grab a bucket of pop-corn and read the post then the comments.
That is of course assuming you can read it. I have to copy and paste it because the green on green is maddeningly annoying.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
great ride in
yeah - commuting in the rain. My feet are still freaking cold, but hey, that's what I get for not digging the booties out from last year.
I saw one person walking, two people running and that's it. Rain and 43°F when I left. Not too bad. But not warm. Got a nice hard ride in. Felt great. I am hesitant to say that maybe it feels like things are coming around, but that's what the races are for. If no race I'd say I'm FLYING right now, but I know that the results sheet will give the answer this weekend. And flying is probably not how you'd describe my speed.
Now I just hope I can get the shoes dry for the ride home.
I saw one person walking, two people running and that's it. Rain and 43°F when I left. Not too bad. But not warm. Got a nice hard ride in. Felt great. I am hesitant to say that maybe it feels like things are coming around, but that's what the races are for. If no race I'd say I'm FLYING right now, but I know that the results sheet will give the answer this weekend. And flying is probably not how you'd describe my speed.
Now I just hope I can get the shoes dry for the ride home.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
SLACKER!
Yeah call me something unique, or at least truthful. But slacking I have not been unless you are referring to training because I've done absolutely nothing. Well riding to work easily yesterday and Monday, today I put the screws down and got a solid threshold paced commute. So yeah, I guess it has turned into more of a rest week than I planned. Sunday night I watched that football game thinking maybe the Steelers would come back and win and I'd be rewarded for staying up late, but nope. They lost. Monday somehow I found myself watching the last two innings of the baseball game. First baseball I've watched all year and it was the last two innings of the season. Timing is everything. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want the Rangers to come back in the bottom of the ninth to win it and push the series on. I dislike the National League, I've never lived anywhere that actually has a NL team. Seattle, Michigan, New England. Sleep? Yeah what about it.
I've been thinking about those training races I dismissed with such conviction this year. Writing them off as doing no good, too short. Yeah well I'm an idiot. Not that yall didn't already know that much. Seems I may have made it to MRC last year, although I'm digging through the archives (lots of good shit in there - i should recycle some of it) and it seems I spent most of September underneath that silly passat doing the head gasket. Hmm. Might have to work on getting to a training race series next year. Maybe that's what I am missing this year. Hell who knows what I'm missing this year. Chipper's coaching thing has me thinking quite a bit. But then yeah maybe I'm uncoachable, but maybe not. Done dwelling on it now.
Looking forward to two days at NoHo, can't wait.
Then comes Plymouth. The Elites are grumbling about the lack of prize money, or I should say the paying out cash for a non-elite category but only handing out medals for the elites. Not the most popular move by a promoter. I'll wager it'll give Putney a big bump. And I've been considering it but the 45 min drive to Plymouth vs the 2hr and 45 min drive to Putney is the final factor. Well no. A friend is coming into town to race next weekend. He's been talking about coming up to NE to race cross with me one weekend for the last 5 years. We race CX together in Michigan as Bs and well, he's making the trip for Plymouth. Not the best representation of what we have to offer for courses but hey, it isn't about the course, it is about who you line up with no? The race is made by who you are racing against.
The courses make it fun or hard or both. But when it comes right down to it, cyclocross is damn fun. I might have to see about finding a second trainer for him to borrow to warm up, maybe one of the 45+ or gals will have one we can use on race day. He's got a flight out on Sunday and the whole drive time to Putney before a flight all for a CX race is pretty insane, sticking with the close race and the extra time to chill and have a couple beverages post race.
Well we'll see if the season is coming around this weekend I guess. I am going to try and ramp up the intensity to go into the weekend pretty hot (meaning about lukewarm compared to the rest of the field). It looks like with no school for the kids on Thursday next week I might even make it out to hit the corner cycle race promoting trifecta. Someone's gotta pay Bold and Hines salary I guess.
It's getting darker out there and colder, Finally.
Although, honestly, i'd really rather it stayed nice and warm during the week, getting cold and shitty on the weekends. The weather has a snowflake for mid-day Saturday here. Weather could be exciting at NoHo.
I should suit up for the ride home, last dry ride of the week it looks like. No trainer intervals in the back yard, guess I'll make it work on the way to work for the intensity.
heddwch
G
I've been thinking about those training races I dismissed with such conviction this year. Writing them off as doing no good, too short. Yeah well I'm an idiot. Not that yall didn't already know that much. Seems I may have made it to MRC last year, although I'm digging through the archives (lots of good shit in there - i should recycle some of it) and it seems I spent most of September underneath that silly passat doing the head gasket. Hmm. Might have to work on getting to a training race series next year. Maybe that's what I am missing this year. Hell who knows what I'm missing this year. Chipper's coaching thing has me thinking quite a bit. But then yeah maybe I'm uncoachable, but maybe not. Done dwelling on it now.
Looking forward to two days at NoHo, can't wait.
Then comes Plymouth. The Elites are grumbling about the lack of prize money, or I should say the paying out cash for a non-elite category but only handing out medals for the elites. Not the most popular move by a promoter. I'll wager it'll give Putney a big bump. And I've been considering it but the 45 min drive to Plymouth vs the 2hr and 45 min drive to Putney is the final factor. Well no. A friend is coming into town to race next weekend. He's been talking about coming up to NE to race cross with me one weekend for the last 5 years. We race CX together in Michigan as Bs and well, he's making the trip for Plymouth. Not the best representation of what we have to offer for courses but hey, it isn't about the course, it is about who you line up with no? The race is made by who you are racing against.
The courses make it fun or hard or both. But when it comes right down to it, cyclocross is damn fun. I might have to see about finding a second trainer for him to borrow to warm up, maybe one of the 45+ or gals will have one we can use on race day. He's got a flight out on Sunday and the whole drive time to Putney before a flight all for a CX race is pretty insane, sticking with the close race and the extra time to chill and have a couple beverages post race.
Well we'll see if the season is coming around this weekend I guess. I am going to try and ramp up the intensity to go into the weekend pretty hot (meaning about lukewarm compared to the rest of the field). It looks like with no school for the kids on Thursday next week I might even make it out to hit the corner cycle race promoting trifecta. Someone's gotta pay Bold and Hines salary I guess.
It's getting darker out there and colder, Finally.
Although, honestly, i'd really rather it stayed nice and warm during the week, getting cold and shitty on the weekends. The weather has a snowflake for mid-day Saturday here. Weather could be exciting at NoHo.
I should suit up for the ride home, last dry ride of the week it looks like. No trainer intervals in the back yard, guess I'll make it work on the way to work for the intensity.
heddwch
G
Monday, November 01, 2010
Flashback
to 2006 and 2007... before I got hit the "i know it all" level.
Backpedaling a bit to mess with the cronoman and to make this harder to read/follow.
So there's this typical trend. Get excited about something, suck info off everyone actively, always looking for new stuff, new information, new ways to do something.
UNTIL.
You hit a point where stuff starts to click and you get faster and better and success sort of starts happening.
THEN
You hit the I know it all now level. And don't really improve much over the previous season.
And you start buckling down again, but it is harder, and more familiar and you try to add structure, stuff that others with coaches are doing and it sort of works.
But...
along the way, that newbie edge is gone.
What edge? Well some people never lose that edge. The course studying. Reading reports from the years past about the race. Digging around the internet reading everything that has been written about the race, what riders do better there, tire choices, pressures, gearing, number of dismounts.
Granted when you have written about racing on a course three or four of more times you start to be able to picture it.
You can visualize it if you want.
Okay so what's the point?
CSI.
No not the TV show.
THE RACE.
This race was famous, I remember seeing pictures and video of this long before ever venturing up there. It feels like a haul for me, well I guess it only feels long if I'm driving up alone, last year with Essenfeld (fortunately I had someone to drive me home) didn't seem too bad.
So it has this mystique. People either love the race or hate it. I kind of really like it. Maybe doesn't suit me well but they way I'm going this year nothing suits me well so it is a wash and I can like something even if I suck at it.
