HUMMUS

or how to make killer hummus w/o buying a preservative loaded pepsi product (ie Sabra)...

So Sabra is a popular Hummus with the skinny bike racer's coach. BTW be careful hiring him if your body fat is over 6% - or at least be prepared to be called a big fat ass (just kidding Kurt) - but he worked some crazy magic with Skinny White Dude last year, and I fully expect him to coach that busted neck in the winter moving all summer team mate of mine back into nearly the same form he started last year with.

Enough Pre-amble?

So this Hummus isn't my totally my own recipe. Hell it isn't really mine, but I'm making some specifics changes (like doubling the recipe) that I feel are important. When you're making something that keeps quite well for a long time (7 days in the fridge WITHOUT PRESERVATIVES) ya might as well make a bunch. Besides it is good anti-cancer/bike racer food.

What you need on hand:
1-2 lemons (two not juicy ones make a double batch or one super juicy one does)
fresh garlic (hardneck bought from the farmers market is the best choice)
Salt
cayenne pepper (you need this to balance the flavors - it won't make it spicy)
Cumin powder (i grind my own from seed every time i need it)
extra virgin olive oil (you are not using a ton and besides it is REALLY good for you)
Tahini
2 cans of garbanzo beans.

AND a food processor (any old Cuisinart like thing with a metal chopping blade will work)

Now.

Which beans and tahini are important. If you don't have access to a Wholefoods Eden Foods or possibly Wild Harvest or other organic whole garbanzos might be fine.

Garbanzos:

Okay and just as important as starting with good beans (yes I've tried it with other beans and it hasn't been as good) is using a good Tahini. This is sort of hard to find. I've tried other Tahinis but never really liked the results, could be because this has the balance of oil and protein I prefer and seems to be most common with store bought stuff for 5x the price.

This stuff: Krinos Tahini. I get it at shaws or where ever i can find it. When I find it i buy 2-3 jars of it because it really is that good.

Also it keeps really well in the fridge. The metal tinned stuff always gets funky or moldy before I make enough Hummus to use it up. This stuff is good for a long time. And it tastes great.

oh and I use the 365 extra virgin olive oil. it is very consistent and priced very well, no point using anything lighter, you will be depriving yourself of some amazingly beneficial fatty acids, not to mention flavor.

Here's a soap box opportunity:
What you start with, your ingredients will determine how good your food will be. No amount of seasoning or preparing can make up for a crappy base product. Okay well if you put enough fat and sugar and salt in something many people will think it is good.

Back to the hummus.

6 tablespoons of FRESH squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup of water

Mix these two together in a measuring cup/pourable bowl

1/2 cup tahini
4 tablespoons of olive oil

mix that up together in a separate measuring cup/bowl thing

Open up two cans of the 365 organic garbanzo beans drain and rinse them under cold water (one can at a time in a wire mesh colander) and put them in the food processor.

I take 3-5 cloves of garlic (garlic is good) but if the clove is huge just one or two (or to your personal taste - garlic is pure awesomeness) and roughly chop them or run them through a garlic press and put it in with the Beans in the food processor

Add a teaspoon of salt (I use the Real Salt stuff) to the food processor.

Add a pinch of Cayenne pepper and 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin to the food processor.

Blend the beans together with the garlic for about 15 seconds or so scraping down the sides to make sure it is evenly processed.

once the garbanzos are all chopped up in there turn the processor on and drizzle the lemon juice and water.

It should get pretty smooth. And somewhat thick, but not too thick. If it is really thick add some water (this is just something you have to figure out - it will thin out a bit with the oil/tahini).

Once that is integrated then while it is running pour the tahini in and let it run until it is smooth and creamy.

Add oil or water (your preference) to get the consistency you like.

Transfer to a big bowl and drizzle some olive oil over the top and serve.

It takes WAY less time to make it than it did to write this. Probably less time to make it than read it.

Once you get the basic recipe mastered then you can toss in variations for the next batch.

Do you like Roasted Garlic Hummus?

cut the tops off two garlic bulbs (the whole bundle of cloves) and roast them in the oven until they are brown and squishy and use that instead of the other garlic (you can squeeze the heads into the beans like you would squeeze the roasted garlic over bread to make garlic bread.

Roasted red pepper hummus? Roast some peppers, take the skins off and these can replace the water (they are mostly water).

Like the toasted pine nut sabra? Get your pine nuts and toast them in a hot dry pan until they get browned and add them to the mix.

What ever you want.

Be creative.

Olives? Go for it.

Serrano peppers? Chipolte/roasted jalapeños?

Just be patient, make the base recipe a few times before you tackle the variations.

And yes - like i said - this isn't an original recipe completely. It is my adaptation of the America's Test Kitchen/Cooks Illustrated "restaurant style hummus"

enjoy

heddwch
G

momentary what i am thinking snapshot

Popped in my head - need to get it down and out somewhere so i can look back at it in 5 years and say either i'm a f'n genius or an insensitive jackass:

the cure for most cancer he is fighting is diet - no money in fixing what people eat. wait till they get the "disease" then find a cure.

Cancer is no different than Diabetes. Some people have Type I, but the overwhelming majority and the biggest draw on the Health care system are not the Type I people. No it is the Type II. Cancer should be busted down into Type I and Type II designations. Until it does his Livestrong foundation will be pissing money into the wind (keeping lots of researchers employed in the mean time).

