letter from nana

or is it letters from grandma - i dunno Roy-ter knows and is emphatic about it. but damn

this is funny - sad and way too accurate:

Ten Signs You Are An Unquestioning Christian

1: You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of YOUR god.

2: You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from lesser life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

3: You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem with believing in a Trinity god.

4: Your face turns purple when you hear of the atrocities attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehova slaughtered all of the babies of Egypt in 'Exodus' and ordered the elimination of ENTIRE ETHNIC GROUPS in 'Joshua' - including women, children, and animals.

5: You laugh at Hindu beliefs that defy humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem in believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

6: You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (4.55 billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by pre-historic tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that the Earth is a couple of generations old.

7: You believe that the entire population of this planet, with the exception of those who share your beliefs - though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend eternity in an infinite hell of suffering. Yet you consider your religion the most tolerant and loving.

8: While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some person rolling around on the floor 'speaking in tongues' may be all the evidence you need.

9: You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be the evidence that prayer works, and you think that the remaining 99.99 % failure was simply the will of God.

10: You actually know a lot less than many Atheists and Agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history, but still call yourself a "Christian".

had a great ride today. this morning i started the day off with a killer kale cheese egg and salami on english muffin sandwich - oh so tasty. Followed it up with a ride in that was painful. after a good hard warm up i started in on a 10 pedal strokes at max power, 20 not very easy, 10 sprint pedals and repeat for about 5 miles. eyeballs were bugging out by the time i got to the city and it was awesome. Make me fast? I dunno it wasn't anywhere near the length of a whole race. Pretty short but it hurt and it was kind of fun.

The ride home was a race - i was late of course. But the path here is totally dry except for the sewer water (barrington poop) washing across the bike path, man that might be one of the more exclusive towns in the state but their shit still stinks like everyone else.

An Arab's Royal Son Goes To Germany To Study. A Month Later, He Sends a Letter To His Dad Saying
" BERLIN IS WONDERFUL. PEOPLE ARE NICE & I REALLY LIKE IT HERE
BUT I AM BIT ASHAMED TO ARRIVE TO SCHOOL WITH MY GOLD MERCEDES WHEN ALL MY TEACHERS TRAVEL BY TRAIN"
Sometimes Later He Gets a Letter from His Dad With a Ten Million Dollar Cheque Saying
"STOP EMBARRASSING US. GO & GET YOURSELF A TRAIN TOO"

yeah so we'll see, G-ride's probably faster than me right now. All I can hope for is that it is wicked windy and raining and cold for the crit on saturday, but right now NOAA is saying it will be calm and warm.

tomorrow's riding is tossed to the winds of uncertainty. we'll see what it brings.

but overall things are good right now - i've stopped being so damn sensitive and moody, i've got a bike race of sorts to look forward to, some great team mates to ride with and hell, it is Easter weekend. Sunday is a feast. Well that and a very holy day but at least the weather is looking good. Oh and every day this week i'm counting my blessings that I don't have any water in the basement here in RI. So thankful.

be good - don't listen to me or do but don't mind the contradictions

heddwch
G

copenhagen wheel project

copenhagen wheel project

THEY FIXED IT - the front page. The "web" designers had the bike inverted (left side drive train) when the page went live, until now. Just got a note that they fixed it!

Still a damn cool idea - that and it would be cool to integrate a powermeter type readout/recording feature...

'Caveman Diet' growing followers - ESPN

'Caveman Diet' growing followers - ESPN

Uh oh - see what is it reading that article I think: "Hey that's a good idea" but then wait a second i've been hearing about it for a long time and never really subscribed to it - but somehow you get this Page 2 writer and a foodball player to talk about it and it sounds appealing? Damn i'm more brain washed than I thought.

That said I don't think me eating that diet will add a 100 pounds... me at 300 pounds? Yeah I don't see that happening.

Maybe that's why the wooly bastard looks thinner now, his subscription to the Friel way of thinking.

oh yeah... btw

I signed up to do the Chris Hinds Crit this weekend. What am I thinking. Going to have to figure out how to do the whole Crit thing all over again. We'll see if I can last and hang with the Cat 4s, i'd stick around and do the masters race but that start list looks like a who's who of National Champions - i don't belong in that race quite yet.

Flooded?

A whole HELL of a lot of flooding going on here in this state. Everything is closing, people are evacuating. Rumor is they are shutting down I-95 at 5pm.

Both locations (factory home base and remote factory) at work are dry and above water. Remote one is at the greatest risk but it is close to a tidal body of water and not likely to get flooded or incur any water damage. Big shop is a brand new building sitting on bedrock on the top of a hill. Nice and dry.

The ride in was spectacular. From the sewer water overflowing out of the manhole just across the little bridge north of Crescent Lane, or the inch of water flowing down hill edge to edge just north of that or the big vernal spring by the fuel terminal rushing across the bike path for about 50 feet there was a good bit of water.

But.

It is along a nice bit of water. That is tidal. Tidal water is awesome. I grew up on that stuff, love it. Rivers and lakes are great but they really suck right about now if you are in a flood area. The Pawtuxet river is at 16.65 ft above the normal water line (and rising). SIXTEEN FEET! that's a lot of area, and sadly a densely populated area.

Good time to own a disaster clean up company. That or a frustrating time. They all have waiting lists. Heck the Barrington Fire Department has a long wait list to come pump houses. Why? Well FDs have high volume pumps and well they can respond and remove water from the basement pretty quickly for you, but you need to have more than 2" of standing water, and right now you need to get on the list.

Also do you need some hose for your high volume temporary pump? Check your local fire station. They are forbidden to throw out old hoses (so the current rumor has it) and they can only use a hose for so long before it is deemed unfit for regular service, and they stock pile them up, and so if you are really nice to the chief you might be able to score a nice 100' of hose that rolls flat and is ready to hook up to your massive flotec pump to.

The wind on the way in wasn't that much fun. Solid blast from the east. Actually I didn't notice it much until I hit the exposed causeway. The bluff shielded enough of the wind up to that point. Definitely not rip roaring tail wind.

And that ride home last night was awesome.

Yes. I do love weather. And yes I'm getting home completely drenched, soaked through and through but loving every DAMN minute of being on the bike out there.

granted if it was 35 and raining this hard and this windy, well that might be miserable. But 45-50 like it is now? Couldn't be better. I do wish it didn't have such a disastrous impact on so many people. I hope the sump pumps can keep up with the water in my brother's basement and those hydraulic cement patches he's been stuffing the gushers with hold.

Be safe out there. Before you go driving in all this check to see where your car's air intake is. Check which side and how high up it goes. Sucking water up into an engine is the surest way to destroy and engine. not that anyone should be driving a car, everyone should be riding bikes ;) and saving the planet so these nasty weather events stop happening ;)

oh and agave is worse for you than HFCS? No way? WAY! it is bad bad bad juju. Really bad.

Crazy morning

But man it was a fast ride in. That tail wind was bitching strong. Cranking over the big gears with the wind was like riding between the rain drops. And the tide was way up and the waves were a couple feet all the way in the bay up even in the river.

The wind was driving mad, and strong and it was a blast.

Good feelings in the legs. And most of the stuff is almost dry from the ride in. I brought a second set of everything except shoes and gloves but I think i'll be able to get away with using the same stuff.

It really was pretty amazing. Just flying in like that, also amazing how much faster you go and how easy it is without any wind resistance, then when you get in a wind shadow and the full force of the relative speed you are going hits - that's pretty cool.

I'm actually sort of thinking about chris hinds this weekend. Not sure why, well i know why. I kind of want to race, itching to. Something flat and windy sounds wonderful... Although those corners and stuff, i haven't raced them since that fateful bob beal crit way way long ago... they aren't that tricky, pretty mellow, put the 28s on there run about 80 psi and i can corner with the lightweights pretty well. But hearing all about Marblehead and riding with Murat has me all itching to race. Not racing at Burlingame (no i don't have one ounce of regret missing it) and then not going to Battenkill leave a gap in the early season that i feel a need to fill for some reason.

But then I haven't done anything closely resembling high intensity intervals that a crit sort of demands. But then if it is flat enough i should be able to just hang on and suffer... and i can probably find a ride down so that eliminates that whole limiter... that and I should probably renew my license sooner than later...

Just overthinking it all again. Maybe if I think about it long enough registration will fill and I'll have a really good excuse to pick a later race.

Oh and finally getting to read Doug's account of Burlingame? Fuuuuuuhk, I'm flat out DELIGHTED that i skipped it this year.

