I so want donuts

DONUTS

anything more delicious or decadent than a perfect donut?

i think not. I so wish I had made it to Duck Donuts to get a fresh one. I did wind up eating a couple that were procured and they were great, but a fresh hot warm one?

Ohhhh.

Mmm.

DONUT

3 days in a row was enough

Calves were complaining and I was dead tired this morning. Woke up and made the executive decision to tell my coach to get stuffed. Well at least for this morning's planned run.

just

couldn't

do

it

I'm not going to be able to move after tomorrow anyway. Might as well start the healing sooner than later. I've got 20 minute runs M-Th morning next week. Why not move tomorrow? Gonna be taking that transmission out. If you aren't racing Norwell and want to watch some big guy take a transmission and a clutch out - drop me a line - i might even have a cold beer for you to drink while you watch me struggle with it. I just hope I can make it through the ordeal looking cleaner than this Carbon Black Plant worker from 1942 (credit denverpost and adam myerson's tweet).

Once i get the flange off and the driver's side axle I should be good to go to get it out. gonna get that sumbitch out damn it. yes i am. have to.

Have to get it out so I can get to races. I might have mentioned that already. Well, yeah there - mentioned it again. Just need to get it done. Need to move on.

sort of a follow up

Porke Rinds said:
"Best advice I ever got on cooking for kids (not that I do it frequently) is three ingredients or less - except that kids think of "dressing", "sauce" or "fried nugget/stick" as one ingredient."

the patterns they learn as kids affect them as adults. feed them real food that you cooked. then they see that food can be cooked, that it can be good, and they see what is going on with how you make it.

Best guideline: don't feed them anything that is sold with a nutrition label as the main part of the meal.

No ingredient list on the food = good to feed kids. Don't give them a choice. Make one thing for everyone. They'll get used to it. Might not eat everything every night but they will learn.

And that's what a parent's job is. To teach their kids how to survive.

Us Parents really don't have a whole lot of time with them to teach them so much. Don't waste any time.

My youngest actually has one of the best tasting palates imaginable. She's 5 and knows if something needs more salt, or if it is missing something else. She doesn't always know what it might need but with a few questions and given a few options she nails it almost every time.

When she is "helping" she wants to help open each spice/herb container, to smell them. She wants to know what is going in. She likes to taste it in different stages.

Learning to cook real food, is important. Teach em young, let them be aware of the process. Food doesn't come out of a box. The only thing that goes in the microwave are things you made the day before.

Brilliant

5 Tips for Family Dinner
Tough-love advice on how to cook for kids.
by Mark Bittman | July 30, 2010

It’s not magic, the whole dinner thing, but you can’t get around the cooking part. You can reduce the time spent cooking to 20 minutes if you plan ahead, but you can’t reduce it to zero. You need to make some time for it. I would argue — and for 20 years I’ve been arguing — that you can cook a simple meal that takes less time than microwaving a hot pocket or heating up a Mac & Cheese. If the problem is time — if you're getting home at 7 and want to put the kids at 8, I don’t know what to say. If you want the night to be a bath and a book, that’s up to you. But to have dinner, you have to decide to make the time.

Be Realistic.
If you don’t know how to cook or are a beginner at organizing family dinner, set realistic goals for yourself. It’s nice to have family dinner be social time — when everyone is making dinner and sitting down together — but if you're not a cook, you need to focus on the art of just making something halfway decent. What it ends up being might not exactly reflect life in Tuscany as we imagine, it but it’s probably going to be better than your kids eating one thing and you two glasses of wine and leftover something else.

Prioritize.
People set aside time to learn how to do all sorts of things that they want to do. They learn yoga; they learn skiing; they learn how to drive cars — which I think is pretty darn complicated! Why not set aside some time to learn how to cook? Unlike most other pursuits, this is unarguably worth it. You can do it every day and enjoy the benefits for the rest of your life. Again, it’s not magic. A little upfront investment will be worth it. I could say go buy How to Cook Everything, but I can’t make you use it. You have to decide that. It’s like a gym membership; just signing up for one is not going to get you in shape. You have to actually make sure you get yourself there.

Think of it as a job.
You don’t have to talk to kids about food, and you don’t have to be preachy about it; you just have to control their diet — it’s your job as a parent. Having dinner as a family allows you to control their diets in the most effective way; you are leading by example. You’re not saying “eat more vegetables,” you’re actually making vegetables and you’re sitting down to eat them yourself. In my daughters’ minds, I was some sort of ogre who sent them to school with whole wheat bread and natural peanut butter when everyone else was getting white bread and the sugary kind. But I saw it as my job to determine their diets. And they can’t argue with the results. They are both adults now, and their diets are naturally better than mine was at their age (I grew up eating potato chips and Mallomars after school every day), because of the way I fed them. All of us who struggle with our diets now know that we are struggling with the patterns that were set in our childhoods.

Take Advantage of New Resources.
People’s schedules may be busier now, but technology is responding to that. The How to Cook Everything app (out now) and the Vegetarian How to Cook Everything (due out around Christmas) let you decide what to have for dinner wherever you happen to be thinking about it (except while you’re driving!). When you head into a supermarket after a busy day without a plan and see a lamb shank, you can type in lamb shank to see every recipe that is available, then pick one and generate a shopping list for it. That helps take a lot of the pressure off. And the HTCE app not only helps with lamb shank — it helps with rhubarb, odd fruits, fish, lentils, brown rice, tofu, all the things people are learning how to cook now and ingredients that most Americans are not inherently familiar with. The technology is unbelievable to me. All the recipes on the app come right from my book — and unlike a lot of apps with huge recipe archives, I can vouch for every single one of them.