Loaf of Toast

A Loaf Of Toast: Dad's Bowling, My Cyclocross

Strange bit of truth there eh? Nice write up Joe. Nice.

sore

throat

what a wonderful thing to wake up to. The whole family has gone through it, sore through sinus crap, it seems to be fading and I was the last to get it. Maybe something to do with over exertion and then the relief of getting the rusty race wagon running turning into an exhausted fatigue. That sort of thing where you carry on well beyond your strength and reserves and are fine until the end when your defenses all let go at once.

Despite that I still managed to get out and plod along my trail today. First run w/o the dog AND w/o the idiot device (iPod). Plodding was what i could do. Slow. very very slow. But, by the end it felt pretty good and that was a good 20 minutes of extra "cross" training that WILL pay off (being positive here) in the up coming season. That and G-ride's getting fat and doing nothing this week. Although that could be his secret diabolical plan to rest up and prep for an intense couple weeks of training leading into VT weekend. I should probably register for that sooner than later, eh? Only 30 something registered for VT and G-ster right now. No rush.

Oh and this is pretty annoying. But maybe they should show up more often? Or at least to all the 35+ CX races I'll be doing, maybe then I might get a wiff of a verge point. A handful are twittering about it right now. Me No Like. but I'm not surprised. Hell you can buy all that shit at GNC for cheap money and it works. There will always be someone cheating/using at all levels. That's human nature. All ya can do is ride clean and do your best. Fucking Foley has been lighting it up lately. Damn.

And I didn't know Bittman was a runner. Great post up here. Worth a read. I'm not super running focused right now but it is the "new" training feature, at least until I start to add in the fluid trainer sprints in the AM and maybe PM. Thinking about maybe adding a set of 30s Z6 (or Z5+ depending on your system) in the evening this week - or maybe Saturday morning - to try and prep the legs for the shock of the crit on Sunday. I haven't been totally devoid of max efforts but they haven't been a focus yet. It has me somewhat worried. But, not as much, I should be in a stronger place than I was last year (I know, I keep saying that -we'll see if it is true or not soon enough).

Everyone is now doing what Gary Klein started doing in the 80s. Using a bigger bearing for the bottom race than the top. 25+ years ahead of his time with bike design. Why did it take so long? Two current examples Trek and Blue (CX bikes of course).

That Blue is mighty sweet no? The Sl is supah pimp but hey that EX is still almost as pimp and a whole wopping 100 grams heavier! BB30 in both and with the 1.5 bottom bearing.

So what is up with all the fork crown cable mounts showing up on bikes? In the Mid-90s Kona had them for their project2 forks for people who still hadn't gone to V-brakes (newest hottest braking trend then). They were pretty cool. Worked well. I'd wager there are still a pile of them in a random bin at Velocipede Peddler in East Lansing Michigan. I guess the bike makers are going with this instead of figuring out how to make a fork that doesn't chatter. Putting canti-bosses on a road fork just doesn't seem to be the answer, but putting canti-bosses and a fork mounted cable hanger on a road fork does? *shrug* whatever works and sells bikes. Oh hey look at this. Those cable stops look ALOT like... oh never mind, yall know what I'm going to say. Although I think Gary K would take issue with the placement. The ones on his bikes were there for structural reasons, strengthening and stiffening the tubes w/o adding any appreciable weight (that putting them somewhere else would do). Oh btw the brakes on that Trek are FUGLY - gross. I hate that top mounted exposed spring. It was a bad design in the 90s, still a bad design now (IMNSHO).

How did I miss this. Maybe that's Solobreak's secret weapon this season. JONNY BOLD can always be found in the beer tent after his CX races too. They've GOT to be on to something.

I WANT TO EAT THIS. The whole bowl. Man that looks soooooo good.

while still random here's something else that's crazy cool and sounds like fun. When I saw the link to the article I thought maybe it was about adult cooking camp (being end of summer already with kids all getting ready to go back to school) but nope. Kids camp. Next year? Who knows. J&WU had a kids summer program IIRC. I forget what age it starts but maybe one of my assistants will do that and be promoted from kitchen helper to chef (which one sous, prep, line... to be determined). Executive Chef position is not open. Although some times I am ready to fire the Exec Chef. Sort of like when I contemplate firing my Coach.

LaughingSquid has some good stuff over there. A handful that i've seen tweeted or posted in other places (denver photo's ok cupid iPhone users have more sex partners findings and photo attractiveness analysis.

alright - that's enough adding and adding and adding...

heddwch
G

We have lost a great Cyclocross Champion

Radomir Simunek Sr has left this place. Take a moment to remember what he's left us as a legacy in Cyclocross.

The first link I saw to the news was not in English (early this morning) so thank you Cyclocrosss Magazine for getting the story up on the web page.

Rest in Peace Radomir. Rest in Peace.

2900 or 8/9/10

eight nine ten

what a day.

Quick status report:
Rusty Race Wagon is operable again. But the blown up bits were not caused by their failure but by a sticky ignition switch. The clutch WAS slipping (alot) and the starter was old (original) and lots of that era have been failing lately.

So all in all stuff that needed to be done, and had it not happened then we probably wouldn't have scored such a deal on a nearly perfect vehicle for the family. The rusty race wagon becomes my beater.

I'm bruised, sore and probably will have black under my nails for a week, but it works. And I can move on to CX season.

Team is coming together. Should be a blast, can't wait.

