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:

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
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