Don’t plead busy.
Do not tell me you are too busy to cook and then settle in to watch an hour of TV. You can cook after the kids go to bed for the next night, then reheat it if that’s what it takes. There has to be about an hour (including shopping) built into the day where preparing food matters. If you can do that you can get family dinner on the table. If you can’t do that, I don’t know what to say. It’s a question of priorities.

Awesome. Just awesome.

FOOOOOOOD

So today was a sick day. Daughter was home running a fever last night - caught a stomach virus that's been kicking around. Low grade fever all day. A chance for me to catch up on some rest, put my feet up (ahhh recovery).

I started the day out with another one of those run things. Holy crap, no wonder i was slow last night. I got my doors blown off at the smack down. Dropped like Major Kong on the Douglas Hook road AND I lost MINUTES on Tourletot hill road. But i was pushing to the limit legs were on fire the whole time. Lungs weren't really taxed except a few times. Austin wasn't a bit problem for a change. This morning's run showed me specifically why i was so slow. Although part of it was eating lunch before noon and not eating anything else before the ride at 5pm. Low fuel and running legs = slow GeWilli.

Did basically the same as yesterday - ran for 5-7 minutes, walked for 3-5 or so, ran for another 5-7 minutes. It isn't much but after getting back it hurt like hell to walk down stairs. Lucy is loving it though. She does okay when I'm doing the run/walk combo, but not when I run solid for 20 minutes. She's too slow...

Got the run in, and well it was nice putting the feet up a bit today.

But i got inspired to write tonight because of dinner.

I done cooked food. Shock. No not really, i cook every night just about. Yall know that.

Tonight was new. Why? Dunno. But it was sooooo good.

Not sure what I'd call it but maybe a fish stir fry. The sauce was awesome.

I used some cod, marinated in soy sauce, fish sauce, five spice, garlic, tumeric, water, red wine, black pepper, Shirachi, corn starch, ground coriander, and toasted sesame oil oh and lime juice.

So it was under an hour with a break or two. Because that's how long it takes to cook the medium grain organic brown rice (okay 45 minutes).

So the fish really was the last part. Start with 6 med size organic carrots diced into cubes, tossed in the pan with some olive and grapeseed oils and a splash of soy sauce. Once they were slightly browned and toasted I cut up one MASSIVE organic sweet potato into slightly larger dice than the carrots and once they were soft I tossed in some onions and a bit of tumeric. Once the onions were softened I added a pile of cabbage (regular old green kind) and some of the reserved marinate/sauce. Then less than a minute before pulling the veggies off the heat I tossed in some yellow summer squash. Tossed it all around and put it into a big bowl.

After that it was time to crank the heat up in the pan, added a bit more grapeseed oil (trying to get the pan hotter than the smoke point of the olive oil). Fired up half of the fish. The fish was a nice Alaskan cod (sustainable - although not local -but really tasty). First batch was popped in plain, about 3/4 of a pound chopped into 2cm cubes. Second batch was coated with generous amount of flour. The fish cooks supa fast. Once the second batch was just about cooked I added the sauce and got it nice and thickened.

Served it layered with the rice, veggies and topped with the saucy fish sprinkled with some fresh from the farmer's market organic scallion tops.

HUGE flavor. Sooooooo good.

The texture of the fish was perfect, still nice and tender. The sweet potatoes were cooked through and soft but not dissolving, the carrots nice and caramelized, and the summer squash had not turned to mush.

Saw a bit of that new show Master Chef, and I got asked: What would I make for those judges? I have no idea. And that kind of bothers me. What is my signature dish. What do i make better than anyone else? What do i make that is uniquely me?

Makes me wonder a bit. Chili? Pasta sauce? Pasta is tough because if you screw up the noodles just a tiny bit the dish can be ruined for some people. Lettuce wraps like I made last week? Those were amazing and always get devoured. My wife feels that part of why my food tastes so good is the quality of the base ingredients, and ponders if I would be given the same level to use... it is a good point. I'm picking really high quality stuff, organic, local, and not just that but very picky about each individual, not just the source. It is possible that the ingredients would be good enough, and it is also a good idea to pick something to make that isn't going to rely as much on the intensity of the flavors of the raw ingredients. Yeah so maybe I'm getting a bit too foodie technical and nuanced about a completely hypothetical and unrealistic scenario. But yeah I over think even the impossible. No big shock there.

Going to pound the pavement a bit more tomorrow morning before riding in. Gotta get those muscles and connective tissue up to a level where they aren't hindering the cycling. Won't take too long. A couple weeks at most. Yeah I should have started sooner but I'm ahead of where I was last year, esp considering the injury i was dealing with then. So we'll see what happens eh?

Too bad the Killington CX race has been canceled but that means Quad should do better, maybe even the Brockton race. But likely for me the Quad will be the opening day. Or pre-season with Catamount being opening day.

Lets get the legs there... I hope my coach learned enough from last year to tweak it for me to bring an earlier peak and get me started a bit higher level... I'm hopeful. We'll see. That or i might have to fire my coach and hire Nega-coach for next year.

heddwch
G

smack down night

Hoping to avoid being Major Kong'd tonight.

I did actually get out for a run this morning with Lucy. First run since... um... I dunno maybe December, or November. It has been a good bit of time.