Damn where was I going?
Oh yeah.
All that study, probably wasn't a bad thing. Reading and re-reading the Marvin Z articles (haven't done that this year and did it in limited amounts last year). I found my Krabbe book in with stuff from my trip to Richmond in the summer of '09 which means I didn't do my annual reading of it in '10. So that whole positive reinforcement of thinking positive and thinking about things I need to work on to be positive and fast kinda didn't happen. Life happens though. Doesn't take much to get you off your game, esp when it isn't your job.
So it really was a two pronged inspiration to get this out of my head in as confusing manner as possible, thinking about taggin this with food just to mess with those who only read those posts.
Prong One. Not really the whole thing, just the mention of C-S's online article database.
And Prong two, the update to CSI. Specifically the mention of the larger course map and the UCI commissaire report. I took a look and got that flash back (to being prepared, not the medical sections flash back to last year). Preparation. Thank god for a welsh miner's skull.
The routine has become too familiar almost. Although for Mansfield and Canton I did quite a bit of visualization. More for Mansfield and then Ron changed the course on me, less for Canton, but I've already mentioned my dumb thing for saturday (dumb or not I still had a blast).
In 2007, at the start line at NoHo. It was cold. Perfect. I had won the race to registration scoring a front row with the rest of the computer jockey/B masters... driving around at the business end of the group was intense. Even if we were going slowly. And what did I just do? I went back in time. Wow. It reads like I wrote it. Weird. Wait I did. Oh and this should be read before that scribblins link.
Yes. NoHo kicks ass. And I held that hole shot for most of a lap, on no sleep, completely hung over and under caffeinated.
First time at NoHo: 2007 Race it on no sleep after drinking WAY too much with my brothers.
Second time at NoHo: 2008 Raced it on the new tubulars until the rear blew out on the first lap and the antibiotics I'd been on for a few days destroyed me "Put it this way. I was more fatigued driving home from Northampton than I was driving home after racing at 24hr of Great Glen."
Third time at NoHo: 2009... okay we don't need to go there today, still fresh in the memory.
But
What comes out each time is how much fun that damn course is. Like the people who designed it know what they are doing or something. It is technical but it flows. It is bitching hard but so much fun. No faking that course.
Time to take myself back to school. Read the articles. Study the courses a bit more. Go back and read about the last races, what did I do wrong and what could I have done better. I've actually got a pretty decent archive. Completely and totally uselessly unsearchable except by date, but the stuff is there, and I really should work on learning from my mistakes.
I wonder if I got to where I was going. Oh. Shit. Habit. I keep meaning to stop doing the double space thing after a period. Seems that's for typewriters and not computers. Oops.
heddwch
G
Backpedaling a bit to mess with the cronoman and to make this harder to read/follow.
So there's this typical trend. Get excited about something, suck info off everyone actively, always looking for new stuff, new information, new ways to do something.
UNTIL.
You hit a point where stuff starts to click and you get faster and better and success sort of starts happening.
THEN
You hit the I know it all now level. And don't really improve much over the previous season.
And you start buckling down again, but it is harder, and more familiar and you try to add structure, stuff that others with coaches are doing and it sort of works.
But...
along the way, that newbie edge is gone.
What edge? Well some people never lose that edge. The course studying. Reading reports from the years past about the race. Digging around the internet reading everything that has been written about the race, what riders do better there, tire choices, pressures, gearing, number of dismounts.
Granted when you have written about racing on a course three or four of more times you start to be able to picture it.
You can visualize it if you want.
Okay so what's the point?
CSI.
No not the TV show.
THE RACE.
This race was famous, I remember seeing pictures and video of this long before ever venturing up there. It feels like a haul for me, well I guess it only feels long if I'm driving up alone, last year with Essenfeld (fortunately I had someone to drive me home) didn't seem too bad.
So it has this mystique. People either love the race or hate it. I kind of really like it. Maybe doesn't suit me well but they way I'm going this year nothing suits me well so it is a wash and I can like something even if I suck at it.
Damn where was I going?
Oh yeah.
All that study, probably wasn't a bad thing. Reading and re-reading the Marvin Z articles (haven't done that this year and did it in limited amounts last year). I found my Krabbe book in with stuff from my trip to Richmond in the summer of '09 which means I didn't do my annual reading of it in '10. So that whole positive reinforcement of thinking positive and thinking about things I need to work on to be positive and fast kinda didn't happen. Life happens though. Doesn't take much to get you off your game, esp when it isn't your job.
So it really was a two pronged inspiration to get this out of my head in as confusing manner as possible, thinking about taggin this with food just to mess with those who only read those posts.
Prong One. Not really the whole thing, just the mention of C-S's online article database.
And Prong two, the update to CSI. Specifically the mention of the larger course map and the UCI commissaire report. I took a look and got that flash back (to being prepared, not the medical sections flash back to last year). Preparation. Thank god for a welsh miner's skull.
The routine has become too familiar almost. Although for Mansfield and Canton I did quite a bit of visualization. More for Mansfield and then Ron changed the course on me, less for Canton, but I've already mentioned my dumb thing for saturday (dumb or not I still had a blast).
In 2007, at the start line at NoHo. It was cold. Perfect. I had won the race to registration scoring a front row with the rest of the computer jockey/B masters... driving around at the business end of the group was intense. Even if we were going slowly. And what did I just do? I went back in time. Wow. It reads like I wrote it. Weird. Wait I did. Oh and this should be read before that scribblins link.
Yes. NoHo kicks ass. And I held that hole shot for most of a lap, on no sleep, completely hung over and under caffeinated.
First time at NoHo: 2007 Race it on no sleep after drinking WAY too much with my brothers.
Second time at NoHo: 2008 Raced it on the new tubulars until the rear blew out on the first lap and the antibiotics I'd been on for a few days destroyed me "Put it this way. I was more fatigued driving home from Northampton than I was driving home after racing at 24hr of Great Glen."
Third time at NoHo: 2009... okay we don't need to go there today, still fresh in the memory.
But
What comes out each time is how much fun that damn course is. Like the people who designed it know what they are doing or something. It is technical but it flows. It is bitching hard but so much fun. No faking that course.
Time to take myself back to school. Read the articles. Study the courses a bit more. Go back and read about the last races, what did I do wrong and what could I have done better. I've actually got a pretty decent archive. Completely and totally uselessly unsearchable except by date, but the stuff is there, and I really should work on learning from my mistakes.
I wonder if I got to where I was going. Oh. Shit. Habit. I keep meaning to stop doing the double space thing after a period. Seems that's for typewriters and not computers. Oops.
heddwch
G
A few moments of clarity...
this morning.
but right now I can't remember exactly the flow that I had and had strung together in a premeditated manner.
It started with something, maybe the rest day, maybe just wearing work clothes (jeans and a nice shirt) with a winter cycling jacket and gloves to keep the chilly 34°F morning tolerable. Riding in non-cycling gear is a good way to mentally separate a training ride or regular commute into a "hey take it easy man" kind of ride in. And I did. And it was nice. And because I wasn't focused on 1 minute-ish intervals or trying to get 10 100m bursts in w/o affecting any other users on the trail before getting home or getting to work to do something else, my brain was free to wander. Maybe that's one of those sentences that marro was razzin me about yesterday, although that one seems kind of short.
I did get a chance to watch the race on Sunday. It was great. In a way wishing for courses closer to that level of challenge than the wide open Canton Super Speedway. But I suck at Canton, what's to make me think I will suck less on a course like Zonhoven? And despite being a massive grass crit, Canton took a fair share of prisoners. Sadly watching Sully get hauled off in a meat wagon was not the highlight of the day, but fortunately he sounds like he'll be fine.
Hmm, now I'm remembering what I was going to call this post:
DAMN HORSES.
Lead off with an aerial shot of canton from google maps you can see the actual course pretty well. I noticed that last week, hmm interesting. Yeah it is from 2010 it seems (watermark there by the track).
