make edible wrapped rice cakes

a damn fine idea...  Small pouches using a white flour tortilla.  I like this and the recipe makes me hungry reading through it...

http://www.apexnutritionllc.com/fuelrightblog/2012/07/24/tuesdays-healthy-fuel-recipe-during-training-bacon-rice-burrito/

Braving the Commute

http://blog.sfgate.com/cityexposed/2012/07/28/braving-the-commute/

We all do this. Every day. Those of us who do commute by bike.  I'm fortunate enough to have been able to choose a place to live where my commute is mostly bike path with out cars.  But there are now roads, and with the Linear Park construction happening for 2 years now, my commute tosses me into a whole extra pile of higher traffic roads.

Today was the first day of two weeks of tandem with trailer commuting.  And this morning we were late.  First day of a new routine always seems to take longer, this was no exception.  My morning started a bit late, 5:54 was not early enough to get up, to get breakfast made, a bit of coffee for me, a shower and everyone's lunches together and still get the little one to day camp on the tandem, get back home, hook up the trailer to the tandem and ride in.  Was tight but I made the 9 mile trip with the trailer on the tandem in about 40 minutes.  Teeth barred the whole way, sucking wind, pushing that big ring over for all i was worth.  Two significant hills hurt.  One is deceptive, on Valley street there, going up it...

A gentle grade to begin turns into a sweeper right and suddenly you're at a very steep grade and with the trailer on the tandem, I needed the granny, but I couldn't drop to it, I'd committed to the middle ring. Cadence of about 30, a few extra watts provided by my 90# stoker, and leg popping torque levels that I was just hoping, hoping wouldn't pop a chain, we made it up. Seated.

Brutal.  Rochambeau wasn't much easier, not as steep, but longer.  We made it. On time. In time.

If i can keep this daily routine up (weather permitting) maybe, it will boost my confidence in my fitness a bit.

Cyclocross practices will start up soon.  Thinking india point next week maybe, over lunch hour,  just to get the bugs worked out of the basics.

Every time I see someone do the duck walk, the scooter or one pedal sidesaddle mount, I think "man they could really benefit from some cyclocross technique instruction."

Definitely move to a mid-week practice at Haines Park.  Use part of the course I laid out for the race that no one came to, set up the barriers and get a short course race going, maybe practice corner douching in case I happen to be racing near Jerry at some point in the season.  First day back here and it is predictably nuts.

It is what it is I guess.

Keep moving forward.

heddwch
g

only a year and a few months

that is how long it has taken to replace the broken Giant

finally

the shifters are incredibly tired, but thanks to the durability of Shimano Dura-Ace, they still work...

the parts are just off the Croll.  With the exception of the crank, due to the lack of readily available 180mm cranks i'm slowly shifting to 177.5mm, only if because the DA cranks have gotten SO expensive lately.

No ride on it yet, maybe tomorrow.

three truths

dancing between the rain drops

Made it in to work, missed the Olympic road race.

Didn't get rained on riding in.

Worked...

follow up on the dismounting stuff

okay since i can't find a decent illustrated picture that wasn't a video doing it wrong (without looking at everyone out there - hmmm i should dig through Henry's stuff)

Before you start the dismount you need to determine if the left cleat has been bound up with sand/mud/something impeding its smooth release. For me with the shimano SPDs all i do is a quick forced unclip once between getting on and before I need to dismount.  Usually find an area where you might stop pedaling (setting up for a turn, downhill).  Somewhere that you can pause in the pedal stroke and unclip for a second.  That is always enough to knock anything off of the mechanism that might prevent a smooth release.  This is esp important going into a bumpy transition where if you unclipped with your left foot early the bump much knock you off the pedal.

so assuming everything is clipping in and out smoothly

Dismount for Cyclocross:
Hand on hoods to start, look forward never down.
left foot at bottom of the stroke
unclip right foot and smoothly swing right leg back around the wheel and just behind and outside of the left foot.

you can coast in this position, never use the brakes going into a barrier/dismount.

why? because you dropping that right foot heel first onto the ground is how you can best, and under the most control, adjust your speed.

At the same time or just after you swing your leg over, move your right hand to the top tube, put some weight on the bike, load it with some body mass, it will help stabilize and make it easier to unclip with your left food and give you natural lifting/shouldering location.

