Annual Aug 30 ride report

Yes, I had lots of options to ride that saturday. Go up to the Dirty 40, they kind of messed that up for me by inviting a few dopers, sure I shouldn't care who they invite, the ride should stand alone. But sort of a principled thing I guess, dumb maybe, but also logistically nuts and not what I wanted to do with my weekend ultimately.  Another option was the Dude Smash. This hurt a bit more to miss but going there would mean not seeing my kid play on her new team in her first games. It was a tournament weekend but I was working on Sunday. Soooooo watch games on Saturday or not watch. Also Saturday was my birthday. I like spending that day on my bike. If there has been one thing that has defined me always it is the bike. It is me. I'm at home on it.

The soccer tournament gave me the opportunity to and motive and destination. When I heard that was where they are going to be playing, it kind of made sense. Ride there. But with a 9:05 start time? Oof I'd have to leave early.

wee bit of promo as CX IS COMING

First up Carl Ring, nemisis to many, all around good guy has been working hard for a very long time to get this Ronde to happen

Pemi-Baker Ronde

Here is the blurb on the event from the man himself:

Friends: this Sunday is the 1st Pemi-Baker Ronde, a 62 mile paved & dirt road bike event. Race at the front or tour at the back, the course will have something fun & challenging for everyone. Awards will be given to the top 3 in each category and to the "I Am Not Ted King" of the Mountain sprint leader. Lunch & a pint at Biederman's deli after the ride. Register here by Thursday https://www.bikereg.com/pemi-baker-dirt-road-ronde 

So yeah. If you can, go check it out.

Something else? Totally different? Riverfront Cyclocross park.  Maybe New England's first dedicated Cyclocross park and it is down here in West Warwik.

check the faceplace page: https://www.facebook.com/RiverpointCyclocrossPark

Not sure I'll be at either but they are great events and should both be a ton a fun and if not, should be on your radar if ya be local...

heddwch

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PANTANI : The Accidental Death Of a Cyclist

"Sport should mean life, not death. Sport should be beautiful and healthy. I sent my son out to play sport because I thought sport meant health and good company. But sport isn't always those things. It isn't."
-Tonina Pantani (Marco's mother)

I post a spoiler, why? Because it sums the film up, and offers an insight and incentive to see how the film makers take you there.

I agree with Grabau, it isn't the best film, sensationalized. Melodramatic footage bordering on cheesey. I think it detracted from the story not added to it. The syringes and vials...

Could be been crafted to be an even more powerful message, but as it is, there is enough there that someone who was a fan, a student of the sport, knows what was going on enough to fill in the lines of the story themselves.  Marco's mafia comment, wanting to quit.

Doper? Undoubtedly yes. Was he at the leve of directing the doping and controling it and mastering like others? I don't think so, Neive on my part? Maybe. I think he did it because he was forced to. That's my opinon. It seems, not just from the film maker's crafting of an opinion after watching the film, that it bothered him a bit. Maybe that's just me wanting it to be that way.

Who's to say. Pharmstrong comes across again as a bully, an asshole. But in a worse way than Hinault did in the Bager film with Lemond.

Maybe a film needs to be made looking at this story and the rest of them from the purely doping side, but then it seems hard to spin it in a compelling way, it is just too multi-faceted.

Sport isn't just sport. It is entertainment and we all know that. It takes money to make the sport happen. At the amateur level most of the funding is by the participants. But even then it is tough to make it happen. People though often lose sight of the facts that there are exceptional people. One in a million, who can do great things. With genetic gifts that rivals can't even dope to get close to.

Hard work will get you pretty far. Passion is absolutely required. Esp for a sport such as ours. The odds of a true champion coming into cycling with both all the genetic gifts and the passion is rare. Rarer still in a country such as the USA where top athletes find other sports, never really given the chance to try out cycling. Is the talent here? Indeed. Look at Lemond. The doping seemed to level the playing field in a way. brought everyone up to the same plateau, where odds of winning were less about who was strongest, and more about who had the best system in place, who played the game that wasn't part of the sport the best.

Maybe we can hope that opressive victories are a sign of cleaner riding. There certainly can be plenty of drama on a stage by stage basis, and with no certainty finishing and winning a tour is a remarkable acheivement. You have to finish. Look at this year.

Why do we do this, how can we still be fans. Maybe because we know there are clean riders, we know that when you have that magic day...  it is addictive. We are all really addicts in a way. But having a healthy and clear outlook on our abilities, and potential is critical. With few exceptions, there will always be someone faster, stronger and better than you. Maybe they are younger, maybe they are luckier that day, maybe who knows what. There are so many variables in the sport. But also so much to love.

Sit down and watch the film though. It isn't great, but it is certainly worth watching at least once.

Weather hold and a Smackdown report.

First vulture I've seen on the commute. I saw it fly over too the guardrail, that's no crow.. Too big I thought. I stopped just past it. A minivan going the other direction made a u turn and parked in the shoulder to check it out. We exchanged excited thumbs up and took pictures as the bird hopped back to the fresh rain soaked road kill.
 
Wouldn't have seen him on Monday if I had left on time. Getting ready to head out the door I checked the radar. Oof. Big ball of yellow and red on the radar bearing down on me and before I could get out the door to race it north it unloaded.

So I waited it out. 

And waited a bit more and pretty soon the little storm cell had cleared and it was blue skies and a massive tailwind. 

Drenched roads though.

Was okay. tailwind, blue skies, a bit humid and warm but then there was this guy hanging out.

Tried to keep it mellow getting ready for Tuesday's smack down riding in and home. Sort of worked. Kind of. (click the read more if you dare -below the photo on the left)

smackdown with a twist

The demise of the BikeWorksMA TT, or maybe just a hiatus, has sort of left a few of us who've counted on it as a fun summer weekly race to prep for CX kind of lost.

Not having that 20 min effort every week is part of why I'm feeling slower and more out of it this year. Sure you can do your own intervals and TTs and all that but the extrinsic motivation that came with rolling up to the TT start, handing Bob $5-6, lining up and going as hard as you can week in and week out for 4-6 weeks is really hard to replicate for me on my own.

I found a bit of a motivation by trying out a new TT course. Calling it the Medalist TT course. Way more challenging than the BW one, hilly. Starts with a broken pavement downhill, over into the second half of Hillside, carrying speed through a right hand turn up to the top of Pine and then slightly downhill all the way to Rocky Hill from the North. Finishing with a steady hard but not steep climb.

We tried it out the first time with Andrew and Steve and Jason, was good, hard and I died well before the finish. Barely climbed to the top. That day we ran into GR on the ride home. We tried a second loop but there was a lot of chip and seal and it finished climbing Rocky Hill the steep way, downside for me was I managed to turn off the strava ap so i don't have that run recorded.

Went out a week ago on sunday, underfueled and tried it again. Wasn't terrible. I was definitely feeling a bit of the fuel issue but at least I got the course set.

Tuesday last week Myles Burke and Fox and a kid headed to try the Smackdown with a twist. The kid got a flat on the Henderson and hopefully he had stuff to change one with him because we were way gone before we realized it. Myles rolled up to let us know as he had only a tube and no inflation device.

With Jason we headed up the fastest way. Tuesday we headed up the normal way and for the first time ever Fox pulled for the length of Pine and it was all I could do to stay on his wheel. It hurt. And we really weren't taking it easy but instead of heading around the normal smackdown loop we turned over down Hillside to the start point for the Medalist TT.

We went off in a loose 15 second or so interval spacing, I got caught at the turn onto Pine by three cars in succesion, had to basically stop and Burke more or less rolled up on me as I was waiting, so that kind of made it interesting. I was dropping him on the hills and he was going past me on the flats. Maybe me on the CX bike had something to do with it. That was the other change for me. The other two times I'd done the course I was on the Paramount. Heavy, but aero and nice road gears with clip ons. The CX bike has CX gearing. I probably messed up the strava segment creating it because the time was way off.