We'll see about this weekend or up coming weekends... too many variables...

heddwch
G

one post in progress

and another in the cue about this morning...

but for the mean time until i get everything else finished, this is pretty funny:

A Different day on the bike

No big ride with other riders. I had a ride with someone even more special. All morning while my oldest was out of the house with my wife the youngest got it in her head that we should do the shopping while they are gone. What? I explained we needed to head to the city and we didn't have the car, and completely unprompted and to my surprise she said "lets take the buggy!" Huh? TAKE THE BUGGY. No, lets wait till they get back? "NO"

Okay so I conceded defeat and started digging the trailer out from behind the other bikes. We got it cleaned up and sorted out the bags loaded up and we headed in.

Yup. On the trailer. To the big fancy grocery store (non-organic milk is almost a dollar cheaper there than the local shaws, which i found out after buying milk because we needed it the day before) in the city. not the little fancy one on Waterman. Nope the big one down the other side of the hill.

And of course it is windy. A few other bloggers of note have mentioned the wind yesterday. On the way in with an unloaded trailer, except for my rather tall pre-k kid in there we made decent time with the tail wind. Felt pretty nice.

Swung by the office and grabbed the lock (why i can't find keys to the U-locks at home or u-locks for the keys i do have i don't know - maybe the locks are with my drill) and rolled down in to go shopping. My littlest prefers to shop with me at the big wholefoods (as she calls it) because we both know where everything is and we have fun doing it. Yeah it is fun shopping with my kids. Doing anything with them is fun.

So we get there load up with stuff (gallon of apple cider, 5 pounds of flour, pound or two of cheese, quart of yogurt, bottle of olive oil, cans of beans, some sweet italian sausage...) notice the list isn't really populated with light weight items. By the time we added all the veggies, well, i had slightly more volume than I had thought but I had brought the big messenger bag and put the bread and veggies and apples (organic fujis were on sale) in there and put the heavy stuff in the trailer.

Oh man was that work making it up olney. And then turning onto Brown into the headwind, ooof. It was a slog.

It has been a long time since I've hauled her around and the ride on Saturday wasn't really a cake walk. But man it was great. She had a blast. Coming home into the intensely strong 20+mph sustained headwind was something else all together. To top it off we get down onto the causeway and just after that in the protection of the scrub I hear her trying to get my attention... "Daddy I have to go potty REALLY BADLY!" Oh boy. She's a slave driver alright. What's a dad going to do but redouble his efforts and crank that thing up. Total red line all the way home. No relief.

I did notice coming in that last mile i was was turning over the big ring with intensity into a headwind towing nearly 100 pounds of stuff and kid, where as yesterday with a tail wind in the same section i couldn't even turn the little ring over in the smallest cog with much force.

No bonkitude for that ride. It took just about an hour to ride back, 45 or so to ride there. The most exciting thing was a small old escort coupe that slammed into the back of a toyota camry at the bottom of the vet before the onramp to 195. Screech and a crunch/bang, radiator was dislodged and the engine sized up and locked man that was a crazy hit. I was focused on the up coming left hand turn and trying to slow down enough and only looked over when i heard the tire squeal. dude driving it looked about to be in his early 20s, and got out okay it looked like. Air bag went off. He was definitely going too fast down that hill and probably texting or something (funny how every accident now is blamed on distracted drivers texting).

Nothing exciting on the way back. Our route was quiet, very very few cars. That's the nice thing about hitting the big one, it might be a bit farther away but there's a nice very low traffic route between there and the bike path.

I was cooked by the time I got home. But the legs were actually feeling pretty strong and okay. I didn't get doubles in on either day but enough work. I kept thinking we're going to need to get a tandem so I can go to the city with both girls.

Might have to talk to the store about having better/more spacious bike parking though.

What a day and all thanks to the unprompted enthusiasm of a 5 year old.

heddwch
G

Great day - great freaking ride

Hopefully Murat got home in time. Our creative route getting to 116 was a bit longer than the direct route but it did mean no back tracking except coming back down to the valley where the blackstone bike path is.

Tower Hill is tough and Murat may claim he can't climb but his 166#ness goes up hill much better than my 210#ness. Down hill? if it wasn't for the fender induced aero wobble I might have been able to test that.

It was a big cold and stopping here at the office to gather my bag (bike was left here, got a ride in this morning with the early ballet crew) maybe wasn't the best idea. Sweaty sitting isn't a good idea. Topped up with some fluids and well. Murat killed me. He was driving a pretty decent pace on the way back too. But it was a great ride. Chris Burke showed up too. But it felt more like a January ride than a March - almost April - ride.

Hopefully I can get out tomorrow morning too. Start a new streak of not missing a day. Hell maybe i'll hop on the trainer tonight and make it a double day as well. Why not. We left here around 8:45, got back at about 11:15 now i'll ride wicked slowly (not by choice but probably because that's all i'll be able to do) home in about 45 minutes. Not a huge hourly total but a bunch more climbing than i've done in a while, it was good. Tried out some super skinny tires Durano Plus in a 23c size. not to bad. I wouldn't want to race in a crit with them but they're way better for climbing than the Marathon Plus in a 28c!

okay - i'm just about dry - time to take it easy and get the crap out of the legs from the ride.

heddwch
G

JONNY BOLD and TILLY

Have even more in common than a CX jersey? JONNY BOLD waxed on about real food on rides when he was still writing, but then since he's just rinse and repeat there's probably not much different to write about and since he can actually write (unlike me) not forcing it is a good thing.
Where was i?

Oh right.

Comparison.

Check this post from Tilly about food. Add to it that it sounds like he drinks about as much on a ride as G-Ride does... and then compare it to - shit i thought there was a recent post about him eating real food on a ride - i guess either my skimming sucks or it was maybe in a comment section somewhere. Great, my memory is either hosed or i'm trying unduly hard to compare the two of them still.

Real food.

Larabar's cocoa-mole flavor is about all the pre-packagedness i can take. Can't really even do PRO bars anymore. And these Larabars are possible because they have a nice bit of spicy kick to them. But beyond that a folded pancake with nutella and peanut butter in the middle sure as hell beats trying to suck down any other bar. but then i haven't been eating much on any long rides lately, waiting till i'm cooling down before breaking out the food and being so hungry i could care less what it was.

Tomorrow 8:30 Faunce Arch (75 Waterman St, Providence, RI 02912) ride of dubious length (something 2.5-3.5 hr from that point and back so add what ever it takes to ride there to figure it out) and of a generally northerly direction (tower hill and then ???). Road bikes not cross bikes, pavement not mud and single track. But some decently nice roads. And yeah. I'll be on the fucking heavy full fendered commuter bike so you may need to tow me up the hills (ala Matt hauling Matt in the RDR as captured by Natalia McKittrick)

Nice bit of press

related article here

It is snowing

Well the ride to work started off in the drizzly rain. Freaking wind was just as strong as last night but 180°. Bitching strong headwind on the way home and the way in this morning. Pushed it pretty hard both ways.

I've got a list of stuff I need to do but haven't had a chance and that's weighing on my shoulders. Other factors making it all not maybe my best week. Two were not getting out for a ride last week in the gorgeous weather and this week even though I don't want to do KoB I'm sort of missing it a bit. That and honestly sort of missing the buildup towards battenkill. This time of year for the last 3 years has been a spring focused on those two races. And I'm not doing either one, and I haven't managed to find something else to take their place.

So tomorrow I'm hoping to round up a team mate or hell anyone who wants to ride out of Providence at 8:30am tomorrow in the cold for a nice tower hill kind of loopish sort of ride. Hoping maybe that can help realign my messed up brain chemistry. I'm a moody pissy bastard at times, eh?

Oh well. What ya gonna do about it.

a couple more

from this morning's commute

how can i screw up today

last few days i've managed to work hard to provide lots of entertainment to people by putting my passion on display with all its flaws. opening myself up to critique by people way too superfluous to attempt even to come close to controversy publicly on their own web log space. the critique certainly was valid - my using 3 bottles was pretty excessive but exaggeration is a story telling tool and helps drive home the point even if unrealistic. Bottle water has always been a frustration to me there is little value added to the consumer from buying a case of water instead of carrying around refillable bottles. Fortunately I see a visible change in people's habits. More and more people are carrying refillable water containers with them everywhere. It never fails that when i have a crappy argument that irritates the Cnidaria gallery lets me know. I guess i should be grateful for their diligence in pointing out how screwed up of a person I am. Rarely any positive enforcement, not that i deserve it for my insane ramblings I suppose, but then I do know why i have confidence issues. There is one thing positive i can focus on, but i won't dare say it here because I'm confident some Cnidaria will figure out how to strip that away too. I know i bring it on myself, i understand that. I've been doing that long enough to realize it is my own damn fault. I've also been doing it long enough that i need to get it out of my head to move on. This is just the only way i know how. So now go eff off and read some race reports or something. Because why would anyone want to read the ramblings of a judgmental dickhead

Next post is going to be images. maybe it will help... nope didn't

Paris - Roubaix 2009

Paris - Roubaix 2009, originally uploaded by bram_souffreau.

