a wrinkle in the points

Boom just like that my points got 10% better.  But I'm sure everyone elses did too.  Yup, funny that, all the [not so] Old Masters just got way f'n lower points. All of them.

Copied from the web page:

The New Deal  9/13/12
The email has shown that the people demand a new points list, which means the season has started for real!
Fear not, my inbox, for it has been done!
What the people didn't know, of course, is that some "minor" changes to how the points list works were being made. The system had gotten more and more complicated over the last six years (oh wow, we're getting OLD), and more importantly, was starting to cause straight-up SHENANIGANS in the world. As in, people were dropping out of races to save their crossresults.com points. And while we like (no, love) that you're making mid-race decisions based on our website, we don't like the idea that we're encouraging anyone to quit. Dudes, it's just bike racing! Get a pit wheel and roll on! Your Monday will be so much FULLER, if you race onward in mediocrity instead of pulling ole' drop-out-and-hope-they-don't-list-DNFs.
MEDIOCRITY! EMBRACE IT!
So with that in mind, the NEW points list only considers your top 5 results out of your last 10 races for any ranking/prediction purposes. Which means you can RIDE SLOW AND DRINK BEERS a full 50% of the time without affecting your points. Yeah baby!
(We still have a hidden value stored that is your "old" points, and we do some backend stuff with that, but shhhhhh, I'm trying to keep this simple)
So, if there is any fresh wackness with your points, you should definitely let us know. Stale wackness we probably already know about.

In case you hadn't started checking and actually reading stuff there (but then you're here so you probably read the whole internet everyday anyway).

Impact me? no, I'm aware of the points and the impact of DNF'n but the two times I did last year i was defeated by the course mentally and running the excessive distance to the pits in either case on either on the last lap was enough to have me climb over the tape and shuffle broken back to the car.

But I like the solution, and the problem was there.  Hope it works as intended.  And DAMN we race in a FAST f'n region.  At least based on points in my race. oof

heddwch
G

tubular stretching tip

Sure - everyone has their own "special way" and Stu has his way and other have their way and what not.

But here's something I haven't seen.  Hadn't encountered.  Call it something invented. Or at least came up on my own in my own little bubble.  I'm sure someone has done it before.

One alternative to my tip would be to have a pair of tubular rims totally free from any glue.  I don't have that.
Anyway...  So I got some new tubulars for the race wheels. Got them on tonight, should be all set for this weekend's double headed up in Vermont (as back up i have a car full of crazy clinchers with tubes and one set w/o tubes)


I was told that these tubulars really needed to be stretched to make it possible to put on.   But i only got the tubulars on Tuesday.  Getting the base tape well saturated with glue and stretching them at the same time presented a challenge. Tuesday night I got them on some old rims (still covered with glue).  No big deal, glue has been dry and hard for a long time.

Once I got the first coat on the base tape, I wanted to get them back on the rim stretching.  But I didn't want to reactivate the old glue and stick them to the rim.

So I ran two layers of heavy clear packing tape over the old rim, poked a hole for the valve.  Worked perfectly. I had a choice of two rims, one a Campy Victory Crono and a pair for Grammo alloy cx tubular rims (front is out of commission - destroyed in a crash). The Grammo was a much tighter fit. Tighter fit = more stretch. And that's a good thing.

So glue - stretch, glue mount.  The packing tape didn't stick to the rim at all, glue soaked right into the base tape. Was aweseom. They went on brutally easily.  I had someone say it took popeye arms to get these Clement PDX tubulars on. Nope.  Easiest Tires I've mounted yet. (I've glue piles of Challenge, some FMB, and Schawlbe).

Pretty damn straight, super clean, no belgian tape. just a bunch of glue and a secret that i learned from Peanut.

Ready to roll (well, not quite, i still have to switch the brake pads on the Black Blue and a couple other minor bits, not to mention load the car).  Now I really hope the forecast for Saturday solidifies into rain! Lets see how these work on wet grass!!!

Heddwch
G

A stroll on the bike

I was down at our remote picture factory location this morning.  And since I was heading back up during lunch time I took a slow roll through the waterfront boardwalk thing in Providence.  It is tidal but inside the Hurricane barriers, and pretty shallow at low tide.

early season prep

does it ever end?

quad cross was a good  starting point but the wheel situation was a bit wonky. So it wasn't a true prep.

now? I have until tomorrow night to get my shit together for the start of the BIG races.  Twitter rumor is that Willichowski did something like 385watts for 30 min and weighs 155 pounds right now. I'm sure Roger isn't far off, and where does that leave me? Desperately trying to stay on the lead lap i'm guessing.

Which i'm totally cool with.  Maybe one of these days i'll get smaht and race category instead. But probably not.

Time to take it apart

The trailer that is. I managed to put two pair of wheels in there. But it was kind of not idea.  Need to move the seat bars around. Looks like I can't easily just remove them, BUT, possibly the support can be flipped upside down putting the seat bar down at the floor level for both the two bottom supports.  Remove the whole seat fabric and gain a ton of space. Should be able to easily put wheels with tires on in there then.

All I need to do now is rig a for mount bike tray to it and I can get where i need to go to say local races w/o the rusty race wagon.  local races as in Providence.  Oooo. Maybe the NBX race too.

Quad Cross 2012

So leading up to the race and the morning of I pretty much bombed twitter, got a bit insane. Oh well... got it out of my system for a while.  On to the race report of sorts...  after the fold

underway

i raced, wasn't last.

didn't feel terrible

success.

the drama surrounding it? certainly enough to take away anything gained from the race though.

writing, maybe tomorrow.

we'll see what the gods allow

it is time...

