. What's it telling you now?"
"Well, it says you're not wearing any underwear."
The woman giggles and replied, "Well it must be broken, because I certainly am wearing underwear!"
The Irishman smirks, taps his watch and says.....
"Bloody thing's running about an hour fast. Can I buy you a couple of drinks?"
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
lifting for cycling
nah - i haven't hit the gym. C-burke's been telling me it is the great cure all go faster secret that he discovered. I told him I'd try that next year. Instead I'm just doing short bursts at max intensity a couple times a day. Playing off the old weight room rule: few reps at high weight to increase mass, many reps at low weight to increase endurance... the few reps of absolute intensity linger in my legs more than a hard ride in. The first set is a flat road acceleration from a stop. Done once or twice with a 400 or so meter run out after max speed is attained. Today's effort kept me well in front of the cars, well in front of them. And for the first time in a while I was pretty well out of breath... A couple hours later, turn around and jam in traffic, sprinting up to speed catching the green lights before heading up College. Without really realizing it I was in the 50x21 and dying at the top but still putting decent strength in to the pedals. That flat section was one of the places i hit some of my top power numbers back when I played with the powertap. The hill was always a pretty high sustained number too.
I haven't been out on a long ride in ages, but these two a days are pretty effective at developing the endurance component. Extremely effective for me as I've found out over the years. But endurance is just base, and it doesn't do much without the intensity tossed in... nothing special yet, nothing specific training wise. Just having fun making my legs burn for 4+ hours post intensity effort... And honestly - pushup probably do help climbing out of the saddle. The same muscles work the stability of the bike and the rocking back and forth isn't dissimilar. I dunno if 100 in 5 minutes is required but doing enough that you can crank out sets of 20 w/o much DOMS probably is a good thing.
I've started the process of weeding through and sorting the open tabs. The list of links on the left is an alphabetized version of the open tabs links. I managed to pare the list down. I dropped a few I've been opening but never really reading. Created a Friends folder a Comrades folder a Pro folder and a bunch of others... I'm a splitter more than a lumper if you go by the taxonomic classification options. It's funny. I thought about taxonomy class, then AA, and realized I hadn't heard from AA in a while, and i sent off an email. Fragmented. Tangential. Anyway, getting close to setting something up all fancy like with the sorted by updating link bar kind of deal that mr killer metaphors has going on.
Killer metaphors, seriously:
We've been catching up on project runway season 4. being "off the grid" in terms of TV isn't a bad thing... and getting to watch a season in a month or two is pretty cool. Not having to watch commercials is cooler. To have it so we can go back and watch episodes again is wicked cool. That said I'm not sure i like the turn of the way the competition from season to season has progressed. I miss the more creative challenges. This season has been pretty damn specific and focused. Leaving less room for creative outlets. Not that it hasn't lead to some creative designs. It has, and there are definitely some FIERCE designs going on. And maybe it just reflects the natural progression of the show and Heidi's (or who ever's) vision for the show. Yeah the irony is pretty deliberate. Me laughing at TP's comment about the men driving volvo, and me being a fan of project runway. What can i say. I can be a pretty damn effeminate redneck when it comes down to it. That and we're so behind the times, heck is season 5 over already? My gracious sake. I do so envy Tim Gunn's vocabulary. The nice thing is season 4 was so long ago I can't remember who won... although I actually sort of do. Can't wait for season 5 to come out on DVD.
Back to the bike - i got wondering a bit - rhetorical wondering... the Hard Easy concept... can it apply to a Hard morning ride and an easy ride home? Or do you have to do it by days... that's one of the things that popped in my head on the way in.
That thought happened just after a cool vehicle/bike interaction. Cruising down the Vet parkway's hill from Bradley hospital. I'm coasting around 20-25mph or so (guessing i ain't got no digits or display on any bike right now) and this school bus comes up along side me, gets almost past me then turns on the right turn signal. Big yellow bus on my left shoulder with a turnsignal on. Shit. I start grabbing some brakes anticipating the right hook. I make note of the road they'll be turning on, and then a funny thing happens. The bus starts slowing down faster than I am... deliberately slowing down to keep from running me under the wheels. Wicked COOL! I give a hearty couple thumbs up to the driver with my big fat mittens (can't flip anyone off wearing big f*cking mittens - but i can give a thumbs up - or down).
This is a good song to end the day on. Been a crazy one at that. more craziness to follow...
be safe out there -
heddwch
G
I haven't been out on a long ride in ages, but these two a days are pretty effective at developing the endurance component. Extremely effective for me as I've found out over the years. But endurance is just base, and it doesn't do much without the intensity tossed in... nothing special yet, nothing specific training wise. Just having fun making my legs burn for 4+ hours post intensity effort... And honestly - pushup probably do help climbing out of the saddle. The same muscles work the stability of the bike and the rocking back and forth isn't dissimilar. I dunno if 100 in 5 minutes is required but doing enough that you can crank out sets of 20 w/o much DOMS probably is a good thing.
I've started the process of weeding through and sorting the open tabs. The list of links on the left is an alphabetized version of the open tabs links. I managed to pare the list down. I dropped a few I've been opening but never really reading. Created a Friends folder a Comrades folder a Pro folder and a bunch of others... I'm a splitter more than a lumper if you go by the taxonomic classification options. It's funny. I thought about taxonomy class, then AA, and realized I hadn't heard from AA in a while, and i sent off an email. Fragmented. Tangential. Anyway, getting close to setting something up all fancy like with the sorted by updating link bar kind of deal that mr killer metaphors has going on.
Killer metaphors, seriously:
better to bring a Bazooka to a knife fight than the other way around...unless the fight is in a small room or garden shed, because that might be bad for everybody not just the guy with the knife.shit's brilliant i tell ya. brakes strong enough to stop one handed while flipping of BMW drivers or something like that. Loved the ending paragraph from yesterday
Of course my sunny, little ride report wouldn't be complete without a tiny bit of angst. After I left the IBC posse I was sitting at a light in the left turn lane, four Arlington high school boys roll up to my right in someone's Mom's Volvo. I hear them snickering then the inevitable "Nice Pink helmet!". "Wow, how did you think of that one? Nice Volvo, I didn't realize men drove those".I didn't realize that men drove those. And now, finally for the first time since 1994... i'm not driving around in a Volvo. not that the 240 wasn't cool. If it is cool enough for Dan Coady to get to races in, it's Man Card approved. (but seriously a car is a car this is just funny, m'kay? not trying to nega-sell the brand anyone drives). Then again there was that guy who showed up at a race in a vulva 70 series wagon with froofy stickers on it... that guy's a freaking tool... he must have left his balls in his truck that weekend. nah he's not a tool. he's got lots of tools and his skin's tough enough to take a bit of good natured abuse. but the reason i'm picking on him was that he was the first one I thought of when "Active.com Death-Bot A.K.A. "Steve" wrote it (or to be specific, when I read what he wrote).