How in the world do they keep a cyclocross course that clear year round.
About lap 2 or 3 trying to pedal through that first section of grass it hit me. One there isn't a smooth fucking line in that whole field, and from edge to edge it is worked into a bumpy mess by damn horses. Now yes, they are theraputic and do a wonderful job with the kids at the Hospital School. Don't get me wrong, they're GREAT (as tony would say). It's just riding on that is tough, esp if you don't pre-ride and take a WAG on air pressure for the first race using a new set of tires. Yeah. Awesome me.
38 was too high. No bottoming out, just bounced the hell around.
Oops.
And thinking about that, in reference to Zonhoven, and thinking about how few seconds separate those guys and ErikV's post kind of clicked. One spot, 3 seconds 5 laps is only 15 seconds (i think). But 15 seconds is the gap that Stybar made in 1/2 a lap and he was out of sight!
Not pre-riding really hurt my results because I was wasting a ton of energy on the first and part of the second lap trying to stay with the group up there. I'd take a second too long here or there, slow down way too much on the right hander after the log jump, and go deep in the red every time trying to overcome for my mistakes.
I was flying over and making up time on the barriers, but that's about it. Carrie said I looked really smooth, I felt it, but wish I could take that and make the rest of my race that effortless. Oh up the run up too. I felt like I was just lifted up. But that's three places where I could gain maybe 1 second if someone screwed up, not nearly enough to compensate for my not figuring out the course on the first lap. I mean it is Canton. I've been racing there a ton. I missed it one year now that I think of it, drove up there with my girls on a day my wife was working, but the course doesn't really change much. Long laps, wide open fields. Yet somehow I still haven't figured it out.
The fact that it was less than an hour away seemed to reduce my desire to get out of the house as fast as possible, until it was too late to get changed and out for a lap. I actually probably did have time to do a lap if I hurried to get the bike ready and I just pre-rode before I changed, or if I'd been waiting at the start finish line when the 45+ race ended and did a lap around. I didn't. I elected to be relaxed, and get warmed up, on the trainer while heckling. Really got a decent warm up. Actually felt pretty good. Wound up with a 3rd row start right behind Sally, looking good in her fancy Crossresults.com skinsuit. Didn't plan to line up there, actually lined up behind Chad but he said "There is a high probability that I'm going to miss my pedal." "No seriously Geoff, you don't want to start behind me." So I moved over one and lined up behind Sally.
Compared to the starts in the B Masters (back in 06, thanks Crossresults.com although I never did the Chimborazo Cross Race - weird) or maybe in 08 in combined 35+ race with a good number of people it was a mellow not so bar banging brawl. That or I just hung in, found a wheel and motored. Sally had a great start but the front row was bookended by 1st and 2nd with 3rd right in the middle. And like a seine net the two ends met in the middle pretty quickly.
Of note CTodd came out of "retirement/funemployment" to race. And man he's like wicked way skinnier than he was last racing here. Granted he was never a big guy but he's CurtB or KurtP skinny right now. And Marro was racing with us too. Along with Chad, Scott, Burke, Stevens and the normal fast 35+ guys. In reality all that was missing? Asphlom and Hines and Boivin and you've got the front of the verge race more or less in tact.
I hemoraged time screwing up the corners that first lap. I was reeling in CTodd pretty well, then we saw "2 to go" for the second time and I knew he was cooked and I had plenty of time to make the pass, not just cooked but I came around him (actually he stopped before the gravel S turns asking for a draft) and he folded like a lawn chair. A cheap chabot kind. I was making headway and then Burke suddenly appeared in front of me, and I got pretty close coming onto the section before the track but he had 200 meters on me when I got up the run up, and there was no contesting him for 23rd place. I was cooked, felt I raced better and better, and had fun the whole time. After the first lap it was just me passing a couple people.
I was slow, am slower than I was last year but I had fun. A metric ton of it racing. I wished I'd run maybe 36 or 35 psi in the tires instead of the 38 but hey, it wouldn't have amounted to much of a difference compared to all my other screw ups (over cooking that turn really screwed me up, even the last lap). But hey, it wasn't too hot and I was racing.
I did manage to slowly nurse the last couple gallons in the tank home, slowly, in the rusty trusty race wagon. I need to transfer the 18 gallons of 100% bio into that tank before NoHo that i have in the shed. The car seems to move on down the road okay though. No issues getting there or back, as long as the road stays nice and smooth.
Oh to add insanity to this post - not that there isn't enough rambling and stuff in here to begin with... I had this week as a planned rest week, but I'm not feeling fatigued, kind of feeling hungry for some more pain. So. I'm going to make a change based on how I feel. Since I'm not feeling anything more than a bit sleepy, I'm going to keep pouring it on going into NoHo and then hit the rest week before Plymouth. Yeah Plymouth is generally my highlight, but hey, this year is different, and maybe i can make it to Eco-Cross and that will fire up the engines for the weekend races. I think I just made up my mind. Now I just have to remember to register for NoHo!
*deep breath*
no way in hell am i going to go back and read that/edit right now
heddwch
G
but right now I can't remember exactly the flow that I had and had strung together in a premeditated manner.
It started with something, maybe the rest day, maybe just wearing work clothes (jeans and a nice shirt) with a winter cycling jacket and gloves to keep the chilly 34°F morning tolerable. Riding in non-cycling gear is a good way to mentally separate a training ride or regular commute into a "hey take it easy man" kind of ride in. And I did. And it was nice. And because I wasn't focused on 1 minute-ish intervals or trying to get 10 100m bursts in w/o affecting any other users on the trail before getting home or getting to work to do something else, my brain was free to wander. Maybe that's one of those sentences that marro was razzin me about yesterday, although that one seems kind of short.
I did get a chance to watch the race on Sunday. It was great. In a way wishing for courses closer to that level of challenge than the wide open Canton Super Speedway. But I suck at Canton, what's to make me think I will suck less on a course like Zonhoven? And despite being a massive grass crit, Canton took a fair share of prisoners. Sadly watching Sully get hauled off in a meat wagon was not the highlight of the day, but fortunately he sounds like he'll be fine.
Hmm, now I'm remembering what I was going to call this post:
DAMN HORSES.
Lead off with an aerial shot of canton from google maps you can see the actual course pretty well. I noticed that last week, hmm interesting. Yeah it is from 2010 it seems (watermark there by the track).
How in the world do they keep a cyclocross course that clear year round.
About lap 2 or 3 trying to pedal through that first section of grass it hit me. One there isn't a smooth fucking line in that whole field, and from edge to edge it is worked into a bumpy mess by damn horses. Now yes, they are theraputic and do a wonderful job with the kids at the Hospital School. Don't get me wrong, they're GREAT (as tony would say). It's just riding on that is tough, esp if you don't pre-ride and take a WAG on air pressure for the first race using a new set of tires. Yeah. Awesome me.
38 was too high. No bottoming out, just bounced the hell around.
Oops.
And thinking about that, in reference to Zonhoven, and thinking about how few seconds separate those guys and ErikV's post kind of clicked. One spot, 3 seconds 5 laps is only 15 seconds (i think). But 15 seconds is the gap that Stybar made in 1/2 a lap and he was out of sight!
Not pre-riding really hurt my results because I was wasting a ton of energy on the first and part of the second lap trying to stay with the group up there. I'd take a second too long here or there, slow down way too much on the right hander after the log jump, and go deep in the red every time trying to overcome for my mistakes.
I was flying over and making up time on the barriers, but that's about it. Carrie said I looked really smooth, I felt it, but wish I could take that and make the rest of my race that effortless. Oh up the run up too. I felt like I was just lifted up. But that's three places where I could gain maybe 1 second if someone screwed up, not nearly enough to compensate for my not figuring out the course on the first lap. I mean it is Canton. I've been racing there a ton. I missed it one year now that I think of it, drove up there with my girls on a day my wife was working, but the course doesn't really change much. Long laps, wide open fields. Yet somehow I still haven't figured it out.