Remember, slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

As your left foot unclips you drop and start running.  Watch some of the World Cup race dismounts for best display of the technique.

Hip against the saddle can help stabilize too as you are in one foot.

Start slow, very slow, walking pace.

Remount at a walking pace, until you're perfectly smooth.  It is like the catch in rowing.  A perfect catch is when the boat never goes backwards or stops.  Same thing with the remount, the bike should never change speeds as you get on, right leg is lead by the knee forward and over onto the saddle.  Never jump up, always forward.  Practice on a smooth soccer field with 15 psi in the tires, if you hit rim you're landing too hard (<10 psi if you're built like a little girl).

I would say you can't do enough until you can do it smoothly every time at a full running speed.  To get there do dismounts and remounts in sets of 50.  do three sets a day.  two or three times a week. Stay at a walking pace until everything is absolutely perfect.  Move to a slightly faster pace each week until you're hitting it perfectly.

Bottom line.  Don't take time away from trying to get fast on the bike to be smooth on the dismounts.  An ugly dismount will still win if you are fast.  Most of a cross race is racing a bike.  The little stuff like dismounts and remounts, shouldering and barriers are awesome aspects of the discipline, but it is still bike racing.

The step through is dead

Unless you're name is Paul Curley and you have more national championships than god, or someone of his age and racing experience...  don't do the step through.  not even worth practicing it.

It has never been a debate, any clinic or coach that is still teaching it needs a hard core evaluation. The risk is not worth it. I'm trying to go through my head regarding the advantages of it, or what people used to say it was good for, and can't find a compelling reason.

JD came up with a nice little graphic image

yes - cyclocross is around the corner...  time to dust off the skill set, sharpen the knives, be water my friend

slow is smooth  -  smooth is fast

cyclocross

food > pfizer

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2012/07/why_don_t_we_drink_other_animals_milk_the_dairy_of_camels_buffalo_pigs_sheep_and_goats_.single.html

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/more-on-milk/

Soda = Cigarettes. For many the frequency of consumption is scarily similar. Soda company push back is like Tobacco 20 yrs ago.

---

those bits have been sitting here for a while waiting for me to write something to flesh it out a bit.  Not feeling it.

Still not back 100% a week later.  Instead of writing I did get a good pile of hours working outside with the girls cleaning up.  Haven't had much of a chance lately.  It is nice to be able to work mid-day outside on a sunny day and be totally under tree cover. Makes it impossible to plant a garden but man is it nice.  Would be great if there were a few big trees left on the East side of the house so the afternoon summer sun wouldn't bake the front of the place, but hey, I'll take what i ca get.

Got a picture of a bike that was brought into the shop, a crazy wtf kind of moment.  Also, when removing FAG bottom bracket cups, don't plan on putting them back in, they will generally leave 1/2 of the resin threads in the BB itself. No removal without the stein cup tool.  That and could Park have made the BBT-4 any shorter?

Two man TT tonight if it doesn't rain.  We'll see what happens, rain would be welcome at this point, give me another week to get back some of the lost form.  We're at 34% precipitation at the moment.

not much more right now... maybe fill in with some random shit in my head later
g

With the London games starting

Time to watch this one more time.

If you can.

Great perspective on trend of "ancient diets"

Link here (first couple lines may or may not be inflammatory to you, read on, worth it)

So, what should we eat? The past itself does not reveal the answer, though it does suggest our bodies are fully-equipped to deal with meat (which is relatively easy) and simple sugars (also easy), but also harder to digest plant material, what often gets called fiber5. We have colons filled with bacteria just waiting for the stuff. So, go ahead and eat some grass. Go ahead too and pick your favorite time in the past, and eat like they did back then. I’ll choose to eat fruits and nuts (supplemented with some of the great beans produced by the agricultural revolution). I’ll also have some coffee, maybe a glass of wine and some chocolate. They are not paleo, but I like them. Go figure. Maybe you are “new school” and will choose to eat only the meat of giant sloths and mastodons, in doing so, ignoring your bacteria. Or maybe you are really paleo and you are going to focus on insects, which might favor other bacteria (able to break down insect chitin). Any of these possibilities are better than the average modern diet, one so bad that any point in the past can come to seem like the good ole days, unless you go too far back to a point when our ancestors lived more like rats and probably ate everything, including their own feces. Sometimes what happens in paleo should really stay in paleo6.

blue screened

that's what happened to me on Friday I guess.