We've been catching up on project runway season 4. being "off the grid" in terms of TV isn't a bad thing... and getting to watch a season in a month or two is pretty cool. Not having to watch commercials is cooler. To have it so we can go back and watch episodes again is wicked cool. That said I'm not sure i like the turn of the way the competition from season to season has progressed. I miss the more creative challenges. This season has been pretty damn specific and focused. Leaving less room for creative outlets. Not that it hasn't lead to some creative designs. It has, and there are definitely some FIERCE designs going on. And maybe it just reflects the natural progression of the show and Heidi's (or who ever's) vision for the show. Yeah the irony is pretty deliberate. Me laughing at TP's comment about the men driving volvo, and me being a fan of project runway. What can i say. I can be a pretty damn effeminate redneck when it comes down to it. That and we're so behind the times, heck is season 5 over already? My gracious sake. I do so envy Tim Gunn's vocabulary. The nice thing is season 4 was so long ago I can't remember who won... although I actually sort of do. Can't wait for season 5 to come out on DVD.
Back to the bike - i got wondering a bit - rhetorical wondering... the Hard Easy concept... can it apply to a Hard morning ride and an easy ride home? Or do you have to do it by days... that's one of the things that popped in my head on the way in.
That thought happened just after a cool vehicle/bike interaction. Cruising down the Vet parkway's hill from Bradley hospital. I'm coasting around 20-25mph or so (guessing i ain't got no digits or display on any bike right now) and this school bus comes up along side me, gets almost past me then turns on the right turn signal. Big yellow bus on my left shoulder with a turnsignal on. Shit. I start grabbing some brakes anticipating the right hook. I make note of the road they'll be turning on, and then a funny thing happens. The bus starts slowing down faster than I am... deliberately slowing down to keep from running me under the wheels. Wicked COOL! I give a hearty couple thumbs up to the driver with my big fat mittens (can't flip anyone off wearing big f*cking mittens - but i can give a thumbs up - or down).
This is a good song to end the day on. Been a crazy one at that. more craziness to follow...
be safe out there -
heddwch
G
Monday, February 09, 2009
The lawyer is taking down the shingle.
Yes. It seems that Bob Mionske is finished. A sad day in a way for bicycle advocacy education at velonews. Maybe Chuckles will take over the column.
I didn't read all of Bob's columns. But the ones I read, I did seem to learn something new, or at the least reaffirm what I believed to be the truth, or at least believed to be one way to interpret the law.
It was posted back on the 5th of this month I guess. But I didn't catch it until Maynard posted it here.
While on the velonews subject. I don't get the print version at home. But occasionally I get a second hand copy now and then. The March 2009 one with the team preview and some Cyclocross coverage fell into my hands. And there were two remarkable things. One, Adam's blog entry seemed to be an actual print piece. Cool. Well I should say seemed to be because I haven't actually compared them line for line side by side.
Anyway second, is the Pearl Izumi ad. Seems they've been running it a bit, in that it has been in the last couple copies of VN that have been tossed my way instead of the recycling bin. If you've thumbed through VN (the ad isn't in CX Mag and that's the only other cycling publication that i read lately) you'll know the one I'm talking about. The female model "wearing" the black and white "octane" kit? Headline: Insanely Anatomical with some asian characters...
Maybe those characters say photoshop, because, well it is a good job but it isn't perfect and that's a naked women with a photoshop layer of "Octane" covering her. First i didn't really notice. Only the seam for the jersey seemed to be odd. But then it is a photoshoot so getting it perfect is demanded. Right? Well I got looking at it more closely since the ad is on the back paged of the March 2009 issue. Pure "airbrush" and it looks to be digital not pre-photoshoot. I could be missing the underlying secret. Maybe it is one of Big Jonny's pinup links. What ever it is they should have at least shot the picture in a warmer room. or not. I'm going to go back to studying the photo some more. Oh and btw - the real give away is down at the red-trim on the legs... not to mention the collar and the sleeves and the hem of the jersey.
heddwch
G
I didn't read all of Bob's columns. But the ones I read, I did seem to learn something new, or at the least reaffirm what I believed to be the truth, or at least believed to be one way to interpret the law.
It was posted back on the 5th of this month I guess. But I didn't catch it until Maynard posted it here.
While on the velonews subject. I don't get the print version at home. But occasionally I get a second hand copy now and then. The March 2009 one with the team preview and some Cyclocross coverage fell into my hands. And there were two remarkable things. One, Adam's blog entry seemed to be an actual print piece. Cool. Well I should say seemed to be because I haven't actually compared them line for line side by side.
Anyway second, is the Pearl Izumi ad. Seems they've been running it a bit, in that it has been in the last couple copies of VN that have been tossed my way instead of the recycling bin. If you've thumbed through VN (the ad isn't in CX Mag and that's the only other cycling publication that i read lately) you'll know the one I'm talking about. The female model "wearing" the black and white "octane" kit? Headline: Insanely Anatomical with some asian characters...
Maybe those characters say photoshop, because, well it is a good job but it isn't perfect and that's a naked women with a photoshop layer of "Octane" covering her. First i didn't really notice. Only the seam for the jersey seemed to be odd. But then it is a photoshoot so getting it perfect is demanded. Right? Well I got looking at it more closely since the ad is on the back paged of the March 2009 issue. Pure "airbrush" and it looks to be digital not pre-photoshoot. I could be missing the underlying secret. Maybe it is one of Big Jonny's pinup links. What ever it is they should have at least shot the picture in a warmer room. or not. I'm going to go back to studying the photo some more. Oh and btw - the real give away is down at the red-trim on the legs... not to mention the collar and the sleeves and the hem of the jersey.
heddwch
G
Clean Bike and Fenders
Got warm enough and I had just enough time to squeeze in a quick bike wash... then headed out and about for something came back and got the fenders put on. In record time no less.