Season starts tomorrow. Going in totally unprepared (physically) but how can you not have fun in a Cyclocross race. Heading to Quad Cross early to hang out with my NECX family! Been a long time since we've all hung out. https://www.bikereg.com/Net/17078 

Knee has healed up well (thanks in part to early ice and Traumeel), still a little sore and tender but shouldn't slow me down.

Somehow i'm supposed to be able to sleep? 

WAY too excited for sleep

BIKE RACING!!!!!!!!!!

Commuter bike is even a passable PIT BIKE #OMG #WTF #FORREAL? 

Even racing on clinchers WITH TUBES isn't bumming me out in the least!

still kind of need to try and get some i suppose.

pondering

prompted by this:
"I am a photographer. I make people immortal...  What's your superpower?"

So we have amazing records that can always be extracted from hard copy latent prints.  What happens if there is some big digital apocalypse? Are there any records to reconstruct the last 20 years?

Film, an indellible capture of the image, simple and not reliant of technology to project an image or visualize it, unlike a digital file.

No more legacy of books.  They cease to become objects and thus lose the potential for immortality no?  No book lasts forever, but if you start with 100,000 copies, one is bound to get lucky enough to be stored just perfectly.  Thus preserving the record.  How long do books last on the Kindle.  When the Amazon server farms turn off, where do the books go?

Are we destined to be a bunch of cortical stacks that interface with new sleeves?

that certainly beats the current option of permanent deletion with our dirt nap.

shit i think about.

Confounding start to the day

Woke up, still tired, even though I slept well.  I guess that's a start.  Maybe can get more sleep soon.  Would be nice.

Got everyone together, then headed out to ride laps with Derdowski on the GWHPCX course (GeWilli Haines Park Cyclocross).  Got about 20 min of laps in, the new drivetrain on the black blue was working well.  B-adjust screw needed about 2 turns in and I need to install a tension adjuster for the front Der but other than that, was nice.  Functional.  And that CX70 front der? Fucking awesome.

East Bay Bike Path repair status

on the way home last night there was a bit of evidence of work.

not what I would have done but man I hope it works.  We'll see. Hopefully they'll let the fill settle a bit before plopping some asphalt on there.  Repairs to the path like that always suck.  They can never match the interface very well.   But better that than a big f'n hole.

heddwch
G

A bit wet yesterday

The bike path has had a bit of a problem.

Seems all of the water runs off the neighborhood streets and right down on the the bike path and rolls down until it can get off and head to the streams and what not.

One problem started developing a while ago. It started to undercut and wash away the side of the path.

Once the 'shoulder' was gone, the path actually started to disappear.

First a pile of gravel and dirt was dumped there. Next rain it was gone and the whole was bigger.

Then they put big rocks and more dirt. Ooops rain washed them away too.

Then they put pressure treated 4x4 with a drain cut out and everything. Looked wicked fancy. rain destroyed it.

More stuff. More attempts to fix.

Meanwhile the bike path just kept getting eaten away, bit by bit, crumbling asphalt into the hole.

yesterday morning was great. It was dumping buckets and the rain run off was flowing.

So i stopped. I was already soaking wet. Pulled out the waterproof camera and shot a few videos. This is the best:

Also a few stills.

yes that's the big white beast and my shitbox trailer.

Last night on the way home there were two big water filled plastic jersey barriers making a big V on either side of the sink hole.

This morning on the way in, Steve Church was talking to a tractor operator and I followed a dump truck that had just deposited a load, up the rest of the path.

The problem is pretty obvious to me. But then I grew up playing in streams and rivers alone, curiously seeing what happens when you divert or channel the water.  It will go where it goes. We'll see if my solution ever happens.

I'm curious what they have accomplished today.

heddwch
G

Glue vs Tape

Yes, plenty of mechanics prefer tape and glue. Some guys I even had a pile of respect for.  But I don't get it.
don't open the fold - really - don't - this is my way of avoiding a flame war

firetruck

it is still dumping buckets

used up all the wiggle room

this is going to be 'fun'

Just gotta 'jump in'

spoiled

by how few days of rain i've had to commute in lately.

today was going to be car but, well nope, i had the schedule all wrong. Bicycle.

Might as well haul the trailer w/o rocks so at the least my bag stays dry (one nice thing about the trailer, even full of holes it still affords the contents pretty decent protection from the weather.  Backpack on my back is not as waterproof as the old timbuk2 bag (which messes up my back apparently - who know), with rain this hard the bag gets totally soaked through.

I'm looking out the window now, at red level precipitation on the radar. Rain is coming straight down, the sound of it on the roof is drowning out the silence.

Of course it is a long narrow band covering the length of my commute, moving in such a way as to stay over the commute zone as long as possible.  And yes, instead of getting ready and just heading out in it right now, I'm finishing my coffee and writing about it.

It isn't that I don't like riding in the rain, but there is always a reluctance to start.  Sort of like that initial pause contemplating getting into a cold swimming pool. I could have put fenders on instead of writing but the first install is a bit fidgety and i have a selfish one on for now, at least i won't have a stream of sandy water running down my crack.  That's enough.

WOAH

This little center is about as close to purple as you can get and still be red on the radar! Reduced visibility, overloaded gutters, localized street flooding, backyard swimming pool!

LOTS OF RAIN COMING DOWN!

how about that. live blogging of a micro-storm.

and i just zoomed out on the radar, this little trace of weather is one long string of rain. (not going to stop any time soon).  And there are a bunch of them. Cambridge is about to get nailed too.