Anyone surprised at the numbers of flats looking at this?

comic relief

Unzzipping stuck jersey zipper while riding I bit collar and yanked hard on zip. Hand slipped & punched myself in the wedding tackle. Ouch.

Now that's comedy...

Okay bike racers Pop Quiz Time

You're in the middle of a long ride, you are out of water and find a convenience store and stop to get some water to make it home. What do you buy?

A bottle or two of this:

Now there are a wopping 20oz of cold water in there, it would take three of them to top off your 3 large waterbottles you drained on the first part of the ride. So that's three containers of not as frequently recycled plastic, which lets be honest you aren't going to recycle unless there is a bin there at the store to put the empties in. God forbid you just ask if you can use the big gulp machine water button to refill your water bottles (many rural stores don't have the big gulp soda dispensers so that isn't always an option). So generally that's going to set you back a couple bucks, maybe $3.75 or so if they are each $1.25. Should be plenty to get you home and since all you have in there is a $20 then you've got plenty of cash to buy something salty and sweet like a king size Payday bar to get you home without cramping from drinking all that damn unsalted water in the heat of the afternoon.

Or

Do you buy one of these:

Which, yes is way more water than you can fit in your three bottles. But not that much more. Maybe you want to wash some of that salt off your face, dump a bit on your head to cool off? Or share the rest with your riding buddy who went for the Coke instead of the water? So it sets you back somewhere from $0.99 to $2 for the gallon, plenty of cash left over to get a snickers bar and a payday, or if you are feeling like a super hippie or a flahute maybe you go with one of those bananas hanging on that funny rack. You come out with calories and water.

I'm not leaving the options really unbiased I guess.

Not really my style.

What am I drinking today? Water. I filled up my team Waterbottle with some water from the drinking fountain. Tastes like water. Pretty refreshing.

No wonder I feel best on 28c race tires

Well I've known why. I can run lower pressures, have more contact patch in the corner and the lower pressure means I'm not pinch flatting like i would with a "normal" size tire.

Thanks Zinn for pointing out that PDF. I don't remember seeing it before, but maybe I have, I don't remember everything I've seen on the internet lately. Which is nice. It can be like finding new stuff all over again.

Stop buying bottled water please

Most cyclists are in the habit of using re-usable bottles and that's a good thing. So carry the torch, lead by example and get everyone else to stop buying f'n bottled water! M'Kay? Or if you really can't drink the tap at home at least buy gallon or 3 gallon containers of the stuff.

Make it work.

STAND UP

while you read this:
standing up instead of sitting down. Or while you read this. Or just all the time. I'd have to stack two desks on top of each other to get a usable height.

Some really good stuff in there. I mean really good. Don't sit for very long. Get up and move frequently.

All that sutff. I don't think standing is the answer to working but maybe it is time i got a big therapy ball to sit on instead of the chair. But then I'm never sitting for more than 15 minutes at a stretch. Always down the hall and back...

Check the Notes section for some great follow up reading
---


Riding in today was actually nice despite the fact that today was first time even with all the rain this season where I've caught a heavy shower from start to finish. Well it seems that way. It was pretty soaked out there. Clothes are drying slowly.

But last night with the break in the rain there was still no one on the path. I had it to myself and I made good time on the way home. Really feeling like i can push it more than normal. I'm creeping close and closer to regularly spinning the 12, and with a tail wind I do. This morning was deserted. Two walkers. One in full rain gear and another with just a jacket. Essentially deserted.

It might have been cold and wet but - i was going so hard I actually don't have a mental memory of the ride after heading up the hill. i'd get like that playing the violin, wondering how the hell did i get 6 pages through an orchestra rehersal and not remember a damn note i played or if i got it right. i'd ask my stand mate and they say yeah you played it perfectly. Nice. Sort of like the ride in this morning. I don't remember riding around the parking lot at the vet, i know i did, i had to. I clicked back in to recording visually at the bottom of the hill there before heading to the bridge. Very strange. Not even sure what I was thinking about if anything. zoned out for a bit. Autopilot.

Barry Estabrook, one of Gourmet's best writers has a great article over at The Atlantic . That town might be a dump an armpit or what not. I've never been there, don't know anything about it, but Barry gives some credit to the potential that hard work and local sourcing can provide.

Hard work though.

How many people are actually willing to do work. To actually WORK?

That's the problem...

oh well

some day enough people will rediscover that, hopefully before it is too late...

heddwch
G

the tuesday tirade

So, this whole recent seeming increase in close calls, hit and runs locally and nationally both with motorcyclists and bicyclists I broke down and decided that when I'm dictator all electronic aids will have to come out of the cars. No more cars that can drive themselves. No lane straying warnings, no automatic slowing down if you get to close, no cell phones, no traveling wifi hot spots, no DVD players, no game consoles, no interface like your computer to change the HVAC system in the car. KNOBS. F*CKING KNOBS F*CKING WORK. M'kay? Make them mechanical. No multi-touch-function screens for controls. Nav system? Not allowed. People will bitch and whine but wow, I wonder HOW THE F*CK DID YOU GET ANYWHERE 10 YEARS AGO? Seriously? HOW DID YOU DO IT??? And I know putting the * instead of a U doesn't do much. So what.

Anyway. I originally said no radio. But you know? Radio is okay. They can be operated with knobs. And should be. Cell phones should be deactivated at speeds over a walk or something. If you are moving you can't use them.

Nav Systems? Get them out. Throw em away. Some people make the argument (il bruce) that his sales force couldn't survive without them. Well how the hell did they survive before, and to that whit, if they are sales people shouldn't they fucking know their own territory? As in be able to get from one call to the next without a fucking GPS voice telling you where to go? Yes I've got friends how have to go to meetings here or there and use them all the time, I have to hear about it. What I have observed but not really told them, is that before they had their killer phone with navigation or gps in the car, they paid more fucking attention to the road and road signs and all that stuff, they didn't find themselves in positions and places where the GPS needed to rescue them. not to mention all the stories of people's GPS taking them a LONG way around and people being completely oblivious as to the fact that there is a faster way to get there.

Back to the radio. I would have gone insane with that commute in michigan. But as it was the distance was so far and along a particular stretch where I jumped from one station to another and it kind of sucked. Sat radio would have been nice. But here's the thing. In the car there should be only ONE souce, not one for every passenger. Don't like the driver's music? Well learn to deal with it, or reach a compromise.

Maybe this is where the lack of peaceful conflict resolution starts. Take that text message beating the other day for example. Parents resolve conflict with gadgets and isolation. Here, you don't like listening to that? Have an iPod and listen to your own stuff. Don't like sharing the computer or phone? Have your own. Solving problems by tossing money and gadgets at them. Bored in the car? Here's a DVD system to keep you occupied.

Sorry.

getting worked up and tangentialized. Not everyone is going to agree with me even to the smallest level.

One thing is wrong though people are getting cars with less and less training than in the past. I had to take a freaking long ass in depth driver's training course. It wasn't easy and I learned a ton. Heck there's more retraining and testing for dealing with haz waste here than there is driving. People can't as easily kill people with a mis-labeled container as they can with a car and distracted driving.

The final driving decree in my dictatorship will be mandatory retesting of all drivers ever two years, both a written and simulator test. Requirement to get your license is a score of 90% or higher on each test. If you can't? Then get ON THE BUS and let a professional drive you (and yeah if you are getting paid to drive you'd better not be on the phuc'n phone - talk on your own damn time - when you aren't responsible for all those lives behind you and around you). So yeah. Maybe more people would have to take public transport or *gasp* ride a bike. Oh the HORROR.

I had a bunch of other stuff in an outline but it will have to wait...

Drive like you actually care about the people around you and in the car. I know it is hard. Some people can do it better than others and it is a hard distinction to make. And maybe freeways are okay places to use phones and drive. Limited access, no pedestrians or store fronts or cyclists to run over while you are talking on the phone. Just other drivers in armored vehicles. Maybe that is a compromise.

It should be getting safer out there, but it isn't. occupants are being protected better but there is no regard to the safety of the people outside that fucking steel cage.

heddwch
G

We lose another Icon

Who in their right mind hasn't lusted after some Phil Wood goodness? They may not have ever been the lightest, but god damn they were strong, lasted forever and worked flawlessly. Who hasn't enjoyed the smell of the green Phil Wood grease, or the killer Tenacious Oil? That was THE stuff when it came time to rebuild your freewheel bodies, yes, I rebuilt mine a handful of times.

The man who started it all, Phil Wood, has passed away.

Time for a convening of the Cycling Canonization Council to convene.

Saint Sheldon needs to be joined by Saint Phil...

Thanks for making that first set of hubs Phil and showing everyone what is possible.

May your hubs forever shine with showroom luster!

The whole Kornholio thing

So yeah. I haven't mentioned it much, not a direct and separate entry.

The whole cycling community knows all about this episode. And if they don't they don't have friends who are connected online.