And unlike when it happens on the computer I have a very good idea why.

On the good side it was a massive re-set of the mental equilibrium.  One by one as things fill back to normal (programs load, background processes and everything) I can start to feel the trend to the previous state, but right now it is okay.

even i am a bit behind in a few things.

Maybe I'll have a chance to put my feet up and read this whole article:
http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4737

The Atlantic did a decent job of snipping the bits but the full thing is looooooooong, and very well cited.

Give it a read.  Or not.

26hrs in 6 nights

That is NOT enough sleep.

That is not enough sleep to have a hope and a prayer of being consistent with previous weeks on the bike.

But considering all that and how much this sleep deprivation has affected me i still managed to stay under 20 min for the TT.  Not super fast. No.

The slow painful part was the 18 mile ride home from the TT.  It took me an hour and thirty minutes to get home. I could not go any faster.  Feel two steps away from hallucinating.  This morning I knew it was a bad sign when I felt chilled and cold riding in.  It was 68°F out there.  No wind. On the way home it was worse.

I'm sitting in a part of the house where the windows haven't been opened today. It is 79°F in here and I'm wearing a long sleeve hoodie and still am shivering.

Yeah. Not so good.

This far in debt, the caffeine ceases to do much more than to prevent headaches.  Heart rate was a good 10 beats or more lower in the TT, nothing I could do to get going faster.  Everyone behind me caught me. Lots of guys behind me tonight. I got beat by a lot of people.  Probably should have stayed home, left my average time in the 19:25 range...  tonight is going to skew it a bit.  19:58 was my mark.

At least I stayed under 20.  I beat Fox...  all he wanted to do tonight was beat his best time from last year (20:26),  He crushed it. Good to see.  Even if I only beat him by one second.  He was still under the 20 min mark. V. Cool.  Was good for most people. Not me.

And now I have to try and fix myself, finish out the work week at the picture factory before spending a few days at the bike shop before having a week's staycation.

The winds were not esp favorable tonight (as they were when I went sub 19 last year).  On a shitty day I was still at the same pace as I was in week 3 and 4 last year so there is that I supposed and that was on super fancy light wheels.  Oh well.

Next week is the 2 man TT. I'll be there, we'll see what happens between now and then.

Need to push the reset button desperately.Next week.  Just have to make it to next week.

It would be a lot easier to catch up on sleep if the dog wasn't waking me up at 5am every day (and that's when she's feeling good, when she's not it is every 90 mins "hey dude get up I need to go outside or i'm going to destroy the kitchen with bloody poop or bloody urine."

No appetite is a curious symptom. Not even thirsty.

Lets see if I can get everything here at the house done to get it ready for the night in a reasonable time frame (i'm forcing myself to eat a bit and drink water between sentences, so again, multi-tasking the fuckout of live, as per normal for GeWilli).

heddwch
G

The Wall

Hit it.

The heat, dealing with the sick dog (on the mend now), it is the feeling of total exhaustion, almost a hangover like feeling.  Muscles everywhere totally fried.  Hard to hold my head up.

Nice timing.

Well you can only run on 3-5 hrs of sleep for so many nights.  Seems my limit is about 5-6 nights in a row.

So looking for a pen? This looks cool:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/894128597/the-pen-project

That's all i got. Hurts to type.

heddwch
G

NPR sports drink article

It has been posted lots of places so far but, so on point that you can't see it enough.

Fuel = food. 

When it is hot out you need water, but you need salt as much.  Get back from a long hot ride and drink a pile of water or other low sodium drinks and you'll cramp.  Horribly.  Esp if you don't eat much processed food.

I don't use the products (I'm too cheap and have stuff that works for me) but if I'm paying for something I want Skratch Labs.  even if you don't use their stuff/want to, read this:
http://www.skratchlabs.com/blogs/news/6018756-hydration-science-and-practice

On point exactly.