SO yeah the twist was we did the medalist TT, then finished the Smackdown loop, aka we rode over to Hillside and climbed it completely then raced back on Read/walker over to 152. I got shelled on Hillside. Stomach was cramping from eating too late. Why eat too late? well it was that or not eat at all, figured usually it is okay. But I pushed so hard on that final climb in the TT section that I created a bit of distress i think. Oh well. It was a good day on the bike. Didn't sleep at all that night, it was hot and muggy and my legs were feeling the effort and i was wired from too much coffee too late in the day. A hole I'm still in that finally caught up to me yesterday on the way home.

Yeah worked both days this weekend on top of a long and somewhat stressful week. A fire at work, lots of unexpected challenges.

Going to try and find a day to get the TT effort in this week. Talking with Steve I think maybe we'll just hit the old course anyway. Do it bandit style, and strava timed or something. We'll see.

heddwch
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new threads

its official...  granted we have to wait for delivery but deposit has been made and team orders placed.

There is an homage to Ophelia. It is a given esp considering it has been an integral part of the orange jumpsuit, and what's an NECX with out spotting the guy in the dirty orange jumpsuit with the Vanderkitten patches (from when i was pit/mechanic for Christine Vardaros before she went to Belgium full time).

Always fun having a RISD department head in the club who's not so bad with designing stuff...

Lots of questions always though right?

Why? Back to basics, Prov Velo Club has been something I've been involved in since I got here. I started riding with the Brown Cycling Club when i moved back and there was this cross over with Prov Velo and heck since I wasn't eligiable to be Collegiate anymore made sense to hook up with them. Been that way ever since.  That group of old men that ran around in CX started kind of when Boivin got Chabot on PVC, then Chabot talked Planet Bike into forming a Master's squad for NECX and we sort of solifided the team that year, moved on to CyclocrossRacing.Com for a few years then last year with JP's success launched ENGVT exclusive team.  You've been reading this - 2014 has been a big year of refocus, change, trying to more positive and be happier, one of the more difficult things was actually this desicion to fly the club colors for CX again. Relationships change and dynamics are different sometimes. Sometimes it is a punctuated event sometimes it is a gradual thing with a clarifying moment, sometimes it is just about orange juice. But CX is CX, it no care what colors you wear.

The PVC club is made up of the people i ride with all year round. there's a handful maybe racing CX this year and it just made sense to carry the leadership roll through the CX season as well rather than go split teams.  Kind of exciting that this is the first skinsuit from PVC since the Refunds Now days, Deano did an awesome job with the design I think. Pretty stoked about it.

It is a big change but not really. And is CX really a team sport? No. G-ride has the untapped guys now and that team has been awesome for him.

That and @NotoriusJunk won't be the thing everyone is looking for on monday photo day after CX races. Back to black for the junk region. #stealthmode

So yeah. I meant to write about the Smackdown with a twist earlier, haven't yet. Figured might as well get this up.

Cyclocross is coming and i'm NO WHERE NEAR READY. I'm way slower and more out of shape than last year. But meh who cares. I've got some time to get close and we'll see where I'm at. As good as last year? Probably not but that's okay, last year didn't end so well. Starting over. Moving forward and being positive.

Kind of funny, bad events seem to lead to good things.  Blue terminating JP's sponsorship before Nationals gave Jerry the opening to take on the roll of title sponsorship. That lead to solidifying the idea that he wanted his own team. Which was way more work than he bargained on and low return on investment but it also lead to a few big things, Worlds and Healthy Hubble tagging along, all that lead to the ENGVT Untapped team, which has been great. Even from a distance and no real conneciton, it is pretty obvious that it has been a very positive thing for my grumpy friend in VT.  Heck I've been on a spiral down a touch the last few years, and kind of jutst kept pushing through, feel like with a few key actions and some supportive people I managed to get through it, or at least feel like things are on the up not down... getting lighter not darker...   I'm sure any copy editor would find most of this post today a bit challenged. Written in a few settings, edited hap hazardly.

But I'm excited. I was excited last year but i was excited to race with the team and carry on like we had and then the team sort of felt like just me with a few exceptions...  so shedding that expectation, and the pressure, feels right. We'll see how that translates and bears out in the long run, but it feels right. And I do actually like feeling happy and excited.

best just publish and move on to the next topic

heddwch
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something crazy happened on Sunday

So back up to Saturday first. Or further but forget beyond that - ancient history.  Saturday morning was all about getting car re-inspected. It has a few issues that I need to resolve before I get another sticker (IN TWO YEARS - yes). But re-inspection time. Oh boy the stress. Got the car sorted out. Smaller injectors put in, Advanced the timing 4°, replaced the EGR vacuum hose (the old one sort of was disconnected), full tank of biodiesel... and actually less of a smoke issue and more of a drivability one... I did the hammer mod. Aka physically changed the injection quantity. It was limited out on the max fuel side of things. A big part of the start up smoke actually. It would overfuel HEAVILY. How much? Well, so much that I couldn't use adaptations to get it to inject any less fuel. It was completely maxed out on the IQ.  Explains the shutter just below the torque peak and then around 65 under moderate load (too much fuel, and then pump acting funny trying to regulate the fuel).

So car can't smoke if I tried. Big change from when i went in with dino and big nozzles and the rest of the stuff not done. It made big power but admittedly was a bit smokey. How smokey? It blew a 74% on the opacity test. Limit is 20%. If the computer reads anything higher than 20% i don't get a sticker and it spits out a rejection notice. No question, no debate. Renders other issues moot. Gotta pass the test.

Underpowered (can't even chirp the tires in 1st right now, NO POWER, aka stock power) I drove down. Got there a bit early for my 10:15. To make this not an epic novel about the morning, well... ignoring the snide comments about "you know it isn't going to pass, right?" from one of the people there (not a tech) and someone else remarking how the Dyno always breaks when I show up.  Yes I gotta be on a dyno. 1996 needs dyno. 1997 can just plug into OBDII. Not me. Not this car. Finally just before noon my car heads into the bay. Of course they let it idle for 30 min (filling exhaust with a bit of extra soot, that I had blown clean on the way there). Turned it off. Let it sit for an hour, then finally pulled it in.

I hear the test (the dyno shakes the whole damn shop)...  walk over and the guy's printing out a pile of paperwork shaking his head.  It failed.  WTF?

I caught the tag end of the run and there wasn't even a hit of smoke in the garage. Yeah tailpipe is inside. It was F'N SUPER SMOKEY last time. Oops sorry guys (but all but one of the techs were actively smoking while changing oil and putting new brakelines on). No smoke. The guy running the test was confused.  It was 84% opacity. No Fucking way did it get worse. He asked what I did. Explained. One of the other techs actually drives an old diesel v-dub, perked up as i listed it i all. "Yup, nothing else to do." He could tell it was gutless compared to the last test. And there was no smoke. No way it was 84%. He hates the computer and machine. I was understandably pretty anxious. hours of sitting around not knowing. Fuuuuuuck. 

Tech gets an idea, does a practice run after tipping machine over and cleaning it up a bit (same thing he did before the first run). runs it. 8% opacity.

NOW THAT'S MORE LIKE IT.

Phew. 

But now we've gotta do a full re-test. Re-enter all the info. Re-run it and hope it works.

6% and I got a sticker.

Then I headed home, ate some lunch and went into the bike shop to get a few hours of work in to pay for groceries.  The car is legal. took some work, mostly time. $15-20 in parts and it hopefully will last until next year with my wife's car is paid off. And as much as I would love to do what the tech said "Now you can put it all back so it can get out of its own way," that's gonna take time. Maybe after CX season. Gotta go straight flat out until January or February...  transition from two jobs to CX and the school year with the girls stuff....