So I started with the 5 min run, then walked about 5 min, then ran for another 5 min before walking a 5 min cool down. It is way lighter up here in the morning than down south in North Carolina, even on the outer banks. I like morning light.

Wasn't so bad. Took it really easy on the ride in - spun it and slowly caught one of my bike commuting co-workers and chatted for the remainder of the duration. Legs felt neither here nor there but the spinning and low torque felt good.

So yeah. This is awesome. Been sitting here since early this morning, the post that is. Busy day at the factory. Well an exciting morning followed by 3 hours of lab safety training. We do Haz Waste training annually but lab safety is every 5 years, meaning - it has been 5 years since I started out here.

Almost deserves a reflective (introspective) post all in it self. 5 years ago I was at least 30 pounds heavier than I am now. I could wear 501s only because i needed a 38w x 36l and that combo worked for that fat skinny legged me. Now, well, i'm back to the cyclist conundrum as to what freaking pants can I purchase that I can actually get on over my thighs and butt.

I was slow then way back then. No thoughts of racing until showing up at CX nationals and watching the 35+ B race thinking, you know, i could do that race. I naively thought that I could beat most of them, but hey, I was a typical delusional "returning to cycling 'old' dude". As in I thought I could race masters w/o a problem. It is just a bunch of old dudes like me, that 35+ race. No problem.

Hah.

Looking at CTurd's video seeing the front row starting position in the B masters race. Ctodd on one end. Me on the other. Starting from the front row! That was SUPER COOL. It also set up some bad habits in racing. Jumping from the gun and fading. And not really learning to pace or what I needed to sustain it.

I'm no where close to figuring it out well enough to hang with the front of the 35+ now. Well that's not true, I'm just not anywhere disciplined or talented enough to get there with the amount of work I put into training. But damn, I'm way a hell of a lot closer than when I started.

5 years is a long time.

It has gone by in a flash.

This season brings new challenges, but hopefully I can learn from the past and maybe not make all of the same mistakes again, or at least make new ones that I can learn from.

No time to dally with thoughts and remarks and the what not any more than that.

Stuff to do... going to be positive... going to focus on my strengths on this ride tonight and not let the weaknesses mess it up too much. Going to find something somewhere to push through the tough spots: Austin Road, Douglas Hook Road and Tourtellot Hill Road. They aren't huge hills, but some people just have way better power to weight than I do and that is just the way it is. But I know if I can hang on at those spots once we hit 116 and Greenville on the way home, I can make them struggle a bit. I know my recovery is doing pretty well lately, I just have to push and hold on as long as I can before getting gapped in those three places.

At least the weather is nicer than last week.

be good, be safe, ride smart

heddwch
G

cause you can't see this enough

goosebumps

I'm sure most everyone has seen this already. But I'm slowly coming back up to internet speed. After all Ctodd is back in the states and I have a reputation to uphold. But I can't link the bottom bracket video - that would offer some understanding to those who don't get the connection. But you can go see his video: "Like steeple chase with bikes" "take your road bike and you stick some knobbies on it"

Bring it.

I am not sure what age I am anymore. I do not know of old, or young. I only know of weak or strong. Every day I push. The pain searing through my clavicle and the fear I have that it will never be strong again pales in comparison to the drive I have to ensure that the life savings I am burning through every day to create our new business is successful.

Weak or strong.

Bring it. Just bring it all. Given all these challenges in my life (and I say that with the absolute realization that these challenges are mostly self inflicted...I am inspired by those with REAL challenges. But alas, these are mine...), I see so clearly why we 'cross. It's simply the hardest possible set of challenges you can put yourself through on any given Sunday. It's an interesting thing in that there is no respite from the chaos of life when you suit up, pin a number on, dial in tire pressure and line up with your friends...all of whom have the same challenges Monday through Friday. I don't golf for this very reason. I do flog myself for this very reason, however.

I'm not the fastest.

I am not the skinniest.

I am not the strongest.

But if you find yourself in front of me, you better not make any mistakes. I will stalk you. I will overtake you. I will not let you out of my clenched teeth. I will get up when I've fallen. I will not stop.

I will heal. I will continue to push on my business. I will continue to balance my life and ensure all sides get all of me. I will push myself back up now that I am face down in the mud.

Bring it.

Bring it - and Greg - good luck man. Kill it this year with everything.

Time to start NOW

The Tour is over. And yes I ignored it for a while then, like ever year, i got sucked into it. Beehive has talked about it and those sports science guys too. I'm not going to add much other than to say it was sort of exciting, kind of.

That said - O M F G - did you see Cavendish's sprint? Mother of Nature he's impressive. That and going into the Bordeaux win (friday) he was sick and not feeling well, and he still destroyed everyone. A little less bad luck and he would have been in green on the Champs.

The Best Bike Blog Ever put a FB status up this morning that reads: "The Tour is over. Cyclocross pre-season officially starts today."

Yes. Yes it does.

I've been bashing myself around a bit, feeling that overwhelmed crushing feeling of helplessness, wondering how I'm going to get the rust bucket race wagon running again. Not really how, more about when. When? It didn't happen this weekend. Next weekend? Maybe? I hope so. It is going to be a two weekend job unless I get it apart one weekend and then order the parts and take a day off from work mid week to get it put back together. Mentally that's sort of what is holding me back a bit. Maybe that and not racing much at all since Purgatory. When was that anyway? A month ago? Yikes.