Why is that unusual? Have ya ever put full coverage fenders on a bike? It never goes smoothly. Always kind of a pain. I guess the fact that they'd already been on the bike and I was just re-installing them meant that it SHOULD be easy. But 6 months sitting in a big rubber maid tub with all sorts of other crap accumulating on top of them isn't the best way to store them. None the less I still managed to find all the bolts and washers and get them on in about 10 minutes.
It was a nice ride in, fenders and a clean bike. I'd noticed that the underside of the top tube was polished shiny from the season of cross. The flat matte paint finish on the giant Cyclocross bike isn't bad, but it I managed or run around with the bike on my shoulder enough to make the top tube shiny on the underside. Took off the XTR pedals too. Put some old style LX SPDs on there. No point wearing out the good light pedals commuting. Yeah I meant to take them off a while ago. I meant to put the fenders on a while ago too. I had used a bit of that "liquid" pipe dope - liquid in the stuff is in a tube and is thicker than grease, and more specifically it isn't the teflon tape. The pedals came right out. And the threads were still well coated. I suggest giving that stuff a try sometime. Esp for threads you don't want to seize and you don't want to work loose. Stuffs good. The brake pads are pretty much toast. Managed to get one CX season out of three pairs of XTR cartridge pads, the M70/M90 ones.
Had a really fun stretch on the way in this morning. Coming up Crescent View just before turning right on Bullocks point I heard the roar of heavy equipment. Ya know the i've only got one gear diesel roar of a front loader kind of sound? Heard it coming up behind me and I made the right turn right behind him. And I motor paced off him for the couple mile run up before he turned off. A nice steady consistent effort... when he turned off I looked down and was surprised to find myself in the 13 in back. Cool. It was a nice drafting/motor-pacing way to start the morning. Managed to keep the coals stoked all the way in for a decent door to door time. Slightly over dressed but it was a nice way to start the week. Solo's post there for today has a pretty solidly well warranted poke in my direction, and many others I can assume. Hard to tell though. I got me introspecting enough to re-read the last handful of entries for the negative aspect he is touching on. Sort of funny in that this weekend I was thinking: it was around this time last year that I got all wound up about why someone would put Pectin in yogurt, and that lead me down a big path of not really intending to but blindly disparaging people's individual preferences. Since then I've worked on focusing on high points. That instance and many others including the closing of my brother's store have shaped a bit the direction of things. Food is food. You can eat what you want. But there was one other thing this weekend (going to pack it into the end of this monster paragraph so no one notices). Sunday morning or one of the news programs ran a thing about SPAM. The meat product. Made from Pork and Ham, which last I checked were both the same animal. That and it is seeing a giant resurgence because of "the economy". Okay. Great. Tofu is still cheaper. not that I advocate eating lots of soy products. No better way to have too much Omega-6 in your diet than to eat loads of soy. Tofu is better than average because it is fermented, but still fermenting doesn't add O-3 and that's what an individual needs when consuming too much of it to reduce the inflammation propensity.
Oh so breakfast, this morning... my oldest had a breakfast sandwich at a place called Three Rivers a while back: english muffin, ham (or bacon), chevere (that soft goat cheese), and arugula. And since then she's always asking me to buy arugula. Well I haven't bought any in a while. She went out to lunch wed and had an arugula salad and a cup of lobster bisque. That reminded me about it and well Wholepaycheck (taking far too much of mine lately) had some organic arugula on sale. And she started yesterday off with one. This morning she got 1/2 way through and was full. And I got the second half. Yeah daddy garbage disposal. If everyone eats all their breakfast I don't eat usually. This morning I had a nice 1/2 a sandwich (ham inside not bacon today). It was pretty outstanding. Yes, my daughter has pretty sophisticated tastes for an 8 year old. The youngest isn't much different. it still can be pretty challenging to find something that everyone will eat every night though, I've worked hard at not making special meals for dinner. Breakfast, sure, unless I make french toast, pancakes or waffles, most times everyone eats something different. Although lately the oatmeal with frozen blueberries and strawberries is a very popular option.
here's a quote that Pete B posted yesterday over at the Owl Farm Blog to end the morning...
"When you need to get something done, give it to a busy man"
HST 5/01/2002
heddwch
G
Why is that unusual? Have ya ever put full coverage fenders on a bike? It never goes smoothly. Always kind of a pain. I guess the fact that they'd already been on the bike and I was just re-installing them meant that it SHOULD be easy. But 6 months sitting in a big rubber maid tub with all sorts of other crap accumulating on top of them isn't the best way to store them. None the less I still managed to find all the bolts and washers and get them on in about 10 minutes.
It was a nice ride in, fenders and a clean bike. I'd noticed that the underside of the top tube was polished shiny from the season of cross. The flat matte paint finish on the giant Cyclocross bike isn't bad, but it I managed or run around with the bike on my shoulder enough to make the top tube shiny on the underside. Took off the XTR pedals too. Put some old style LX SPDs on there. No point wearing out the good light pedals commuting. Yeah I meant to take them off a while ago. I meant to put the fenders on a while ago too. I had used a bit of that "liquid" pipe dope - liquid in the stuff is in a tube and is thicker than grease, and more specifically it isn't the teflon tape. The pedals came right out. And the threads were still well coated. I suggest giving that stuff a try sometime. Esp for threads you don't want to seize and you don't want to work loose. Stuffs good. The brake pads are pretty much toast. Managed to get one CX season out of three pairs of XTR cartridge pads, the M70/M90 ones.