If you're on a really hot ride and need to buy something, get a V8 or tomato juice.  Will replace the fluid and salt faster than anything else.  Instant cramp  relief.  

Gels work for me as a quick turbo boost before a short intense race like a Crit or a Cyclocross race. But then I only buy the ones with 100mg of caffeine.  Maybe I need to do the old Shannon Skerrit trick with a quad shot shooter in the baby jar at the start line instead of the gel.

Never ever go for gel unless you're less than an hour from home and the salvation of real food.  

Drink water (to thirst) Eat real food.


I've totally be digging the whole drinking iced coffee (just black) in the water bottles on long rides.  Water works too.  If you're prepared to drink those by carrying salty real food, you can survive any hot day riding.  


And I have tried the pickle juice thing, I had massive majorly painful cramps after the Woods Hole ride (so thirsty so I was just sucking down water - oops).  Big swallow of Grillo's Pickle juice and 30 seconds later the cramp stopped and never came back.  Was pretty cool, esp since I was writhing in agony trying to get off the couch and move into the kitchen to get the Pickle Juice.

Hang Me Up To Dry

Tandem day

Finally.

Huge day.

Got the tandem out, aired up the tires, loaded the girls up and headed down to drop the youngest off at the Y for the day.  Tandem plus trail-a-bike. Was pretty awesome.

A great way to start the day.

Headed home and for the first time when the oldest and I have headed in, no trailer.  We each packed a backpack with lunch, and what we needed for the day.  That and she's making more watts than last year and it meant that big ring, the 56 tooth, was solidly and easily turning over at a good clip.  Hit one section on the way home, slight down hill into a flat section where the speed limit is 25, couple cars a bit ahead.  We were f'n HAULING.  Going fast. was fun.  Couple other flat sections I got the big ring turning over and the hills weren't bad, esp when she added some oomph.

Busy freaking day, so much going on.  The dog isn't feeling well.  Diarrhea, didn't make it until we got home. Lots to clean up. She doesn't seem to be interested in begging for food, hoping that skipping tonight she will show a bit of improvement.  Probably hold off on it for a full 24hrs just to be safe, she's drinking water and being affectionate and doesn't mind me rubbing her belly...  we'll see.  Just me and the girls so I'm up late doing laundry and I'm telling everyone.  

A few old[er] fast dudes have said the secret to being fast, is to live like an athlete.  Sleep, rest, eat well, keep stress down to a minimum, stick to the plan.  Yeah about that.  Never. Going. To. Happen.  By the time I could foresee having that opportunity, age will have robbed me of all the potential and i'll be biding my time until I can race the 55+ and hoping my body holds together that long.

The tandem ride had me thinking about the Time Trial.  Maybe I bring that out and K can do one with me for the heck of it.  Not really thinking seriously about it, maybe next year if we get it out sooner.  We'll be taking it in on Wed if it isn't pouring in the morning, with the trailer. We'll see how that goes and decide from there.  I've done three of the four TTs, and am solidly NOT in first or close to it.  If Potter shows up for the 4th one making a total of three for him that pushes me back into at least 4th place, maybe 5th if Burke unloads another monster ride.  Pressure is officially off and I'm now back into more familiar territory, race purgatory. Fast enough that you're fast, but not fast enough to be really fast.  I haven't ridding with the heart rate or speed other than on the Time Trial.  In fact I've really ridden very little other than the monster long day to Woods Hole.  July a total bust for riding.  Almost comical how little I've ridden this month.

Looking at long ride possibilities.  Not a clue how I'm going to get it in. Not a clue.  And then where? Has to be somewhere new I think.  Maybe a little trip to New London, ride Fire Road or Pig Hill and head home.  It would be a totally new direction, a new challenge.  Timing...  Boston and the streets with the cars...  could try for Blue Hills and do more than one pitifully slow ride to the top of the access road. Plymouth...  lots of options, great options. But time. Where does it go?

Doing laundry.

hanging up swim suits.

washing the camp towel.