Yesterday I managed to dance between the rain drops.  On the way in i only got caught by a bit of drizzle once i hit the city, and the way home? Dry except for the wet roads.

Payback today I guess.

No being lame.

No searching for parking only to have to walk 4-5 blocks in the rain.

Just going to put on some plastic clothes (plain old cycling gear, a kit, whatever, plastic - but not PVC rain shell, those are dumb).

Also, did you know that calling someone a moron who is really an idiot is a compliment?

heddwch
G

rocks...for brains

Me hauling the hoopty kid trailer full of rocks again.

Now if there was just a tractor pull division in CX that would be awesome.

Granted I think the work load is pretty close, my back feels like I raced after that effort to haul it in.  The extra hills with the bridge detour route means two things.  one, not riding like a pokey ass dipshit after crossing the washington bridge (I get to work sooner) and two MORE HILLS.  Good or bad.  Also more speed sections.  But trailer.

I forgot what it was like to drag it loaded.  Been a while.  So much slacking in the trying to get fast department.  

Today, Thursday, dragging trailer.  Tomorrow (kid chauffeuring) and friday? who knows at this point.  Saturday and then RACE? WHAT? Shit I'm so screwed.  Oh well. Still no matter my condition i'm pretty stoked to race, been a long time.

Can't wait.

Long day today, in transition now, one more sip of coffee...  and into the phone booth.

heddwch
G

The 30th ride... in words

Yes, at points on the ride, more or less after we left Firefly, or maybe it was already happening on Blue Hills after leading through from Cambridge to the end of River Road and when we hooked up with 138, i was indeed riding like a "pokey ass noob."

Tuesday and Wednesday are my long days. Generally full day at the picture factory with the microscopes followed up with a good 3-4 hrs working with an apron on at the bike shop.  Tuesday isn't bad with Cameron there acting as a salesman.  But Wednesday it has just been Paul and me from 5-6pm until close.  No big deal.  But this last week I was speaking about my picture factory at an all day event in Bristol, and i rode down there and back to the city and back home, before following up Wed with nearly the same schedule.

Wednesday I kind of started off messing up totally from the get go.

cue typical GeWilli overthinking

Finally got around to airing up and inspecting the race wheels (Schwalbe Racing Ralph Tubulars glued up to some carbon wheels). 

And the base tape is totally separated from the tire in a handful of places. The tires were glued on extremely well though, that's a plus. I guess.

Racing on the 9th.  Overthinking options.  

nothing

a whole lot of nothing.

been staring at a blank composition page for the whole day.

got as far as uploading the few shots it took on my flip phone.

writing about it?

not so much

that hurt, more than alot

will write about it later, will pull pictures off my dumb phone later (my phone is so dumb it can't even send or receive picture messages)...

But man it was great having Brian along. He patiently waited for my totally cracked bonked dead butt to drag myself behind him all the way down Bay.  I haven't done that in a long time.

Saw some of the best people in the bike biz on the trip, had coffee with THE JLSCX at Barrington Roasters.

more details - wheels pushed to the limit and beyond

time to go unfuck some microscopes

first i get to see if i can pedal still

not a short day despite the short mileage, riding like a pokeyass noob doesn't help much

heddwch
G

double double followed by what?

today was the second day commuting 2x as far as usual.
tomorrow the ride will be a bit longer.

going to go get some coffee.

good coffee

from a place that draws a pretty damn near perfect espresso.  i just hope this one is going to be as good as the last one i had there.

tired and boring route, new company along for the ride and that makes it okay.

never a good time of the year here on GeWilli dot com.  some who've been reading for a while will understand...

Cyclocross starts soon. Drive trains still need to be replaced on the bikes - a few other minor mechanical issues to work out

then

we're ready

at least the bikes will be ready

even if the legs won't be

need one more rim

checking why one of the spokes was making noise in the rear wheel (the only training racing clincher) and i discovered it is cracked from impact, nice clean stretch crack from the top edge of the brake track, through the center of the eyeletted spoke hole and to the other side.

well at least i brushed the rust off my wheel building skillz...  I'd prefer to find another Sun ME14A so i don't have to thread spokes or re-lace them.  It is one thing to have access to the spoke inventory at a place like Velocipede Peddler in East Lansing, when creating something new, that or just ordering what you need from from a distributor is the new thing but waiting stifles the creativity and opportunity, esp when there isn't a 4' row of unlaced rims to choose from. (okay maybe it was only 3' and less than that after they moved from the strip to the 'new' building).

The Sun rim lasted this long, if i can get a second one it should last at least 1/2 as long and if so that's decent enough.  The hub is an old FH-1056, kind of dated but you know what? It still works. Has taken a flogging and still rolls along so smoothly.  Swapping the rim over is the easiest and preferred, but the rim has an oddball ERD (603).  But that's actually probably close enough to an Open Pro (602) to make the swap over.

Anyone have a[nother] 32 h open pro laying around unlaced collecting dust?  JLS hooked me up a billion years ago when I wore the brake track down on the old Open Pro predecessor.  Wearing shit out.

it is what GeWilli does best.

time to go get a new piece of plastic with my face on it before the old one expires - fun times at the RMV/DMV/Purgatory.

number 3

i picked up a pair of wheels from Il Bruce six years ago. Some black 105 hubs laced with double butted wheelsmith spokes to a pair of CXP21s.  Low profile and I chewed right through that back wheel towing a trailer.  Pulled a few nipples through the rim.

the ride in today... hoping for successful reboot

that time again

I did not race today.  Many did.  A regular feature character on this web log did, for the first time, toe the line.