Had a really fun stretch on the way in this morning. Coming up Crescent View just before turning right on Bullocks point I heard the roar of heavy equipment. Ya know the i've only got one gear diesel roar of a front loader kind of sound? Heard it coming up behind me and I made the right turn right behind him. And I motor paced off him for the couple mile run up before he turned off. A nice steady consistent effort... when he turned off I looked down and was surprised to find myself in the 13 in back. Cool. It was a nice drafting/motor-pacing way to start the morning. Managed to keep the coals stoked all the way in for a decent door to door time. Slightly over dressed but it was a nice way to start the week. Solo's post there for today has a pretty solidly well warranted poke in my direction, and many others I can assume. Hard to tell though. I got me introspecting enough to re-read the last handful of entries for the negative aspect he is touching on. Sort of funny in that this weekend I was thinking: it was around this time last year that I got all wound up about why someone would put Pectin in yogurt, and that lead me down a big path of not really intending to but blindly disparaging people's individual preferences. Since then I've worked on focusing on high points. That instance and many others including the closing of my brother's store have shaped a bit the direction of things. Food is food. You can eat what you want. But there was one other thing this weekend (going to pack it into the end of this monster paragraph so no one notices). Sunday morning or one of the news programs ran a thing about SPAM. The meat product. Made from Pork and Ham, which last I checked were both the same animal. That and it is seeing a giant resurgence because of "the economy". Okay. Great. Tofu is still cheaper. not that I advocate eating lots of soy products. No better way to have too much Omega-6 in your diet than to eat loads of soy. Tofu is better than average because it is fermented, but still fermenting doesn't add O-3 and that's what an individual needs when consuming too much of it to reduce the inflammation propensity.
Oh so breakfast, this morning... my oldest had a breakfast sandwich at a place called Three Rivers a while back: english muffin, ham (or bacon), chevere (that soft goat cheese), and arugula. And since then she's always asking me to buy arugula. Well I haven't bought any in a while. She went out to lunch wed and had an arugula salad and a cup of lobster bisque. That reminded me about it and well Wholepaycheck (taking far too much of mine lately) had some organic arugula on sale. And she started yesterday off with one. This morning she got 1/2 way through and was full. And I got the second half. Yeah daddy garbage disposal. If everyone eats all their breakfast I don't eat usually. This morning I had a nice 1/2 a sandwich (ham inside not bacon today). It was pretty outstanding. Yes, my daughter has pretty sophisticated tastes for an 8 year old. The youngest isn't much different. it still can be pretty challenging to find something that everyone will eat every night though, I've worked hard at not making special meals for dinner. Breakfast, sure, unless I make french toast, pancakes or waffles, most times everyone eats something different. Although lately the oatmeal with frozen blueberries and strawberries is a very popular option.
here's a quote that Pete B posted yesterday over at the Owl Farm Blog to end the morning...
"When you need to get something done, give it to a busy man"
HST 5/01/2002
heddwch
G
Friday, February 06, 2009
The Weeks End
We find ourselves at the end of another week. Or should I say: I find myself at...
Burlingame, check.
rear wheel rebuilt with the gracious use of a truing stand from Jack at Legend Bikes.
it was pretty damn cold this morning riding in. but it did warm up from 8°F to 12°F between waking up and leaving the house... plenty warm except my toes were slightly cold. not painful but just that 'hey my toes are cold' feeling.
no vehicular terrorist encounters this morning. It was rather pleasant.
Big Maggie B is retiring. Sounds like he is going out on his own terms, that's good. But I'll miss checking his name against the results and reading his interviews during the season.
hopefully i've got enough juice in my light battery to get home. It has been weeks since i've recharged it. damn nice thing about a 10,000 something or other battery is that it burns forever before going dead. Long enough that you forget if you charged it two, three or four weeks ago, and every night on the way home ya wonder: "Is tonight the night the lights go out on my head?" at least now with the path still well covered in snow and ice i'm on the well lit surface streets... don't need the light so much to see as to be seen... hopefully the little fixster cyst will keep blinking away long enough to get me home... i think i rode home last night forgetting to turn on the rear blinker... near 10 miles of riding around on the streets without a rear blinky - very bad. DOH!
Bridge work looks closer. Not there yet but hopefully they will be able to open the washington bridge sidewalk by the end of Feb. That will be nice. It will make it much quicker to get back and forth. Add that to a clear bike path and my commute can be a short as 15 minutes on the bike.
This is a new site as race.cx points out is just in time for the season to be completely over.
Well at least there's one more site to track.
Time to do some spring cleaning. There are a bunch of dead links and dead blogs over there on the left, need to do some weeding... maybe later
heddwch
G
Burlingame, check.
rear wheel rebuilt with the gracious use of a truing stand from Jack at Legend Bikes.
it was pretty damn cold this morning riding in. but it did warm up from 8°F to 12°F between waking up and leaving the house... plenty warm except my toes were slightly cold. not painful but just that 'hey my toes are cold' feeling.
no vehicular terrorist encounters this morning. It was rather pleasant.
Big Maggie B is retiring. Sounds like he is going out on his own terms, that's good. But I'll miss checking his name against the results and reading his interviews during the season.
hopefully i've got enough juice in my light battery to get home. It has been weeks since i've recharged it. damn nice thing about a 10,000 something or other battery is that it burns forever before going dead. Long enough that you forget if you charged it two, three or four weeks ago, and every night on the way home ya wonder: "Is tonight the night the lights go out on my head?" at least now with the path still well covered in snow and ice i'm on the well lit surface streets... don't need the light so much to see as to be seen... hopefully the little fixster cyst will keep blinking away long enough to get me home... i think i rode home last night forgetting to turn on the rear blinker... near 10 miles of riding around on the streets without a rear blinky - very bad. DOH!
Bridge work looks closer. Not there yet but hopefully they will be able to open the washington bridge sidewalk by the end of Feb. That will be nice. It will make it much quicker to get back and forth. Add that to a clear bike path and my commute can be a short as 15 minutes on the bike.
This is a new site as race.cx points out is just in time for the season to be completely over.
Well at least there's one more site to track.
Time to do some spring cleaning. There are a bunch of dead links and dead blogs over there on the left, need to do some weeding... maybe later
heddwch
G
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Saint Sheldon Day
Feb 3rd.
Why did everyone miss it? I feel bad that I missed it.
I was reminded by Urban Velo's blog entry this morning. I went back and checked my archives. I found a link to The Church of the Big Ring's entry.
The Wiki page is a good reflective starting point. Sheldon Brown.com sort of lives on with his spirit but doesn't tell the story past Feb 2008. And that's okay.
Saint Sheldon is still a giant, an icon, a true roll model for everyone. He did his work for free. No google adds, no flashy java links to stuff for sale, there wasn't a bicycle he didn't like, pretty much that he didn't own it seemed.