The fact that it was less than an hour away seemed to reduce my desire to get out of the house as fast as possible, until it was too late to get changed and out for a lap. I actually probably did have time to do a lap if I hurried to get the bike ready and I just pre-rode before I changed, or if I'd been waiting at the start finish line when the 45+ race ended and did a lap around. I didn't. I elected to be relaxed, and get warmed up, on the trainer while heckling. Really got a decent warm up. Actually felt pretty good. Wound up with a 3rd row start right behind Sally, looking good in her fancy Crossresults.com skinsuit. Didn't plan to line up there, actually lined up behind Chad but he said "There is a high probability that I'm going to miss my pedal." "No seriously Geoff, you don't want to start behind me." So I moved over one and lined up behind Sally.
Compared to the starts in the B Masters (back in 06, thanks Crossresults.com although I never did the Chimborazo Cross Race - weird) or maybe in 08 in combined 35+ race with a good number of people it was a mellow not so bar banging brawl. That or I just hung in, found a wheel and motored. Sally had a great start but the front row was bookended by 1st and 2nd with 3rd right in the middle. And like a seine net the two ends met in the middle pretty quickly.
Of note CTodd came out of "retirement/funemployment" to race. And man he's like wicked way skinnier than he was last racing here. Granted he was never a big guy but he's CurtB or KurtP skinny right now. And Marro was racing with us too. Along with Chad, Scott, Burke, Stevens and the normal fast 35+ guys. In reality all that was missing? Asphlom and Hines and Boivin and you've got the front of the verge race more or less in tact.
I hemoraged time screwing up the corners that first lap. I was reeling in CTodd pretty well, then we saw "2 to go" for the second time and I knew he was cooked and I had plenty of time to make the pass, not just cooked but I came around him (actually he stopped before the gravel S turns asking for a draft) and he folded like a lawn chair. A cheap chabot kind. I was making headway and then Burke suddenly appeared in front of me, and I got pretty close coming onto the section before the track but he had 200 meters on me when I got up the run up, and there was no contesting him for 23rd place. I was cooked, felt I raced better and better, and had fun the whole time. After the first lap it was just me passing a couple people.
I was slow, am slower than I was last year but I had fun. A metric ton of it racing. I wished I'd run maybe 36 or 35 psi in the tires instead of the 38 but hey, it wouldn't have amounted to much of a difference compared to all my other screw ups (over cooking that turn really screwed me up, even the last lap). But hey, it wasn't too hot and I was racing.
I did manage to slowly nurse the last couple gallons in the tank home, slowly, in the rusty trusty race wagon. I need to transfer the 18 gallons of 100% bio into that tank before NoHo that i have in the shed. The car seems to move on down the road okay though. No issues getting there or back, as long as the road stays nice and smooth.
Oh to add insanity to this post - not that there isn't enough rambling and stuff in here to begin with... I had this week as a planned rest week, but I'm not feeling fatigued, kind of feeling hungry for some more pain. So. I'm going to make a change based on how I feel. Since I'm not feeling anything more than a bit sleepy, I'm going to keep pouring it on going into NoHo and then hit the rest week before Plymouth. Yeah Plymouth is generally my highlight, but hey, this year is different, and maybe i can make it to Eco-Cross and that will fire up the engines for the weekend races. I think I just made up my mind. Now I just have to remember to register for NoHo!
*deep breath*
no way in hell am i going to go back and read that/edit right now
heddwch
G
Friday, October 29, 2010
It is official
USAC has moved CX Nats to January (no more school/family holiday concert conflicts YAH).
BUT
they picked
MADISON WISCONSIN?
You kidding me?
Okay sure, it a winter sport, and this will force promoters to keep everyone racing until then (at least I hope so) and move the sport back to the winter roots.
But.
Um.
MADISON.
not that there is anything wrong with that place. good Big Ten town, it is a wanna be Ann Arbor of Wisconsin, super hippie and crunchy and bike friendly. Super. But... Sure, Myerson pointed out that it can't be worse than worlds in the Czech Republic, but come on. The average HIGH temp there is 27°F in January, the average Low is a nice warm 5°F.
Meaning you have no worries about mud in a normal year. Now if it is a colder than average year, I'm not sure you're going to have enough warm up tents for everyone unless you run the whole race in a f'n Pole Barn. But then it is the mid-west, you can probably find a pole barn big enough to put the whole race inside.
It'll be great, sure, only a little more than an hours drive from Milwaukee's airport, or more than 2 hours from Chicago (closer than Bend to Portland).
Just kind of wish maybe a better package was submitted by someone in the MAC... Or dare I wish, New England?
Don't get me wrong, I love racing in the cold, but I've commuted in January in Michigan (warmer in michigan than Wisconsin more or less by default) and there were days when the windchill was less than -40°F. Okay there was maybe only 4 days like that in the 6 years I was commuting every day. Air temp was pretty deep in the negatives. Sure there were years when it was 45 all January and the campus was all in shorts.
Can't be worse than Poprad, or can it.
It'll be cool one way or the other, I guess more shocked than anything else. Seems odd.
Oh well, it will be what it will be. And like G-ride I just sort of assumed that it would be in Loovull, seeing as worlds will be there. Gee we wouldn't want to give our Domestic racers any more of an advantage on the Worlds course, no, certainly we wouldn't want to help them at all.
*shrug*
time to head to CantonSuperSpeedway tomorrow. oops, i think i forgot to pre-reg. Damn, gonna do day of reg.
BUT
they picked
MADISON WISCONSIN?
You kidding me?
Okay sure, it a winter sport, and this will force promoters to keep everyone racing until then (at least I hope so) and move the sport back to the winter roots.
But.
Um.
MADISON.
not that there is anything wrong with that place. good Big Ten town, it is a wanna be Ann Arbor of Wisconsin, super hippie and crunchy and bike friendly. Super. But... Sure, Myerson pointed out that it can't be worse than worlds in the Czech Republic, but come on. The average HIGH temp there is 27°F in January, the average Low is a nice warm 5°F.
Meaning you have no worries about mud in a normal year. Now if it is a colder than average year, I'm not sure you're going to have enough warm up tents for everyone unless you run the whole race in a f'n Pole Barn. But then it is the mid-west, you can probably find a pole barn big enough to put the whole race inside.
It'll be great, sure, only a little more than an hours drive from Milwaukee's airport, or more than 2 hours from Chicago (closer than Bend to Portland).
Just kind of wish maybe a better package was submitted by someone in the MAC... Or dare I wish, New England?
Don't get me wrong, I love racing in the cold, but I've commuted in January in Michigan (warmer in michigan than Wisconsin more or less by default) and there were days when the windchill was less than -40°F. Okay there was maybe only 4 days like that in the 6 years I was commuting every day. Air temp was pretty deep in the negatives. Sure there were years when it was 45 all January and the campus was all in shorts.
Can't be worse than Poprad, or can it.
It'll be cool one way or the other, I guess more shocked than anything else. Seems odd.
Oh well, it will be what it will be. And like G-ride I just sort of assumed that it would be in Loovull, seeing as worlds will be there. Gee we wouldn't want to give our Domestic racers any more of an advantage on the Worlds course, no, certainly we wouldn't want to help them at all.
*shrug*
time to head to CantonSuperSpeedway tomorrow. oops, i think i forgot to pre-reg. Damn, gonna do day of reg.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
apples and jobs
american's don't want to work? or don't want to work for that little $, esp since they'd have to actually work hard and be physical and all that.
not your typical american right now...
Tomato growers have pushed to raise prices, and well, you know - higher prices aren't that bad, too bad you've got idiots thinking they can have an out of season apple with a clean conscious. Buy local (regional, then national, then stop).
And work. Sure, picking your brains out and only making $120 a day can be a ton of work. You can't stay up all night watching TV and then expect to go get coffee three or four times in the day to stay functional.