Not sure I have the energy to wash the dishes tonight.  Dinner was an experiment. Very well tolerated by the girls. We actually watched master chef together.  the rise of commercialization of the product placement as the seasons of it continue.  Still, a good show, I'm always thinking "what would I do"

what would i cook...  what would i make with that as a key ingredient...  which one of the mystery  box ingredients would i focus on...  TV is rough.  TV is scripted and designed to suck you in.  It does.  Fortunately there is maybe 2 hours of TV programming that I actually sit through lately.  Literally.  I guess you could say watching Eurosport pirate feeds counts as TV.  And then if it does, well I watch a lot...  when a big race is going on and I can.

Checking laundry again, maybe it will be finished and I can get a few hours of sleep before we have to be awake...

it is now in the dryer. maybe i can get the pooch out for a final time tonight and actually go to sleep

maybe


i'd have to stop writing i suppose...  hit publish.

everything works out in the end, that or it ends...  not much difference in the two, is there.

CX time. Totally and 100% confirmed. NO RUNNING.  Not this year.  Esp given that I don't even have time to ride, even though I'm dreaming about motor pacing.  Thanks to Tony what I want to do is find some big tall dude with a scooter and sit behind it at 35 mph for an hour. Will it make me any faster? Probably not, little actually seems to work, I am my own worst enemy.  Pretty much always have been. Too old to be changing much anymore.

heddwch
g

Wiggo, in his own words

Bradley Wiggins: I can never dope because it would cost me everything

If I took drugs I would stand to lose my reputation, my livelihood, my marriage, my family, my house, my titles …

There have been a couple of questions asked about doping this week and I don't feel I've been able to give a full answer. I understand why I get asked those questions given the recent history of the sport, but it still annoys me. It's hard to know what to say, half an hour after finishing one of the hardest races you've ridden, when you're knackered. The insinuations make me angry, because I thought people would look back into my history, the things I've said in the past, such as at the start of the 2006 Tour when I turned up for a first go at the race and Operación Puerto kicked off, what I said when Floyd Landis went positive, and what I said when I was chucked out with Cofidis after Cristian Moreni tested positive in 2007.

Read someone else's stuff today

The Last Big Wheel of NYC

By Jason Gay:

Dave Jordan will be buried Friday in the Bronx, not far from where he grew up, a bull of a New York kid who wanted to go fast. He was a bike racer, and close to his final resting place are the sharp, punchy climbs and hurried avenues where he loved to ride, often in darkness, becoming strong and confident and mastering a sport that would transport him across the ocean to the muck-filled cow paths of France and Belgium, but always, eventually, back to his city.

(click for rest of article)

Got my doors blown off

Hats off to Potter, Mediros, O'Rourke, Burke and Derdowski for kicking my ass today.

Was stoked and pumped on the way there, gave Cameron (of three builder ride infamy) the 411 on the course, left the car at the Corn Crib (yes circumstances demanded that I convey myself in the rusty race wagon).  I had first some Girl Talk cranked, waited for the Fugazi Waiting Room Baseline, then switched over to JPow's Epic Shine mix, and then topped it off with a course preview using Metallica CRANKED WAY THE FUCK UP.  WAS SICKWHAT style.  I think the speakers vibrated some most paint and rust off the driver's side door.

Headed up to the start.  Did not feel bad.  Got there. TONS OF PEOPLE.  Like ALL THE PEOPLE were there.  Lots of them.

Burke was fed up with getting beaten by me.  When I first showed up years ago he was always one of the fastest dudes there.  The first couple he just did cannibal style with the power meter.  Tonight? Yeah screw that non-aero shit.  He showed up on his Pinnarello with Campy Delta brakes, Zipp solid disc rear and wicked aero front wheel, TT bars and aero helmet.  And his SRM.  Game Over.  He was en fuego.  Mediros has been training HAHD for the ironman stuff, always a strong rider, he set a remarkably fast time.  And then there was Derdowski.  Giving up his Reynolds DV46 tubulars for some Hed 3c (tri-spokes) front and rear (they are for sale btw first $500 takes the pair).

Potter and Eddie, running the same old gear they have each week.

For me this was much more Week 1 sensations than Week 2. It sucked. Big time. Despite being positive, stoked and all that. Actually didn't feel too bad, kept Derdowski in sight (we were doing 30 second intervals because there were so many people) and then the little rise just before the downhill leading into the powerline and the turn on the Reynolds I cracked.  Just like week 1.  FUcking slow.  It hurt.