So saturday end of day at the shop, not much to do, no reason or need to come in on Sunday. suddenly faced with a "day off" where i wasn't working on a car in the last month...  first one...  chatting with Russ he said "Mt Bikes in the morning" no why -that's dumb...  I don't know where anything is or if the bike is ready...  It was still in the same shape it was when i last rode it before Nate T went to Seattle.  years ago. How many? I dunno 2011 i think. So maybe it was only 3+ years, not 4. Still. That's a long time not to ride a discipline. No pedaling the fat tires. And yes, as Mottram calls it? It is indeed an endo machine. 48x36 rings up front. No inner ring. Indeed, it is a Lumberjack 100 machine. Built for the tight fast smooth flowing fast single track in Michigan. And for that it is awesome. New England? so far? I've really yet to have much fun on it since moving back.

Oh well. It is a chance to ride with Russ and his new bike. I even found my bladder and pack and it wasn't in too bad condition.

8am Uxbridge. Never ridden there before. We did some stuff, rode around. Wound up with way more riding time than i've done on the mt bike since maybe riding the pato trail in Michigan. Hooked up with a guy Mike on an Ibis. At least he had little wheels. But he did have disc brakes. Me and my 559mm rotors and mechanical activated pads. And essentially no suspension and a million inches of drop to the bars. I think the bars on my CX bike might be the same width. At least not much different.

We made it to look out rock, and Gumbo (in the orange) had to ride up, and then on his way down as I'm taking a picture of russ... he eats shit, and leaves a bit blood stain on the rock (that's what they are looking at). Superficial, very much so. Not sure how that much blood got on the rock but it did. No problem with bike or rider.

And of course Russ had to get in the photo while i was taking the photo of the bike at the top of look out rock...  Meta meta... 

Best part of going on rides with Russ is his documentation: http://instagram.com/rusto88

And of course we had to sit in the shade and cool off with a throwback 1975 edition can of Ganset. http://instagram.com/p/p1XBZVmewT

Me and bike in the rust old race wagon.

Yes - GeWilli went mt biking. And had fun. Plenty of climbing. Plenty of scary descents and moments of OH SHIT TOMBSTONE. A few crashes, all minor. Plenty of dabs.  I even managed to stuff the front wheel into a rock and stick my face into a pile of poison ivy. Legit. It was growing up the side of the tree (ribbon trail area IIRC) and well the big leaf completely with fruiting branches POW RIGHT IN THE FACE.  All I could think of was, "awesome now I'm going to have poison ivy on my face."  Well i didn't get any yet. But when we got back to the car I had one of those individually wrapped cats tongue towels and wiped my face with it, then my arms, then rinsed with water and a clean shop towel i had in the car. So either I've managed to hit the only PI without ‎Urushiol, or I've become like my dad and am immue to it (already don't have any reaction to mosquitos), OR the cats tongue towel worked to get the urishiol oils off before they could become an irritant.

I'm just happy not to have PI on my face. And to survive riding a '96 bike with a bunch of guys all riding big wheels and full suspension. Seeing Myette and Zanc on the trail was a super nice surprise too. But man it was just good to have fun mt biking again.

Maybe it won't be 3+ years before I ride the mt bike again...  LumberJack 100 would be fun actually. Good "excuse" to go visit everyone in Michigan again. 

Today I dragged the even older bike out (the Paramount) in TT mode (well not the wheels.... ALL THE SPOKES-not aero). Gonna go head out and try a loop or two, yes, in the heat...  see if we can sort out a good TT loop, esp if Bob is threatening to make the BikeWorks TT extra long this year.

heddwch

G

black bean sauce

maybe time to find me a bag of dried black beans...

and a few of those small peppers...

maybe some chicken thighs...

food...

black bean sauce from Fast Boy on Vimeo.

late departure

But it was gorgeous this morning. Perfect. Just barely over 60°F sunny, a little breeze...  so nice.

Kind of through the weekend but one added stress was the car. See it had an expired inspection tag on it. Mostly because of a few issues that I needed to resolve and hadn't had time to.

So I took Saturday and worked on it. Hopefully solving the fuse issue with the plate lights and high beams, got new brake pads on the rear wheel that had been frozen on.  Tried to get the tires balanced but well...  the local shop was closed on saturday. Woops.

Big day for my oldest on Sunday, a year of dance culminated with two shows. Chatted with Bikeworks Bob before the matinee performance, headed home, grabbed a few beers and tried to decompress after the insanity.

I will find the fate of the car tomorrow, with luck i can put aside this source of anxiety for a while, get the timing belt changed on it and move on.  So much focus being involuntarity re-directed. Would be nice to get back on track.  But mostly good... so keep dealing with the crazy the immediate and keep moving forward...

heddwch
g

20 years....

20 year college reunion was the past weekend for me (May 31/June1). A few friends I know are going, it is only less than an hour away from where I sit right now...  those 4 years [in college] seem but a brief flash at this point. Maybe the further away you get the less significant that section of life becomes, perspective I suppose. Bigger point to mark is 20 years of being married...  far more significant than a few years of college even though those few years are what set this all up.

But less significant is that 20 year mark in terms of celebrating.

Why?

I had a bit of a realization while riding with Goldberg on Sunday. Explaining the significance of 14. Esp now that we're linked with one of the key 14s.

Every month. Since at least since we were married, and probably before that...  the 14th has been an anniversary. Every 14th.

That's a lot of anniversaries. The 20th YEAR is a big deal.. but less of a big deal after 240+ anniversary days.

2014 is a big change in lots of ways. Personally and beyond. And it still keeps happening, lots of reflection and introspection sorting out that hasn't happened here. Too many unknowns still, but they have less of an impact with a few exceptions.

-editing today- on the 14th...

i've spent the day working on the car. chasing electrical problems, putting in new brake pads, changing the oil, removing a stuck wheel.  That's my day today. Why?

because i got pulled over on thursday for an expired inspection sticker.
have until tuesday to get the paperwork dropped off over at the State DMV facility.
hoping what i've done to chase the gremilins is enough...  really hoping...

but yeah...  So tomorrow is father's day and it is all about Kailey's culmination performance. Seems fitting with the selfless theme.

heddwch
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NECX Ohana

http://www.gofundme.com/a3wh08

from that page:

Hi everyone,

A few days ago Ryan and Amanda Kelly welcomed their daughter, Margot Thomas Kelly, to the world. As you can see from the picture above, she has not yet refined her taste in hats, but let's cut her some slack for the time being - she's still very young, and what she lacks in stylistic sense she's making up for with the absurd beauty that only babies have.

Margot's also proving herself very strong in her first few days on the planet, as she's fighting her way through some health issues (Dad wrote about them here: http://theryantkelly.tumblr.com/). While she's doing as well as she can at the moment, odds are that she'll continue to receive (the very best possible) care at the hospital for a few more weeks - which means, obviously, that Amanda and Ryan will be spending their next few weeks with her there.

It's hard to say precisely what they'll need going forward - the most immediately obvious thing is the cost of the hotel they'll be staying in until Margot is out of the hospital, but one can imagine that perhaps Margot will need tiny ear muffs to drown out the sound of her father talking about video games and bikes and blogs.

They haven't asked for this assistance in any way, but if you're reading this, you already know Ryan and Amanda are good and kind and compassionate people who more than deserve whatever help you can give them.

So donate some money here - anything you can, whether it's a dollar or ten or whatever. Everything that's raised (whether it's the arbitrary goal I picked or more) goes to them and whatever they need to make the next few weeks a little easier.

Thanks for your help.

Ryan is family.

his family is family...

Ohana...