I got thinking. This whole "tap them" thing...

It is in a way trying to be vigilante law enforcers no? Run a stop sign and I'm going to Tap you with my car to teach you a lesson.

Yeah. Okay. Sure. That always works well. Use your damn phone if you feel that strongly about someone breaking traffic laws. Just don't be shocked if someone calls you on your illegal driving habits.

Drivers are idiots. They don't care if they are speeding or rolling through stop signs or turning right when they aren't supposed to. Speeding is illegal, just as is rolling through a stop sign.

If a driver doesn't follow ALL of the rules how can they decide which rules bicycles should follow? And how can they enforce it?

What if Semi-truck drivers suddenly decided to become highway vigilantes? Just tapping cars that were going too fast. Just a tap. After all they are in vehicles that weight a couple hundred times more than the cars, what is a little tap going to do their truck?

Sort of like when Tony Kornholer suggests using his big powerful car to 'tap' those shiny pants wearing cyclists?

We all know that level of animosity is out there. Richard wrote a nice bit about it a while back.

But the violence that Tony is suggesting is too much. He gets suspended for talking about someone's mini-skirt but this gets what? An interview with Lance and bigger ratings?

Pretty sad. Hell he might get a bonus over the whole thing too. Violence is not the answer.

heddwch
G

They're Back, sadly

The hoards on the bike path. Taking over what has been a nice almost personal highway to and from work. Certainly I'm not alone, good number of people use it to commute and walk and run on all year in most all weather.

But.

Well they are all back. Taking over. It gets worse and worse and worse. People walking blindly with bike traffic (back to on coming riders). Heck would you walk in the middle of the road with traffic and not pay attention? Seems that is how they act around here.

Some people are good and aware. Some people follow the markings and walk on the proper side of the path. Others, hell it is like two people can't walk and talk together without spreading across the whole road and are so oblivious and random that you can't ride in the middle and it takes a lot of noise and "excuse me"s to get them to realize someone exists besides them in their own bubble.

The mornings are still pretty much okay. But it is getting crowded again. Way more than the regulars.

The surprising thing is that with the extra people and bike traffic and walkers and all that, there is a patch of broken window glass on the path along the parkway that has been there for a week now. I suppose one of these days i'm going to need to strap a short broom on the bike at all times and actually clean that kind of shit up because no one else is doing it. More of a curiosity to see how long it will be there. Lots of broken car parts and what not along the grass too. The DEM crews have been working on the path, blowers and trash pick up and general clean up but they either drive right over it of don't have a broom in one of their trucks. My Marathon Plus tires might be heavy but that glass hasn't slowed us down yet.

I've been taking small 4-5mm shell daggers out of the tires lately. I keep thinking that i should start collecting the stuff that the tires pick up, the sharp pieces of glass, the shells, all that stuff.

it will be a challenge to get out on the bike this weekend. Weather should be fantastic but well, i'm well on my way to one big ride a month on the weekend. Got one in January, one in Feburary, and march? Yup got my one in already. Maybe March I'll get two in. This weekend might be all on the trainer. I just can't motivate myself to get out and go up and down the bike path for an hour or two, and then if i take the path somewhere I'm 30 minutes into a ride and then have to ride another 15-20 to get out into nice riding roads. I shouldn't complain, once on those roads the riding is amazing. Really. It is. I can go west and find nothing really flat, I can go east and find nothing really all that hilly and all pretty rural and pleasant. I can go North but that's only pleasant on week day mornings when the commuter traffic has cleared out a bit. I missed riding up to Tower Hill and that group of roads. Haven't been up there in a long time. Maybe i can get there soon. And no, i don't really mind riding the trainer. Crank some tunes, grab a magazine, just sit and think, it is nice. No cars, sand, pot holes, glass to worry about. No headwind, no hills, just variable resistance. And since I'm not bleeding through my eyes most of the time on there lately even a hard sustained threshold interval or two doesn't feel bad compared to the full anerobic stuff I was doing in the second half of cross season. I'm liking how I feel with this riding every day. Now if I can just measure it out enough so I don't get an overuse injury or something.

And not to stretch one post out too long but I do dissagree with Tilford about the Officials not caring. They do care, and yeah most of them could stand to tweak the caloric intake/output balance, but I really appreciate the ones we have around here, esp in Cross season. The job that Diane and Kristin and Bill and the rest do is wonderful. It has gotten pretty laid back when Diane gives the instructions pre-race, she knows we've all heard the spiel a million times before, she knows we aren't really listening but she also knows she has a job do to. For a second or two I thought hey, maybe I should sign up to wear one of those blue shirts and make an extra couple dollars on the weekend. But then, well. I have so few weekends free and really no way to get to where the races are unless I rode the bike there. In other words with only those few variables it went from idea to circular file pretty quickly.

Now despite all the people out there, and their inattentiveness, the ride home in short sleeves and shorts was wonderful. Really nice. So nice I wanted to get out for a longer ride. But I just turned and headed home.

Only to be greeted by "Daddy can we go for a bike ride?"

How can I say no to that?

So we went out and pedaled around for 30-40 minutes or so dodging dogs cyclists, roller bladers walkers and joggers, other kids on bikes and commuters too. Not so bad, we had a good time. But the bugs were out my glasses quickly went to cover her eyes. At one point before getting home and getting back out i felt like someone had tossed a handful of sand at me. Hitting my face and my arms. Except there wasn't anyone around (well that had a handful of sand in throwing distance at least). I looked down and my right arm was nearly black. Full of small flies. At least my mouth was closed when they hit. Yuck. I was still brushing them out of my hairs a couple miles later.

I guess that's why i never really mind riding in the rain or the cold. No bugs or other traffic to deal with.

Well we came back in and the little one wanted to go out on her "pink" bike. A bit small and the training wheels were off. So well. we did. She lasted maybe 10 minutes before she had had enough of me holding her up while she was pedaling. They aren't naturals on the bike, but that's fine with me. They are pretty special anyway. Heck even Lucy got out for a run on the bike path with my wife after the kids were done riding around.

The stupid rain last week killed the most perfect sunset time of the year on the commute. I was hoping to get a current sunset panorama for the header image but, well, it was raining or I was off schedule.

Oh well.

At least I can put the lights away.

Heddwch
G

Tilford on officiating

Good stuff. Honestly we were crinkling numbers when I raced collegiate back in the early 90s. now you can't. Maybe next time i see JD i'll see if we can get the truth. Or maybe even convince him to generate a few examples from finish line shots showing why it is bad. Or why it is a bad rule.

I like crinkled numbers honestly. But i've gotten used to pinning them w/o crinkling/crumpling them.

1 year old Happy Meal

Yikes.

Check out the Happy Meal Blog

And the one year later write up.

Bottom line, it still looks more or less the same.

No Worries
NOPE, no worries at all. My Happy Meal is one year old today and it looks pretty good. It NEVER smelled bad. The food did NOT decompose. It did NOT get moldy, at all.

This morning, I took it off my shelf to take a birthday photo. The first year is always a milestone. I gave it one of my world famous nonna hugs as we’ve been office mates for a year now! (Okay, maybe my sanity is in question.)

What’s WRONG with this picture?
The photo above on the left is the one I took today. Because Colorado has an arid climate, over the year the moisture has been slowly pulled from the Happy Meal. The bread is crusty and if you look closely, you will see a crack across the top. The hamburger has shrunk a bit and still resembles a hockey puck. Yet, the French fries look yummy enough to eat. I never had an odor problem, after a couple of weeks, I couldn’t even smell the fries.

Now look at the photo on the right, I took it a year ago. Not much difference. The bread is plumper and the fries a tad bit perkier.

i should have used this today

Happy St Patricks Day

it is weird

Lately my core and specifically the lower half feels stronger and more neurologically responsive than ever. Control, balance and all that. The only think I can attribute it to is the long unbroken streak of riding the bike w/o a day off. That or after 5 years i'm sort of finally hitting something close to figuring out the pedaling stuff.

(there were 5 fast food ads on the radio just now, seriously? 5 in a row WTF - sad, very sad)

That and man, the Rhonde De Rosey sounds fooking INCREDIBLE. The close we get and the more i hear about it (twitter mostly) the more I wish I had figured out a team and signed up. Not that i have that day free, maybe there's day care at the start/stop point? No i'm not going to make it but it sounds pretty damn cool. Hopefully someone will ride it and write about it so I can live vicariously through those who do.

Battenkill. There better be at least one decent write up about it, although having ridden it so many times I'm not sure how interested in reading about it I am anymore, sort of a been there done that and don't have the t-shirt.

King of Burlingame. Same thing. The pre-ride totally killed the event for me. When you only ride the crazy stuff on race day you have no choice but to go hard and push it. When you ride around and find it totally not fun, well. Hey not going to do it. I will check the results and see how everyone does.