I guess this is my rest period. The lull before starting to ramp it up for cyclocross. Unintentional. But one none the less. It didn't help that by Friday last week I was seriously thinking about going back on the juice. The roasted bean juice. I've been doing well to hold the weight pretty constant in the 205-208 range for the last couple months, but no matter what I can't seem to drop that last little bit (no matter how I tweak the diet/caloric intake) I think my body is saying, "look dude, you're not small, you aren't skinny or 22 anymore, deal with it." Some how I keep thinking coffee might bring me just under 200 again. But I'm still not sure I want to give up the performance benefit, or be dependent on a daily cup or pot of it.

So at any rate. Like Joe Biker said over on FB, the tour is over, time to focus on CX. Time to finish digesting the latest issue (#9 - which you need to subscribe to the whole thing, send in some cash, get your own copy) of cyclocross magazine. Two of the best reads, hands down, are the interviews with the two guys who will be wearing the stars and bars in New England this season. Jonny and Kevin. Some damn good quotes coming out of Jonny's. His interview is like his riding style. Power and no apologies.

Oh and of course what comes on Pandora RIGHT NOW? "The Sick Note" sung by The Dubliners. Okay so i won't go through it all again, but no matter how many times I hear this tune, it still cracks me up.
"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."

Okay - well i didn't post the whole lyrics this time.

Final comment about the issues. The shot by Larry Rosa that they used on the two page spread to start the "Meet the Champs" section is really flat out my favorite memory of the Nationals course.

Railing through there in the 35+ race with everyone standing around yelling and laughing and screaming. making a successful evasion of a dude who ate shit right at the fold (in the mag the top line) made the crowd erupt for me. It was awesome hearing people cheering for you specifically. Then for the Clydesdale race that was packed even tighter with more people yelling, and in the dark you couldn't see past the first two rows but people were packed tight trying to offer up money and beer for the racers flying past. In the dark it was crazy and even more intense.

Okay. Just focusing on that for a minute, well Fahk I'm fired up and ready to go.

Time to sit down with my Coach and see what the hell he has in store for me next year. Get it planned out. I have the sheets from last year. He's probably going to do something similar this year.

Holy crap. How the hell have I not heard about The Tossers? I'm embarrassed to say I'm sure I've heard their music before but damn how can I not have any of their albums? I think I may have just found this seasons interval tracks, although I'm sure I'm going to have to use Death Magnetic for the longer intervals. These guys are awesome... fuuuuug.

Anyway - time to get going... cyclocross will be here sooner than later!

smile!

picked up off the twitter feed...

that's just one of those signs that crack you up

so yall have heard about "Chain gate"

Yeah? Well as soon as I saw/heard that Andy dropped his chain I immediately thought of this post.

Ryan Kelly vs Andy Schleck. Poor Andy. It is like Saxobank asked Results Boy to be a mechanic for a day or something.

sorry

the week leading up to and coming back from are always insane for me. When you are THE one person and you go away, even for a day or two, things back up. My boss can sometimes step in and help with some stuff but there is a lot that just waits for me to return.

And man did I get ambushed when I came back. Monday morning rolled along great in the office. I got caught up (or so I thought) while watching a bit of the tour, it was great. I thought things were different. The email looked pretty clean.

Then on unread message in the middle of listserver emails and daily work emails and the like of stuff I kinda of skim over had me take a double check. And shit wouldn't you know it, there's a whole mess of critical to deal with.

Still working on sorting most of that out, but it is lunch time and I'm still hungry, no food left and well maybe this will distract me enough until the next problem comes up and I get busy again.

Didn't get to finish that thought. Never ending. And of course give it three weeks and it will be quiet and manageable again.

When I've had a moment to watch the tour while dealing with stuff here at the desk i've been lucky enough to get a Eurosport feed. English commentary that doesn't suck. Dudes who know who ever rider is and who don't pander to the whims of VS and their ratings. Commentary that is worth listening to and no stupid filler "interviews" or "insider" crap. I guess I've been watching the tour for too long. I just want to see the racing and get some good solid commentary. thanks to Cyclingfans.com I can. And it is pretty cool.

I know i'm all backed up on stories. The new car, the old car, vacation, the driving... Just not feeling it or finding the time to do it. Crazy tired since getting back.

After driving home i was too wired to fall asleep for a while and I've just been behind the sleep ball since.

Tuesday though I managed to get out for the smack down ride.

And wow it was amazing. Keith Kelly rolls up and everyone sort of went "oh shit" at the same time.

Total brutal pace setting. But fortunately I didn't have total shit legs. Got gapped on Austin, but not by much compared to my normal standards. Got gapped a bit bigger on the next one but was able to keep everyone in visual range. Tourletot also same thing, gapped when Keith set a brutal pace following Turdowski's attack at the bottom. But after that I was attacking the crap out of the pace. freaking fun.

And brutally hard. Maybe all that riding down there did something.

So how do you have a successful vacation and get faster?
Start drinking beer at about 4pm or so, get to bed around 10-11pm wake up at 4:45. Get on the bike after drinking some iced coffee for 3 hours in the heat and humidity famous down in the south. Making sure that the last 10 miles are easy but borderline bonkish. Rinse off, swim in the pool for 15 minutes until the core temp goes down, make a bit scallop, shrimp, avocado, mushroom egg scramble. Watch the tour with your feet elevated for an hour, head to the beach and body surf and float around in the water for 2 hours, eat a big lunch, hang out, start drinking beer again and repeat 3 days in a row.