Saint Sheldon is still missed greatly by me, and I hope at least by others as well. It is comforting to know that when I have a question about something bike mechanic related that I can't answer, sheldon usually has already answered it and put it on his web page.
heddwch
G
Colder than I thought
This morning was a bit colder. I was expecting the teens and woke up to single digits (8 to be exact at our house). I'm know for a fact it is colder other places, I'm not always comparing against others, sometimes sure, not this time. It was a planned diesel drive in today. Dealer called and can't complete the registration stuff w/o me going to do the VIN check on the car. RI has this great wonderful DMV process. Get a car from a dealer or register the car here from out of state and ya need to go down to your local police station and have them look at the VIN number, check that it is the same in two places on the car, record the odometer, describe the vehicle and give you a big fancy piece of paper that you then go and take with you to register it. And of course it isn't free. At least the EP folks don't charge too much. So yeah. I drove in because I have to do that today so I can get the real plates stuck on the car before the temp tag expires.
Didn't plug the Golf in last night (Passat doesn't have a coolant heater or frost plug installed yet) and both cars fired up with the first cycle of the glow plugs. Fired right up. No hesitation. Pretty slick. Granted I'd recently changed the adaptation for the glow plug cycle duration to close to the limit so they are on in the Passat for about 15 seconds and in the Golf about 12 seconds. But they both chugged to life and were purring away w/in a minute or two.
I underestimated how cold it was on the way home last night. I saw the temp display reported on the weather web pages as being 27, light wind, and figured hey no big deal. Well I got home and it was already 19 degrees. Ooops, no wonder my lips and cheeks were feeling a bit stiff and the lobster mitts weren't quite enough.
The best part of driving in is having my travel mug (a kick ass one my sister gave me last year or two years ago) full of ginger with a slice of lemon here at my desk. Love the smell and it tastes so good. No rushing to drink it down at home like normal. Maybe I should break out the old trusty IBIS Hot Unit and holder...
Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely- read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.
- Hesketh Pearson
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
I went looking back at 2008 Feb postings and I miss the bike path. The winter is great. Last night I got home and my wife had printed out some shots from early in january when the path was still ridable and one had some ducks and geese. I miss seeing the waterfowl. Miss hearing their chatter. The path is sort of a zen recharge in a way. A peaceful stretch of a good handful of miles where I can just key into the tiny changes of the season, notice the tides, the change of flotsam and jetsam on the high water mark. The changing dynamics of the species and numbers of the birds. Even the stupid flying rats. This is the prime bombing season, but I guess with a path covered in snow dropping mussels and clams on snow isn't going to help open them. Even still I long for the DEM to just run a blade up and down the path after a snowfall. It would be really nice. Weaving around the carpet bombing of the flying rats is really not as bad as dodging grumpy cold and irate terrorists in big metal boxes. Yeah. I've come to associate road rage and angry drivers with terrorists. It would be an interesting precedent if a lawyer prosecuted a road rage case using the terrorism laws in the books now. Seems reasonable. An aggro driver is really just hoping to instill terror to get the more timid out of their way. Bad culture. Bad stuff. Relax, chill, slow down behind the wheel. being an aggressive dipshit doesn't help anyone. How to get that idea into the heads of people? I don't know.
I've got a bunch of "getting faster" musings. But then the public mockery of just ideas about getting faster, having a longer range plan/hope, talking about things is actually quenching the desire to expound on it. The internal debate is ranging close to turning all comments off, but i keep stepping back away from that course of action. It is pretty funny the notion of "look you are a failure unless you do everything in your power to be fast this season" as if the next season is your shot at going pro and that's really all there is to live for. The idea or notion that just improving every year is a good thing is selling your cycling short is prevalent with the vocal internet terrorists. That thinking about things and looking realistically at your life and setting a goal that isn't too far out of reach is crazy. Some people get it. it makes sense to me.
It is along these lines:
We're human. Given different abilities, physical and mental. We all have our own demons to wrestle through.
heddwch
G
Didn't plug the Golf in last night (Passat doesn't have a coolant heater or frost plug installed yet) and both cars fired up with the first cycle of the glow plugs. Fired right up. No hesitation. Pretty slick. Granted I'd recently changed the adaptation for the glow plug cycle duration to close to the limit so they are on in the Passat for about 15 seconds and in the Golf about 12 seconds. But they both chugged to life and were purring away w/in a minute or two.
I underestimated how cold it was on the way home last night. I saw the temp display reported on the weather web pages as being 27, light wind, and figured hey no big deal. Well I got home and it was already 19 degrees. Ooops, no wonder my lips and cheeks were feeling a bit stiff and the lobster mitts weren't quite enough.
The best part of driving in is having my travel mug (a kick ass one my sister gave me last year or two years ago) full of ginger with a slice of lemon here at my desk. Love the smell and it tastes so good. No rushing to drink it down at home like normal. Maybe I should break out the old trusty IBIS Hot Unit and holder...
Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely- read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.
- Hesketh Pearson
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
I went looking back at 2008 Feb postings and I miss the bike path. The winter is great. Last night I got home and my wife had printed out some shots from early in january when the path was still ridable and one had some ducks and geese. I miss seeing the waterfowl. Miss hearing their chatter. The path is sort of a zen recharge in a way. A peaceful stretch of a good handful of miles where I can just key into the tiny changes of the season, notice the tides, the change of flotsam and jetsam on the high water mark. The changing dynamics of the species and numbers of the birds. Even the stupid flying rats. This is the prime bombing season, but I guess with a path covered in snow dropping mussels and clams on snow isn't going to help open them. Even still I long for the DEM to just run a blade up and down the path after a snowfall. It would be really nice. Weaving around the carpet bombing of the flying rats is really not as bad as dodging grumpy cold and irate terrorists in big metal boxes. Yeah. I've come to associate road rage and angry drivers with terrorists. It would be an interesting precedent if a lawyer prosecuted a road rage case using the terrorism laws in the books now. Seems reasonable. An aggro driver is really just hoping to instill terror to get the more timid out of their way. Bad culture. Bad stuff. Relax, chill, slow down behind the wheel. being an aggressive dipshit doesn't help anyone. How to get that idea into the heads of people? I don't know.
I've got a bunch of "getting faster" musings. But then the public mockery of just ideas about getting faster, having a longer range plan/hope, talking about things is actually quenching the desire to expound on it. The internal debate is ranging close to turning all comments off, but i keep stepping back away from that course of action. It is pretty funny the notion of "look you are a failure unless you do everything in your power to be fast this season" as if the next season is your shot at going pro and that's really all there is to live for. The idea or notion that just improving every year is a good thing is selling your cycling short is prevalent with the vocal internet terrorists. That thinking about things and looking realistically at your life and setting a goal that isn't too far out of reach is crazy. Some people get it. it makes sense to me.