I had planned on running this morning. Got a decent run with the dog on monday morning but this morning was way too tired so i bagged on it. This is the last week with 4 days of running (supposed to be M-Th) before dropping to three days (TWT). Last week i had to bail on the Wed AM run but just swapped W for F. Might have to swap T for Friday this week. Got all registered for Fall River. So I'll be there. Not sure if I'm going to ride there and ride home like last year - or if everyone comes to the race and maybe I just ride home. I'd like to at least ride one leg to extend the saddle time (without growing mushrooms wearing bibs in the car).

I feel pretty good about where my torque is at right now. Just need to work on the high end full throttle stuff (bike racing) schedule is pretty light going into the first races, and man. They are NOT far away. Yikes. I best get registering I suppose.

heddwch
G

And if you've missed it JONNY BOLD left some DNA in Kentucky, and not in the fun way, send him healing mojo if ya got some.

change of plans

So the original plan was to get the transmission back in the rusty race wagon by mid-day, then hit the store for the weekly shopping trip then finish bolting everything in place.

Well.

It is a job that is best done with two people (laying under a 100# gearbox isn't the best idea by yourself). And my help couldn't make it today.

So we headed to the store and after a rare meal out last night and a Gazpacho leading into a mediocre fried haddock and chips we saw some Gazpacho in the prepared food section and K and I decided we should have that tonight to go with the rest of the dinner.

Bittman tweeted about Gazpacho today so i took it as a convergence of signs that I need to make some.

fresh tomatoes? well i didn't pick any up, i'm gun shy about buying them in the store. But Bittman says I can use a 28 oz can of tomatoes. Perfect.

so I get the blender out - oops, looks like I assumed it was put away clean, when it had some remains of a bit of margarita from a party a while back. Never assume assembled equipment is clean i guess. Oops.

Turns out i have to divide everything in 1/2 because it doesn't all fit in the blender.

what goes into the blender?
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 medium cucumber (75% peeled and chopped)
1 medium green pepper chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 ribs celery finely chopped (finely so make sure the veins are not noticed)
4 cloves of garlic
small bunch of cilantro (very small - could use parsley but i had cilantro)
Cayenne pepper (just to taste)
salt
pepper
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar (white wine would work too again that's what I had)

Blend to consistency

did one 1/2 of the stuff - then the other (this is something you need to put in a non-reactive bowl, ie no metal not even Stainless). Mixed em up.

Tasted, and put into quart containers in the fridge to chill until dinner. The raw garlic and onion and cayenne gives it a nice 'heat' that isn't like chili pepper hot.

The oldest approved after maybe 10 spoonfuls and then proclaimed that she would EAT THE WHOLE THING! Youngest thought it was good, but a touch spicy.

No car work yet today. But we got the bontrager's wheels set up for CX (oldest) and the bike room somewhat cleaned and sort of organized. Kind of. always more work do to. Put up the helmet wall of fame (there were a few old helmets kicking around, broken and also just old).

I might just try and stick the transmission on the jack and lift it into place and see if I can get it in there alone. But I may just bag it and plan on tomorrow. What's one more day after a month+?

Besides tomorrow is a paid holiday for me, working in the last state to have Victory over Japan day as a holiday on the books. "We" don't call it that anymore of course, it has gone from that to VJ day to V day to who knows what else now, but man people here LOVE this holiday. Who wouldn't? A paid holiday in the middle of August? What it means is that this next week is when most people take a late summer vacation. And that's not a bad thing either.

I'm talking myself out of working on the car right now aren't I? Oh well. Maybe I can still hoist that box up on the jack and put it in place.

heddwch
G

baby steps

The car was towed to the house undrivable on July 2nd, 2010. It was mostly dismantled on the 4th (in the oppressive heat). The gear box got stuck and was left hanging until thursday when the immobile car needed to be closed up while we were gone on vacation.

Then, last Saturday the gearbox was removed. Took some help from my brother to lift and get it off, but we did it.

Clutch came off, disc was in rough shape. almost no groove left in the grooves, 2 of the 4 springs in the disc were lose and giving the impression that they could fall out if they wanted to (but they weren't, a likely cause for noise though). The flywheel fortunately was in perfect shape. Cleaned off some of the glaze today with a blue scrubby thing and some alcohol. Nice and clean and dry.

Got the old diff flange seal off (the old one was leaking and having removed the flange, you are supposed to replace the seal) and the new one in. Lots of puttering today.

Cleaning up some bits. Getting the driveaxle seals installed. just need to get the transmission bolted back up and then, drain and fill the tranny and hopefully remember how everything was attached when I took it apart over a month ago now.

That's a long time to remember where all the damn bolts go. But as I was sorting through what goes where, I think i actually have a pretty good idea where it all goes and how it goes back together.

A pain in the butt job no doubt. I'm tempted to clean the gearbox, but, you know what - if i do then I just have to put an anti-corrision coating on it anyway so, i'm not going to bother with that. G-ride just won't be jumping to crawl under there next time.

Next big job might be welding some new floor pans on, or some nice heavy duty plates so that when it is jacked up the jack won't be in the driver's footwell.

It is an old car. But that engine is still in great shape. Heck if it came down to it I could probably take that engine out and get more for it than the car in one piece. If i could find a decent replacement? well don't tempt me. Maybe I should start looking for a vanagon with a blown gasser motor in decent non rusty shape and do a heart transplant with the passat... would make a good summer project next year. Esp with all the massive amount of free time i have (that last bit is sarcasm).