I've tried writing this a couple times, each time I stay slightly more positive. But somehow dip towards slander and ridicule. Best stop here.
not your typical american right now...
Tomato growers have pushed to raise prices, and well, you know - higher prices aren't that bad, too bad you've got idiots thinking they can have an out of season apple with a clean conscious. Buy local (regional, then national, then stop).
And work. Sure, picking your brains out and only making $120 a day can be a ton of work. You can't stay up all night watching TV and then expect to go get coffee three or four times in the day to stay functional.
I've tried writing this a couple times, each time I stay slightly more positive. But somehow dip towards slander and ridicule. Best stop here.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Roast Chicken with veggies
So tonight, total experiment. Not one recipe cracked, not one reference consulted.
Going on some $1.99/# naturally raised chicken breasts (with bone and skin on) as my key focal point it became a personal challenge to make something tasty.
The first plan was to use a sauce like i did for the fish last night (oh wow was that good, if i get around to it i'll try and bang that recipe out on the keyboard).
But the girls vetoed it, they don't want the same sauce two nights in a row even if it is chicken vs fish.
So, time to brainstorm.
Here is how I made it:
Oven bake with convection 375 degrees
Once it hit 350 I put a pyrex lasagna/enchilada pan in there.
Chopped up one small red onion (first in 1/2 then in wedges)
Chopped up one medium regular onion the same way
When those were chopped I added 3-4 tablespoons of bacon fat and two tablespoons of butter (yeah that's a good amount of fat but wait - it really isn't that much) to the hot pan and then the onions.
In the next few minutes or until the next thing went in I would open and stir it.
While those were going I chopped about 2-3 cups of peeled carrots (into circles).
Then three good size sweet potatoes (okay one white sweet potato and two garnet yams) got peeled and chopped into 1-2cm chunks.
Brussels Sprouts were cleaned and halved.
Broccoli was treed.
Eggplant was cut up slightly bigger than the Potatoes.
And finally two apples were chopped into slightly larger than the potato sized cubish chunks.
So once the onions started to get some color in went the carrots and an appropriate amount of salt.
When the carrots started to soften, in went the Brussels Sprouts and the sweet potatoes and the apples.
While those were getting nice and warm I took the 4 breasts (two chicken's worth), rinsed them off and dried them well.
The pan with the stuff in it got taken out of the oven, and I added some dried thyme and rubbed sage, pepper and a tiny bit more salt. Mixed it all up and then set the 4 chicken pieces across the top (with a bit of the sage and thyme on the skin).
I added about 1/2-1 cup of apple cider and put it back in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.
with 10 to go on the clock I pulled them out, took some of the juice in the pan and basted the breasts (and checked the internal temp - only 135-140 at that point).
Back in they went.
So the Broccoli and the Eggplant got tossed with some salt, pepper and olive oil and put in a separate glass pan in the oven when the timer beeped the first time. I punched in another 10 minutes on the clock and let it all get flavorful.
The odor coming from the oven was heavenly by that point. Oh so good.
After that timer beep I mixed the broccoli stuff around a bit, basted the chicken one more time and mixed the veggies around (to get some even carmelization on them).
Another 5 minutes and the biggest chicken was just under 165. DONE.
Out of the oven, and plated up.
The chicken was unbelievable juicy and tender. Really really amazing texture and flavor.
Oh and I put a dried bay leaf under each breast as I put them in the pan.
Served the chicken with a good spoonful of the juices in the pan and a pile of the veggies.
So
good
pretty easy too, not a huge ton of prep work, and wicked satisfying.
Not much left over though... okay there isn't much chicken left over, and it looks like have some veggies for lunch tomorrow with a few grams of protein (and some wicked tasty fat, not much, like i said this made quite a bit, spread it out and the caloric load isn't so much per serving).
And yes I mention the price of the chicken to demonstrate that I'm still strongly swayed by the price per pound on some items. But this (I believe) is what they call a loss leader, normally these are in the $4-5/pound range... and they tasted REALLY good. The girls went back for seconds (so did I).
No grains, no processed anything, and i now have a few more bones to add to the collection in the freezer to make my next big batch of chicken stock. All the veggies for that matter were local too (farmer's market sourced).
I'd write up the fish recipe but that'll have to wait.
heddwch
G
Going on some $1.99/# naturally raised chicken breasts (with bone and skin on) as my key focal point it became a personal challenge to make something tasty.
The first plan was to use a sauce like i did for the fish last night (oh wow was that good, if i get around to it i'll try and bang that recipe out on the keyboard).
But the girls vetoed it, they don't want the same sauce two nights in a row even if it is chicken vs fish.
So, time to brainstorm.
Here is how I made it:
Oven bake with convection 375 degrees
Once it hit 350 I put a pyrex lasagna/enchilada pan in there.
Chopped up one small red onion (first in 1/2 then in wedges)
Chopped up one medium regular onion the same way
When those were chopped I added 3-4 tablespoons of bacon fat and two tablespoons of butter (yeah that's a good amount of fat but wait - it really isn't that much) to the hot pan and then the onions.
In the next few minutes or until the next thing went in I would open and stir it.
While those were going I chopped about 2-3 cups of peeled carrots (into circles).
Then three good size sweet potatoes (okay one white sweet potato and two garnet yams) got peeled and chopped into 1-2cm chunks.
Brussels Sprouts were cleaned and halved.
Broccoli was treed.
Eggplant was cut up slightly bigger than the Potatoes.
And finally two apples were chopped into slightly larger than the potato sized cubish chunks.
So once the onions started to get some color in went the carrots and an appropriate amount of salt.
When the carrots started to soften, in went the Brussels Sprouts and the sweet potatoes and the apples.
While those were getting nice and warm I took the 4 breasts (two chicken's worth), rinsed them off and dried them well.
The pan with the stuff in it got taken out of the oven, and I added some dried thyme and rubbed sage, pepper and a tiny bit more salt. Mixed it all up and then set the 4 chicken pieces across the top (with a bit of the sage and thyme on the skin).
I added about 1/2-1 cup of apple cider and put it back in the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.
with 10 to go on the clock I pulled them out, took some of the juice in the pan and basted the breasts (and checked the internal temp - only 135-140 at that point).
Back in they went.
So the Broccoli and the Eggplant got tossed with some salt, pepper and olive oil and put in a separate glass pan in the oven when the timer beeped the first time. I punched in another 10 minutes on the clock and let it all get flavorful.
The odor coming from the oven was heavenly by that point. Oh so good.
After that timer beep I mixed the broccoli stuff around a bit, basted the chicken one more time and mixed the veggies around (to get some even carmelization on them).
Another 5 minutes and the biggest chicken was just under 165. DONE.
Out of the oven, and plated up.
The chicken was unbelievable juicy and tender. Really really amazing texture and flavor.
Oh and I put a dried bay leaf under each breast as I put them in the pan.
Served the chicken with a good spoonful of the juices in the pan and a pile of the veggies.
So
good
pretty easy too, not a huge ton of prep work, and wicked satisfying.
Not much left over though... okay there isn't much chicken left over, and it looks like have some veggies for lunch tomorrow with a few grams of protein (and some wicked tasty fat, not much, like i said this made quite a bit, spread it out and the caloric load isn't so much per serving).
And yes I mention the price of the chicken to demonstrate that I'm still strongly swayed by the price per pound on some items. But this (I believe) is what they call a loss leader, normally these are in the $4-5/pound range... and they tasted REALLY good. The girls went back for seconds (so did I).
No grains, no processed anything, and i now have a few more bones to add to the collection in the freezer to make my next big batch of chicken stock. All the veggies for that matter were local too (farmer's market sourced).
I'd write up the fish recipe but that'll have to wait.
heddwch
G
F'n COOL
Chris Moose Milliman...
Jaw dropping shots.
I just hope he hasn't been motorpacing lately, oh, wait. If he's doing it maybe I should to... anyone in PVD wanna be my pacer over a long lunch hour?
Jaw dropping shots.