Monday after a couple days off my legs felt awesome on the commute. Tuesday not as good but still good enough to develop some power and have fun on the ride.

Yesterday? Legs were f'n HOSED. didn't help that I didn't sleep much tuesday night after the ride. Too cranked up. But could have been worse, could have been like Turdowski and had my legs cramp solid enough to cause damage that night.

Working Mans is going on now. I'd love to go again, the year I went they canceled the points race, but not after I drove all the way there in the deluge.

Bikeworks TT is tonight, one of the last ones too. And this is the first year in a LONG time that I haven't been out to one. Kind of crazy.

Schedules are just different this summer.

rumor has it that MILF is web logging again.

Rosey's still kicking out great posts.

Maybe big news coming soon about the cx season.

I finally had a chance to crack the plastic on my Cyclocross Magazine. Can't wait to get a bit more into it. I kind of like the idea of using the Rapid Rise der for CX, almost kind of makes sense. If i wasn't so freaking old and used to the way things work I might try it out. But then my bike gear is all probably way too close to the end of the bathtub. Won't be too long before everything falls apart at once. I just hope I can get the car back into being ready for draggin me and my shit to CX races this fall before it all comes apart.

Just before we went on vacation the girls and I were all measuring up to see how much they've grown in the last couple months (alot) and I decided maybe I should see how tall I really am. In other words: "How much have I shrunk?"

How much? Well lets just say I'm not 6'6" anymore. Barely 6'5" and just that by a slim margin. With someone else measuring they might find me just under 6'5"...

Oh yeah - after tuesday's crazy power ride? Attacking left and right. Well we get to the base of the climb over 6/10 on Atwells heading home. Turdowski and Kirk are up ahead a bit so I jump to bridge the gap with Nelson on my wheel:

BANG clink clink clink clink

fuuuuuuuuuuhk.

Busted spoke on my "race" rear wheel. Awesome. But it isn't rubbing on the chain stay so I ride it home no problem.

But another broken spoke. Seriously? I guess it makes sense - and it does indicate i'm hitting the end of the bathtub. At least I've got spokes for this wheel. Although I'm probably going to disassemble it to see how the rim looks w/o tension. Just not sure when. I've got the Bontrager Race that needs to be converted to a CX machine for my oldest. The rest of the stuff needs to be put together from the trip over vacation. And the car is still not drivable. Too much stuff to do. Need a vacation day just to spend time at home working on stuff.

Can't really start working on the car until my finger heals up from being opened on the chainrings of my wife's bike on monday when the over tightened crank bolt loosened suddenly and the extra short crankbolt wrench send my finger into the teeth. pretty solidly lacerated. Held together with proxi-strips.

vacation was nice - totally didn't think about trying to get the car working again or the state of the bike room and the various bike bits of stuff that need attention.

that and Alan went and opened registration for Catamount CX weekend already. SERIOUSLY? It is F'N JULY!!!! No i haven't registered yet.

I don't even know when I'm racing on the road next, or if I am, much less thought about starting the CX program yet. Ugh. But I guess I should. Carl Crash Ring has started running already, and well, I can't count on him crashing every race so I might have to finish in front of him on legs alone.

I wonder if this has been rambling enough to throw off anyone other than G-ride...

for G-ride

this one is for jerry - yes - it is a stealth shot but to show you there are crazy tan skinny women populating this place in bikinis... saddly they are outnumbered by the young women on the beach in a bikini sporting a solid beer/HFCS gut.

Surf... good body boarding surf
Sunset... down near Bodie Lighthouse
Brew Thru! Ever want to drive through a shack with two rows of coolers on each side and have someone hand you over priced beer and take your money while you never have to leave your car?

Okay some ride shots....

The long ass drag from the finish of the 5:30 crew's ride. 14.5 miles of this.
The mellow slowish group on thurs (17-25mph vs 22-30mph of wed and fri). Snapped this just after making the turn around and joining them. Yeah it is still too dark to use the camera well enough to get a good shot.

coming around

hey what do you know, no Major Kong reference after this morning's ride.

Left the place here at 5:15 and TT'd for about 9-10 miles and tagged onto the back of the group heading south. They were drilling it today, unlike yesterday.

Side note, I tossed my Blaze 2 watt headlight and the Blinky 3H in the bag on a whim. Not sure why, wasn't planning on riding in the dark, it is July. Glad I brought them. Leaving the place at 5:15 with cloud cover is really leaving in the dark. Very Dark. Got light enough by the time I met up with the group at 5:50am that I had switched over to superflash mode on the front.

They wound it up for the sprint line and I just hung on. Not as many warning bells from the engine room. Not a bad sign.

Mark was there as were a good number of guys. 2x as many as yesterday. After we crossed 158 word went out that some of the group was going to do hill repeats. Hills? Yeah, the only hill, the Memorial. Kitty Hawk Memorial. A big tall hill with a monument on top. three of four different routes up it with varying pitches. Okay so it isn't really much of a hill, but that didn't lessen the pain of hanging with Mark up it. But it wasn't so bad.

4 of us did the hill and the rest headed off for the regular ride.

By the time we hit 158/beach Road (the one road coming in off the main land) i'd been dangling and at the limit for 30 minutes following the hill repeats. And it was great.

Two of the guys pealed off at that point and it was Mark and a guy from Raleigh, NC and we were given the "demystification" of the roads north of the Food Lion. Not nearly as confusing as it was the last two days.