It is along these lines:
But what I do is far from perfect... It may work for a given athlete for one race but not as well for the next. That’s because we are humans and not machines. There are many variables in our lives. Actually, I’m glad it’s that way.(the ellipsis is actually employed correctly for a change in this blog in that quote). Source or quote here.
We're human. Given different abilities, physical and mental. We all have our own demons to wrestle through.
heddwch
G
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
squeeky squeeky
Damnit.
Well heading down to the other facility the bike was a bit loud. WTF. Ah damn it.
I'd lubed the sumbitch up well on Monday night. Rode in the wet misty stuff on they way in Tuesday. Rode home in wet salty snow Tuesday night. Rode in this morning in really really heavy salty wet (it was 18°F and wet on the roads - yes lots of salt) slushy water. Bike and me covered in salt. Well once everything melted off it seems i didn't quite leave enough lube on the bike Monday to make it through the last few days. It was squeeeeeeeeeky on the way down and back up.
EVerLube fail. Okay well not technically. It was my fail for not putting more on and doing what I should have done last night. IE lube/clean the chain after the wet rides.
It is good for many rainy wet rides but these slushy super salty rides get to it like a dry lube. It does stay clean like a dry lube and sticks around longer than most dry lubes. Lasts about as long in the rain/slush at T-9 but doesn't get as dirty.
Felt stronger heading up the hill on the way back here. They aren't hill repeats, just a few hills now and then. The new installation means i'm seeing the hill quite a few more times a week than usual. Good stuff.
Now to get home without driving myself nuts with the squeeeeeek (i should really keep an extra bottle here at work - it isn't like i just filled up three bottles with it on monday). gonna take a bit of mineral oil (closest to lube i've got) to get home. Clean it up with some EVerLube and remember to apply POST wet rides...
Well heading down to the other facility the bike was a bit loud. WTF. Ah damn it.
I'd lubed the sumbitch up well on Monday night. Rode in the wet misty stuff on they way in Tuesday. Rode home in wet salty snow Tuesday night. Rode in this morning in really really heavy salty wet (it was 18°F and wet on the roads - yes lots of salt) slushy water. Bike and me covered in salt. Well once everything melted off it seems i didn't quite leave enough lube on the bike Monday to make it through the last few days. It was squeeeeeeeeeky on the way down and back up.
EVerLube fail. Okay well not technically. It was my fail for not putting more on and doing what I should have done last night. IE lube/clean the chain after the wet rides.
It is good for many rainy wet rides but these slushy super salty rides get to it like a dry lube. It does stay clean like a dry lube and sticks around longer than most dry lubes. Lasts about as long in the rain/slush at T-9 but doesn't get as dirty.
Felt stronger heading up the hill on the way back here. They aren't hill repeats, just a few hills now and then. The new installation means i'm seeing the hill quite a few more times a week than usual. Good stuff.
Now to get home without driving myself nuts with the squeeeeeek (i should really keep an extra bottle here at work - it isn't like i just filled up three bottles with it on monday). gonna take a bit of mineral oil (closest to lube i've got) to get home. Clean it up with some EVerLube and remember to apply POST wet rides...
Commuting in the snow
not the best, but hey it wasn't too bad. By the time I hit the roads on the way home everyone had already gone through it seemed. Kids got picked up from after school early and it seemed that everyone who could did leave work early. I made it from the lights at Bayview all the way to the lights there for the 103 turn without getting passed by a single car. that was pretty remarkable. And then when cars did pass me they were going pretty damn slow, very close to my speed. Kind of nice. I booked it home though. Lots of effort to match speed [of the cars] where I could, and no slacking on the hills. Between the upped intensity on the way in, the elevated sprint intensity going down to the other facility and back (lots of motor pacing and college hill), and the effort to get home quickly, i was pretty worn out.
This morning I felt it. And so I took it easy. Moment of ah crap when the driver's side door lock on the Passat wouldn't open, quick switch of car seats over to the golf and me clearing the snow and ice off the windows bare handed (with a scraper and a broom) for 5-10 minute left my hands a touch cold but not too bad. And it slowed my departure time down a few minutes. Getting in a bit later than normal but there was a lot more snow on the side streets and the shoulders this morning. The delay actually made for a slightly less traffic filled ride in. But the flip side was all the jackasses were out who were running late. One "person" in a Jeep coming down hope got in the right hand lane (it is a one lane road with a turn lane at that point and a one lane road on the other side of the stop light). So i went to the left of the car and went straight and got yelled at vociferously as the wrangler went roaring by. WTF is up, why do those damn things have to be so freaking loud? engine coupled fan or something? Anyway it came to a stop and well i had to ask what the hell. And i got an ear full and the poor passenger in between (appeared to be the girlfriend) tried to shut the driver up. Always like that eh? I was polite, asking why they went straight (yes it happens all the time there). I couldn't help it. They just replied "did you seem my F*cking blinker on?" I didn't say, oh yeah that's a good indicator of what you are going to do, sure you go in the right turn lane and then you go straight. Uh huh. Nice. I kept my composure and rolled off and finished the commute. I know I should just let them roll on by. But I've actually had some great conversations with people who honk at me just before a stop light. So I keep trying to be a polite but sometimes outspoken advocate for respecting cyclists on the road. Good idea? I dunno, I usually try to use my brain in the situation before getting in over my head. I get overwhelmingly more positive interactions so i guess that's why i still do it. Far less than my aggressive days in Michigan. Age has mellowed me and given me a bit more knowledge about how and when to pick the circumstances for a polite exchange.
Made some killer pancakes this morning. Oh they were good. Took my old standard pancake recipe that I like and used 1/2 the unbleached white flour, making up the difference with whole wheat and some freshly ground (that morning in my christmas present) millet and flax seeds. Made a few rounds plain and the rest of the batch with frozen wild blueberries (Maine ones of course). Served with either maple syrup or frozen strawberries macerated into a sauce. They were really actually pretty damn amazing, if i do say so myself.