I just hope he hasn't been motorpacing lately, oh, wait. If he's doing it maybe I should to... anyone in PVD wanna be my pacer over a long lunch hour?
good shit out there
stuff I can't touch right now, maybe on some of my more lucid and creative days i can be a flickering candle to their 1000watt spotlight, but hey, I'm not the best at much, certainly not cycling or writing. But I am me.
Interview with BillS
It took a lot for me to read past the first question's answer. Seriously. Then I read the second one and the whole bit about his daughter and the points, and i kept going.
Well honestly I'm only about 1/2 way through. It is long and I have only a minute or two here and there to read it. And this has been sitting here for a while between reading it fielding and making calls and emails. Good to be busy, yeah?
The PEZ interview with Steve Tilford is another must read.
His blog post "Got there...." made me think about my Dad and his biannual commute to Colorado. I sent the link to my dad after reading it and got this response:
But on the bright side it will cool right the fuck down for Canton. Might actually be able to wear the team skinsuit w/o overheating or unzipping it to my hairy belly-button mid-race.
Tagging this with food for one link. Corn Syrup Actually Isn't tthe Same as Table Sugar. No shit. One thing that is disturbing is the actual % of Fructose being higher than reported. Close to 65% in Coke, Pepsi, Sprite? GATORADE at 60%? Yikes. Maybe yall can remember some of the sugar uptake stuff I've posted in the past, sucrose works almost the best because glucose and fructose have two completely separate uptake pathways, and to get the most out of a drink DURING exercise or a replacement post exercise you want equal parts of the two. More of one just creates a traffic jam, sort of like express vs local and you're all smug getting onto the Express lanes only to come to a complete stop while the local keeps moving. Best design should be equal parts. If you are the old school cytomax they say add lactate too.
Oh and I still don't get the Honeycrisp fad. Sure they might be great and all but I just hit the last wed farmer's market of the season here a block or two away and picked up some Fuji's. Damn do I love those, texture and flavor is just right and these are slightly on the tart side which is a triple plus.
Here. Check this out:
Now go back and watch it again, in full screen, ignore the words and watch for the smoke trail in the top right corner at the start of the clip... Thanks for the HU Resultsboy
heddwch
G
Interview with BillS
It took a lot for me to read past the first question's answer. Seriously. Then I read the second one and the whole bit about his daughter and the points, and i kept going.
Well honestly I'm only about 1/2 way through. It is long and I have only a minute or two here and there to read it. And this has been sitting here for a while between reading it fielding and making calls and emails. Good to be busy, yeah?
The PEZ interview with Steve Tilford is another must read.
His blog post "Got there...." made me think about my Dad and his biannual commute to Colorado. I sent the link to my dad after reading it and got this response:
"He’s got it right. I avoid Limon and drop south to the springs. "That and a comment about how ugly the weather is (down there MD) for late Oct. Can't agree more. 70°F and spitting rain with chance of some heavy stuff. This is shit weather for October.
But on the bright side it will cool right the fuck down for Canton. Might actually be able to wear the team skinsuit w/o overheating or unzipping it to my hairy belly-button mid-race.
Tagging this with food for one link. Corn Syrup Actually Isn't tthe Same as Table Sugar. No shit. One thing that is disturbing is the actual % of Fructose being higher than reported. Close to 65% in Coke, Pepsi, Sprite? GATORADE at 60%? Yikes. Maybe yall can remember some of the sugar uptake stuff I've posted in the past, sucrose works almost the best because glucose and fructose have two completely separate uptake pathways, and to get the most out of a drink DURING exercise or a replacement post exercise you want equal parts of the two. More of one just creates a traffic jam, sort of like express vs local and you're all smug getting onto the Express lanes only to come to a complete stop while the local keeps moving. Best design should be equal parts. If you are the old school cytomax they say add lactate too.
Oh and I still don't get the Honeycrisp fad. Sure they might be great and all but I just hit the last wed farmer's market of the season here a block or two away and picked up some Fuji's. Damn do I love those, texture and flavor is just right and these are slightly on the tart side which is a triple plus.
Here. Check this out:
Jeb Corliss wing-suit demo from Jeb Corliss on Vimeo.
Now go back and watch it again, in full screen, ignore the words and watch for the smoke trail in the top right corner at the start of the clip... Thanks for the HU Resultsboy
heddwch
G
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Time for the Nationals Debate
Should I stay or should I go?
Actually think my mind might be made up, but in case someone's not paying attention SWA just dropped their fares, $120 each way. So fly out of Manch or PVD into PDX and save a mint on airfare vs flying into Redmond/Bend. Right now you can get there for $280 with taxes, add the $50 each way for the bike box and you still have enough cash to rent a minivan and drive to bend... Hell the drive from PDX to Bend is shorter than Grumpy's drive to a regular cross race.
It is tempting, but this year is maybe time to chill, let the season finish out how ever it does, no pressure, maybe do Ice Weasels or something. We'll see.
With the schedule it sounds like I could do the B race, the Singlespeed race, and the 40-44 race, and the clydesdale race if they have that again. Add all the Time Trials in there and wow you've got one solid week of racing. But. It is a looooooong way to go. We'll see what happens. At least there isn't a penalty for registering late (well there are a couple monetary ones) and hell you can even wait till you get there to register.
The Team does have a super slick killer pad to stay at this year, a mile from the venue, if that far.
Oh and hey - check this out... Solidly - why a 2/3 race anyway? Doesn't anyone pay attention to Verge? seriously. Someone's gotta fix that. So maybe you'd only have 120 racers lined up. And an 8-9 min lap isn't really short.
And commuting to work in shorts and shorts sleeves? Doing hill repeats on foot in nearly 70°F weather this morning? WTF? Is it really that warm now?
Crazy...
Actually think my mind might be made up, but in case someone's not paying attention SWA just dropped their fares, $120 each way. So fly out of Manch or PVD into PDX and save a mint on airfare vs flying into Redmond/Bend. Right now you can get there for $280 with taxes, add the $50 each way for the bike box and you still have enough cash to rent a minivan and drive to bend... Hell the drive from PDX to Bend is shorter than Grumpy's drive to a regular cross race.
It is tempting, but this year is maybe time to chill, let the season finish out how ever it does, no pressure, maybe do Ice Weasels or something. We'll see.
With the schedule it sounds like I could do the B race, the Singlespeed race, and the 40-44 race, and the clydesdale race if they have that again. Add all the Time Trials in there and wow you've got one solid week of racing. But. It is a looooooong way to go. We'll see what happens. At least there isn't a penalty for registering late (well there are a couple monetary ones) and hell you can even wait till you get there to register.
The Team does have a super slick killer pad to stay at this year, a mile from the venue, if that far.
Oh and hey - check this out... Solidly - why a 2/3 race anyway? Doesn't anyone pay attention to Verge? seriously. Someone's gotta fix that. So maybe you'd only have 120 racers lined up. And an 8-9 min lap isn't really short.
And commuting to work in shorts and shorts sleeves? Doing hill repeats on foot in nearly 70°F weather this morning? WTF? Is it really that warm now?
Crazy...
Monday, October 25, 2010
The WEEKEND
no - i didn't race, no CX race reports.
i did ride on sunday, and saturday even (just 50 min on the BLVD doing intervals)...
more on that maybe later, maybe...
oh and as I've been saying for YEARS now, freaking YEARS, it seems a study now is suggesting that Sodium doesn't affect hypertension? being fat does. well hello news flash! But they still kind of say "we" are eating too much salt in the diet. I agree. Cut out any sodium containing product OTHER than sodium chloride and boom, problem solved.
It ain't the salt on the french fries that are killing you, it is the potato and the not-real fat that's doing it's job!
Nice...
i did ride on sunday, and saturday even (just 50 min on the BLVD doing intervals)...
more on that maybe later, maybe...
oh and as I've been saying for YEARS now, freaking YEARS, it seems a study now is suggesting that Sodium doesn't affect hypertension? being fat does. well hello news flash! But they still kind of say "we" are eating too much salt in the diet. I agree. Cut out any sodium containing product OTHER than sodium chloride and boom, problem solved.