I hear that NBX just couldn't swing the permitting and other red tape stuff for the NBX march sundays. A few teams I hear are showing up there at 10am on sundays despite that for a few interval workouts though. Just a rumor that probably everyone else knows already.

That and I did something crazy. I rode home in 52 degree weather with full on leg warmers, arm warmers and sleeveless baselayer. Crazy. GeWilli was dressed the same for 42 as 52. What the hell. It was warm but not too bad. Summer's coming. No point in developing the cold tolerance anymore. Gotta get used to being too hot. Might as well start now by over-dressing.

Two days off between Feb 1st and March 16th really isn't too bad. A major handful of those days are doubles anyway. March only has three days w/o a double. But hey it is only mid-way through the month and I'm wondering:
"Did I win"

thanks for the link Geo
heddwch
G

insanity

there - a unique title for a change.

I started to belabor the whole saga of trying to get our car back but I got to the point after a long paragraph of rambling and realize BFD. We have our car back. It has only been 3 weeks. Three weeks to change a driver's side window and the metal trim sill that they used on this model. Seriously. Three weeks.

Never heading to that Body shop again. Nope. Not going to happen.

We are lucky that insurance covered it, and we can't complain. I do feel steamed that some jackass would cause over a thousand dollars of damage to an old rusty wagon to get at the purse, but then I look at how much we've handed over to the insurance company and realize that if we had been self insuring this whole time we'd have been well ahead of the game so i feel less bad for them but still. That's a needless waste of resources. I hope they body shop cleaned up the car at least, it needed a wash and vacuum.

Well I've gotta be thankful, happy, it could always have been worse. Too much car drama.

now to head home - should have left an hour ago when I had the chance, before 4 sets of URGENT i need help issues. Oh well, at least they are all left nicely resolved.

heddwch
G

The Mexican Scotsman

Most funny song. Pandora thanks. Damn fine mix of shit up there today.

This one is even funnier:

Dear Sir, I write this note to you to tell you of me plight
and at the time of writing, I am not a pretty sight;
me body is all black and blue, me face a deathly gray
and I write this note to say why Paddy's not at work today.

While working on the fourteenth floor some bricks I had to clear;
now, to throw them down from such a height was not a good idea.
the foreman wasn't very pleased, he beeing an awkward sod
he said I'd have to cart them down the ladders in me hod.

Now, clearing all these bricks by hand it was so very slow,
so I hoisted up a barrel and secured the rope below.
But in me haste to do the job I was to blind to see
that a barrelful of building bricks was heavier than me.

So when I untied the rope the barrel fell like lead
and clinging tightly to the rope I started up instead.
Well, I shot up like a rocket till to my dismay I found
that halfway up I met the bloody barrel comming down.

Well, the barrel broke me shoulder as to the ground it sped,
and when I reached the top I banged the pully with my head.
Well, I clung on tight through numbed shock from this almighty blow
and the barrel spilled out half the bricks fourteen floors below.

Now, when these bricks had fallen from the barrel to the floor
I then outweighed the barrel and so started down once more;
still clinging tightly to the rope, I sped towards the ground,
and I landed on the brocken bricks that were all scattered round.

Well, I lay there groaning on the ground, I thougth I'd passed the worst,
when the barrel hit the pully-wheel and then the bottom burst.
Well, a shower of bricks rained down on me, I hadn't got a hope
as I lay there moaning on the ground, I let go of the bloody rope.

The barrel than being heavier, it started down once more,
and landed right across me, as I lay upon the floor.
Well, it broke three ribs and my left arm and I can only say
that I hope you'll understand why Paddy's not a work today.

So why do I think of JONNY BOLD just now? Hmmm...

Fahhhhk in hell. Bloody fucking awesome, follow that bit up with some GOD DAMN FUCKING POUGES - yeah Fuck yeah - THOUSANDS ARE SAILING

don't need to write those fooking lyrics down.

i should probably cut back on the use of the f word... nah... okay maybe a little... someday...

Draws Tickets in a Lottery!

how to drive

a prius... 2010 specifically.

pretty f*cking funny (over 40 F-bombs a mile - yes language warning)



And that dude with the 90mph prius? totally busted. Just goes to show, eveyrone in California is an actor, some are better than others, and the best ones may not have ever been picked up for a movie (old white hair dude with the prius that he couldn't stop).

About cars, it sounds like our passat might be fixed and we can return the car that destroys my knee when driving. Although I have to admit, the knee is getting used to it now. I just have a dull ache from driving it instead of a crippling sharp pain. It still will be nice to get back to a car i fit into.

i blew it

didn't even make it on the trainer yesterday. got up early and did the morning dance class run, headed to whole paycheck and purchased the damn finest cornbeef and some other goodies for the party last night. A small party for the girls, a st paddys day event. Corned Beef cabbage and carrots, thrice baked potatoes, nestle toll house cookies for ice cream sandwiches, had to make the ice cream too. I was freaking cooking from the time basically I got home until it was served. And when everyone left we collapsed on the couch and watched an episode of season six Project Runway. And headed to bed. Pooped. And I broke the streak started way back on Feb 1st. Didn't even get a double. March's challenge is hosed with three days w/o a double.

Hey New England Bike Racers

Hit this anonymous survey for NEBRA.

'mkay?

Good now go do it.

It stopped raining

And the sick little one has fallen asleep. Today is not going to be a double day. I'll actually be lucky to get on the bike at all. Maybe i can get on for a bit when she wakes up.

I'm sure by now everyone has heard that the Polish Brothers tested positive for EPO. What a bummer. It would have been great if their performance was clean and they were able to march on to the top of the Elite field on raw clean talent alone. I guess, when a country who doesn't have a long legacy of the top and the best suddenly does something like that, well, damn there is a reason. Sort of really kind of sucks.

It is official the Tuesday Night Mark Nicolson Smack Down ride is happening again starting next week:

We'll be starting up the smackdown again March 23rd. This is by far the best group ride in Providence and the more the merrier. Mark is responsible for the route and format, and it's awesome.
Meet Faunce at 5PM, roll out and meet the rest at DePasqual square at 530. Sunset will be around 715 and the ride takes around 2 hours, so the last part will be in the dark for awhile.
A rear blinkie light is required. No light, no ride, same story with a helmet.
This is a very fast and aggressive ride with 6 different sprint lines. If you get dropped they won't wait for you. If you get a flat, they won't wait for you. So make sure you can figure the way home. Have the right equipment to fix your own bike. It's a very friendly ride and there is no intention of dropping riders for fun, but with limited daylight and families waiting for dinner, we simply can't wait.

Think you can hang? Want to drop everyone? If you don't know the route and are the fastest, just turn it into an interval session waiting up at each turn. It probably will get arrowed again sometime when the roads get cleaned and are dry.

If you are around it is a good ride, hilly and tough in the first half, downhill and fast on the second part. And it isn't always the smoothest pavement, between the pavement, the sprints and the climbs lots of wheels have cause people to get rides home or limp home and loads of flats. So. Don't bring your light racing wheels and tires on this ride, unless your "light" "racing" wheels are like mine, heavy and strong and slow.

Oh and by now everyone has heard about Google bicycle directions. Well, good and all that but great? Not so perfect yet. Needs lots of feedback. So if you've got a better route between two places or are afraid to ride on the one it sends you, well, let them know. If you are quiet about it the system won't work. If you make a difference people will benefit, find that it works for them and start riding more.

And Richard Fries is right:

What’s the most important thing a cyclist can get to make a bike ride safer?

Lights?
Helmets?
Reflective straps?
Horns?
Whistles?
Mace?
Paint?
Signs?
Lanes?
Body armor?

No. It’s another cyclist.

Encourage others to ride. The more people you get out there the sooner people figure out that cars make em fat. Cars are an enabling culture, enabling people to over come sloth behaviors.

I love his other point about the car industry:

Any bike commuter who has ridden an office elevator can recite all the times people have questioned them about the safety of their enterprise. Then those same skeptics of cycling confidently march to the parking lot and partake in an exercise that kills more than 40,000 people each year in America.

They have been brainwashed to believe that cars are safe and bikes are dangerous.

But carmakers do not aim for the minds of the market, they aim for the heart. They use sex, status, speed, power, and convenience to sell their product. Only after Ralph Nader did they start to occasionally advertise the safety of their product, but were cautious to only show their product in clean labs with dummies inside sterile cockpits to convince customers these products were safe.

Those guys are brilliant. Here they have a product that is deadly, ruins the environment, destroys the quality of communities, economically cripples families, fosters an addiction to foreign oil, and spawns global warfare. And they have people lining up to buy more. If 40,000 people died in plane crashes every year, the entire fleet would be grounded.

This past year the numbers went down a good bit. But still, that's 40,000 people a year. All accepted as Accidental.