NECX has had a lot of that lately it seems, doesn't matter how much, we are legitimately a family. Disfunctional at times, but there is no question: family.

I do a pretty good Stitch impression... "Ohana, means, family... no one gets left behind"

This Ryan guy.... he's f'n amazing honestly... love him... so much...

ohana
necx

heddwch
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The rain

Walk to the dentist, he planned. It is only a 10 min walk, he knew. Wasn't rain hard earlier, he noted.

Oops. Pouring rain it is. Shell jacket isn't so waterproof anymore.

Soaked to the bone he is.

Seattle area he is from.

Umbrellas he eschews.

Price he pays.

Wet.

good stuff happening

I'm sure most of you have run across one of the other few last bloggers in #NECX and his post from yesterday:
http://velocb.blogspot.com/2014/06/ride-it-russ.html

NECX as a whole has been a great community, and we've all benefitied from the love and generosity we feel towards eachother.

Not just the grand scope of getting Russ a new Mt Bike that he will, I know, ride the hell out of, no beyond that...  I feel the love, and am very very appreciative of it all that's been extended my way, and a chance like this to pay it back a bit in this way, just seems right.

Life is nuts. Moving up ceremony, in-laws in town, complex scheduling, words have been piling up even though I've been writing. No time. But things right now? They seem pretty damn good.

#rideitruss

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sidebar

when you take a really long extended break and only write about recipies or other stuff...

people stop reading

a few are obviously

but, in a way, kind of losing a big number of regular readers is a good mental reset button

(just a thought while riding the other day)

I'm feeling more like writing lately

of course it could just be that I needed a break

remaking the Ge i guess right?

"let's get coffee..."

January, 2009...  MLFN sent me that note...

circumstances kept conflicting... we kept trying, but i missed the sense of urgency and he was good at hiding it...

i dug through the emails looking for the exact one...  found lots of his emails but not that specific one.

this one hit hard: "Hey all, please pardon my absence for the Smackdown tomorrow.  You will not be having me along once again.  It will happen this Tues on Every month.  Some of you know why, and if you don't, you don't need to know.  I hope someone can take over the event tomorrow.  I know there as quite a few now who know the smack-down philosophy!!!"

By that time i did know. Dr Flats maybe or AD or someone had told me... All season since the start of the smack down in 2009 he was missing one per month. He made every other one and usually kicked everyone's ass. Seriously.

He missed them because that one week he was getting Chemo.

Big difference between his passing and Ezras I suppose. I got dropped coming back, he made the gap, on Greenfield, and I missed it. I wasn't alone, but watching him ride away from me while bridging the gap when i couldn't was the last time I saw him.

We stopped a few times along there to wait for him (to shit in the woods). He sent Keith Kelly out to our ride on his way home. He rode back to Dr Flat's house and saw Kelly on the BLVD.

He rolled back home, checked into the hospital, was medically transfered to Boston that night, then to Syracuse where he died surrounded by his family.

He hid it well. very well.

Not sure we're going to get the big MLFN ride off like we did last year. That was fun. Even if we did split up, get lost, wind up with AD and JC and me, heck BG nearly killed us all at one point... but it was a beautiful day, a great ride, good friends.  Life, a graduation, final game of the season, work, birthdays, anniversaries, rehearsals, running races, culmination peformances father's day...  all that started on Sunday and won't stop for a while...

But maybe I need to take a page from my wife's book of philosophy. Why do you need to have so much emphasis on one day, one ride, when every day, every ride, can be in his memory.

It is true. Every smack down ride is a MLFN ride. Even if it is on the east side route.

Every day is a gift. He treated it as such. It was that spring (2009) one of those rides May 19th to be exact, my spokes broke on the Vector Pros. couldn't ride. Started walking, didn't have my phone with me, Mark gave me his iPhone, Brier called in his coworker who lived in the area, got me back to his office and I drove the green monster van home. A collection of wonderful efforts by friends to bail out me and my busted bike.

I got there and woke him up the next morning, he had bailed on going to work, spent the day at home in bed, but at least with his phone.

So we ride, I ride, in his memory. Every week.

But lets at least take a few moments on the 11th of June every year to if nothing else, reflect on what an amazing human being he was, and how he beat every single odd stacked in his favor and lived the fullest life a full four years longer than 99% of the people who are diagnosed with that specific cancer at the stage he was diagnosed at.  Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glioblastoma_multiforme

scattered thoughts today...

But that coffee thing,

let's get coffee, always is weighted a bit more for me than some people realize. I missed coffee with Mark...

I also missed a ride with Sheldon Brown, but that's a different story...

time to start getting everything in order for the smackdown...

heddwch
G

best idea? maybe not

one of those days....  started off w/just coffee, a ride in to the office via the remote facility. Holy crap talk about weird traffic. Nuts. Like elevated over the regular PVD crazy. Heading back some little angry dude in shorts was yelling at a delivery truck driver in the middle of rush hour on Memorial BLVD and wow, people laughing, he's droping fucking every other word, asking the delivery truck driver if he's a fucking asshole, I'm thinking "no dude there's only one asshole removing all doubt from the crowds walking to work."

Traffic was already backed up all the way past the Court House on College. That hill kind of messed up the 'no cortisol induction day' on the bike. Woops. Oh well.

Made coffee, feeling hungry. head to first optometrist appointment ever. sit around there waiting FOREVER, man...  crazy day there too, lots of emergencies and patients taking way longer than normal. Doc stopped in twice to appologize. No worries I get it. Chilling.

Back here - eat salad (that's what was in the fridge for lunch when i left this am), the ride back was nuts too.  more coffee and now that i have a break in the insanity here at work i'm writing to distract the brain.

I suppose part of what I'm doing is making sure I keep the fat burning engine somewhat tuned up. Thinking about it a bit riding.  Mostly in the perspective regarding insulin and the comparison to training. People spend all day eating sugar, triggering the insulin pathway right from the get go. Sugar being availible in the blood stream and fat being targeted for storage rather than fuel source, the type 1 muscles all saying fuck the fatty acids I ain't got time for that, that's work, look at all this sugar.

Like training to be fast on the bike...  you don't do it, you can't do it. Gotta get those muscles to burn fat. Coffee elevates fatty acid levels in the blood stream w/o trigging insulin. After waking up your glycogen stores are at the highest level, and generally, esp someone my size, you have ample glycogen to fuel the fat burning mechanism.

Gotta train the muscles.

Look at the kids now, constantly given piles of sugars (over-arching group of all sources grains/potatoes/candy/sugarwater) no breaks, no periods where they have to develop muscles that have to learn to burn the fat. And they get fat. or they get soft and squishy, maybe not fat.

Hungry? Oh no, don't let them be hungry at all. Noooo feed them. Always. Here's a snack. Have a snack. do you have enough snacks? eat...

Training their brains to never accept and tolerate hunger as well as never pushing their muscles to burn a more efficient fuel source.

Now...  fat burning is great. muscles do really well with it. Much better than trying to use protein as a fuel source, but heres the deal. Those fast twitch sprinter muscles? they're good until you're out of glycogen. Then you're done with them. Can't make those burn fat. BUT you can make the rest of them more efficient. This is the key the LCHF folks don't seem to be focusing on. The runners, the marathoners, they're going gang busters, no need for fuel or food intake for a half marathon. Makes sense. on board glycogen topped up will easily burn stored fat for a long time. Esp if you're fat adapted and it is much healthier (assuming good balance of complex fats with veggies and stuff). But you still need a balance in the middle somewhere for sprinting, and specifically cyclocross. That's a glycogen intensive musclular classsification... i have a lot of lean muscle...  doesn't do me a whole lot of good but still doesn't change the fact that at 195 even at 10% BF (probably under that but between 7-10 so going with 10) that's a lot of lean muscle mass...  pain in the ass...  requires more food (most of the time) also means I have more reserves.


anyway... thoughts...  hunger induced maybe? Maybe. Not really though. they've been floating around for a while.