It ain't the salt on the french fries that are killing you, it is the potato and the not-real fat that's doing it's job!
Nice...
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Sunset Downeast, Detroit and going local
Sunset magazine in the New York Times. Among the magazines delivered to my mother's parents house were two that I can, without question identify and remember. There were mountains of others but Sunset and Downeast were what I remember. Maybe because for some time the mail lady stuffed them in our mailbox on the dead end street growing up.
So I read that NY Times article, and was transported immediately back to California. All the good parts about it. Both my mother and father grew up in that state, my dad's mom still lives in the bay area on one of the few pieces of bedrock in the region.
Hell with the disappearance of Gourmet maybe Sunset would be a good replacement. And yes, the first really cool morning I'm thinking about warm and sunny California...
It is hard to explain that sort of feeling, maybe it is something that happens when you start your 4th decades on this planet... The Downeast reference, yeah growing up looking through those pages set me dreaming, owning my own Hinckley and an Island with a lighthouse in Penobscot bay... Yeah, my career goals didn't track well with my youthful dreaming, I suppose I should have gone into professional gambling right out of college instead of being a microscope jockey. Things would have been different, maybe I'd be sailing every weekend instead of trying to race a bicycle.
Too late to turn back time, no Ctrl-Alt-Delete in life.
LINK 2
Bittman tweeted this article this monring. (yeah twitter's good for getting targeted info - one day i'll get a hand held computer that has a phone on it and carry those updates with me, maybe, I do kind of like having a phone that is only a phone).
He also tweeted about the CDC prediction that at the current race 1 in 3 people will have type 2 diabetes by 2050. I think that is like the report from a cycling advocacy group in 2000 saying all the petroleum resources would run out by 2010. People are still using Gasoline as fast as they can buy it.
Type 2 is pretty scary, in that it is totally and completely preventable, treatable and curable. Yes. THERE IS A CURE! (eat well, exercise and get to a healthy weight). AMAZING - someone should go on the morning news programs and say something like that. I know i know people struggle with weight. But they struggle with cooking, with finding time to exercise, with with with with... and then they all stay up late watching TV/movies on demand and have to rush around.
Sorry, got some editorializing in there. Wow. Me? Editorialize? NO F'n way.
Oh about that Walmart/big ag article I started Link 2 with. Crazy. I laugh at the corn growers attempted add campaign "sweet surprise" because, yes I joined the public mocking of them. And I think there is enough web/marketing/media savy in their opponents toolbox that big ag is going to have trouble, even with 30 million in (m)ad money. Hell take that 30 mil and stick it into improving the public school food system so our kids aren't so fat and it isn't an issue for those who feel drawn to serve this country to join the service. Different issue I know.
But really can you separate the Type 2 problem and Monsanto/BigAg? More calories for less money? Wait, don't we have a problem with too many calories?
Link 3(ish)
So I've pulled in references from my bipolar upbringing (PacNW vs Downeast) - and here's an article from Detroit. Not nearly as compelling as the first link or as important as the group of links between...
but I spent enough time in the troubled state of Michigan that part of me will always relate to that state.
Link 4 or so
The going Local part of the title. Comes from here but does tie in to the walmart article.
It isn't so much about going local as thinking about it, but it is a fun article about the push towards more self sustainability. Sadly for those residents of Providence, chickens are NOT allowed, it doesn't say anything about my town though, lets see if i can keep my kids from finding out.
See, I knew the food label was going to be a problem. I had resisted for a while, now that I've flipped the switch, I keep pushing towards it, i need to beat myself up on the bike, debating bringing the trainer with me to the city when I have to take my oldest to dance and doing intervals in the parking lot with the iPod instead of looping on the BLVD with the cars and no tunes.
heddwch
G
So I read that NY Times article, and was transported immediately back to California. All the good parts about it. Both my mother and father grew up in that state, my dad's mom still lives in the bay area on one of the few pieces of bedrock in the region.
Hell with the disappearance of Gourmet maybe Sunset would be a good replacement. And yes, the first really cool morning I'm thinking about warm and sunny California...
It is hard to explain that sort of feeling, maybe it is something that happens when you start your 4th decades on this planet... The Downeast reference, yeah growing up looking through those pages set me dreaming, owning my own Hinckley and an Island with a lighthouse in Penobscot bay... Yeah, my career goals didn't track well with my youthful dreaming, I suppose I should have gone into professional gambling right out of college instead of being a microscope jockey. Things would have been different, maybe I'd be sailing every weekend instead of trying to race a bicycle.
Too late to turn back time, no Ctrl-Alt-Delete in life.
LINK 2
Bittman tweeted this article this monring. (yeah twitter's good for getting targeted info - one day i'll get a hand held computer that has a phone on it and carry those updates with me, maybe, I do kind of like having a phone that is only a phone).
He also tweeted about the CDC prediction that at the current race 1 in 3 people will have type 2 diabetes by 2050. I think that is like the report from a cycling advocacy group in 2000 saying all the petroleum resources would run out by 2010. People are still using Gasoline as fast as they can buy it.
Type 2 is pretty scary, in that it is totally and completely preventable, treatable and curable. Yes. THERE IS A CURE! (eat well, exercise and get to a healthy weight). AMAZING - someone should go on the morning news programs and say something like that. I know i know people struggle with weight. But they struggle with cooking, with finding time to exercise, with with with with... and then they all stay up late watching TV/movies on demand and have to rush around.
Sorry, got some editorializing in there. Wow. Me? Editorialize? NO F'n way.
Oh about that Walmart/big ag article I started Link 2 with. Crazy. I laugh at the corn growers attempted add campaign "sweet surprise" because, yes I joined the public mocking of them. And I think there is enough web/marketing/media savy in their opponents toolbox that big ag is going to have trouble, even with 30 million in (m)ad money. Hell take that 30 mil and stick it into improving the public school food system so our kids aren't so fat and it isn't an issue for those who feel drawn to serve this country to join the service. Different issue I know.
But really can you separate the Type 2 problem and Monsanto/BigAg? More calories for less money? Wait, don't we have a problem with too many calories?
Link 3(ish)
So I've pulled in references from my bipolar upbringing (PacNW vs Downeast) - and here's an article from Detroit. Not nearly as compelling as the first link or as important as the group of links between...
but I spent enough time in the troubled state of Michigan that part of me will always relate to that state.
Link 4 or so
The going Local part of the title. Comes from here but does tie in to the walmart article.
It isn't so much about going local as thinking about it, but it is a fun article about the push towards more self sustainability. Sadly for those residents of Providence, chickens are NOT allowed, it doesn't say anything about my town though, lets see if i can keep my kids from finding out.
See, I knew the food label was going to be a problem. I had resisted for a while, now that I've flipped the switch, I keep pushing towards it, i need to beat myself up on the bike, debating bringing the trainer with me to the city when I have to take my oldest to dance and doing intervals in the parking lot with the iPod instead of looping on the BLVD with the cars and no tunes.
heddwch
G
Friday, October 22, 2010
friday link round up
Cycling:
http://www.bigringriding.com/, not a huge archive but after RyanTKelly tweeted the link the server kept crashing as all 17 of his followers proceeded to browse the whole site this morning. (check his latest web log entry - more fodder to fire at the upgrade afraid).
Be Bad, Ride better?
#1 - got it, no problem there, will remember to vocalize it next time
#2 - no problem, I can stretch the shower bit, a little, or actually probably a lot farther than I'm comfortable with.
#3 - that extra 7.2 minutes might be the difference i need - PASS ME A BEER!
#4 - how about a whole bottle of the stuff?
#5 - oh yeah THREE IN A ROW, BRILLIANT!!!!
#6 - already doing that and my blood numbers are better than most healthy 20 year old kids.
#7 - this i could certainly do more of, the sleeping thing...