Then as I'm heading under the power lines, Potter passes me.  I was third from last, Eddie started 30 seconds behind me, and Potter a minute back.  He took a minute out of me just as we hit the power line before Reynolds.  It helped quite a bit on Reynolds having hit as a rabbit, but then we turned back under the power lines and I knew I had way overcooked it matching his pace and I had a micro melt down.  Then.

THEN. Eddie passes me.  Fuck.

But I kept him way closer. And pulled him right back on the hill on Peck.  As we were headed down the backside I coasted, he was pedaling furiously.  I recovered enough to pass him back on the hill before the left hand turn and kept him behind me the rest of the way to the finish.  But that was it, I couldn't turn the pedals one more revolution with any power.

19:22.  Yeah it was faster than week one, 18 seconds slower than week 2.  I should be okay with it.  But somehow it just kind of sucked.  I should be happy right?  I'm the guy with the giant target on my back.  Eddie, Burke, Aaron, all gunning for me, for me.  Somehow I should find a measure of satisfaction in being the marked man. Oh well. That old bike didn't let me down.  The old sigma bike computer almost did.  No speed reading until a few minutes before the start.

One more week. Next week.  Then the two man.

Yeah yeah yeah, no riding this week probably contributed to the shitty feeling in the legs. Got my fueling fucked up too, ate too much too late in the day, no where near the normal level of caffeine either.

Definitely part of me is saying man up you cranky wanker, you did great considering.  You fucking motivated everyone else to step their game up, you actually went pretty fast considering everything, and even just looking at the time, it doesn't suck.  Still felt like i got my doors blown off.

Add to the "GeWilli will never learn"
here are a few links for reading - about food...

first up, some organic reading

and then - got milk? well ya don't need it

but hey - maybe i'll have a couple bowls of Ice cream to fix everything...  yeah right...

heddwch
G

update what

got zip

nuttin

TT tomorrow night

no riding tonight, or today really.

one ride this week

should be ideal prep for the TT

right?

the antithesis of going fast would be to spend a whole day going medium speed.

so maybe this end will work just as well...

would be nice if it worked better...

we'll see

would be nice to have go fast wheels

or a go fast bike

have to survive with a helmet that is a size too small and the ancient steel steed.

things are what the are, it is what it is

Maybe there will be a wicked headwind and the feather weight dudes will lose a bit of advantage

doubtful though

car is getting lots of exercise this week

antithesis (#2) of the perfect week.

Life, it is what it is, make due, go with the flow, make it work

cyclocross season starts soon...  right?

Chilling

Weather finally cooled off a bit last night. Was nice.

the lack of riding bugged me so I headed out for lunch.

Not much better appetite suppressant than riding instead of eating.

Riding easily and riding really hard and nothing in the middle is really hard to do.  Started off going wicked easy, slow, slow, slow. Conversational, not too bad.  Chilling like a pair of villains.  And then Tony passed us on his wicked aero Ridley with DEEEP dish carbons (80mm) front and rear. And then we passed him, and he passed us and then some fuel belt dude would come ZOOOOMing past us on the downhill before the turn around and then we would head into the hill and he'd be going the same speed as we were.

Okay so if you're doing intervals, and you are doing them on the DOWNHILL side, you are an idiot.  Or your logic is so convoluted that i can't make sense of it.  Just seems nuts, why not use the hill for resistance. Sure the bike handles differently at 35 mph than 20mph up hill but you can stop faster if a car pulls out in front of you at 20 than 35.

Was pretty funny.  Getting passed and getting passed.  Easy rides are a challenge, esp if you have an ounce of competitiveness in you.  I gave in once. Told fox i had to fire up the BiTurbos and catch a pair of the Tri dudes doing 'intervals' on the BLVD.  seriously. They were cranking on the down hill and putzing up the up hill.  The picked up speed once it leveled out, and to their credit they stayed in the aero bars going up the hill.  And one guy was harder to catch while he was doing speed work on the TT bike.  But then i was on the CX bike.  Like riding with a parachute.

Oh and Tony.  Yeah Tony was motor pacing with his wife, behind her Prius.