I'll get closer to more refined and simple theory for the complexity that is optimal fueling and nutrition...  comes around to the point though, manage your insulin spikes, try to get most of your basal metabolic calories from high quality complex fats and add carbs based on amount of intense exercise and you'd be close.

but yeah...  a fast is a good idea now and then...  not sure it is the best idea between a tower hill loop day that was way under caloried and tuesday night smackdown...  but hey... i gotta be a dumbass to balance out this fake smartness...

heddwch
g

continuing the remembering of Ezra/Fastboy

I've been watching one food video every other day since hearing of his passing...
http://fastboycycles.com/food

Today the post went up on the teaching cancer to cry...

http://www.teachingcancertocry.com/?p=2076

I have been sharing his story for quite some time now I guess...

I've been following his art and craft for much longer though...

Flickr 2005

To be honest while that peice is complete and paints the picture of him... it doesn't feel like him. I wonder how he would have written that, I don't think he did, doesn't read like his style. Maybe it is best that he didn't. too many stories to tell, too much to write down...

Words and art...

Ezra was no Maya

Cole Haan "Maya Angelou (Director's Cut)" from Ben Hughes on Vimeo.
but Ezra had a way of communicating that was inspirational... a similar charasmatic humorous command of communicating that engaged and bouyed his audience, one can't imagine what his legacy would have been if not for that cancer

reflective times I suppose...

I need the right moment I think to really flesh out my feelings, and his influence...

it is closer now maybe than before, but still gathering thoughts and feelings...

perhaps a day off, a day on the bike, will be the effective catalyst

life goes on for the rest of us left behind, as it always does

heddwch
G

Getting there

The legs, they feel maybe better. Solobreak wasn't right but he was close. Probably take another two weeks before I feel ok on the smackdown ride, but this past tuesday wasn't terrible. Granted I still got dropped pretty much every hill, but I'm a big fatso right now, CX isn't for a while right?

We had a great turn out though. A big portion of the club showed up (probably because we were all headed over to Dr Flat's after for beers and protein on the grill). After big Anton flatted it was just PVC. If Kyle had actually worn the kit it would have been an 8 man TTT a nice mix of the white and black kits, soon we'll have the new color to toss in there... Good ride though.

Recovery seems pretty good, very good compared to a few others, but then maybe I wasn't working as hard or something. Felt at the limit most of the time on the hills and missing some top end but maybe I can see it coming around.


Boring blah blah blah...  I'd write how Morse and Andrew and Fox kept trading body blows but that gets boring after a while and is predictable. I didn't win any sprint lines, but had a good ride and the legs hurt a bit the next day. So we're making progress.

He is gone... but not forgotten

An inspiration - from that first moment on Flickr when we connected.

http://ezracaldwell.com/

http://www.teachingcancertocry.com/

http://fastboycycles.com/

http://instagram.com/p/ocAsv0rAXx/

It has been a roller coaster journey...  one that got quiet the last month or so...

I have been checking daily, looking for an update...

then saw Jenny's post on G+

didn't want to see that post...

where to i start?

obviously not now beyond this, other than to say I'm gutted, this is painful, expected? given his choice and progression expected yes, but no easier...

last week I was thinkingi about Ezra, hoping he was pulling a micracle MLFN and defying the odds beyond all reconning...

Now i'm sitting here at the kitchen table crying

wrtiing the best i can

which is terribly not at all

a loss very much

an inspiration

in craft, in art, in movement, in bicycles, in photography, in food

someone who was very much steeped in the black and white aesthetic

who pedaled... who created... who cooked...

I will write more soon...  for now...  i can't much...

still riding

I hope maybe if i have the grace and luck to have grandkids they are able to make a movie like this about me



Portrait of my grandfather : 80 and still cycling from Florent Piovesan on Vimeo.

radish greens - come on magic

The shorter east route smackdown is on tonight (vs the western one that's longer and stuff). And well last week the radish greens didn't help with the legs, okay, not true, they helped keep me in contact until Prospect, but beyond that? pfft. Nope. zippo.

But in the name of science and gastronomy I am having them for breakfast again.

Radishes are a popular lunch snack in these here parts, and I love the greens and buying them is usually about finding the best looking TOPS in the pile of organic radishes. Does a few things, first fresher selection and second THE GREENS ARE SO YUMMY.

May have to be Hobbitish and follow up first breakfast with post commute breakfast, but starting the day with a fried egg topped with melty habanero cheese (it is on sale at WF again, just like last year, good spicey yummy cheese) a thin slice of fried ham and a giant mount of radish greens. And some salt. Because, you know, salt.

Second breakfast may or may not include a few chocolate croisants.

Because post ride pastries with coffee...  does it get better? Maybe. Better when shared post ride, but i have two small ones and am riding alone so ALL MINE.

Tonight heading out though. Legs? We'll see. May be hanging with the B split, but that's okay. Should be a nice evening to suffer on the bike.

Baby steps. We'll see who shows though. We'll see who shows.

Last night did something pretty cool, stuck an SEM sample holder rig on the bike. Facing forward to catch airborne particulate (and hopefully some pollen). Figureed if the bike is turning green there's gotta be something in the air. Why not collect it and see what exactly is in the air.

Collected a bit of stuff last night, going to stick a fresh new one on for the ride in and maybe while the service engineer is fixing the confocal I can get a few minutes on the scanning electron microscope to check this out. As excited to see what is on the stub (the thing that you put the samples into the microscope on - stub is like a slide for the SEM), I'm more intriqued to see if there is any difference between last night and this morning.

Rig looks like this:

and after the ride you can see stuff on it here:

So repeating this AM, heck maybe I should put one on for the smackdown...

Found a good stack of old prints from senior year in college...  would be funny to re-do the shots, esp the one with Erik Jerry me and Lum.

Finishi it up with two links about food and YOUR health. Because I care [too much] about other people.

Link #1 for the medical and nutritional professionals:
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1871695

Link #2 for everyone (not a copy of the above but it is NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/always-hungry-heres-why.html?_r=1

heddwch
G

podcasts

I don't listen to many of them, mostly because I prefer to hear myself talking. No not really mostly I prefer to read, words. Quickly and what not. Saves time. Mostly because most people talk to slowly. Or should I say talk at a slow pace to aid the slow listener (or just because they are forming words in head at a slow pace and that's just how it comes out) I dunno, i'm just speculating of course.

Point being I don't usually have time to sit and listen. Pausing all the time because I deal with daily interuptions is a pain. I can read, leave it up deal with the issue, come back to reading right where i was or re-read a bit sometimes to catch back into the topic. Podcasts seem to demand some uninterupted attention.

Like driving in a car, or sitting on public transport where you're just idle and reading may not be the easiest way to absorb information. Or painting maybe. Doing something or nothing but where reading isn't possible/desirable.

That's not how my life is set up right now. So I don't listen to them.

Saguache Crescent ... a short film

can't link it directly i guess but check it out
http://zwfilm.com/work/creative-leadership

the one on the Saguache Crescent (currently the first one there)

still printed, same way it has always been... some content gets recycles as he needs to make it fit or fill but it is there and still gets published and printed and distributed...

My dad's pretty proud of it, a copy sits on every table at the 4th street diner there in Saguache.

give it a watch, it is a pretty cool thing, happening in a pretty damn amazing part of this country.

dropped on prospect

that's a first. never happened before.