And with dozens of Toyotas going out of control every day, hello, why not give up that car, change your commute. One fellow EBBP commuter was remarking how much more productive he is now that he's switched recently to being a bike commuter. He gets way more done, can work shorter hours and has more time to focus on life. A total win win win win situation. All it took to get him started was a friendly neighbor who loaned him a tube, showed him how to fix a flat, recommended a bike shop to him and this guy has "become" a cyclist. A commuter cyclist, but a cyclist none-the-less.

And it is a good thing. Be a quiet advocate. Convince someone new to try cycling this year. The weather is slowly getting nicer. Work that bug in there head, when the nice weather rolls around the idea will have been percolating enough that you might just convert them more easily than you thought possible.

make a difference, and hey, if it is raining? Fenders on the bike and dry clothes in the bag or at work make it happen.

heddwch
G

This seems pretty dirty to me

Not really sure what to say. But man. Based on the one side, it sounds pretty unilateral and not in the best interest of fostering a positive cycling community.

How many tracks are around here anyway? Need to aggravate the (who I'm assuming there are many) friends of Tony Eberhardt, maybe to the point where they won't race there again?

Seems like a shady not so cool move.

But, as Natalia said, this is only one side of the story

a panel with Talking Heads

Or headlined by one of the Talking Heads.

David Bryne brought his tour through PVD tonight. Interesting talk, wicked uncomfortably seats. A bit scattered and not the most well meshed group of 4 presentations from 4 people. The Mayor's key note may have been almost as long as David's slide show. Which really was mostly a book tour that brought in a handful of local folks, a Brown U prof, an advocacy leader and one of the state planners office officials.

I gained a better appreciation for certain plans in the works, and learned a bit more about the man who wrote the book most of my cycling friends got for Christmas (the Bicycle Diaries).

After riding home in the dark with half the LED power normally (still plenty of illumination, but funny how one 1 watter died the same time one 2 watter did) I'm pretty pooped, but needing a second to sit on the couch with my 75 pound lap dog I figured i should at least gather a few thoughts from the presentation.

And,

well...

I'm very glad i went, it was interesting to see, but of all that i don't have a huge amount to say about it.

David's talk was a bit like his book, scattered, prepared but hap-hazard a bit, disjointed but not hard to follow. He has his gray hair spiked up wearing a light silver gray shirt, white pants and white keds(? - white canvas sneaker at anyrate), and next to the suits and the blacks that everyone else was wearing (well not everyone but those two sitting on his side of the panel at least) put some dramatic contrast up there.

A dismanyingly few people raised their hands saying they rode there by bike. It was pretty sad. Close to the 10% of the population that ride i guess.

Best line was David's almost ending comment. Incremental changes are the best. Make one section of a path/bike lane/access that is usable and people will begin to use it *if it is safe* ...if it is safe.

We'll see. I don't expect to see rush hour bike traffic like Portland, or The Netherlands any time soon, but it would be nice to see more and more people using it as a primary transport method.

Time to take my wicked heavy legs and hit the reset button (you know if you drop the e from reset you get rest - awesome and so true).

heddwch
G

Quote of the Day

But, it seems that a lot of people are so into documenting their doings that they aren’t doing them anymore. And that people are so into checking out what their friends are doing that they’re doing nothing more than checking out what their friends are doing.
-Steve Tilford

I read up until there and stopped. Knowing that was just awesome to begin with.

But the second to last paragraph. Hooo Boy. That's a winner:

It’s kind of like racing cyclo-x. Either you get cyclocross or you don’t. And when you do get cyclocross, you realize how special it is. You realize that it takes a trillion skills simultaneously to do it correctly. So many skills, that no one person can possess them all. It’s you against the course. Then you against the competition. A photo can capture a glimpse of cross, but you have to do it to understand it fully.

I didn't take many photos at CX nats. Too much time in the moment and i will carry those memories around until i forget them, which probably will be sooner than i like.

add this to the must watch video

most awesome...

one of the best

pulls the plug. Seriously. That guy could write. Perfect interviews, great content. Seriously one of the best New England Bike Racer blogs out there. FB is one thing, twitter is another but they aren't the same.

This is a different medium. Different.

More it is just the emptiness. Yet another vacated internet address that may have not even been around long enough for my lazy ass to update the sidebar, maybe it is there i should check. Stick another one on the come and gone. The rise and fall. Can the best never last? Do they burn up in flames leaving the mediocre grumpy dirty old men like me writing what we've always written.

Writing about riding home tonight without knee warmers on, hair legs feeling strange in the headwind. No gloves, just arm warmers and a ss jersey. Spending 4 hours installing CS4, but not the whole thing, i just wanted Photoshop for a demo in class. I got it on there but totally spaced (until the end) on one of the biggest reasons i wanted to demo it to everyone at one. LEVELS. Don't ever touch brightness and contrast. LEVELS.

My legs felt like crap at the beginning of the ride both this morning and tonight. But oddly, once i got the crap out they stopped feeling shitty. Haven't had a day w/o saddle time since the last day of January. I'm not sure about doing doubles this weekend. Might be enough to just get a morning ride in, or sit on the trainer and just have 20 minutes of peace.

So now i'm monitoring the battery meter and waiting for the plug me in or your content is gone light. Although because of this medium, specifically the way blogger is set up, it autosaves as i write. FB? Nope, whole long post written and poof it is gone. Some emails, same, other forms? yeah you can lose it all. I'm getting older and i like the habit, the familiarity. I like the way it works here. But unlike some, or many or unlike everyone, i've kind of given up checking on stats. They've been pretty stable for a while. Or consistent. so i don't bother checking. like Fat Cyclists wrote when describing how to make it work. Pick a handful of friends and write it for them, or not *for* them but as if you were telling them. At least that is how i sort of remember what i think he said, i should check but i think i should just finish writing while i have a few minutes of quiet before the laundry spins it self out and needs to be hung up.

G-ride got me thinking, maybe there is a way to retrofit a modern fork on that Klein. I've got at least one (and i think maybe two) Judy SL forks for it, probably 1-1/8 steerer tube stuffed in that way before its time Klein steerer tube. Maybe it is possible to stuff something with more travel up front, relax the ultra steep angles on the Klein a touch and salvage a nice frame. Or i just give up mt biking and stick with cross as my dirt mistress. I don't have the time to spend driving to places to practice enough to get passably skilled at riding with what i have, i have time to ride out the door and hit the road with friends. Time is valuable, not home time needs to be economized, mt biking is not about economy of time. and hell how green is it when 95% or more of the people doing it drive to a location to do it? That and they wear weird baggy clothes and think lycra dudes are funny. And yeah, i'be being divisive. Some people don't like cyclists who divide and separate the two wheel crowds into factions. I got thinking, hell I'm riding a 1996 frame, with a handful of '96 vintage components (some newer) a fork from '99. If i think back to when my bike was "new" and imagine what it would be like if someone showed up for a mt bike ride with the gang back then in michigan on a '86 vintage mt bike...

It has me reflecting on lots of mt bike stuff right now. I like riding in the dirt. But i was not a fan ever of the real bumpy rocky stuff. Never felt it. That bombing down mt ashland after climbing for what seemed like hours on my 32 pound Raleigh Chill after class at UBI was a blast. Smooth and flowy, swoopy and fun. Sure some roots but not like the mine fields of pain here. Michigan was a mix, and i never really quite felt at place with either the hard core roadies or the super fly mt bikers, not until i started racing cross. That just felt right. I love riding on the road with friends. Mt biking? too much depends on the terrain to have fun. More or less if you can ride a cross bike on the trail, well then i'm there. Go figure. I'm not surprised.

Damn all that because of a friend pulling the damn plug. I started just a short quick post. And here i am a few minutes later with a couple extra words and me actually saying, you know? I'm skipping two rides this spring. Battenkill AND Burlingame. No silly insane over crowded ride by myself in the pretty country side of upstate new york, and no fun but totally not ridable sectioned time trial for me. I haven't really gotten any better, even the years i've spend time actually riding the mt bike. It doesn't really help me ride the sections i can never ride at Burlingame. Pre-riding confirmed that. I new the lines more or less and I still couldn't ride them, and to top it off the trail is growning rocks and roots at an alarming rate. Putting in waterbars just doesn't seem like the answer. Almost like to preserve the trail you've got to bring in soil or remove the rocks. The roots should have soil replaced around them, and the rocks. It is new england, we grow rocks here. Make rock walls along the trails to keep soil in there, gotta be an answer besides letting the rocks grow. And yes, i know. There are people who love the rocks. Dudes who float from the top of one to another (ThomP) effortlessly who probably like seeing them there.

Maybe like solobreak, i miss the days of riding mt bikes 20 years ago before all the 26x1.9 tires carved it up, now the 29er and the 26x2.25 and bigger tires are floating around making holes. here's another indication of getting old, thinking about what it was like mt biking in the early 90s. we didn't need suspension, the trails were fucking smooth and nice. As the years have progressed if you want to ride the same trails you need longer and longer suspension. We didn't NEED 120mm of travel up front in 1990.