The other two guys tagged along on my return for about 3 miles, but then I was left to ride the most boring 12 miles back to the house. Flat. Straight, i'm talking michigan straight. And windy. head/cross wind. the last mile and a half

took

for

ever

ugh

dead legs, sore feat, achy back...

it was brilliant.

The lack of any calories when i woke up and only having two bottles of sports drink in the bottles for the ride kind of hit me at the end. Not really bonky but man it was close.

Getting back and rinsing off and hopping in the pool is nice. The pool is around 70-75 degrees, not cold but cool enough to really feel nice and to help cool down a bit. The temps aren't so bad that early but the humidity is still in the 80%+ range and temps are just under 80 degrees, and my kit is 100% saturated with sweat before I even met up with the other guys.

But it was a great ride. Good intensity, legs seem to be coming around from the abysmal performance on Wed.

we'll see what the rest of the day winds up like, probably not going to have 2 hours of body boarding... but we'll see, maybe we'll climb the Hatteras Lighthouse...

heddwch
G

"Dropped like Major Kong"

That's the new one...



No more Omaha. Sorry Thom, but I've been getting dropped so much I've over used the getting shelled like Omaha beach.

Opposite day?

Or did the Allies finally storm the beach w/o getting shelled?

Headed up this morning. Instead of hopping in the vehicle with the bike and driving to the start I just left this rental place and headed north on the Beach Road to meet with the group as they were headed south.

Tagged on about a mile before the first sprint and after the neutral section, and after riding pretty hard for about 8-10 miles. Perfect.

Hopped on (snapped a shot or two- i may get them uploaded sooner than later) and off we went.

Mark and Chip were absent but the pace wasn't so much slower leading into the sprint. BUT it didn't go crazy on the bike path. And I didn't get shelled. In fact I felt pretty damn good.

Smaller group, and yes a slower group but it wasn't too slow, just slow enough that I was never in trouble. And it was nice. Esp considering the extra 20 or so miles adding on top of the reported 30 mile ride.

The final 14 miles straight south down the beach road was monotonous and not a whole lot of fun, so wanted to just be there already.

Got pretty dirty with all the run off from the rain riding through the development just north of the food lion, lots of mud on the roads. Had to rinse the bike off.

Yes, had I known I was going to be finding a group to ride will that had a schedule that worked with the family plans, I would have brought different tires, Durano Plus or even the Schwalbe DDs in the 25c size. But I didn't. Today it didn't matter. I had enough to go on. So maybe it wasn't the tires yesterday but word this morning was that when Chip and Mark got onto Wood road a trucked passed them at 35mph and they chased it down for a couple miles, catching and drafting it up to the stop light.

Maybe the warm up, maybe a better night sleep, slower guys on the ride, who knows. It was great though.

Followed it up with a 3 egg scramble with bratwurst, shrimp, scallops, serrano pepper, and cheese.

It was gooooood.

Lunch was a nice trio of tacos stuffed with romaine lettuce, plain yogurt (hawthorn valley), extra sharp wisc cheddar, garlic, serrano, tomato, avocado, shrimp and grouper fillets.

Time for a nap.

This whole waking up and going for a ride at 5:15am is kind of exhausting. Or maybe it was the 2 hours of body boarding catching some decent waves. The water was about 65 degrees, kind of cool. Actually cold. But it felt good with the heavy legs.

I may not have brought the best bike to hang with the fastest guys down here but it is fast enough for me right now.

heddwch

At the Beach... might as well be Omaha

Well it was this morning at 5:30am when I showed up for the daily ride out of the Food Lion at mile 1.

Problem is we're staying at mile 14.5 that's kind of far to ride in the morning on vacation. Hell riding at 5:30 is bad enough.

Got there in time to roll up to the group only to roll off within seconds of me putting my foot down.

"Mark give the new guy the run down of the rules and the ride."

So Mark did.

Great bunch of guys. Warm up this morning was 20mph, (normally 18). With a 20+ mph wind blowing from west to east and we headed south. Echelon it was. That is a few miles of just going, then the pace picked up.

I was good for most of it, but i was paying the price for bringing the tires I did. Yall already know Marathon Plus tires in 28 size are 740grams each. They roll like monster truck tires. IE they don't.

The second part riding with "Jay" he said he knew today was going to be really fast when a couple people showed up on their race bikes (good number of Tri dudes). Seriously. It was dark so I don't remember what they were riding but they were riding them fast and they had deep section carbon rims.

Couple of strong guys on road bikes though. I was fine for a while until we rode through some sewer overflow across the road.

With the wind I was sitting on "Mark's" wheel, right up close - i was near the end, and got sprayed, literally with shitwater. Went up my nose, all over me. (had glasses on fortunately). But then the hurl response started to kick in and it was too much.

And then they shelled Omaha beach.

I mean I got shelled like Omaha beach.

Along with another guy but the other guy wasn't shelled quite as bad and he knew where he was going. I hit an intersection and was forced to wait. A good 2/3- 3/4 of the ride was behind me. After a while of waiting I could see "Jay's" headlight winding up towards me. And then we rolled on and then waited for the rest of the B group. Yeah. I got dropped from the A group and wound up waiting. Raining sweat off me while we were sitting there. Sitting there long enough that Jay was ready to leave and give up when they appeared.

Regrouped we headed on and it wasn't so bad except the smallest dude, who happened to be riding a tri-bike w/aero bars wound up in the pace line in front of me.

So i got an AWESOME draft below my knees. But sadly that isn't very much of me. But god damn i held the pace and pulled off and wound up back behind him.