We helped a bit on thursday, today he raced...  and all I can answer with is the quote from Pure Sweet Hell:

People who don't do it, don't quite understand it.
People who do, know, intrinsically, as soon as you try it you are hooked on it.
Once you race cross, it is hard not to.

Yes.

Truth.  He sent a short simple text to me after his first CX race: "That shit was fun!"

Yes, another convert. You have to do it yourself. You have to toe the line yourself.  And when you do, and it clicks.  You know it.  Intrinsically.

Honestly...

It was hard not to race today.  But that is very much tempered by the fact that the season is not short, and August is still just wrong to start racing cross.  I guess.  Resultsboy suggests that we're not far off from having cyclocross year round. I don't know about that.

Watch the trailer. 

Truth. There are better things to do when the weather is nice.

But when the weather turns miserable.  Cold.  Wet.

There isn't anything I'd rather be doing than racing cyclocross with this band of like minded lunatics here in New England.

I can feel it. This might be pre-season, and if it gains us a few more converts into the fold, I'm okay with August cross.  But I will not condone racing this time of year, I will not race this time of year.

But man I can't wait...

heddwch
G

afternoon naps with windows open

Rare moment, girls don't have school, worked remotely for a while, then, took a nap.

So I'm sleeping, and in the dream I open up a power point presentation and this horrid repeating screeching starts.  Huh?  That sounds wrong.  In the dream I take the presentation up to the seminar room and see if it does the same thing there.  Yup.

Man that's annoying.  Trying to figure out what the hell is going on.  Find that it is an embedded sound in the power point.  Wow.  That's crazy.

Wake up to a bird making that same sound...  outside.  It was more annoying awake and outside my window than it was when I was dreaming about it.

moment of clarity

so, i've noticed a trend, and it is biggest in the Cyclocross line.

A bit bike company, in Wisconsin, that is nearly universally shunned or at least second guessed by all but the king doper ball licking fan club (who are hard pressed to be called cyclists) is doing something clever.

In one of their lines.  One very particular line.

It is sneaky. And brilliant.  No one wants to ride their bikes, but hey, they have to sell bikes, or at least get people to ride them.   SOOOOO

lets make the logos invisible.

lets save the riders embarassment until people get close, if that.

"Hey graphics department, design the paint scheme and logos so you can't tell what brand the bike is, total stealth. If no one can tell what you're riding, then we'll sneak in some credibility without resorting to strong black and yellow color schemes."

Look at the Cyclocross frames.  All of them.  Katie's photo by her frame sponsor, HER SPONSOR TOOK THE PHOTO and you have no idea what she's riding.  Look at the Cronus in your LBS, can you tell what the brand is until your sticking your face between the main triangle?  Nope.

You can't.

At first i was incredulous.  Like Nike pulling all their logos from everything.  No swoosh.  Izod making polos without a little embroidered status symbol.  It didn't make sense.  Here's your chance at free marketing.  People see bike, people see brand, ADVERTISING.

Odd.  At first.  But when you look at the fact that they backed the wrong horse in the Lemond battle, destroyed the only aluminum production brand with value and a unique product and turned the sweetest most evolved technically awesome mt bike brand into a catch all component group from high end wheels down to the last inner tube and streamer, well, you do things differently.

They make good bikes.  People like their bikes.  It is a recognizable brand.

They dumped tons of capital into the brand, touting US MADE and actually making shit in Wisconsin.  Then they caved to the fiscal pressure and the lure of off shore profit potential.

This new twist is interesting. To complete the circle they need to drop the brand for all the mountain bikes, put the GF logo all over them, no they aren't our's they are GF's.  Instant sales.  Maybe that's the 2014 phase of the plan. Unlabel all Cyclocross bikes, then transition to GFs in the Mt Bikes.  Who knows what's next.  Just please don't put the Klein label on the current aluminum stuff.

heddwch
G

Da Fish

finally

put the clinchers back on a set of wheels for tonight's Cyclocross practice (Haines Park Boat Launch area 6pm ish).  They were on for RdR3.0 but haven't been since.

Put them on the TT wheels.  Yes. I will be rocking the wheel cover/disc (no sticks in the spokes for me!).  Hopefully the 9sp cassette that was on the QPro is worn similarly to the drive train on the SP right now.

We'll see...

Focused on positive yesterday.  Day didn't suck.

can't stop won't stop

this song... hits to my core... not so much in the literal sense. I'm blessed, but that blessing hasn't happened w/o work. I don't need a dollar... but it is a compelling bit of song writing.

Bike Path Founder has passed on

George Redman died last week.  He was the whole reason the East Bay Bike Path was created, he fought successfully against all the NIMBYs and paved the way for the rest of the many paths in this little state.

The Washington Bridge is closed now, to build a linear park that will carry his name and ensure his legacy is not forgotten.  He made it long enough to see the start of construction on a critically needed safe link for cyclists from Providence to East Providence.  The linear park should be spectacular.

There is rumor and discussion about having a type of memorial ride, like the ride of silence, the length of his bike path he made possible with countless hours and dedication to a cause.

Staring down the barrel of Cyclocross, wonder just how and when i'm going to get prepared.  Always happens. This is always the most insane part of the year.  So many new schedules to balance and every year it gets worse.  Ballet (now 5 nights a week this year), Soccer (2 nights + Sat games), school starting, work schedules, late days, weekends, start of the year department retreats, over load of requests for training...

No wonder my plan to have a clinic fell through last year...  I just don't have the time. or when I do no one else does.