I had briefly considered heading out for a ride, seeing if any of the local boys were looking for a last minute saturday afternoon ride, but, I'm tired. I've had enough work this week. I need a rest day. A day off. So, feet up, futzing on the computer and writing and having a Porkslap Farmhouse Ale (hint of ginger in it is awesome). It is tasty. Light beer though. Only 4.5% ABV.

Getting sleepy - either nap time or i get motivated and do some yard work. We'll see which side of me wins today.

heddwch
G

Brutal

This morning should have been a nice mellow ride in.

It was going to be on time and everything too.

But, I go to bring the tandem out and thunk, the rear tire has about 5 psi in it. WTF. Damn it.

Quick spin around shows nothing sticking out. Crap we have to leave like right now! Tire change time. Grab my SV17 out of the bag and (maybe it was an SV16 i don't remember). After checking the tire (man it is paper thin, not like my normal Marathon Plus) and the rim, I put an ounce or two of Doc Blue in the tube and get it all together.

Not too bad of a tire change. But then I get done, wash the Doc Blue juice off my hands any my passenger isn't quite ready to go (after walking out with the tire apart all ready to go helmet on and everything). We head out at 22 after the hour or a few minutes later than that. The day before we left at 10 after and got to the destination at 46 after and we didn't really go to slowly, not screaming fast but not as slow as we've gone sometimes. Stuff starts there on the hour. Mentally my math isn't great but that is kind of cutting it close. And it always takes a few minutes to get shoes changed and her bulky and heavy stuff transfered out of my bag into her's.

So.

Well there's only one thing to do. Ride at the limit. Bang into the 55 after crossing crescent view and there's no rest. I'm already drooling on myself by the time we hit riverside center.

Buy the time we hit Amoco road (just before the causeway) i'm alternating between being just about ready to cry from the effort or puke, not sure which. I'm on the rivet turning those tiny little pedals will all the force I can muster. I'll admit, we were actually hauling pretty good. But, if I had to get off and walk right there I'd have fallen over.

with the hill coming up i dialed back a few watts or whatever metric of power you want to use and found just enough recovery to make it up the incline and dig back into it at the top. Yeah so it isn't anything as dramatic as Jonny Bold's win at the Tour of Catskills, but i surprised myself and was able to dig deep the whole ride in, i found the limit of legs and lungs and they were pretty well lined up. And it hurt like hell. But at the same time felt awesome.

Heck i even got out for a 20 minute trail run this morning. No back twinges, no calf pain, no hamstring pain. Kind of weird running pain free... but pretty cool.

Couple more weeks of running base with some more bike intensity tossed in there and the program should start to fall in place.

Definitely in a better physical state this year compared to last year this time.

I was just getting back from a week in Richmond, walking a little, riding not at all and dealing with a knee that wouldn't stop hurting. I'm not sure I'll be any faster/better at the Fall River Crit but I sort of hope so.

Still need to register for the CX races. I'm feeling the panic of new car payment cheap bastard mental lock down though. Should probably register at some point.

But.

Fears are greatly relieved. Well other than Vermont right now, not sure how they are staging, last year's verge points? Either way I'm screwed for getting a decent start there. Hell even the Crossresults races I'm not starting all that far up but hey, at least I know where I'm starting. Just have to get my ass registered before the deadline or before the field fills. Takes a bit of pressure off, but maybe too much pressure?

G-ride's already buying tires, ripping old tubbies off... i'm getting ready to start the season kind of the way I ended it, on clinchers. Nothing to glue up. Destroyed my Racing Ralph FMB, my 34 Fango is basically bald, but i have a pair of clinchers, which kind of sucks in the air pressure traction game but hey - I have a front and a read tubular wheel waiting for rubber... maybe something will happen mid September and I'll have some new rubber by G-ster or at least PVD.

Time to put the passat back tomorrow... i'm actually somewhat anxious about it.

fingers crossed it goes together and starts right up nice and smoothly.

heddwch
G

Raise a pint

For Big Jonny. 4 years ago he got wacked and came back from the dead, well he wasn't really dead. Lucky he wasn't. And yeah - the main page is pretty much 100% work safe now.

eyes cast down on the path of least resistance

That should strike a chord with some of my friends. Or at least get them to start singing "Farewell to Kings."

That popped on the iDiot device while running the trails this morning and I have been ruminating on it (well the last three hours i was able to put it out of my head and focus on Confocal Microscopy- anyway) since.

When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?
We turned our gaze
From the castles in the distance
Eyes cast down
On the path of least resistance
Cities full of hatred, fear and lies
Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude and
Scoffing at the wise
The hypocrites are slandering
The sacred halls of Truth
Ancient nobles showering
Their bitterness on youth
Can't we find the minds that made us strong?
Can't we learn to feel what's right
And what's wrong?
What's wrong?
Cities full of hatred, fear and lies
Withered hearts and cruel, tormented eyes
Scheming demons dressed in kingly guise
Beating down the multitude and
Scoffing at the wise
Can't we raise our eyes and make a start?
Can't we find the minds to lead us
Closer to the Heart?

Old stuff but still sadly so full of truth. I remember reading a friend complaining about how negative all the news coverage is. All about what's killing you, what's bad, who's dead, who's going to jail, doom and gloom. Sure if you had a news station that only had positive stories, well i don't think they'll be on the air for very long. People want to hear how bad others are having it so they feel better about themselves. That or they want to hear about people who are doing way better than themselves so they either can aspire or feel okay that someone is doing fine. I dunno, people are complicated.