Okay, now i'm starting to get really cantankerous.

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

wait, i don't have a lawn. Well anyway.

Gotta hang up the laundry.

heddwch
G

i'm slower than he is

at figuring it out. Sort of surprised I didn't hear about that in the Olympics.

Striking out

I can't find a good animated image of a door being blown off or i would put it in here.

Saturday i headed out for a ride with some teammates. We did the smack down route. Moderately hilly, and pretty intense. I rode the giant with the marathon plus tires, yes the ones i keep mentioning how many grams they are. Yeah. I was the only one with fenders. Now those heavy tires and fenders are not such a huge liability on flatter routes like when we all head east from PVD, but shit, we head to the hills? FML I got schooled, big time. Worked my fucking ass off. And it kind of actually sucked. I mean it was great riding with the guys when i was actually riding with them and being on the bike from 9am until well after 1pm with only a stop for a bit at 9:30 after I got to the city. It was a good day. I destroyed myself and ate a ton after the ride in light of the fact that i was getting picked up at 7am to go for MTB ride. And in hopes of loosening up and keeping the double alive, i got on the bike and spun that shit out for 20 minutes at about 9:30pm.

Didn't do a hill of good. Legs felt like garbage at the start of the mtb ride. And then we hit that first real technical section and i crashed, landed on my ass and my shin (wicked pointy rocks) and the Klein's paint job got seriously marred on the rock on the other side. Granted i didn't land on my head like some of my full sus riding team mates did, but man the rear wheel is tweaked and I'm not pretty much ready NOT to do the mtb TT. That bike kicked ass for along time and in some places still does. But man i suck trying to ride that stuff on a hardtail. Nothing i didn't know.

I got my ass handed to me

And right now there is no way in hell i'm getting on my god damn trainer to ride this shit out. Fuck it. I've gotta commute back and forth tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day... i'm not getting on that thing. Not even if it will do some good right now.

The mt bike ride was fun on the flat boring smooth single track stuff. The rocks, the roots, the giant waterbar log down hills, man. Reality check. I suck. I did get lots of practice remounting and running through technical sections, after i ate shit a couple times and racked my nuts once on the stem. Thankfully it was that MC2 stem, not something with pinch bolts and other stuff.

I bailed and just headed back to the car while the other guys rode backwards, no shame, i was slowing them down every time it got technical, i was hurting and demoralized and just needing to put and end to the misery.

Things are as they are, i'm not terribly well suited for racing on hilly road courses, i'm not terribly well suited for mt biking either. That or i need a couple extra dollars to prove that it isn't th equipment.

oh well- what to do about it. Wait for cross season to roll around again.

that's it.

SQUIRREL

heddwch
G

wow

i thought that week might never end.

but well it is almost over and all ready to start again.

i finished the Bicycle Diaries this week finally. Reading snippets of it before falling asleep takes a while. A friend thought the book was interesting but very poorly written. I dunno, he writes just slightly more polished than I do and maybe that is the editors coming through. Jumping all over the place, weird tangents, stuff not bicycle related at all. Good book though. I think he's getting most of the mileage on the last chapter, one of the better ones. Really not saying much different than Richard Fries did over on his blog in a way.

Working hard not to get the virus that has my better half not feeling great.

we'll see what kind or riding happens this weekend. Doubles? We'll see. Today was 34 days in a row on the bike, while some days could be considered rest/active recovery, the number of active recovery days was far lower than in recent memory. Maybe not since riding with the trailer every day has it been at this level. And maybe that's not a bad thing.

I certainly have given some thought to Charge Pond. But i'm a cat 4 on the road and the couple guys from the team heading over are 3s, and while i might be able to finagle an upgrade based on riding for as long as I have and all that, it just doesn't seem right to do it w/o results. Cat 4 mostly because i just don't really race on the road and when I do i pick races that are as not well suited to my strengths (basically anything that goes up - my big ass ain't good at climbing comparatively). One of these years i'm going to give it a go and focus on getting that silly upgrade so I can join the ranks of lifer cat 3s.

And honestly powermeters and hrm and all that are pretty cool. But having been a slave to the data, honestly at my level, my goals, it isn't anything that can make a difference. I don't have the patience to do those FTs. No desire to. My weakest area is the mental side of things. Just actually being able to push myself as hard as I am capable of isn't easy in race situations unless there's something to compete for. I can race the next guy up the course in CX reasonably well, and if i make grounds and reel them in it helps, if they ride away from me i get mentally unhinged. But every race something clicks and one of these days I'll put something together.

Okay - gotta stop introspecting about races for a while. just ride the damn bike. let shit fall into place, have fun. enjoy it. find pleasure in the process, don't worry about winning and shit like that, leave that to the dudes who are wicked pro at it like JONNY fucking BOLD.

so to all yall at charge pond tomorrow - have fun, don't crash, don't be the idiot to cause a crash...

heddwch
G

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
- Harry S Truman

Holy Sh!T

how'd i miss this toddcast.

Oh wait. I know

IT IS IN FREAKING SPANISH

(yeah the vid has subtitles - still - it is like Ctodd but with scruff, must be a euro thing)

couple random links

the-barista-your-other-bartender

The Cove

United responding to ridiculous bike charges? That sounds sort of somewhat promising.

If this doesn't make YOU want to get a Kindle, well... who cares, it make ME want one.

Riding Free

Hill Junkie's comments about how liberating it is to not have metrics resonated in me just now. I've been catching up on my reading of the whole internet while eating, and "Ride Free" made some sense.

Ride Free from metrics, from computers and displays telling you and tracking every move. There is an undeniable issue that humans have. If you are always shown the feedback you never develop a sense of the process or what is happening.

Cooking, if you always follow a recipe to the letter, only cooking to the second specified, what happens if you have to make something with no recipe? Would it turn out as well? Many people can't make the transition from recipe card to free form.

Same with many other feedback related experiences. If we are always told how fast or how hard we are going by a display, our limits are imprinted as numbers not sensations. You are never able to push it beyond those constraints. The numbers shackle you to a computer to see what you did. Now if you are a pro and you have a coach and a trainer, well they need to see what is happening because well yeah, you're getting paid to do this shit. And they ride so much that they develop the tools to avoid being trapped by the numbers. And heck if they are Pro well they were likely winning amateur races without really even trying and definitely without power/feed back information.

Ride free.

Liberate yourself from the shackles for a while.

Learn to listen to your body.

or not.

maybe a big mac's calories can only be justified by getting on a trainer and riding out that many kJs.

Ride Free

And just freaking enjoy it

The day of the year...

...that is also a command: March 4th

I woke up today hoping it was Saturday. Yesterday felt like Friday. But no. It is Thursday. Higher pressure and added intensity weeks get pretty old after about 7 in a row. How about just a little bit of normal.

This morning was just borderline not fun riding in. Sure beats the alternative but that gusty headwind was still there and not a drop of snow or ice anywhere on paved surfaces so no chance to break out the heavy metal. Invisible Aero-Bars almost all the way in.

A couple cogs higher than the ride home and far less intensity. So much going on. Just want to sit on the couch at home and watch 4-5 movies back to back.

I really should wash this Giant. These last couple weeks of wet commuting, heck the whole year of cold weather and wet&snow equals a dirty bike. The road bike is still in pieces from me taking the left hood off to replace the one chewed up in the crash. If anyone has an extra left dura-ace 9 speed hood laying around in a bin not being used i'll happily pay you in beer or cash for it.

Burlingame is coming up. Definitely planning on doing that. Yeah I need to sign up, eventually I will. So I should really get the Mt bike in order. Heck maybe I'll even ride it before the time trial for a change.

Does this look good or what? It would be great paired with Tilford's mac and cheese (scroll to the bottom of the post). Tilford is right, extra sharp cheddar cheese is the only way to make it. Super, I had just managed to conquer my morning hunger pangs but now they are back. I just want to eat and eat and eat and eat right now. All I have to do is make it until 11:30 and then I'll be occupied until 12:30. Hopefully I can survive.

Well this hasn't been sitting here for that long... surviving? no, not really, but I will. scheduling and protocol emails take my mind off the food even if it means my weeks aren't going to settle down until people start leaving me alone, which doesn't look to be happening until maybe august. Man what happened to the schedule where i could get to work drop off the bag and then head out for an extra two hours on the bike in the morning once a week. Those were the good old days.

Heddwch
G

Crap

i totally missed St David's day.

shoot - what kind of Welshman am i to forget the patron saint day. Damn it.

Nice one Zanc

Great interview.

Dat's MIKEY

Good stuff.

rain to snow

but still too warm to use the studs. i think the recent acquisition (don't worry i didn't pay anywhere near full list price for them, yet) was the lynch pin sealing the deal of no more snow. GeWilli got winter tires and Winter said "fuck it, i'm done."