Going to see if I can make it work. A lot will be up to the shop and schedules there, if nothing else maybe next sunday morning. Or i just say fuck it and ride home - ditch the bag/trailer grab the EX with tires on it and go motor around Haines park myself.

First race for me will be Quad cross.  Need to register I suppose.  Then some how I have to figure out how to get up to VT...  rusty race wagon probably needs the annual oil change before the season starts.

Like every year it seems i'll be doing what I always do. Hang on for dear life at the start of the season and work into racing shape by November.  Resigned to it now.  I don't love to race any less, but always wonder what it might be like to come into the season fit and fired up and prepared...

The vacation was good - head's slowly getting sorted out a bit.

Brunch snack time here.  Gotta cut up some carrots so the youngest can eat some hummus (her request).  This batch was made with orange juice instead of lemon juice, different, just as good....

Bike room needs some re-shuffling, a transition from TT bike and tandem riding to all CX.  Wheelsets need to be set up for road and cx and commuting.  I'll get to it sometime.  Maybe by October.

heddwch
G

Re-sharing a few words

The loss of a friend is tough. Esp to a freak accident that at first seemed deeper and darker than it was. The coroner's official cause of death was by accidental asphyxiation.  It doesn't change the fact that he is gone, and there's a rather large void left.

People die, life ends.  It is what happens.  Accidents happen that exact the ultimate toll all the time.  None of us make it through this life with any accumulation of years w/o losing a friend in some way.  The certainly of the occurrence never seems to lessen the pain though does it.

There is a very eloquent mutual friend who wrote a few words, and I am feeling inclined to publish them here, giving full credit to Bruce for writing them, they are not my words, but they capture a bit of the essence of our friend Doug.

Like most of us here, I’ve been thinking a lot about Doug- or rather- ‘imp.  I’ve always thought of Doug in the shorthanded nickname of his on-line identity in this forum, Papaimp.  As I never had the pleasure of meeting him in person, and only knew him through these forums, Doug's always going to be “Imp” to me. 

Like a few others in those forums, Imp was a MacGyver.  That’s a term of admiration, if not affection.  For those who had better things to do in the late 1980’s, MacGyver was a television character- an ersatz secret agent, who could use his wits, and whatever else he may have had at hand, to craft technical solutions to assist with his escape from the bad guys.  So, using things like a nail file, duct tape, a couple of nine-volt batteries, and the shavings from a bicycle seat post, MacGyver would create rocket fuel or some such thing to further his escape.   Using disparate found objects to create something wondrous was the hallmark of MacGyver, and that tradition seems to carry on in some of us- especially with Imp.. 

Imp was always collecting thrown away things, and either restoring them to their original use, or repurposing them into something useful.  Mankind hasn’t yet discovered two objects that Imp couldn’t weld together.  I think he could braze water on to wine, if asked to do so (brass monkeys would never fear the cold of winter, with Imp around).  He was of constant cheer, and at his happiest, at least it seemed when he was re-working some found object into something better. 

In one of his last posts, he wrote of converting an old wooden walking stick into a handle for a shovel.  In this day and age, most of us would simply purchase a replacement handle, or buy a replacement shovel, or perhaps just sit in a comfortable chair and consider just why we needed a shovel in the first place- until some other shiny object distracted our attention.  But not Imp.  Using a series of tools (and not necessarily the right tools, but the tools he had at hand) he worked on that walking stick until he had remade it into a functioning handle for that shovel.  Along the way, he developed an appreciation for why a good farmer takes care of his tools; about how physically difficult such a seemingly simple task was, and also had the joy of a kid at Christmas, as he realized that he now had another excuse to add to his collection of slightly used tools. 

And while Imp was a character, he was of great character.  He worked through the week delivering pizzas- and while some might think there wasn’t much to be gained from such menial labor, Imp seemed to gain a better understanding of the human condition. Yeah, it wasn’t brain surgery- he was delivering pizza- but throughout his day he seemed to learn from the people he encountered, and the people around him, and he was able to distill and combine those things that he took away, into an essence- and a philosophy on life, that seemed to suit him well. 

He cared deeply for his wife and his kids, and did all he could to bring things together for them- from odd jobs working around the house, to making things for his kids, to forever fixing and re-fixing various cars- and with the turn of the wrench, or the click of a torch, he shared his joy in solving those problems, and making good what was broken. 

For many of us who only know of Imp through the electrons and binary bits of information, his passing has just been a shock- and more than just a virtual kick in the stomach.  I’ve tried to get my head around the understanding of how and why Imp came to mean so much to so us, and I’ve come to realize that in much the same way he was MacGyvering the ordinary objects of life, he was MacGyering us, as well.  Imp had a knack for bringing just the best parts of each of us, and combined those things in a way that from time to time created something better.  It’s said that there are unseen hands in this universe, which guide and shape us as we wobble through life. I think some of those hands belonged to Imp.

The wildfires here in Northern California have been pretty bad, and of late the sky is so thick with smoke and ash that you could chew on it.  Coming up the ridge to work this morning, I kept looking at the sun, muted by the acrid clouds- the haze has just been terrible.  At some point, the fire will subside, and the wind will blow, and from those ashes of what was consumed and redistributed will be the basis something new, and that something will perhaps grow into something better than what it was before.  I think that’s the way Imp would have wanted it.

Godspeed, Imp.  I’ll think of you every time I feel the late wind of summer, as an eternal MacGyver creates something better, from what once was.

papaimp... RIP

The internet is a strange place to make friends.

Doug was a friend.  A very good friend.

Writing those words has unleashed a flood of tears.