I dunno about you, but when I hear "motorpacing" I think 15-60 minutes of uninterrupted pain of trying to hold stupid high speeds in the draft of a scooter or a car.  He said he was motor pacing, but it looked like he was sitting there for 20 second maybe at 25 mph, maybe (cars were lining up behind them).  Maybe his coach has a plan. Maybe I've been thinking about motorpacing all wrong.  But I dunno, these dudes seemed to go faster than that for something like 90 km.  Even at 45 mph that takes more than 20 seconds.

Motor pacing would mean, to me, heading out to the time trial course, getting a scooter or a car with the hazards on and going until you run out of road.  Scooter is obviously best because the scooter pilot has to pick a clean line and you can just follow them a bit more safely than a car.

Felt good to be out.  Got one super max BiTurbo effort in (referencing Ken Scott's gig last night, driving a V12 BiTurbo home) and some working the kinks out with slow pedaling and chatting.

And yes, EVERYONE has asked me how I'm going to cope with the bridge being closed now.  I'm going to use the other bridge.  The one we use to get to the Thursday TT, the Wed Smackdown, any ride starting in the city and going East, the bridge we used for those year the other one was under construction before.

No
big
deal

I got this.

others? yeah there are LOTS of people grumbling.  Esp those who work south of the city on the west side.  It adds an extra couple miles and some more elevation gain (hills).

BUT i get to keep my bike path.

MINE.

and in two years (or how ever long the project lasts) when this thing opens? It should be pretty spectacular.  Seriously cool.

fuck after double checking my assumption on motorpacing (durations are usually 45-60 min from the almighty google and 25-35mph roughly, ability dependent - unless you're Taylor or TJ and then it is 45mph) i'm day dreaming logisitics for motor pacing...  can it happen over lunch, gotta find someone around with a scooter near the image factory who wants to ride around Seekonk/Rehoboth at 30 mph over lunch.

damnit

oh well - no worries - no chance of GeWilli being any faster than he ever is when CX season starts.  I am my own mendoza line.

heddwch
G

Can I complain about the heat yet?

Has it been long enough that I'm allowed to be frustrated by this shit we're having for weather?

I hold no bones I love the weather in and around Seattle, dig the rain and shit.  Summers spend in DC/MD developed an understanding that it is possible to function in the heat, mowing an acre with a push mower in the middle of the day in august for example, but that equal to being able to function it is, is the air conditioning.  That house was well designed for Central Air.  it worked in that house.  as in the vents were put in with both heating and cooling in mind.  not for just heating.

Another week is done with summer.  Another week to go, and another and another.  No rhythm this summer, at least so far.

The tour

So far Sagan has been kicking ass.  But all his wins have been w/o Cav at full power, if there at all.

Today, sure flat stage but Gripel went down twice, DS basically said "i don't care how hurt you are, you have to contest the sprint" that and one of the Lotto leadout busted a chain mid-leadout.

Gripel hurt, no Cav and he wins.  I mean props and all that and it was f'n exciting and very cool to see him take the win but, so far, until he wins a head to head match up, he's got a bit to prove in my book.

Coffee.  Drink it.

Big implications today in the stage though.  Wiggo and Evans have managed to hang on to the lucky rabbits foot.

Independence Day 2012

Today, no joining of the cycling hoards as they head down the bike path to Bristol.  Sleep, home, together as a family.  First time everyone has been home w/o anything else going on in months.  Working all the time balanced with my wife's races, occasionally working on Sundays, Soccer games and who knows what else.  Hard to believe we are already in July.

Saw this on Twitter today:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/07/05/sports/SPTSCROSS0705.html?ref=sports

So still want a black and white digital camera, well at least one that I have a hope and a prayer of affording if i do enough side work.

I guess that's one huge reason why the recent grant denial was tough, so many hopes pinned on the increase in potential pixel acquisition, not to mention the total flexibility in being able to look at uncoated samples.  Art plans smashed in the nuts.  Insult to injury in the, surprise it will cost you an arm and a leg to mount those three, not just a reasonable sum. (that punctuation looks wrong, but fuck it, I'll be sure to get a good copy editor if i ever am crazy enough to write a book).

No 4th of July ride here.  Hoping maybe something tomorrow.  I'd love to get enough sleep maybe to make it out to dawn patrol on Saturday.  We'll see how the next couple of days go. Sleep is a priority.  Too far in the deficit, am managing but only with serious amounts of coffee.