#8 - if you say so
#9 - bring it on
#10 - oh now this might get me in trouble but, hey, those look like good number boosts...
Enough about that... Food links
Perils of Cheap Seafood (please don't buy farmed salmon - it tastes like cardboard and probably isn't much better for you and right now it really fucks with the ecosystem).
People with kids take notice - and if you don't have em and know someone who does - bug em.
oh and
FUCKING FRENCH FRIES ARE NOT A FUCKING VEGGIE FOR FUCKS SAKE PEOPLE!
They are pasta, white rice, except worse, loaded with fat and bitching amounts of sodium. Good if you just did 4 hours of riding in the middle of the summer, not so good if you're a fat ass sitting on the couch watching TV for hours a day.
Not a very good chance you'll get listeria and die from buying your veggies at the farmers's market... but at the store that buys the cheapest price point veggie? watch the heck out.
So after that wonderful bit of people dieing because of tainted veggies, how about this SHOCKING news:
Food inspection is often Flawed? NO SHIT!!!???
yeah
i had a cup of coffee today, can you tell?
heddwch
G
http://www.bigringriding.com/, not a huge archive but after RyanTKelly tweeted the link the server kept crashing as all 17 of his followers proceeded to browse the whole site this morning. (check his latest web log entry - more fodder to fire at the upgrade afraid).
Be Bad, Ride better?
#1 - got it, no problem there, will remember to vocalize it next time
#2 - no problem, I can stretch the shower bit, a little, or actually probably a lot farther than I'm comfortable with.
#3 - that extra 7.2 minutes might be the difference i need - PASS ME A BEER!
#4 - how about a whole bottle of the stuff?
#5 - oh yeah THREE IN A ROW, BRILLIANT!!!!
#6 - already doing that and my blood numbers are better than most healthy 20 year old kids.
#7 - this i could certainly do more of, the sleeping thing...
#8 - if you say so
#9 - bring it on
#10 - oh now this might get me in trouble but, hey, those look like good number boosts...
Enough about that... Food links
Perils of Cheap Seafood (please don't buy farmed salmon - it tastes like cardboard and probably isn't much better for you and right now it really fucks with the ecosystem).
People with kids take notice - and if you don't have em and know someone who does - bug em.
oh and
FUCKING FRENCH FRIES ARE NOT A FUCKING VEGGIE FOR FUCKS SAKE PEOPLE!
They are pasta, white rice, except worse, loaded with fat and bitching amounts of sodium. Good if you just did 4 hours of riding in the middle of the summer, not so good if you're a fat ass sitting on the couch watching TV for hours a day.
Not a very good chance you'll get listeria and die from buying your veggies at the farmers's market... but at the store that buys the cheapest price point veggie? watch the heck out.
So after that wonderful bit of people dieing because of tainted veggies, how about this SHOCKING news:
Food inspection is often Flawed? NO SHIT!!!???
yeah
i had a cup of coffee today, can you tell?
heddwch
G
weekend starts here
well tomorrow morning likely it will start here:
for me while everyone else will be starting their morning something like this
rest
at least as far as the cycling legs go... not exactly as planned but that's life, resting up, recharging the batteries, not the worst thing in the world. I'll get some intensity in tomorrow, and a long ride in on Sunday and be back at it ready to go next week leading up to Canton.
That and i've got a serious beef with the mail system for never getting me issue #10 of Cyclocross Magazine. Seriously. I finally sent them an email asking if/when the next issue should arrive and well... um, it has been out for a while now I guess. No wonder I was baffled when FatMarc mentioned the whole Mayhew article. Damn it IS a good one.
Best issue yet? I think so. I love me the mental stuff, Marvin Z's columns in Pez, hell IIRC maybe even Myerson has an article about the mental side of stuff over on his cycle-smart page. Well let me say it differently, I really appreciate reading about it because that is almost a bigger issue for me than speed. I've got leg speed in there somewhere... I know I can go fast, but mr. overthinker here usually finds a way for the brain to screw it up. Time to dig out my stack of print outs and start reading it all over again.
After I re-read the articles in there. Heck that Jake Wells article is awesome.
All this stuff - from the Kraus bit, to J-Pow and now Jake Wells, stuff is sinking in and making sense. Lights are turning on.
One thought I had at some point was I should really write down the plan for next year NOW before I forget all these nuggets of wisdom and beat myself up the first month next year. Making sure to add in variables if i'm too cooked to train effectively. I'm tempted to try and make one of my old HR monitors work if only to get a morning resting Heart Rate to track.
Who knows that's a long way off - i'll get CRS and start all over the same (man I hope not).
Time off the bike hasn't been bad. nice bit of recharge. I should really sniff some glue before Canton though. Would be nice to roll around there with less than 45-50psi in the tires.
heddwch
G
That and i've got a serious beef with the mail system for never getting me issue #10 of Cyclocross Magazine. Seriously. I finally sent them an email asking if/when the next issue should arrive and well... um, it has been out for a while now I guess. No wonder I was baffled when FatMarc mentioned the whole Mayhew article. Damn it IS a good one.
Best issue yet? I think so. I love me the mental stuff, Marvin Z's columns in Pez, hell IIRC maybe even Myerson has an article about the mental side of stuff over on his cycle-smart page. Well let me say it differently, I really appreciate reading about it because that is almost a bigger issue for me than speed. I've got leg speed in there somewhere... I know I can go fast, but mr. overthinker here usually finds a way for the brain to screw it up. Time to dig out my stack of print outs and start reading it all over again.
After I re-read the articles in there. Heck that Jake Wells article is awesome.
All this stuff - from the Kraus bit, to J-Pow and now Jake Wells, stuff is sinking in and making sense. Lights are turning on.
One thought I had at some point was I should really write down the plan for next year NOW before I forget all these nuggets of wisdom and beat myself up the first month next year. Making sure to add in variables if i'm too cooked to train effectively. I'm tempted to try and make one of my old HR monitors work if only to get a morning resting Heart Rate to track.
Who knows that's a long way off - i'll get CRS and start all over the same (man I hope not).
Time off the bike hasn't been bad. nice bit of recharge. I should really sniff some glue before Canton though. Would be nice to roll around there with less than 45-50psi in the tires.
heddwch
G
Thursday, October 21, 2010
This is PRO
Such and overused phrase, calling something 'Pro' but hell it works.
Note he says WHEN possible, AND rested. need the combination of both.
Pretty straight ahead common sense thing. But I'll be the first to admit that last month I was doing the workout because it was what i had planned for that day, not how i felt. I'd probably have had better results if I'd slept in and done nothing for a couple of those weeks.
Tuesday morning I actually did feel rested and I had the opportunity. Yesterday, not so much. Today? Even less. Climbing into bed and then falling asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow is probably a good indication that I'm not well rested at the moment. A great time NOT to drive to maine (no matter how much I'd love to race that verge stop) and race a double. If you aren't going up and want to do a long 3-4 hour ride early Sunday morning at a mellow (for me and a few teammates) ride out of the providence area drop me an email ... gewilli at gmail...
heddwch
G
I’m just taking it one day at a time and trying to get in some decent training when it’s possible and I feel rested.(check the vid @ about 8:49 for a cameo by former weblogger CCC).
Note he says WHEN possible, AND rested. need the combination of both.
Pretty straight ahead common sense thing. But I'll be the first to admit that last month I was doing the workout because it was what i had planned for that day, not how i felt. I'd probably have had better results if I'd slept in and done nothing for a couple of those weeks.
Tuesday morning I actually did feel rested and I had the opportunity. Yesterday, not so much. Today? Even less. Climbing into bed and then falling asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow is probably a good indication that I'm not well rested at the moment. A great time NOT to drive to maine (no matter how much I'd love to race that verge stop) and race a double. If you aren't going up and want to do a long 3-4 hour ride early Sunday morning at a mellow (for me and a few teammates) ride out of the providence area drop me an email ... gewilli at gmail...
heddwch
G
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