So I'm here, sitting down to a quiet final day of vacation, looking out over the sound, sipping a coffee, working on resetting before heading back to the madness of regular life...

I stop by the water cooler, a forum, full of a group of people I've been friends with for over 10 years. We're a diverse bunch, but it is a tight group and as I checked in...  i read this:

"Jan came home from church tonight to find Doug hanged, in his workshop. He died between 1910 and 2005 hrs. I have no other details right now, but will post back, if/when I learn anything.
-Ray"

This morning's ride that I was going to write about, the close call, nearly eating it when I turned left and someone to my left didn't...

The photos from the ride in, writing about the food I made and where I ate it after I got back...

Doug...

Seems so out of character, surprising...  I'm still in shock, we all are.

We lost another of out small group years ago to pancreatic cancer....  that was expected, but still tough. This is worse.

It always is.

I don't have many more words at the moment, i certainly can't do the man justice writing today - if ever.

so many words - backspace, write, erase, write, erase - all seem unfit, incomplete

,
,
,

as an update - maybe it was a freak accident...  doesn't change the fact that he's no longer among the living, doesn't change the grief at his loss...

NASA AND WE KNOW IT

yes

"You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.”
-Julia Child

Happy Birthday JC

100 today

eat some butter - good French style butter, not this shitty cheap american crap that is hard to avoid

OBX 5:30am ride...

Groundhog day down here.  Get up 4:45am, make coffee, roll out on bike just after 5am, meet up at Food Lion and ride pretty hard for 90 min or so, ride back.

hitting the morning ride

sleep? over rated

who needs it...

5:30am for real

So yeah, I joked earlier today that I only agreed to come down here because I knew there was a solid group ride that left every morning at 5:30 am

not sure i was joking, without it...  well i'd probably figure out how to make it work but it would be more challenging maybe more frustrating.

As it is now, my legs are destroyed from today, haven't ridden that hard in a while.  Wasn't anything impressive really, a few solid pace ramps, a few sprint lines, and what seemed to be just easy rolling riding and talking up there in the Southern Shores.  Maybe we were poking along, it was me, Matt and Gary and one other after the light on 158 after the first sprint point.  The one other dropped off after we headed north and started to pick up speed.  I rotated through the pace line, but man i was at a decent limit, legs felt rusty, ending all carboned up. Not good.

After the Kitty Hawk town line sprint (one of the segments - the bay drive push) I sort of opened up.  Felt better.  I didn't try and sprint for the final one on The Woods before we hit 158.  But I tagged along.  I need to work on my spin a bit i guess, esp since I kept shifting only to find I was still in the 12 and there's nothing smaller to go.  Me showing up at a pancake flat sand bar with a 46t big ring.

Hitting the little "hills" in Southern Shores actually felt good, no effort.  But when i got back I felt the ride.  Deceptively hard.  That or i'm really fucking out of shape.

Good group.  I'd get lost in that Southern Shores mess if I didn't have a guide. Check Matt's ride here or Gary's.  Man Gary had a long ride, sort of envious, i only add 10 miles to Matt's distance with where we are staying.

Can't wait for the morning. Also did that ride in the dripping sweat with 1/2 a small bottle of water.  No food, and only one swig of iced coffee before I left.  Maybe that explains the slightly sluggish feeling in the first couple sprints.

Maybe tomorrow the sensations will be better.

But feels silly talking about that when Myles and Adam are articulating serious shit.  I've been accused of using too much vinegar when i should use honey, JD likes to say you can get more flies with Honey, but sadly you usually catch more with vinegar.  In this case, I never saw the original rant but man it must have been beyond sour and right into the poison category based on how Myles and Adam and Mo and the rest piled on.  Huge props to Myles and what he said here.  There is some back story, and other stuff over in face place.  It is a good question. If you get the prize money will people show? Not always.  Get people to show first then build the prize list based on attendance? Chicken and the Egg thing.  What do you do, how do you make it work.

Title 9 is what I grew up with.  Sort of. I watched collegiate programs shift to have to balance participation, I saw it as a good thing.  But it didn't solve the inequity completely.  Participation.  Important.

Grown and build.  It is a process.  I like what the trend is with the swelling of the 3/4 women's race.  And yes people need to move up, to advance to the big girls race to make that work, or the back end will get discouraged and the top will wither.

The governing body doesn't do much to help with the equality and they almost seem to do less to push people to upgrade when they have the points.  They can only do what they can do, not knocking them, without them it would be different.

Cross is on all our minds.  All the time pretty much.

And that's a good thing.  Guys like Paul B think about it all year.  It takes a whole year to make this stuff work.  Same level of work goes into Magical Strings Celtic Yuletide Concerts.  There might be a week or so after w/o thinking about next year but often there is less than that.  I'm not unfamiliar with the process of making something monumental come off perfectly.  Mostly from the sidelines, but i notice stuff.  It is a flaw how much I notice.  It is what it is.

Thanks promoters.  Thanks for what you do.  Thank you for giving purpose to my pedaling

heddwch
G

a good chuckle

forgot where i got the link to this particular strip...  but, I don't have anything to do either.

push the button

The reset button.  I'd steal an image of one and put it up here but NickCZ would get pissed at me for stealing images.

Granted that's what Tumblr is anyway, steal/reshare, you're luck if you can trace it back to the creator.

Long day yesterday, having some absolute quiet right now...  just me.  Nothing to do.  Not working for the first Sunday in over a month, didn't work for the first Saturday in longer.  Burning the candle at both ends and the middle lately.  Paying the price too.