Fun.

Jay and I wound up dropping the rest of the group (it had started to rain) and just rode back to the parking lot.

Got there at 7am. ??

weird.

it felt like an hour on the bike, maybe 45 mins.

90 min? no way. I'd never have guessed it.

Good group, and according to Jay (who says he stays with the A group about 2/3rds of the time) this morning was a FAST morning. Way faster than normal. 27+ after the 'neutral.'

Another tip he gave me was to head to the bike shop (Outer Banks Cycles) and be there at 6:10. That way i can skip the drive up there and not drive to a ride.

I hate driving to bike rides. Races are different. This wasn't much different than a race though.

So yeah. I'm on vacation. Maybe the couple extra beers I had last night didn't help either. Or being woken up at midnight, can't say why, but I can say it was impossible to go to sleep for a minute or five.

Woke up way early yesterday to try and make the ride but man the lightning was intense as was the rain, and they did cancel it.

So I've been up at 3:45 (sat am) 5:15 (sun am) 7:30 (mon am) 4:45 (tues am) and 4:45 (this morning)... sleep has not been something i'm getting much of.

I'd still rather be doing more of nothing on the vacation but hey, it is what it is.

The fish market has been the source for dinner every night down here. Mahi-mahi seems to be one of the more popular options. Last night it was shrimp and scallops. Tonight we're back to Mahi-mahi with grouper instead of the previous combo of Yellow fin.

despite the lack of sleeping - things aren't nearly as bad as i had expected it to be... the vehicle and the stop at a friend's in MD on the way down is what I'm crediting to a super positive start.

I'm hoping tomorrow's ride is a bit slower.

If not, well, I hope I'm faster.

heddwch
G

Finally where we belong

shattered

My arms and shoulders are pretty achy today. Bench pressing a transmission and then trying to deal with 5 bolts that were torqued down to over 90 ft-lbs (remove, install hitch, re-torque). That hitch is a heavy sumbitch. Class III ones generally are. That and trying to apply 92 ft-lbs of torque on a bolt laying on your back just kind of sucks.

So why was I putting a hitch on something? Certainly wasn't the Passat. But the transmission was the Passat's.

We've got a road trip coming up. Fingers crossed that it is not too insane. Hopefully i'll get a chance to write over the next week...

Oh and that Thule T2 hitch rack is F'n HEAVY and awkward to assemble...

Conn Coll Arbo

the pond

now i'm in pain

tears running down my face at the end of that - sides killing me from laughing.

i feel better already

chocolate cake

overwhelmed

so on monday a huge weight was lifted, but tuesday it settled back in place. the enormity of what has to be done between now and friday night.

i'd take a day off of work, i've got vacation days, but well - every day is scheduled solid, like any week before you're about to be gone for a week.

yay.

Memorial service for my grandmother was today. Held at the Wellesley College Chapel. Those of you around here know, it was damn hot today. Triple digits in some places. But 92 or 102, that's way to hot to sit inside an un-air-conditioned space in a suit (not even ceiling fans) for over an hour.

This is the second Quaker memorial service/meeting i've been to in the last 3 months.

I have to say, I think they are a great way to do memorial services.

Car situation is alieviated. Well at least the primary vehicle is no longer that rusty crappy wagon of mine, that has the transmission sitting wedged because I thought i could get it out without removing the driver's side drive shaft or the passenger side flange on the transmission. And the way it is now, well I can't get either of those off without getting it un-stuck. The started blew not the throw out bearing, but the clutch is pretty close to gone and the bearing is making noise so might as well get those changed while it is apart. Except it is not a part.

Joy.

The car is on ramps, hood up with engine hanger holding the engine up (detached from motor mounts), and I can't really leave it like that while i'm out of town. AND if i want to bring bikes to this vacation destination using the new mode of transport, well i have to install the hitch and put the rack together.

Should be asleep but well, driving down from Wellesley and trying to get on 95S/128 was NOT a good idea (Parking lot). Need sleep but I can't sort out how things are going to go trying to survive the week.

feeling very overwhelmed...

send some good thoughts

Our one and only old car went kablooey... well not real kablooy and I kinda know what happened (throw-out bearing or something in the clutch let go). Planning to drop the transmission tomorrow morning.

car is being towed to the house now.

Oh joy.

new car sooner than later? more than likely

anyone got a Eurovan they are looking to sell?

Moulton's words today

Ring so true.

In the past I've talked about those "statistics" maybe sololunchbreak can remember every one or roto rooter has a script that does something - yeah just gratuitously pulling in results boy into the mix not linking either one of those mofos just because i can, or don't have to or something.

40,000 people a year roughly dead from automobile wrecks. Most of them are self induced. Pretty much every morning around these parts you hear about some poor young idiot who flew off the road and wrapped their sort of fast car around a tree and killed themselves and sometimes a passenger or two. Dave's right, it is sad but ultimately no one gives a shit except their family. Yeah-So GeWilli - posting the obit of my grandmother then being flippant/frank and callous about death. I never did have a good sense of certain things. Obliviously naive.

Heck add in the deaths related to health, cancer for one. That book I read added to what I knew and had a "hunch" about sort of make me feel strongly that cancer is just as preventable as type 2 diabetes. No not all cancer certainly. Just as there is Type 1 there is Type 2 diabetes. I'm going to go out on a very short and sturdy limb and say at some point Cancers will be divided up the same way. Just as Type 2 is primarily tied to eating disorders (because lets face it - eating too much shitty food should be a mental disorder) most cancers dealt with in Oncology wards now are a result of how people eat. Or more specifically what they don't eat.