Going back to the lyrics it almost sounds like they are describing the Democrat's view of the Republican party. Full of hatred fear and lies.

Can't we find enough minds to lead us closer to the Heart?

I hope so.

The run this morning was good. A nice solid 20 minutes of running with about 5 min of cool down walking. Although in the humidity this morning I can't really say I was cooling down much outside. I even took a cold shower and was still sweating afterwards. Too much thermal mass I suppose. I didn't have the same snap or spring that I had during the whole run on Tuesday. But it wasn't so bad, not so slow. I did a few extra loops around to add time. Hamstrings were fine this morning, but my back was feeling sore.

Pain is moving from bottom up. Maybe by next week when I go out for a run I won't hurt anyway. I feel very strongly about getting a solid running base in for Cyclocross. Esp for the old frail dudes. Iron men like JONNY BOLD are basically genetically indestructible so probably they can get away w/o it, but man it make a huge difference for me. Esp post CX race. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you want to minimize the soreness and pain post CX race to just the legs and cycling stuff, get some running base in.

Plus as FnF has pointed out in the past, running is a good way to get some aerobic stress on the system, esp if you are riding enough to be very efficient.

Another way to aerobically stress the system is to ride a damn tandem. That is really upping the stress score this week. Not just the running.

And yeah, after we stopped at the house to pick up the trail-a-bike, and were on our way to camp to pick up the youngest a commuter on a Felt with a Cliff bar sticker on the top tube (road bike) went past us at an intersection. Well. He passed just before the slight downhill stretch and i upped the tempo to stay about 30-40 feet behind him. Matched pace. Then he picked it up a bit and I was matching it. Not easily. But he wasn't working too hard, nor was he going slowly. And yeah, he kept looking back. Crossed the last road and he sprinted out of the intersection. Got a damn good gap on me too. But I told Kailey we're ramping it up. I had made note that this guy was in his big ring at the intersection, and he started downshifting post sprint and kept the cadence up there. With the big gap i decided to see if I can bring it down. And I did, brought it back to the same spot when K decided to ask me a question before we could really get close enough for the "kill" and I had to ease off to talk, and so I could hear her. But that was probably a good thing, it gave me a couple hundred yards to cool down before making the pick up.

The weather's been very weird this week. Basically every morning we've had good tailwind. That's so wrong it seems. I'm not going to complain but it is just weird. And heading home it is at most a crosswind. last night it was a cross tail wind. Really weird.

Sure beats fighting both the wind and the weight of that unwieldy beast of a bike.



Now that's funny. Well sort of, not really, but watching the drunken monkeys made me laugh. (found over at doucheblog)

"Car Up?" is great read. I personally hate it when people say "braking" in a race. I've gone over exactly why here. Car up is similar. Except. Around here on the smack down. Because one or two of the roads have no yellow painted lines, or if they do the road that they are dividing isn't wide enough for most cars and so, the rare car barreling down on the group sometimes gets called. But it only happens on narrow roads. Too much other f'n traffic.

But those M'F'ers on the bike path who pass w/o a heads up of "on your left" or something still bother me. Esp Monday. I was passing a runner and just as I'm pulling back over a dude passes very close (i'm on the tandem, and like a tractor trailer don't like little things darting out unexpectedly from my blind spot). No on your left, nothing. That night heading home from the pick up three more Dudes head down and "training" barreled past w/o any notification. That commuter on the Felt, same thing. Although i noticed him as we came to a stop before he passed me. People on the bike path are starting to bug me. I can't wait until the weather gets cold and shitty and all these people go inside and sit on their ass or find some spinning class to join.

ah well - at least I have the path to ride on and it certainly could be worse. The fact that only one or two people bug me a day isn't a bad sign. Gotta be positive.

heddwch
G

got caught by...

fatigue this morning. Lucy woke me up rather confused, wondering why it took so much to get me out of bed so late this morning. Worn out.

This tandem thing plus the running and the long ride sunday and the working on the car/farm saturday... has caught up with me. Pooped.

Opted to skip the run today. I had a training session to give down at the remote facility and I'm not going to ride the tandem down the hill through this city, besides there isn't any good place to park it down there.

So I thought I might walk down and take the bus back. That was the plan. Get a little bit of a walk to move those muscles a bit.

Leaving this morning was not drama free, but by the time we go to where my daughter was going to spend the day her mood had changed 180° and it was great. I'm going to credit the bike ride, just because. She's still not much help and it is a major amount of watts to haul that beast up the little rises.

Wound up outside my door here and I went to pull out my ID to swipe the door open. Shit. Not there. Damn. I walk around through the big entrance - stuff the tandem in the elevator and head to my office. Maybe I left it on my desk in my haste to leave last night.

Nope.

Shit.

Get through a few things and the next thing i know I have not much time to get to the other location, which would be fine if i was riding. So I head out thinking, "I'll just take the shuttle." I get outside, run into Turdowski. I guess Dave Kellogg showed up at the Smack Down and with a few others really pushed the pace and made everyone hurt. And I start heading over to the shuttle stop. And realize.

They've gotten really strict about the rider policy. you HAVE to have an id now. I suppose i could have talked my way on the shuttle but I didn't want to wait around for one and started hoofing it.

Weather hadn't gotten to bad yet. humid but not so hot. The return trip up the hill sucked a bit. But, I got a good long bit of walking in to substitute for the missed run. equivalent? not quite, but I'll take it.