I can see a tangible benefit to it, at some point I won't have to keep doing it because I have to, I might be able to step back and do the extra because I want to.  Maybe some day.

Got a nice pre-dawn easy spin out of the way first thing, pancakes made, cleaned up, shaved...  now i have time to put my feet up, relax, have a beer, and just tune out.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to hit a decent ride.  We'll see if anyone shows up.

This morning just as I was getting back to the place a rider passed me, then 45-60 min later he came by the place here with a big group.  I should have sat on his wheel the first time and hooked up with the group. But then I'd have been riding a bit longer than coach had planned for me today.

Coach said that after a 14 hr car ride and a pile of beers to unwind all i needed was an easy spin, nothing more. Got maybe 15 miles in, maybe more. Turns out I brought everything to put the bike computer on the EX except the wheel magnet.  might go pick one up today... maybe.  So despite taking it all off the Paramount, I seem to have just assumed I had left the wheel mag on the wheel.  oops.

Maybe I don't need to know any metrics of how long, how far, or any HR data this week.  Just pedaling.  Coach thinks it will work just fine.

Reset button.

So big plan for the 30th this month.  I seem to be getting these long rides in at the tail end of the months but that seems to be working okay.  Feb was kind of in the middle but the rest not so much.

Half thinking either New London CT and back or do the Boston coffee tandem of Ride Studio Cafe and Barrington Roasters.   The down side to the RSC option is i don't know the roads so well and, well, that's a fuck load of city streets to navigate and traffic to deal with.  New London might be nicer.  Have to make a visit to Fire road maybe, or at least Pig hill.  Maybe a trip to Plymouth and back...

Just thinking - hopefully i can find someone to join me, but if not, i'll still ride.

It is a challenge being here.

I'm picky about what I used to cook with. Food is important, but there seems to be a big discconect with intentions and what's important.

I'm not a fan of canola oil. Sure it has a lot of O-3 in it, but it ain't so good as it would seem.  Why? it is a completely engineered crop, beyond turning Teosinte into Maize, this is controlling a plant that wants to produce a slightly toxic oil combination into one that works for us.  The Rapeseed/canola plant's oil is actually most optimally suited as a feedstock for Biodiesel production, but good lord does it fall short compared to alternatives for use in food and cooking.

Butter.  Oh man am I spoiled.  Buying 365 organic unsalted butter is insanely different than the stuff being passed off as butter.  The "natural" flavor added to the butter makes it smell like fucking microwave popcorn, it burns way faster, has higher milk solids and lower fats and higher water than the stuff I'm used to.

And it is white.

WHITE?! motherfucking white.  really? That's not right.

It is dumb.

really dumb.

I'm sort of particular about food though I guess. My daughters benefit from it, and if I can instill a sense of how to eat well, and an understanding about it all, then my life has a purpose.

It is something many people don't get, and yes, i have a few vices.  Mostly plant based.  Coffee. Occasionally beer (yes, beer is plant based, you start with plants, add water some yeast and boom, BEER - unlike soda or orange juice where chemicals make it taste like you want).

The orange juice thing.  I will buy a bag of juicing oranges.  I use the juice to make salad dressing, and the girls will have a glass now and then.

EACH GLASS OF JUICE TASTES DIFFERENT.

Shocking.  And sometimes THE JUICE IS SOUR!!  OMG

the "not from concentrate" stuff, yeah flavor packs, each one always tastes the same.

*shrug*

Food.

Sure - it is just fuel. But it is also medicine.

Oh.

Packaging.

I get used to how little packaging and waste we made in our house, and granted it isn't terrible here but it is enough to make me notice a difference.

But it is what it is.  Maybe next year I can lobby vociferously enough to spend the week somewhere else.  Not that anyone seems to listen to me about much of anything.  Sometimes.

I should just get a wooden crate and go stand in a college square and "preach."  I do have a good 'praise the lord' kind of character i can slip in to. At least that way I could see all the people who ignore me.

Nightcrawlers

No not the worms...

So Cyclocross Magazine revisited their first ever Mechanical Monday column.

And it talks about the "Myerson" method to drill out the cable stops and run full length housing on Cross bikes with top tube cable routing, great and all but I'm not a fan of it.

I stocked up on something way back when, had them on every bike, (except the one bike i put the Gore cables on). And I picked up a few extra.

The nightcrawler. So far racing CX since 1997 I've yet to encounter any issue with cables. I don't generally replace the housing or the cables on a regular basis if at all. I wash the bike after every race, plenty of normal dirt, mud, sand, commute spray, rain, water, whatever, and no issues.

Can you still get them? I dunno, but I like them much better than I like the idea of adding an extra bit of friction on the shifting just to keep the rear housing clean inside.

whadda ya know

I'm a skinny outlier even at the olympics: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19050139

Had a great ride on the tandem this morning with the youngest.  It is only 2.5 miles or so to the drop off, all on the bike path but it is a great way to start the day.

Way back 4 years or so ago, when this one was a regular in the trailer headed to day care behind me, we would get passed sometimes or we'd see someone ahead.  "Go Get That Guy Daddy!" Was the call.  She loved it when we got the trailer up to speed.

This morning...  we had just gotten on the path, after passing Derdowski going the other direction out on a ride (he was in too much of a hurry to do more than wave and say 'time schedule') and the first stretch has a bunch of road crossings, I'm pretty cautious about them, duh, tandem, kid, cars.

So through this slower 'warm up' section someone passes us.  He was very polite, gave a nice audible "on your left" and rode on.