Maybe i was a bit ambitions leading for a while riding and talking with PKS a bit past the turn off onto woodward from 152 was too long maybe, but damn that's like just getting warmed up...  turned over onto prospect and the lanky Morse cranked up the tempo, pulled off, big Anton took over and kept drilling it David B was the first to get gapped, claims it was from the Jay Woo kid yo-yo'ing him, i think he's much like me, just out of shape, he gapped, BDub joined him and I tried to hank on the wheels of PKS and the Morse but pretty much only made it 100 yards further than the two...   At the turn onto Broad/Jacob I could see two groups, the Anton Andrew adn Will group and the gapped but closing group of PKS Morse and Fox.

And from there on it wasn't an easy ride but it was a good ride with friends.

Fitness is gone as can be expected. Radish greens in your breakfast sandwich don't create fitness.

And it was cold, well not cold but between the wind, the lack of sun it certainly felt colder than the 50 reported. Got back to the office with an empty and distracting stomach to collect the bag only to have to turn around and head up to help sort out a car issue. Dead battery, race home so i could head back in to gather the kids and grab them dinner if roadside assistance took too long to show. But they showed up just as I was walking out the door. I was very thankful I didn't have to battle a headwind home and that i could get in the shower and warm up. I probably should have put that baselayer on in addition to the arm and knee warmers.

It isn't a surprise to find this lack of oomph, but it is a bit dis-heartening, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation kind of lacking. But i guess it is May, going to take this old diesel a long time to get even close to being up to temp and ready to make some torque for 45-50, so really not much choice but to button down and maybe do what I know i need to. Not easy really...  heck i haven't really even gone for a run in over a month. So much for fast 5k goal.

Lots to sort out

heddwch
G

perfect fried chicken?

Maybe not but it was pretty fantastic.

There was a definite lack of enthusiasm when my wife and oldest got home from a long run and ballet respectively upon hearing what I'd made for dinner. They walked in the door and asked "what did you make?" My reply of mashed potatoes, fried chicken and collard greens wasn't well recieved.

But I guess it is is probably nice to get home to find someone made you dinner no matter what it is.

The concept is super boring and lame and so american that it is cliche and man who wants that?

I was looking for something different too cook, Chicken was on sale last time I was at the wholefoods place so I bought a pile of it and used it in the meals for the past few days, a chicken stir-fry with peanuts, followed by some black beans, rice and topped with dry rub marinated diced chicken, and last night this classic of classics.

Best to keep them all simple. Potatoes just sliced and boiled russets, skins on, mashed with butter, olive oil, milk, salt and pepper and some powerderd sage. Simple.  Collards? de-ribbed, cut into 2-3cm squares, sauteed in olive oil with a couple cloves of garlic a splash of soy sauce and some balsalmic vinegar.

the chicken? simple is best still.

breast, rinsed and set between papertowels to make sure they are totally dry.

one egg beaten in a bowl

panko bread crumbs, salt, pepper, powdered sage in another bowl

in a flat skillet equal parts bacon rendering and olive oil. just below the smoke point...

coat breast in egg wash, then cover in the bread crumb mix

put in oil/fat (should be a few millimeters deep in the pan)

turn down the heat a touch. cook for a bit, flip, cook till finished, remove and let rest on a rack in the oven at 200°F until all of the chicken is cooked (don't crowd the pan, one or two breasts per pan)

That's it.

The "dry" white meat breasts were moist and delicios and the flavors were simple but each ingredient was able to shine, the potatoes tasted like potatoes, the chicken was a moist and chickeny tasting bit of chicken and the pile of collards offered a good bit of umami to tie it all together.  Served with a bit of german mustard to add a minor note of heat and flavor without masking anything and the simplest of simple was elevated.

Cooking takes practice. It is a skill. Something you have to do, but it does start with basic ingredients, use good stuff and you'll be rewarded. It can take time too. Time that is well worth spending even if you are only cooking for yourself.

eat well
G

pedaling again

thoughts not processing the same anymore...

too much change? too much use of twitter and G+ and even dipping a toe back in the like happy faceplant? I dunno...

strong desire to write about the trip to colorado is not intersecting with motivation inspiration and time.

trying to get those all to line up is definitely not easy right now. back in the bike shop again isn't so much using more time it is just keeping me more active and with less free time and somewhat more stressed about some stuff. Scheduling has been a challenge, but i guess now after still being burried last week from the trip i'm sort of coming up for air, 

yesterday was one of those days that just felt opressively hot on the bike but it was just barely over 70. Kind of funny how a season of riding outside skews perceptions. It was nice indeed. Sweating wasn't a big deal. The big deal and frustrating system shock is the sudden increase in 'traffic' on the bike path. Now instead of being me and the regular walkers and joggers, those of us who recogonize each other as we pass each other most every day. A familiar recognition between strangers that aren't quite strangers. 

I think we're all a bit shocked, the regular walkers and the bike commuters. These new users perterb the system. They walk or run on the wrong side of the path (despite heavy signage) they have headphones in and turned up and tune out the amazing surrondings.  They are escaping when they should be embracing their surroundings. If you want to run obliviously go play in traffic. The dog walkers carrying their 20' retractable leashes as their dog runs around sniffing everything on the path randomly off leash. The same ones who look like you just pooped on their shoe when you remind them that there is a 6' leash law in this town. The kids riding barely put together NEXT branded kids bikes trying to keep up with or stay w/in sight of their running/walking parent, not sure of what to do when I pass. 

Every year. I know it is coming and just look forward to the breaks I get when the weather gets inclimate. When it rains. When people are afraid of the out doors because the 'weather' is bad. 

I just wish my front fender hadn't died this winter in dramatic fashion. I should maybe replace it one of these days. I should. I should rely on more than the clip on planet bike fender Bob handed out to the team at 2009 nationals in Bend. I rolled up to the start not realzing i had it still attached. Anne Spaede was there at the start So i handed it to her and said to keep it, she brought it back to the tent and well... I still have it and am using it now when the weather turns all wet. 

At least the seagulls have moved on to easier food than the bivalves. The carpet bombing season is over, we're now dealing with the Canada geese grazing on the grass along the path and shitting all over the place. From one obstacle to another. Busted shells to shit. Plus all the people. 

But man as "rough" as the bike commute gets it still beats driving and trying to park and the anxiety of the car that is gonna turn to iron oxide powder underneath me one of these days.

Juggling everything. Is a challenge.

Life.

Sport.

Writing.

Art.

Work.

Love.

Kids.

Life.

All while balancing on a slack line called health.

Going to try and test the measure of my lack of fitness tonight on the ride. We'll see who shows up, and we'll see who I wind up riding with. Where will i slot in, in the heirarchy of fitness and speed, on our little PVD smackdown ride. Our own version of tuesday night world championships.

Another in progress project is sorting through photos and trying to decide on a handful to offer up in a limited number run sale. What I have sort of tentatively decided on is 10 images. printed in two size runs, 16x12 and 32x24, no more than 10 copies (flexible i suppose, if 100 people want one of them I could change it up) still to be decided: price and which files to do.

Still need to ride up to Firefly and get a bit of weld bead to image on the scope, that's needed for maybe something happening in a couple months. 

Life though seems to find a way of disrupting plans I make. That's my theme I guess. Getting a little better at managing the dissapointment.

maybe

fod yn rhyfeddol

g

changes... and breathing

not much here other than I've run out of time to write when I'm inspired or lacking motivation/catalyst to write when I have the time.

I appologize.

who would have thought this would still be active 10 years after I started it.

The title really isn't significant of any one particular instance i guess, but covers lots of things.

pickled eggs? sure why not

******update dated below*********
original written on 2014/04/22

I've got 16 hard boiled eggs, am leaving for a week, those who are staying don't eat them...

might as well give it a try. saw the recipe show up here:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/pickled-eggs over on G+

and thought it sounded good.  HK over at S&B tweeted about it, and well i had a minute this afternoon to peel a quart jar full of eggs and pour a bring over them and stick em in the back of the fridge.