Preventable. Certainly we can prevent casualties in Iraq and Afgan by not being there, and yes I'm pretty convinced we shouldn't be there or if we are there certainly not fighting with weapons, but working with words.

Dave's final line is important.

"I am both proud and grateful to belong to a small section of our society who care enough about each other that we are affected by the still relatively rare event that one of us is killed"

I am too. I am too.

Heddwch
G

That's her Smile

NY Times on my grandmother.

Hair Dresser, Personal Chef, and Chauffeur

oh and masseuse. I guess a regular old time Soigneur.

That's my current job description. Well the other than work job.

Every morning is like a stage in a Tour. I get up before everyone else, spend 15 minutes catching up online, get cleaned up and start in with it.

Breakfast needs to be made. Each of the team members have slightly different preferences for the first meal of the day. Today for example it was a couple mini-bagels with some Nutella for one, a breakfast sandwich on some pan de mie with Jarlsberg and parmigiana cheese one fried egg and two pieces of pan fried salami (brings out the flavor and removes some of the fat) for the second who will be dancing all day and an omelet with the afore mentioned cheeses sheathed in a flame toasted tortilla (a two egg omelet out of my pan is exactly the same size as the 365 organic tortillas) for my wife.

Then it is an immediate switch over to packing the musette bags, i mean lunches. Care has to be made to keep a balance between desires and needs. The youngest seems to have the highest caloric demand lately and the most challenging to find a "main" focal point for the lunch. So it is a chaotic balance of getting fresh fruits in there (mostly seasonal and organic and, if possible, local but almost completely domestically sourced) and some balanced sources of other fuels. Sort of a mad packing/then checking to make sure it meets with approval. Yes I know, I shouldn't offer them a choice, but we have enough family meals where there is no choice that Lunches kind of get a pass.

Once those are all sorted it is basically time for the mechanic to check the bikes for the day. Unload them all from the bike room. Prepare the trailer, check the tires, chain and shifting on my wifes bike, address any issues (if possible) noticed on the ride home and generally get them all out and ready to go. Bottles get filled, bags get double checked and stowed in the trailer and then it is time to get kitted up into the chauffeur uniform. Today I decided to give some exposure to the CX sponsor from last season. Make sure teeth are brushed and we are out the door.

The ride in for my client and charge for the rest of the day, or at least the beginning and end of ballet intensive, essentially gets a leg warm up on the way in. Esp as we are progressing in the week and she's tired and sore from dancing all day, the ride in really for her is a way to move the legs and let some blood flow circulate and clean them out without any exertion. Which means, yes, she's mostly just dead weight on the tandem and when the wind, like today, is slightly to the left of a headwind, a wind drag as well. The trailer does a good job of being a parachute even if the wind is dead on, so it is pretty much a constant drag. There aren't many hills but the few of them that are between destinations are pretty tough. Short fortunately but 13% is still 13% even if it is only for 10-20 feet. Momentum is your friend but it isn't always available to push it up over. Heck even 5% isn't easy with this rig.

Then once we get to the destination, well time to get the hair ready. It is essentially impossible to have a ballet bun under a helmet, esp with all the bobby pins needed to hold it together.

And well. Time to be hair dresser. I'm actually getting better. If you don't know to make a bun you have to start with a pony tail. And there is a hell of a lot of hair to corral and try and make look somewhat presentable. Today it went better than previously. Got the the pony tail up, then wrapped and twisted the pony tail around the hair tie and then used a hair net thing to wrap around the ball of hair to keep the loose ends in. Then the ball has to be flattened and secured to the back of the head with bobby pins. Once it is tight and immobilized, well then we break out the hair spray. Gotta tame any flyaways and lock that bun in for the whole day.

Then I get to turn into a Microscopist for 7.5-8 hours or so before returning as Chauffeur for the trip home.

But it isn't straight home. The way home we have one extra passenger to pick up. She sits in the trailer, but today we've had a request to get the trai-a-bike to replace the trailer. Which if we have time on the way there we can do. Timing though is everything.

So after that it is time to get cleaned up and fed. Then feet up and massages. I've been using the Weleda stuff. And that's why i'm an old school soigneur, I'm not an LMT or anything, but I've got smelly oils and i can identify muscle groups that are going to be sore. Once all massaged and relaxed it is off to bed, sleep and repeat.

And yeah that's pretty much the full day. Time for training in there? Not a freaking chance. Do I care? Right now not even a tiny bit. It is great. Besides - hauling that tandem and trailer is enough muscle tension work. The hills are like heavy weight training, the rest is just static load work.

Tomorrow I think the Soigneur is making pancakes. Maybe waffles, but probably pancakes. So that's going to change the dynamic and make it important to start the day even earlier. Which i'm sure the dog will not mind.

Couple good links:
how to teach your kids to ride I agree with JLS, good points. Unfortunately it is all pretty flat withing easy pedaling distance of the house (which is nice when you're riding home from a leg ripping ride).

And mr self promotion himself talking about the new UCI rule changes over at Cyclocross magazine. Sort amazing that Myerson can put together a thought with more than 140 characters.

Oh and my favorite phrase right now:

Cheap Food = Expensive Health care (cheap as in poor quality high caloric/dollar value - not inexpensive, because obviously there is inexpensive quality food out there)

heddwch
G

a mistake...