That with a big mug of fresh ginger and lemon in hot water was a nice way to prep for the ride in. Of course the outerwear is now completely crusted in salt and the bike is draining on newspaper and cardboard in the office, and man alive is it dirty. But the EVerlube is keeping the chain nice and quiet and rust free.
heddwch
G
This morning I felt it. And so I took it easy. Moment of ah crap when the driver's side door lock on the Passat wouldn't open, quick switch of car seats over to the golf and me clearing the snow and ice off the windows bare handed (with a scraper and a broom) for 5-10 minute left my hands a touch cold but not too bad. And it slowed my departure time down a few minutes. Getting in a bit later than normal but there was a lot more snow on the side streets and the shoulders this morning. The delay actually made for a slightly less traffic filled ride in. But the flip side was all the jackasses were out who were running late. One "person" in a Jeep coming down hope got in the right hand lane (it is a one lane road with a turn lane at that point and a one lane road on the other side of the stop light). So i went to the left of the car and went straight and got yelled at vociferously as the wrangler went roaring by. WTF is up, why do those damn things have to be so freaking loud? engine coupled fan or something? Anyway it came to a stop and well i had to ask what the hell. And i got an ear full and the poor passenger in between (appeared to be the girlfriend) tried to shut the driver up. Always like that eh? I was polite, asking why they went straight (yes it happens all the time there). I couldn't help it. They just replied "did you seem my F*cking blinker on?" I didn't say, oh yeah that's a good indicator of what you are going to do, sure you go in the right turn lane and then you go straight. Uh huh. Nice. I kept my composure and rolled off and finished the commute. I know I should just let them roll on by. But I've actually had some great conversations with people who honk at me just before a stop light. So I keep trying to be a polite but sometimes outspoken advocate for respecting cyclists on the road. Good idea? I dunno, I usually try to use my brain in the situation before getting in over my head. I get overwhelmingly more positive interactions so i guess that's why i still do it. Far less than my aggressive days in Michigan. Age has mellowed me and given me a bit more knowledge about how and when to pick the circumstances for a polite exchange.
Made some killer pancakes this morning. Oh they were good. Took my old standard pancake recipe that I like and used 1/2 the unbleached white flour, making up the difference with whole wheat and some freshly ground (that morning in my christmas present) millet and flax seeds. Made a few rounds plain and the rest of the batch with frozen wild blueberries (Maine ones of course). Served with either maple syrup or frozen strawberries macerated into a sauce. They were really actually pretty damn amazing, if i do say so myself.
That with a big mug of fresh ginger and lemon in hot water was a nice way to prep for the ride in. Of course the outerwear is now completely crusted in salt and the bike is draining on newspaper and cardboard in the office, and man alive is it dirty. But the EVerlube is keeping the chain nice and quiet and rust free.
heddwch
G
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Grinding away
Riding home last night I thought about that statement of mine - the hills demand grinding and sprinting is spinning. Really ya can't make it that clear cut. I climbed up college in my 50x25 with my bag on my back thinking about my riding style 18 or 19 years ago. I wondered if, in addition to being 6'6" and 165 pounds, having a 13-18 straight block in the back with a 39 up front forced me to learn to climb well. Of course most everyone rode those kind of gears then. Now? Not so much. Our of shape I couldn't make it up Mt Battie with that gearing but in form there wasn't a wall in SE CT that I couldn't conquer. That grinding leverage was lost a bit last year. Not that bad still hiding in the background. Not till I started that first cross race up in Amesbury in the rain did I realize spending all that time working on the spin, I had neglected to work on the torque. I hadn't neglected it, just hadn't put the same focus on that aspect as I did on the spin.
Riding home in a few spots I have the opportunity to ride with faster (than me) traffic. And that gives me an opportunity to revisit the spin. And it is still there. Pretty nice feeling. Last night falling asleep I was thinking about adding the torque back in as a layer on top of the spin. layer by layer building up to some sort of a reasonable cyclist. all the while trying to keep the spin, add the torque, ie strength back in.
this morning was a great ride in. made it in pretty damn quickly. actually employed big bikes (or should I say "Bicycles for People Who Are Disturbingly Thin Yet Constantly Talk About Their Weight") lane splitting technique before the school there. I timed it right to slip in behind a RIDE bus as the traffic picked up and spun my ass off sticking in his draft to the light. Then carried the speed and the spin through the down hill section. Stuck with the tall gear for the uphill slog past the golf course and tried to keep the burn in the legs and lungs going as long as I could. It isn't dedicated and defined trainer time. Or TSS type workouts. And yes I know I may not be doing the Hard Easy as effectively as I should. But I'm doing what I can do. Adding lots of resistance to the base. Turning those big 740 gram tires hopefully will pay off when I switch over to some 230 gram ones.
All in all it is a big experiment. I actually enjoy the over thinking part of it all. maybe in 5-6 years i'll have something figured out. Till then i'm in it to have fun with the thought (or hope/prayer) that maybe someday i'll be competing for a podium. Till then my first priority will be head chef and chief bottle washer for the house...
heddwch
G
Riding home in a few spots I have the opportunity to ride with faster (than me) traffic. And that gives me an opportunity to revisit the spin. And it is still there. Pretty nice feeling. Last night falling asleep I was thinking about adding the torque back in as a layer on top of the spin. layer by layer building up to some sort of a reasonable cyclist. all the while trying to keep the spin, add the torque, ie strength back in.
this morning was a great ride in. made it in pretty damn quickly. actually employed big bikes (or should I say "Bicycles for People Who Are Disturbingly Thin Yet Constantly Talk About Their Weight") lane splitting technique before the school there. I timed it right to slip in behind a RIDE bus as the traffic picked up and spun my ass off sticking in his draft to the light. Then carried the speed and the spin through the down hill section. Stuck with the tall gear for the uphill slog past the golf course and tried to keep the burn in the legs and lungs going as long as I could. It isn't dedicated and defined trainer time. Or TSS type workouts. And yes I know I may not be doing the Hard Easy as effectively as I should. But I'm doing what I can do. Adding lots of resistance to the base. Turning those big 740 gram tires hopefully will pay off when I switch over to some 230 gram ones.