Firming up plans for kids cross camp on the 18th of august. target age 8-12 with some activities for the younger siblings who all happen to be ~5. drop me a note if you're interested... totally informal - parent needs to be present kind of stuff, just some parents getting together with kids - structured day but not anything formal call it a play-date more than anything else.

I guess i gotta get my ass in gear and get that Bontrager crossified.

$147 billion is a lot. It would be nice if people figured out how slim down and save this country some cash.

One thing - thinking about overweight and what not - Sunday i actually felt skinny on the bike. Just sort of an odd realization, maybe I am, maybe I am not much different but that mental feeling sort of clicked and felt good. I know there isn't less of me to haul around but I think maybe i've moved some of that mass below the waist line into the engine room.

We'll see. G'ster is staging with Crossresults points this year. I'm inside the 400s but still 2 points behind G-ride despite having him pop up as my NEW victim. Muahahahah. Yeah. Carl Crash Ring has the distinction of being the only one who is both a victim and a nemesis. But that is last year. There's bound to be some differences.

Just taking a wild guess, I don't think there's much of a chance in hell that I'll be finishing in front of Steve Lehmann much, unless he burns out and gets slow for CX season. Oh CX season - here it comes. faster than ever this year - and I think i'm behind the 8 ball again. At least I'm struggling to get the car running in August instead of september. hopefully it will start up and work just fine once the new bits are installed...

need to get that behind me - then turn to CX...

heddwch
G

there was a song

in my head when I woke up. But man i can't remember it now. woke up and headed out fo a short little run. the bit of trails with the dog yesterday had me thinking about trail running and XC. Last time I was really running cross country was high school. I was super skinny (Keith Kelly skinny) and it was fun. Except my knees weren't liking it and people just kept giving me heavier and "more supportive" shoes to run in (counter productive IMHO in hind sight) and I sold my Mistral Sailboard and bought a '88 Raleigh chill and started riding for training, and I got faster. Never super fast. Fast enough to make varsity my senior year (nerd school, lots of fast runners).

SO this morning i grabbed the idiot device/iPod and cued up the song before Trees on Chronicles and started running. It takes about 90 seconds of running to get to the first bit of trail I can get on, and it was pretty cool. Not so bad, and then Trees came on, and yeah I'm an old dude who likes certain old bands, and the vibes flowed through and I picked up the pace. And elevated it a bit more. Flying around the corners, HR finally high and at a good threshold (not 'threshold' but... nevermind). It felt AWESOME.

I was striding out and it felt great. Timed it out and I got about 15 minutes of trail running and i ended with a nice 5 minute cillax walk to head back.

Then of course it was load up the tandem and power into the city. We talked about different bits, the wind, the flags I use to tell the direction of the wind, we saw egrets, swans, and other birds. We stopped along the wash bridge to check out a swan pair and a pair of immature swans. Absolutely fabulous ride in.

But man. Hauling that thing up hill is not really all that easy, esp w/o much stoker help. But at least we aren't dragging the trailer this time.

My hamstrings were pretty tight again but not nearly as bad as yesterday. They are slowly coming around, tired though. Not sure if I take the morning off and make a big batch of pancakes or go out for the "planned" run in the morning. We'll see. I passed on the smack down tonight. My wife really wanted to ride in today, and I couldn't honestly tell her that I wanted to ride the smack down more than she wanted to commute on the bike, so i happily conceded to not ride with the team. It isn't on my coaches's plan. Oh and btw my coach is an idiot. Anyone who goes on a 73 mile ride with ONE f'n waterbottle is an idiot. Or who eats lunch at 11:30 and then nothing until he heads out on a 35-40 mile smack down ride at 5pm. Total idiot. Something else. Oh yeah.

It took me until this week to realize that I might not always have time to eat breakfast in the morning but instead of skipping it or going out to grab a breakfast burrito once I got in that I could make a breakfast sandwich at home and take it to work and eat it there. Yeah. My coach might be brilliant but he's still a f'n idiot. That and there is some truth to what Dr Flat's A lot said. Been thinking about that too.

Anyway.

Ordered bits for the wagon. Got a slightly stronger clutch than stock so I can put the injectors I have laying around in there and swap out the ECU for one that is stage 2 chipped... if i'm going to be the only one driving this, well, might as well jack the crap out of the power, new clutch, head gasket, front suspension... esp if it is just me driving. Although - with luck (crossing fingers and toes) i'll be bringing my oldest to the races with me so it will at least have to get us there and back. We'll see though. Sounds like i might have a few longer trips solo before i have a passenger.... we'll see what happens though.

time to make some food...

heddwch
G

Killah Slaw

So I got this giant head of cabbage at the farmers market (a week and a half ago) and it is time to make the damn thing start disappearing.

I really actually am not a big fan of the mayo based slaws. Really don't like em.

So I decided to go with an "asian" flavor. Japanese maybe to be specific.

Ingredients:
2 pounds of shredded Cabbage (yes I weighed it for yall)
2 large carrots grated
1/2 med white onion sliced up thin

Sauce:
1/4 cup of equal parts seasoned organic rice vinegar and apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of annies horseradish mustard
1 tablespoon of 365 yellow mustard
1 tablespoon of plain whole milk yogurt (my concession to the mayo-ish white stuff)
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1 tablespoon of microplaned ginger
mixed that all up.
then drizzled in a couple table spoons of Toasted sesame oil
and then about 2-3 times as much Extra virgin olive oil
oh and a splash of Shoyu (maybe a teaspoon).