This feeble snow shit we're getting is pretty tame. Lots of flakes, little stick. But then maybe it will freeze tonight and I'll HAVE to ride in on the studs because it will all be frozen.

I can't believe i'm wishing for a bike path covered in ice and snow right now. I've lost it.

And always when you think things are going south faster than an industrial flush toilet, you run into someone who's been hanging on the toilet rim a hell of a lot longer.

It was raining when I left the house a bit later than planned this morning. Turned on to the bike path with a full on blast of wind. Fuck North again? Shit. Stupid 15 mph or so headwind. Great.

Invisible aero-bar time again.

But the time i got to the parking lot up there at the Fort at the top of the Vet parkway it was almost starting to snow. Then it started snowing in PVD proper as i was crossing the bridge. No sticktuitiveness. Just raining snow. Lame.

Oh well. 32 minutes (i work at a bit higher elevation than i live at - faster to go home) but i didn't really blitz it. But i did push it and it felt good to do that.

it is odd. Today is day 31 of riding every day. No break. And the only time i actually only logged the minimum 15 minutes was Sunday at the end of the day. It turns out I fucked up the challenge though. It was to have ridden the trainer for at least 15 minutes everyday IN ADDITION TO the regular riding. Damn. I screwed that up. sort of. But I didn't miss a fucking day on the bike in February. FTW.

new challenge issued by NC (complete with a picture of him bawling his head off) is doubles. Double days on the bike. No Problem. I've been on the bike 75 times since the new year started.

SEVENTY FIVE times. 75 times sitting on the saddle. Hell none of them are the daily 6 hour rides of the Myerson, and they for sure haven't been recorded in any way. No mileage numbers (no i don't even have a working bike computer on a working bike right now). No TSS, SST, HR, AVG, MAX, whatever numbers for anything. No record other than cellular. And fuck it, isn't that what matters? Anyway.

Tonights ride home will be #76. And my 3rd double of the month. Although i wonder if my sub 20 minute counts on monday night (20 min rule). I'm fucking counting it because it hurt, even with a 30 mph tail wind.

And I'll say something. My legs actually feel pretty awesome. No achy soreness after the really hard rides. Granted I didn't do to many but that 4+ hour thing with little to no food wasn't easy. No stiffening up, no issues.

Well i have issues after driving this damn rental car. Fuck my knee hurt this morning. Really dull achy MCL. And I only drove it for 20 minutes each way last night. It hurt like a sumbitch when i got home and falling asleep. Now it feels fine after the ride. Stupid little people cars, why are the germans the only one who can get it right? Why? It isn't that hard to figure it out.

That riding everyday thing works. I don't know how it would work "in season" but I'm thinking, if kept to a real min of energy expenditure and was just pedal time, probably pretty damn well. Might try that. I'm only 8 double days away from having as many rides in 2010 as G-ride did in all of 2009. that's pretty insane.

The whole single car thing has affected my whole mentality going into the spring. I was gung ho about getting training crits in, doing things like Charge Pond and what not. But now, well, saturday AM is creative movement for the youngest and well that means if I'm riding, I'm leaving the house under my own power, and that means long rides with who ever is leaving somewhere local to PVD. And few race opportunities. It is okay, maybe that's for the best. it is what it is and it is what i have to deal with. And there are worse things to have to deal with.

we'll what the ride home tonight is like. it won't be very enjoyable because i'll probably be busy right up until about 5 minutes after I have to leave to take it easy riding home. Hopefully there will be a bitching tail wind and i can hit the sub 20 mark again. I doubt it will be, more likely the wind will kick around and I'll have a nice headwind on the way home too. such is life. How often can you ride and only see a headwind all day long?

heddwch
G

palate cleanser

Sort of. Still about food but now about being a regular at a restaurant.

I've worked in the food service biz (restaurants) and I've been a 'regular' at a few places, most memorable was Shaw's Truckstop in East Lansing, MI. Man Shaws breakfast was outstanding. A bike shop tradition. We'd meet at Shaws pretty much every Saturday before the shop opened. Yeah. We ate food instead of going for a saturday morning ride. God damn good fucking breakfast too. The best hashbrowns, really good sausage patties. And a bottomless cup of pretty decent coffee.

And they knew who we were. not really our names, we all paid cash. Everyone paid cash. it was packed. Always packed, and nearly always with the same people.

You got to the point of saying hey to those around, that was the best part of being a regular. Familiarity. The gals who owned the place knew what we were going to order but always asked, sometimes we changed it up but they always asked, never told us what we were getting. They way it should be.

My grandfather was a regular at a restaurant i worked at one summer. It was where he ate on Wednesday night IIRC and sometimes Sunday night. Everyone knew him. But i have no idea if he had to order, if he ordered the same thing every time. He had a handful of other restaurants he dined at. He didn't like cooking dinner for himself much. So he ate out. And in a small town, with no big chain corporate restaurants, well, you became a regular. Part of how it works. But i'm sure he would be not so happy to have a computer tracking his habits. If the staff knew his birthday and remembered it or wrote it down, that's something nice, if he was being tracked by a computer? well i really don't know how he would feel about it.

I love the ending of the piece linked above:

Sure, but quantifying loyalty?

"I hear you," said Ron Blum, a professor at the Hospitality College of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I. "Every restaurant wants regulars, but staff can get too comfortable. You're just saying, ‘Hey, I deserve as much attention as anyone. … I'm not to be taken for granted.'"

Exactly.

"We have a mailman named Pete who comes by three days a week for lunch," said Travis McMaster, manager of Poogan's Porch restaurant in Charleston, S.C. "He always orders the same thing, but we tell him the special anyway. He doesn't need a menu, but we give him one. I don't like when restaurants suggest a sense of obligation from customers. I don't want ours to feel pressured. No, I do hear what you're saying."

Thank you.

But this understanding of boundaries, of where familiarity ends and marketing begins, is not just a Southern hospitality thing. I think. Alan Dell is co-owner of Katz's Delicatessen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He said, "New Yorkers will be quick to tell you if you assume too much." He said regulars are cataloged "in my brain only." That said, "Katz's has been here 120 years. So we have regulars. I think all this about feeling smothered is your mind. Who cares what they expect? In the mood for the same thing? Order it already!"

That's what Shaws was like. It was a tradition. And man i could go for my 'usual' right now, two eggs over medium, hashbrowns, sausage patty, wheat toast and coffee.

When's lunch.

Take Florida off the list

of places to buy produce from.

Seriously.

Gourmet magazine had a great long indepth article about this, (just the point when it started getting good and CN pulled the plug) but here's a short brief bit.

How can anyone seriously force someone to work under those conditions? Treating a fellow human being as cruelly as possible. If these salves were animals PETA would be protesting and picketing and all the celebrities would be championing the cause. But no. These are people, people being abused, beaten, starved and forced to work long hours for no pay. And few people know about it and no one seems to be able to stop it. Why? Because the agriculture of Florida would come crashing down without free labor.

Hmmm. Well maybe if fucking SHOULD come crashing down. Then build it the fuck back up PROPERLY and sustainably. If you can't make money growing tomatoes or oranges without free slave labor to harvest the crop, well, fuck raise your price or grow something you can harvest with a machine. OR better yet - make a fucking machine to do the work. Sure, it costs money and all that, and slaves? They are cheap, free. Who cares, right? I mean food is just a commodity, if the chain restaurants can't buy stuff cheap then they can't make as much of a profit and then the CEOs might have to sell one their private jets or third or fourth houses. But as long as people keep buying their product made with slave labor, who cares.

That isn't to say the whole state is farmed by slaves. But still many of those those that aren't 'slave' farmed are often migrant workers who aren't paid much at all and really aren't treated much better.

But well, you know, people need to be able to buy a tomato this time of year. And god forbid Chipotle doesn't have diced tomatoes for their burritos or salads. Granted Chipotle does many things right, raising the bar, but why leave the bar where you can step on the backs of these slaves picking your tomatoes to stay ahead?

When the clothing industry is shown to use Child labor there is a backlash. Buy shoes made by 8 year old kids? No way. right? Buy an Apple iPhone made with 12 year old child labor? No way. Oh wait, iPhones are like food, can't pick and choose to buy stuff not using slave or child labor. Food is easy to turn and look the other way, we want what we want. If someone wants to make a caprese salad this time of year? Well they need fresh tomatoes. Can't deprive them of their right to make a seasonal salad out of season. I should shut up i suppose.

Yes, there are farmers who make a difference, who do pay their workers more and who support the work of CIW.

Not all farmers are bad. But hey, how do you know that the tomato or orange you are buying was picked by a willing and free hand?

that's the question... where are you spending your money... and who are you supporting?

Maybe everyone is aware of what is going on down there. I have been but it takes finding an article like the first one I linked to wake me up.