Cyclocross starts soon. It will be here before we realize.  So much to do.  Annual debate regarding running.  Do I do any this year or just work on running with the bike up the stairs as part of the daily commute, always over thinking things.  Maybe that's where the coaching thing would be good.  Just do what they say, no thinking, just do it.  For now, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing which is hard or easy, nothing in between.  Get through the TT series, figure out when I can do my long ride in July.   Right now an idea that seems appealing is to ride up to Skinnywhite dude's house in Rye, NH, then home the next day.  The overnight kind of screws it all up.  The only way i've been able to make these happen is picking a day when everyone else is occupied and not inconvenienced by my disappearance.  We'll see.  Maybe July is just a speed run to Barrington Coffee Roasters there downtown.  As much as you can call a speed run into the heart of the city.

Randomly just tossing words out now.  Finally a chance to just unwind.  Woke up in time to catch the last 60k of the TdF today. Bummer for the dudes who crashed, lucky for the GC guys that it was w/in the time cut, well done Gripel.  Nice.

Dog is now beginning the beg for food routine.  "Dude get off your ass feed me!"  "No, Lucy, you gotta wait, I need to buy me a few minutes of sleep in the morning before you wake me up."

This morning was nice, only 6am wake up, it was raining and my first thought stumbling down the stairs to let her out was "shit, I have to ride to work in the rain."  Oh...  wait...  it is the 4th!  Sweet.  BACK TO BED!

Operation Sleep Doping.

We'll see how long I stay awake tonight...

heddwch
G

(no TT tomorrow = rest week continues)

Racing the storm

Last night on the way home.  There was a small intense storm cell moving at me.

I raced it.

And won.

Got home before the winds and the rain hit.

Photo essay:

(the rest below the fold)

Lets try this again.

Getting in on lunch time, need to maybe get the write up finished to get one more thing off my shoulders.

I did start reading Laird Hamilton's book the other day.  Or one of them or just the one that Fred loaned me.  Good stuff mostly, fluffy, quick reading.  Decent points very superficially developed, almost outlined but good.

More unsaid than said.  Sometimes a good thing, sometimes not so much.

Wednesday last week.

My current speed

Yeah that's about as fast as I was moving this morning.  carrying my backpack too.  Pale.  Yeah that's a pretty good me.

The Report, June's long ride.

Woods Hole and back.


Seems like forever ago now. And in some ways just seems like a ride. No big deal. Was it a big deal? Is there really anything special about riding for 156 miles? Our average wasn't so fast. but then we did have a tailwind for the return trip.

I wrote that Sunday morning, and despite drinking 1/2 cup of coffee before hand, I fell asleep and woke up to cold coffee and a kid who was desperately hungry for breakfast.

Headed to the shop for the day, then picked up some stuff at the grocery store, then headed home and made dinner, and started some CAD stuff.   Worked on that until late-ish...  taking a few minutes now to get this off the draft list.

So yeah.

No long ride report.

yet.

Maybe there won't be.  Maybe if you want the long ride experience you need to join for the next one.


As cynical as I am, I knew what would happen, but still couldn't help but get a bit moist in the eyes watching this.

CX season starts now.  or so it is rumored.

Maybe it means it is time to plan out a program.

And all this talk about the ugly aero helmets...  seriously have you looked at the abominations on the top of the Movistar riders or the Euskatel folks? Those are FAR uglier in my opinion.

Also looking at stock frames from Specialized and Trek and the Damone and Madone, super tall riders going with smaller frames probably because S&T have f'n ridiculously tall head tubes even in Trek's H1 geometry.

Tour time it is.

Time to be a spectator instead of a participant in the bike racing...

Riding in this morning, whikked easy today, I thought it would be cool to try and match the Tour mileage, while the tour was happening. Not a novel ideal.  But not something I have time to do.

The specialized commercial with Boonen and the kid also gives me a few goose bumps btw.

Took a pause in reading the Lost Cyclist and am reading through Laird Hamilton's book.  Interesting point on philosophy and the mental game, I get it but not sure I can make that happen.

Got an itch for CX right now.  The pain, the intensity, the preparation, the focus, the cool weather...