Mixed that sauce well - and poured it over the other stuff in a big glass bowl. Toss completely, let stand.

And try to keep your kids out of the bowl so they are still hungry when dinner rolls around.

Oh and it will be served along side some sweet potato oven fries (yeah - i'm cheating and buying something pre-packaged, but it is almost the only exception around here other than canned beans, i find that the canned beans are just way easier and better tasting - and despite the higher price point over the dried beans they are still pretty inexpensive) and some hamburgers made from the 90% lean whole foods ground beef that was on sale on sunday...

It is the easy night. Waiting for the final member of the crew to get home so I'm stealing a few minutes to post this recipe up. Mostly so I remember it, because it is DAMN good.

Best thing is. There is actually a good bit of excess dressing on the slaw. So I'll let it drain a serve from the top. When we're done with the meal tonight I'll chop up some more of the cabbage that I have left (it was a 5 pound head of cabbage for $3) and add it to the bowl and keep it going for the week. Adding it to lunches and the other meals.

eat well and heddwch
G

******** edit **********
so i finished writing this up and went in and the bowl was 1/2 empty. Between the settling of the cabbage and the munch-kins eating it, well, i added another 1/2 pound of shredded cabbage to the mix. And it was good.

mad for madfiber

at one point on sunday's ride i was sucking some major wheel thinking that it would be awesome to have a set or two of those MadFiber wheels. no weight limits, aero, strong, fast, light...

Until a few moments ago when i pulled up that page to link (had to dig through bike hugger's archives to find it) I didn't know that the set cost $2600. that's kind of a lot of money.

Sort of.

I guess when you factor in everything else and hopefully how long they will last. Heck factor a four year warranty and lets see that is a mere $650/year. Certainly plenty of people spend that much on wheels/equipment every year. Even has a damage replacement policy.

That and the pair of them weigh only 345 grams more than ONE of my commuter tires. That's pretty sweet right there.

Heck and at that price it makes Zinn's cranks seem affordable. Something else I would also love to get a hold of.

when the morning comes

I woke up this morning singing this song in my head, at 4:15am:


When the morning comes...

So what happened this weekend? When the morning came the girls loaded up in the new Minivan, picked up a handful of friends and one extra parent and headed up to Six Flags (MORE FUN) for the day. Me? I sent them off, dressed up in my grungiest clothes and took the transmission off. My brother came over with a monster floor jack for some more height and we went at it. Got it off in couple hours, most all of that time was spend messing with the drive shaft on the passenger side. Needed clearance to pull the flange out so the transmission would come out. No matter what it wasn't coming off it seemed. So, then we had the bright idea - lets pull the transmission off part way then we can get the flange enough space to pull out. Sure enough.

Pulled the motor mount hanger that bolts to the tranny off and then it tipped right out. not too bad. A light lighter than I was expecting. The clutch looks okay. Plenty of material left but the whole bell housing is full of brown powdery dust. The clutch is slipping and the dust is evidence of it. The grooves are actually thinner than I'd like and possibly increased surface area has lowered the clamping force causing the slippage. Or the pressure plate is getting weaker. Anyway it is getting replaced.

Once we got it all taken apart and tools picked up we had a celebratory Sea Hag IPA and headed to the farm for some landscaping. Stopped for lunch and went out and picked up some Pizza and I had a pint of Allagash Black. Oh man that was good. Went back to the farm and my brother and stanley went to work clearing out one of the garages and I somehow wound up taking a nap on the hammock. It was really nice. Great day.

No riding. No thoughts of riding on Saturday.

Girls finally got home around 11;30pm. I woke up nice and late sunday morning (around 6:00am) and rolled down stairs with lucy - fed her and let her out and then got kitted up for a ride.

Dr, Flats a lot had mentioned wanting to do something like 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours, so I packed one water bottle of sports drink and no food. Didn't eat anything before leaving. I did have a big cup of green tea and a bunch of water. And with the temps below 60 degrees I put on a sleeveless base layer under the short sleeve jersey.

Got up to the fourbucks in Wayland square and there's Nathan and Turdowski. Turdowski suggests I go get a coffee so I'll be talking the whole ride. Not only did i NOT bring food, or more than one water bottle, I haven't replenished my slurpee money in the seat bag. (slurpee money = michigan thing, i might explain it some other time, should be self explanatory but the story has specifics, and one specific 7-11). I mentioned, "no cash." and he hands me two one dollar bills, "go get a coffee."

I love that my friends are enablers. Working to get me back on the sauce.

Now the only problem is, what can you buy at a Fourbuxs for two dollars? Well not much. I went with an Iced Coffee. 12oz is on the board for $1.95. And the total rings up to $2.11. The cute young short blonde gal at the register wasn't sure what to do but the manager looking gal who was pouring my coffee said don't worry about it.

sitting out on the patio waiting for Dr. Flats. He rolls up and we chat for a few more minutes and then roll out.

Conversational for a while, catching up a bit. Then we turn north on Broadway and I pull into the lead across the narrow bridge. And they fall into a single line and we stop talking.

On a group ride when everyone stops talking w/in a few miles, that's never a good sign. I was well warmed up after my 23 minute sprint from home to the Fourbux, and pushed the pace coming into the State Line sprint on 152. Dr Flats took off about 500 meters before the line and I just rode tempo. Nathan and Turdowski elected to sit on my wheel and we let the Doc fly up the road uncontested.