Brine i used:

1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar (all i had)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar (unfiltered 365 organic stuff)
1/4 cup balsalmic vinegar ('cause recipie called for all vinegar and i needed total two cups of liquid)
brought that up to 2 cups with water

popped in stainless pan. added 1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of sea salt
1 tsp spoon: black peppercorns, mustard seed, fennel seed, dill seed

brought to boil to dissolve sugar and salt.

turned off (still peeling eggs)

filled bell jar up with eggs, poured liquid over them.

popped em in the back of the fridge. will check em when i return from Colorado next week.

and yes...  hoping to get back to normal writing, hoping to get back to normal RIDING, may have a story or two to write about over this next week and maybe time to do it in.  for now. I'm around, cooking, thinking, living...  Life.

it is what it is... food... you are what you eat. eat good food...
fod yn rhyfeddol
g

TASTING UPDATE 2014-04-30
Tried one yesterday morning. And then one this morning.
The texture is odd at first. The white is very firm. They aren't juicy or dripping like a pickle and I think i need to tweak the recipe next time. the eggs got a bit smaller, the parts that i didn't get the membrane off stayed white but the others turned a nice mahogany brown from the balsalmic v. I would like to try these without adding any sugar next time or just with the sweetness from the seasoned vinegar, maybe just with white vinegar or cider or rice. Lots of options to change it all up. They aren't unpleasant, but they are weird, and not what I'd call delicious. I could see these going really well on a salad though. They would pair brilliantly in small bites with a good balsalmic mustard vinegrette, thinking about the flavor I think that is the perfect thing try next.
Will I do another batch? Probably at some point...  not before these are gone though.

the club ride april 8th edition

Today XP is dead. Long live XP and down with microsoft..

awe who'mi kidding, that's a joke. A bad one. Written not on a microsoft anything. I think it maye be time to figure out how to instal some linux stuff, on a few boxes that have been decom'd recently (old XP clunkers) just for "fun/challenge."

until a week or two ago my work machine was XP. Been on that OS and maintaining it for a while at least maintaining systems that employ a XP OS based computer as the primary UI for the microscope and a platform for the software. Looks like we're actually going to be all Win 7 there too, a few key upgrades even, kind of exciting in a way. But as always over the years, there are two things that give me more headaches than anything else. Vacations and Upgrades (hardware or software). With so many systems though hey, we should be set for a while.

didn't really start out to write about some OS thing that everyone has talked about and known about for a while.

the OS didn't really factor into any of the riding today. Riding in in the deluge. Chatting with Chapman and Madden this afternoon. and then the tuesday night club ride. the 'baby-smackdown' baby because it is the shorter of the two routes. The longer one is the one Mark Nicholson himself laid out and so while his traddition of smacking it down in PVD carries on, daylight issues got us doing this shorter route that Derdowski was instramental in plotting and planning.

Tonight, like last week, 9 guys showed up.  A couple more faster guys than last week. A kid in a capo kit came out to duke it with Tim and Morse and Syl and Dr Flats Anton Fox and for a while Tom N. Tom bade us farewell as we motored into the wind on Prospect, and that dropped us to 8...  two pretty distinct factions Pine separated us into two, Me (still feeling pretty weak and not all there but way better than last week) Fox who hasn't been on his bike since November if then (okay i think he rode on Sunday maybe for a little bit) and Greve. Couple big guys and Fox. The 5 gapped us going over the top of pine, but like last week with derdowski me and greve we settled in to a quick and buttery smooth rotating paceline and caught back on before they had gotten too far down Homestead. Super smooth today though. Guys all pulling no one looking around. Good steady strong ride. At least from my seat back in the caboose.

As the ride leader I set the tempo out to the first turn off 152. Today there were plenty of cars on the shoulder so there was no sprint for the State line. Everyone was on the same page about not sprinting for the town lines either.  It was clean and mostly club members all looking to beat each other up on the bike.

After I set that initial pace that was it. Survival mode. Legs were suspect. I'd eaten better today (more calories at least) but first day on after 4 days off and battling some issue with a glute or nerve or something, so from then till the rotating paceline I was in the back, chillin. No brakes rolling along smoooth. It is cool to watch Anton improve. Last year he was flailing and couldn't hang on, now he's still not the strongest but he's much smoother and is riding well. His saddle is almost level now even.

We caught back on, and immediately me and Fox went into tail gunner mode. Hang the fuck on but let everyone else rotate through in front. They were taking long pulls and when we got close to the top of Rocky hill the Doc took OFF and crushed it. I just tried to survive. And was back in the group almost right away after the end of Rocky Hill. A success so far. Next up Hillside. Sucking wheels, sucking wheels sucking wheels sucking wheels. I mean sitting in the draft.  With guys like Doc and Steve and Anton and Tim there were good drafts to be found. Both in the steady comfortable sit on their wheel draft but also a big fucking hole in the wind kind of draft. I learned in michigan how to find the draft behind a 4'11" Carla and have like most of y'all found a way to benefit from any sort of draft even if it is just sheltering your lower half.

Hillside. Oof. Hung with the whole group through to first rise only to just lose contact as it crested a touch, dug deep and chased but not hard enough and could only just keep them in sight. Killed myself over the top and had Anton Fox and Greve spread out behind me but just up the road were two groups. Over the top of pine i could see them coming together faster than I was going to be able to catch them and we have the high speed motor section coming up. Not gonna catch them. But I also rather than totally soft pedaled just waited for the rest. Re-grouped and Drilled it. Picked up Syl on the way. Chased Anton who had passed me with the goal to try and catch the others. Was good.

Legs felt pretty trashed. Still no where near where i want to be or hoped to be but no need to be. The new knee alignment is affecting things a bit but it will come around and feels better, hopefully should be able to capitalize on that by CX season. Headed back to the office. Loaded up the wet clothes and the wet shoes into the trailer and headed home into the wind.

Into a cold wind.

Like small chainring going slow wind. Didn't feel at all hungry or bonky until i was a few hundred yards from home.

Got home, hung out with the girls, tucked them in, and sat down to get this ride out of my head and into words.

How was the ride? It was awesome. It was good. I needed that. Weekly ride survives. A brief moment of crushing it. I may be getting old and I never will be anything but slow, but it is good to ride with the club.

Now if we could just get Doc to ditch those hideous old lady POC glasses...

fod yn rhyfeddol
g

the release of riding

happens a lot on the bike, but mostly noticable if i haven't been on the bike in a couple days.

This morning was the first time back in the saddle since Thursday.

Was raining. HARD at times, and had been for a bit. Flood advisory and all. Good and wet.

Still headed in, tempting to keep the routine of getting in the car though. It was calling me. I could feel the easiness of just getting dressed, starting the car and driving in, dealing with parking headaches, moving the car, driving and walking in the rain. All that, seemed easy.

But i didn't. plopped everything in the trailer in a garbage bag (stays drier in there that way than on my back). And headed in...

Almost the first moment this popped in my head. No not haiku. Just a wee little poem in a way i guess.

Rain drops. Cold on face. Water splashing off down tube. Into shoes. Slosh and squish with each pedal stroke. Quads warm with effort. Fabulous

was a good ride this morning.

couple it with the free association from Resultsboy's pondering about just how artificial grass is into thinking about Bill Niering's house and how much of an impact/influence he had into the thoughts about fire managed areas, plains and grasslands and ecology and environment and the different ecosystems and where you do find grass... into the thought that golf courses are the least natural natural areas, and somehow the phrase about cycling being the new golf (all the rich old guys taking up the sport aka a million Cat 5 fields at Batttenkill all a pile of middle aged men)...

Lead me to float this question:

If cycling is the new golf when do we get to turn all the golf courses into permanent CX venues?

Cinci and L'ville are former golf courses, now perma CX venues.