All in all it is a big experiment. I actually enjoy the over thinking part of it all. maybe in 5-6 years i'll have something figured out. Till then i'm in it to have fun with the thought (or hope/prayer) that maybe someday i'll be competing for a podium. Till then my first priority will be head chef and chief bottle washer for the house...
heddwch
G
Monday, February 02, 2009
No big game dissapointment
That superbowl thing was pretty exciting. From my view it looked like Warner didn't have control of the ball when his arm started going forward. Fumble was the right call IMHO. Good game. Pretty intense. The Steelers offense looked like themselves. The appearance of futile but doing just what needed to be done to win the game. Pretty amazing. Definitely happy they won. Wouldn't have been too heart broken if they lost but hey, they won. It was a good game. The only commercial that made me laugh out loud was the retrieving clydesdale. That was funny. "show off"
Came across google 411 for the first time today. Looks awesome. Going to have to add it to my contact list on the phone. I always find ways not to use 411 services because i'm a cheap bastard. Google 411, no fee, sounds pretty damn slick.
Looking through the photos posted today from the Women's race I noticed the USA team was wearing different accessories. Different gloves, baselayers, and legwarmers. I guess the $800 you have to pay the "federation" for the privilege of racing for your country after being selected includes a skinsuit (looks to be the track team's olympic left-overs) and little else. Ah well. They still went and kicked ass and made it exciting to watch and follow live yesterday morning. I'm a big what if person and I can't help but think: "what if katie had warm and covered legs the whole race?" "what if she didn't have the distraction of the pirate boots?" Vos still probably would have won. But ya never know. At least Katie looked very happy to be on the podium... esp considering how close her leg warmers were to getting wrapped up catastrophically in her drive train.
Oh and the Habanero sauce from the burrito place IS very hot. The sauce is orange in color. And is wicked freaking hot. AWESOME. Tongue burning hot. I'm used to dumping two tablespoons of the Sirachi chili sauce on food... I put a fresh serano chopped up seeds and all in my chili yesterday and didn't really even notice the heat... and this sauce is hot. Their regular hot sauce is nice watery flavorful tomato based stuff but it ain't spicy. A nice warm glow is coming from my pleasantly full belly... wicked spicy stuff really is pretty awesome.
Cross is over. Long live cross. Time to move on to the fun bike riding stuff.
Riding to work is fun. Lots of fun. I don't ride so much because it is the "green" way to go, yes it happens to be, but more importantly it is fun. I like it. All the other benefits are gravy. The commute keeps my base somewhat consistent. It keeps my metabolism high. It helps reduce stress levels. Would be nice to get a few good longer rides in with more intensity, but they will come. More frequently once we get some daylight and if the snow ever melts.
JZ linked this and it is well worth watching. Esp quotable right around the 3 minute mark about imagination.
Time for some extra hill work today... Church of the Big Ring is calling. Small ring makes me spin well but damn it ain't do much good for hill climbing, sprinting? Yes, hill climbing no.
heddwch
G
Came across google 411 for the first time today. Looks awesome. Going to have to add it to my contact list on the phone. I always find ways not to use 411 services because i'm a cheap bastard. Google 411, no fee, sounds pretty damn slick.
Looking through the photos posted today from the Women's race I noticed the USA team was wearing different accessories. Different gloves, baselayers, and legwarmers. I guess the $800 you have to pay the "federation" for the privilege of racing for your country after being selected includes a skinsuit (looks to be the track team's olympic left-overs) and little else. Ah well. They still went and kicked ass and made it exciting to watch and follow live yesterday morning. I'm a big what if person and I can't help but think: "what if katie had warm and covered legs the whole race?" "what if she didn't have the distraction of the pirate boots?" Vos still probably would have won. But ya never know. At least Katie looked very happy to be on the podium... esp considering how close her leg warmers were to getting wrapped up catastrophically in her drive train.
Oh and the Habanero sauce from the burrito place IS very hot. The sauce is orange in color. And is wicked freaking hot. AWESOME. Tongue burning hot. I'm used to dumping two tablespoons of the Sirachi chili sauce on food... I put a fresh serano chopped up seeds and all in my chili yesterday and didn't really even notice the heat... and this sauce is hot. Their regular hot sauce is nice watery flavorful tomato based stuff but it ain't spicy. A nice warm glow is coming from my pleasantly full belly... wicked spicy stuff really is pretty awesome.
Cross is over. Long live cross. Time to move on to the fun bike riding stuff.
Riding to work is fun. Lots of fun. I don't ride so much because it is the "green" way to go, yes it happens to be, but more importantly it is fun. I like it. All the other benefits are gravy. The commute keeps my base somewhat consistent. It keeps my metabolism high. It helps reduce stress levels. Would be nice to get a few good longer rides in with more intensity, but they will come. More frequently once we get some daylight and if the snow ever melts.
JZ linked this and it is well worth watching. Esp quotable right around the 3 minute mark about imagination.
Time for some extra hill work today... Church of the Big Ring is calling. Small ring makes me spin well but damn it ain't do much good for hill climbing, sprinting? Yes, hill climbing no.
heddwch
G
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Watch it LIVE
Here.
Sporza! YEAH!
Sporza live in one monitor... CXmag's feed in the other!
too bad we can't get the sporza feed full screen (although i suppose I could make the resoltion of the monitor smaller)... hmmm (didn't work)
----
HOLY SH!T these guys are freaking FAST
unbelievable... stybar and his Derny laps definitely looks wicked smart.
---
BOOOM - dragging them back, in the DROPS!
Treefarm pulled out... he needs a solid dose of HTFU or some good mental coaching from Marvin Z.
HOLY CRAP BOOM JUST PITTED???? WTF
UH OH
COME ON BOOM...
---
8:52 - i predict I will fall asleep during the superbowl
---
8:53 - Boom is blown... oh man
---
9:32 - wow Albert was impressive, stybar too... impressive, really impressive...
Neils and Stybar don't look tired at all...
this was incredibly cool...
Sporza! YEAH!
Sporza live in one monitor... CXmag's feed in the other!
too bad we can't get the sporza feed full screen (although i suppose I could make the resoltion of the monitor smaller)... hmmm (didn't work)
----
HOLY SH!T these guys are freaking FAST
unbelievable... stybar and his Derny laps definitely looks wicked smart.
---
BOOOM - dragging them back, in the DROPS!
Treefarm pulled out... he needs a solid dose of HTFU or some good mental coaching from Marvin Z.
HOLY CRAP BOOM JUST PITTED???? WTF
UH OH
COME ON BOOM...
---
8:52 - i predict I will fall asleep during the superbowl
---
8:53 - Boom is blown... oh man
---
9:32 - wow Albert was impressive, stybar too... impressive, really impressive...
Neils and Stybar don't look tired at all...
this was incredibly cool...
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