And then we kept motoring.

Up to the TT course. Tremont or bust. Everytime Nathan went to the front he lifted the pace a bit. And for the first half of the ride it seemed he was sitting on my wheel. So when I'd pull off after a long hard pull i was at my limit trying to stay on Dr Flat's wheel for about 5-10 minutes.

We just kept pushing the pace (or so it felt to me) into the wind all the way out. Just before crossing over 24 there was a nice stretch, maybe a mile or two, of ground up asphalt. You know that cheese grater road? Yeah. Turdowski and Nathan (two 150 pounders) freaked. Me and Dr Flats (he's 200+ as well) thought otherwise. I just started drilling it over the "cobbles" bouncing and floating and flying over that shit. So much fun. Me and the doc came over 24 and turned right, and looked back and they weren't anywhere to be seen. so we turned around and waited, and they eventually came back complaining about buzzing and vibration. Big guys can motor over that cobble like rough surface pretty well.

We hit a long downhill run and Dr was up front just drilling it. I'm tucked into his wheel and a couple miles of gradual down hill (my distances are all messed up - i don't know for sure how long - but it was a good while and fun).

Me and my one waterbottle, no food and we're on a ride that will get me about 75 miles for the morning. Dr Flats at one point stuck a gel in my pocket. I pulled it out wondering what the flavor would be, and OMG it was RAZZ. I LOOOOVE that Cliff Bar Razz flavor. SOOO GOOD. Sucked it down and wow that was awesome.

I started dying a bit on the way back in. Lack of food, water or just being worn out, pick one or all, I was getting gapped off on the little rises. Oh well. These guys were nice enough to wait up a bit until we hit seekonk and started winding down.

A couple data points, one from Dr Flats-a-Lot (with power). But it doesn't include my jaunt up and down the bike path.

Turdowski split off with me and headed down the path. I offered to buy him some Ice Cream at the Dairy Bee for buying me the coffee, but we had to swing by the house. His data points are here (no power). Those more closely resemble my ride time. But Mark's pretty close to my weight so his power numbers are a decently similar, even with the equipment differences. You can see his state line sprint there at 1300 watts. Oh and Dr Flat's Comments over on FB made me chuckle, "Poor GeWilli, getting all beat up on...not. More than once we were pulling 400 watts with him in front. Don't listen to him, he just wants sympathy." See, I had no idea i was dragging him along and he's sitting in my draft making 400 watts. Stuff I don't need to know.

So heading to the path, make it to the house, i downed a Coconut water (my daughter thought it would be good in her lunch, tried it and couldn't finish it, so I've got a few left to burn through) and man it was awesome, i grabbed a twenty and we headed back up to the Dairy Bee for Ice Cream.

We get there, 11:08 (i checked) and they guy said they aren't open until 11:30, the soft serve machines aren't cooled down yet... BUT, if we wanted a shake or hard serve he'd be happy to set us up.

That ice cream was soooo good.

He headed north, i headed back home and got the rest of the sunday sorted out for the up coming week.

When the morning came around this morning, I tried to fall back asleep but that wasn't working and after a good while of laying awake I got up and laced up the shoes and grabbed lucy's leash and we went for a 15-20 minute trail run with about 5 minutes of a cool down walk afterwards.

I hit the trails because I couldn't stand the thought of plodding along the path again. One week of running on it (not even that - only a couple days) last week and it already isn't fun. But we hit the trails there by Skinny's CX course (and Joey B's too) and lucy and I ran around, did the loop and it felt awesome.

My hamstrings were on fire yesterday but my calves were fine. This morning the calves were no issue and the hamstrings started off sore but they felt much better after a few minutes and right now? not so bad.

The tandem and the mini freak size 170 mm cranks on it were a pain going up the hills but it wasn't so bad. It reminded me that the Paramount of mine had 170mm cranks on it when I bought it. My first big upgrade for that bike was going to 177.5mm Mavic cranks (1991 iirc) and I was amazed easy it was to go up hill. There was on hill in Gig Harbor that I tried with the short cranks that I literally had to turn around and go a different way. With the longer cranks the same hill wasn't a problem. But now i guess i'm stronger than I was then because I can haul this tandem up the grades with only 170s.

All over the place today, yeah. Oh well.

I'm going to try and stick with this plan that my coach "outlined." There is some significant debate as to the wisdom of running 4 days in a row. But then the 3 days not running isn't so bad. I just need to get out for another sunday 3 hour ride next week.

heck I suppose I should check for a few races too, see what is on the calendar. Going to miss D2R2, 24HOGG and probably Mt ATT. Going to skip Tokeneke too.

That leaves Fall River Seafood crit. I hope they run it opposite of last year with the shorter steeper hill as the uphill. Would make it more mentally competitive for me.

Also thinking about doing a day or two girls CX camp sometime between the 16th and 20th of August. My daughter has been bugging me about it, really wants to do it. VCB expressed more than just a passing interest in the idea way back in May or sometime. I don't know if there are any of my friends with 8-12 year old daughters that want to come down to RI for the day to get some girls together to play with barriers, dismounts, remounts, turns and what not. I've got a nice little course (afore-mentioned) and two sets of PVC barriers.

Okay time to order a few bits for the old rusty Passat so i can have a vehicle to drive when CX season gets here.

heddwch
G

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