Hey forget all of them, just give us 25% of them. The hilliest ones. Would be great. I think. Someday maybe...  Set up sled runs for the winter. Short course MTB or BMX in summer, CX in Fall Winter until season is over.  money. takes money. lots of it. everything does.

but we can dream no?
we can dream...

fod yn rhyfeddol
g

chana saag ala G

So i made this once before...  this is going to be different but hey the nice thing with making indian food is just you just keep adding the right spices until it smells right.

Saag is simple. Super simple.

aromatics in the pan, add spinnach, stirr, season, cover

eat

GeWillies aka Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I've written plenty about these cookies, compiled the nutritional information as best as I can w/o submitting a sample to a testing lab.

I've made these, but finally dug down and focused on the recipe as a repeatable recipe, no GeWilli tweaking.

Need to make these the same every time. Four batches ago = perfect, three batches ago? not so much, no idea what I messed up.  Can't have that.

So with my little one, my kitchen helper and taster we went through this. She measured precisely (with supervision) and we made a batch, and I made notes.

And then we made a second batch. It was the same.

Phew.

Got it.

Now, I need to make another batch because the second is gone. I had them made for the March Century with Russ. Ate them for the ride. So good. Easy to eat. No they aren't rice cakes but they do have a good sustain as fuel for me. And I can't seem to get tired of eating them, and the best food/fuel on the bike is one you eat.

These are cookies...

you know how to make cookies right?

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
290 g fresh ground whole foods organic peanut butter (just peanuts)
1 cup brown sugar (~169grams)
1/2 cup white sugar (~101grams)
2 tsp vanilla extract (just vanilla + alcohol, no HFCS or preservatives)

Put those in mixer with paddle attachment and cream until smooth

while that's spinning put 1 table spoon of ground flax in 3 tablespoons of water (mix regularly for at least 2 minutes or longer)

Dry ingredients, mix together:
1.5 cup unbleached organic white flour
1 cup organic whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt (increase salt for summer heat)

Add one egg to the butter and sugar mix completely
add half of the dry mix to and blend
add the second egg
mix
add the flax and water
mix
add the rest of the dry ingredients

keep mixing till incorporated

Now you can scoop and make little tradditional circular peanut butter pressed drop cookies.

OOOOOR

what i've been doing the last few batches...  gonna hold off on that secret for a while.

but hey... here's the cookies...

vetted

oh - right...

cook at 350F for 15-25 minutes

when they are cooked and come out they will be brittle... let them cool on the baking sheet for 5+ minutes before transfering to a wire rack to cool the rest of the way down.

cookies
chocolate peanut butter cookies
mmm
cookies

(they make really good ice cream sandwich cookies)

Gallois Poireau Potage Parmentier avec le Bacon, aka My Welsh Leek Potato Soup

Wait what? Why use a french name for a Welsh soup?

Well... call it GeWilli fusion... and it is still really mostly the french soup, just using the whole Welsh Leek, greens included.

Bacon? Well yes, duh.

I'm writing it down as maybe perhaps winter is wrapping up soon and soups will take a break from the rotation until the fall and even then though I've made it a few times in the last couple months I always forget what I do.

My [not so] Little kid is hanging out helping me cook tonight while the Runner is running while the older one is wrapped up in her thing, and this is something that is both quick and long and prep is simple and it leaves time to make Pizza dough for tomorrow night, and get the rest of the stuff done. Soup is nice. Easy.

So many possible substitutions to make things work. No stock? No big deal. Use water. Or if you want quick veggie stock? Put part of an onion, some carrot, celery, any veggie you got laying around maybe some mushroom, bring it to a boil and simmer till you need it. That's it. Stock.

I've got a bit of chicken stock in the freezer so I pulled out a quart of that for the soup tonight.

But here's the process and breakdown of the ingredients in:
Gallois Poireau Potage Parmentier avec le Bacon

6 oz of uncured bacon diced before cooking (i use Trader Joes ends and bits pack, i'm dicing it up before cooking no need to cut perfect strips up, also waaaaaay cheaper and just as yummy)
(start this rendering in the stock pot while prepping the next two ingredients)
2 large leeks carefully cleaned (greens and all) and chopped into 2cm bits
3-4# russet potatoes diced into 1-2cm cubes, no more than half of them peeled

when the diced bacon is crispy remove it with a slotted spoon and save for garnish (try not to eat it all before the soup is ready).

Add the leeks (i like the greens in it, makes for a pleasant color to the soup and has lots of flavor and also no wasting) to the bacon fat and toss at med high heat (below smoke point) until wilted and brilliant green.

Add in the potatoes, mix, add a few teaspoons of salt.

Put in 1 quart of homemade chicken stock (sub as on hand, quick veggie stock or water is acceptable)

Add water until everything is swimming easily (should be able to move spoon through without too much effort)...  bring to boil, then turn down to simmer.

As it is cooking add 1 tsp dijon (i use the 365 brand organic stuff) mustard, a little more salt, lots of black pepper, a wiff of extra hot cayenne power, and most importantly some sage.

Sage with the bacon and potato make this kind of the perfect savory umami in my opinion.

Once cooked use an immersion blender and make it all creamy. Adjust seasoning (i usually wind up having to add more salt and more black pepper).

Set heat to super low and add some whole milk and a bit of heavy cream just to balance out the flavor.

Then a final taste, heck ask everyone to taste it, more salt (hopefully yes more salt and not TOO SALTY is their response) and serve with some of the bacon crumbled on top.

if too salt, just serve with extra water, no harm with too much salt.

That's it.  The big departure from the classic is using the bacon and rendering and adding the sage. I probably would have used a cup of heavy cream, but with the milk and the couple tablespoons i had on hand it was quite accetably yummy.

Grab your bowl and curl up next to the wood stove and put some music on and relax.


simple...  well, i manage to make even the simplest soup complex, and timing is pretty key but you know what? All this little things I do with the food... it works. Maybe while the kid and I are hanging and talking about cooking and eating the cooking we need to write up the cookie recipe.

fod yn rhyfeddol
G

that was unintentional (warning: CATCHALLPOST)

So much to write about last week and did I?

Nope.

So much happened.

Longest week of the year mileage wise.  Thanks in part to an all day ride with Russ, I was going to link his blog report here but I feel better...  mostly because he hasn't either.

dogma and diet...

yeah yeah yeah... shut up already gewilli...  good luck with that

Here's a good review of Taubes' book:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/beyond-apples/201011/are-we-getting-nutrition-all-wrong 
"We've been told for years that the American "meat and potatoes" diet is what's killing us. But now an increasingly vocal group of experts is suggesting that it isn't the meat but rather the potatoes that are doing us harm. In the end, I'm not sure what the right answer is, but what I do know is that the chance that we are getting nutrition wrong is too important for us to ignore."

I've always maintained for years...  forever...  the problem with an american breakfast isn't the eggs or bacon or sausage, but the orange juice, toast, syrupy pancakes and hashbrowns/potatoes.  That's the bigger problem, for your heart and for your waistline, and as plenty of people are documenting there are far too many excersice addicted people who are skinny but insulin resistant (not a  good thing).

Bottom line it seems is the science is there to counter the low fat dogma, and well, look where it has gotten us. 


---  caveate/disclaimer

there's a place for all the foods and stuffs, adding in carbs is fine if you can tolerate them, they are used primarily for fuel for specific types of exercise...  

there's room for vegans in this and i'm not jumping on the taubes' bandwagon or the Noakes one either, just that they've ammassed some solid data. science. data that isn't pseudo science.

The lwo fat fad is killing people, literally. When you look at the medical science there was no unequivocal basis for the low fat 'reccomendations' 

anyway...  skim milk, cheerios, peice of toast and some orange juice...  perfect breakfast

to kill your pancrease