Well.  Enough of this slow pedaling nonsense.  We were coming up to the last road crossing before a long stretch of bike path with a slight half percent downhill grade.  And I said, okay remember when we used to "go get that guy?" She did.  And so we did.

Cranked it up, got that 56 tooth humming around, dropped down into the 12 and FLEW by him, FLYING we were trucking.  Cadence is low, no sense hyper pedaling the little one yet, but not too low, not old dude on the hybrid in 3-7 low...  it was fun. I got down in a tuck and she held on and we just MOTORED.  Then there was a street crossing or two, and well shoot, lets crank it up one more time.

So much fun was had.  Hard work. But adding fun to hard work seems to distract the brain enough.  Maybe I just need to take her out trolling for Pathletes to embarrass on the bike path.  Fun+work.  Nah we ain't gonna do that.

Did some high torque out of the saddle low cadence work with the tandem unloaded on the way home, been feeling that too on the ride in.

The SP is a lot stiffer than the EX... a Klein it is not.  The EX (carbon) rides nearly identically to the Klein, the SP, is brutally stiff vertically, even in the huge freak size.  But it isn't slow, it responds well, seems to handle okay too, very positive, we'll see how it works as a commuter/pit bike this season.  Maybe I can cut down on the DNFs.

Gervais

So maybe you watched the Coffee and Comedians and Cars videos...

Ricky GervaisVerified‏@rickygervais

Your detractors and critics want you to be as miserable as they are. Don't let that happen. Let your happiness eat them up from the inside.

Even if i'm not a bubbly bag of rainbow unicorn poop, vomiting sunshine all the time... i like this...

Track...

cycling.

I wonder if I've mentioned that I kind of think it would be more than awesome to have a nice high banked track somewhere here in PVD or between here and Boston.  Nice indoor space, permanent wooden high banked deal...  a pipe dream maybe. Hit the powerball big? yeah maybe. So as in never going to happen.

Good article laying out the basics of Track racing up on Wired (dated the 2nd):
http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/08/olympic-track-cycling/

harness the criticism

I need to do that a bit more, use it as fuel, not as a flame suppressant.  Too often I allow it do knock me down instead of pulling the Cav and using it to take the next step.

time to dig out the tape measure

quads...  thunder thighs.

wondering how you measure up? seems the minimum is 60cm..  granted for some classic ectomorphs (like me) that number is not as easy to achieve as some...  it is what it is.  Size doesn't matter as much, look at that Gold medal sprint race with the huge French dude and the 'little' Brit. 

granted it all plays into this review article: here

genetics and training...  pro's have both, the rest of us can often get by with one or the other or some combination of the two, need a graphic to illustrate it but it would just be sort of a combination between a venn diagram and chris's PEI charts, y'all are smart enough to figure that much out.

Finishing up morning prep here. Sunscreen applications, lunch packing, planning, medic prep for yesterday's injuries.

Cyclocross is happening now, officially.

Well the first race before the race, online registration for Gloucester.

https://www.bikereg.com/Net/16994

sleep...

pretty much just said f'it and went to sleep after eating a huge pile of food last night.

dog mercifully slept late

now it is the superb sale at the shop, the one w/o AC on one of the hotter and most humid weekends this summer. No point showering before I ride in, will have to do that when I get there. Will be a bit sweaty, even riding slowly, even this early.

Time for one more coffee and a short bike ride.

if you're in the neighborhood up there, stop in and say hey...

heddwch
G

time to hang it up for the year

The TT bike that is.  The paramount.

Realizing that the paint job on it is well past needing to be re-done.

When I bought it used, it was raced, crashed, beaten up and i stripped it down and had the guys over at Davidson paint it for me.  The frame was made in Waterford in 1986, I had it repainted in 1991... that's a looooong fucking time ago.

Slurpee for the TT

We need a Dell's Lemonade truck to make a stop at the start of the TT, or maybe after, to drop that core temperature.

I don't think we'll need the Hot Tea to help the body start figuring out it is hot.

2 man TT tonight.

Legs are still a bit on the crispy side from Tuesday.  unlike the 156 mile ride to woods hole and back I really fucked up the recovery this time.  As in my legs are hosed.  But then maybe that is just what they are supposed to feel like when you actually get some good training in.

Haven't slept well the last couple nights, not terrible sleep though, and while not as much as I might like it isn't close to where I was going into the last TT.  Trending that way but not too bad yet.

Made a Peanut Butter, Banana and Bacon sandwich for lunch.  Had bacon that needed to be cooked up, a banana that was a bit too squishy, grabbed the heels of the bread, and made up a sandwich.  Actually pretty f'n good.

Peanut Butter and Banana are a fantastic combination and the crunchy savory umami of the bacon pulled it all together.

Enough food for the TT? We'll see.  Hoping for a decent result tonight, but setting expectations realistically.  It will be what it will be.

No need for Hot pants tonight, makes the habits of Mark a bit more sensical, wearing big warm up pants until the last minute... maybe i have to look into some tear away stripper pants for CX season this fall...

Man i hope they don't cancel, please no rain, lets get this done and over with so we can move on.

Got it in...

last minute day before, calendar stayed mercifully open and I got my long ride for July in...

Yesterday.  Did an old standby ride I guess you can call it.  This was the second time going through the motions of crane pine and plain over to Bay.  I'd secured one definite "i'm in" from one team mate and one "let me check with my wife."  Wound up with one.  Andrew.  Andrew is a former lightweight crew guy.  HS and College, he knows how to train and is built as a lightweight rower should be, turns out that translates REALLY well into a cyclist.  He floats over the rises in the road, and he'd never ridden Blue Hill access road.

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)