The Elements

Lots of chemistry thinking and microscopy stuff lately... science f'yeah.

No secret that years ago my step father and I performed The Elements at talent night at the family reunion on Cape Cod (years ago - before moving to RI), and to no surprise an uncle and a few others actually were so excited that we were singing it that they had to join us.  Nothing like being in a room with others who have memorized the song.  Knowledge FTW!

So for some reason I dug up the song tonight.  Okay, the reason would be the whole XKCD cartoon with the majors.

Pulled this one up on YouTube:

And well oddly this one popped up after it was over...  kid does it well

A bit of vid from the commute

Road construction zone two.  Right up to the end where the nice EP officer held up traffic behind me for a second so I could dash across back onto the bike path.

Yeah it is only 15 fps, oh well.  And it is just 2 minutes of me passing cars, going up the hill, towing the trailer with the extra rocks in it.  I love how the construction signs are sitting totally in the shoulder, making it more fun to get through on the bike.

The path had fresh asphalt up here at this end last night on the way home.  They are still doing work on it, not open yet BUT!  There is progress.  Soon, soon my battle with the single occupant vehicles in a hurry will be greatly reduced.

heddwch

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in lieu of

link bombing other social networks...  I'm dumpin the stuff here.  I've made a conscious effort to pull back on where I'm "participating" on line.  I find a link and normally i'd blast it to twitter first, and then maybe include it here.

Not so much lately.  Trying not to be less of the noise.  I've let my skin get a bit too thin lately, maybe because I'm spread out.  That or it is just thinner in some places than others.  So I've dropped off of some of those places for now.

Wrestling with the whole mental issue of the push back. Confidence maybe you might call it.  My motivation for sharing is nearly always altruistic.  Sometimes it comes off as judgmental but that's more in the reader's interpretation.  Talking about food, fuel, chain lube, coffee, whatever it might be, my experience is often just a sample size of 1.  But that sample size of 1 is built on years of observing.  I notice stuff that others miss, or dismiss.  I remember stuff, small stuff, like the matrix, the borg, highlander...  taking it all in, incorporating it.  But also experimenting and trying stuff.  Not being afraid to test.  Not being content to not ask why.  Why?

Why.

Not looking good

So I washed the bike.  And totally nailed cleaning the chain, but since no one listens to anyone else about chain lube and maintenance I won't bother going through the process that worked well enough that I was actually surprised.

Washing the bike I noticed the rear wheel was pretty far out of true.  This is the wheel I rebuilt years ago, and tied and soldered the spokes.  It has been pretty solid.  But it has also seen the vast bulk of commuting on really crappy roads in Providence, towing the trailer with rocks and everything.  High torque, heavy load, rough roads.

It is pretty close to wearing through the rim just from braking.  This Mavic replacement rim came with a wear track indicator and well there is no indicator anymore, worn down to be flush with it.

I honestly was hoping the rim would wear through first.  But it seems upon investigation and cleaning yesterday that the spokes will pull through first.  And yes, when the rim was ordered it was pictured and assumed to come with eyelets.  Not so.

We'll see how long it lasts.

heddwch
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Not original

my idea...  of using a child transport device attached to a bicycle to attempt to gain an extra measure of space from passing motorists.

Oh well.

It works though, most of the time.

I didn't count the energy gel waste items along the marathon route today...  but there were tons of them.  I only rode about a mile of the Marathon route on the bike path though.  Couldn't jump over to the stretch along the Parkway due to heavy construction, so I stuck to the shoulder and headed down Burgess to the bridge.

Nice day out there.  Totally calm.  Would have been a good day for a long ride.

heddwch
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driving...

spinning wheels...

four of them, and no the bike plus trailer four, no the biodiesel zero carbon cycle car wheels.

got about half way to woods hole yesterday morning before realizing I'd left a 10-15% economy sucker on the roof.  i've been taking it off lately for longer road trips but needing it for hauling kids and the bike so it's been on and off.  left it on.

doh.

but still it gets decent enough economy w/ the rack on.  It was probably at 40mpg burning solar energy yesterday.  Biodiesel = chemical solar battery.  Plants turn the sun into oil, some one else uses the oil in their restaurant, Newport Biodiesel goes and picks it up, chops the glycerine backbone off and makes methyl esters, I buy it and put it in my tank.  So not only is it stored solar energy, but it already has been used once.

With the rain I'd turned the lights on for the drive down.  Parked and left the lights on for the whole day.  oops.

Got back to the car and crossed my fingers and turned the key, slow cranking speed, but, just, fast, enough, to, fire, it, up and get running. Phew.  That was a close one.

Was awesome to meet up with Chad D down there, quick visit and even passing on the coffee at 3:30 i was still wide away until midnight last night.  Nothing like being tired but unable to fall asleep.  love that feeling.

Tomorrow is the big Cox Marathon day, we'll probably use the bio burner for spectator shuttling...

This whole ride Mon-Tues-Wed only deal is getting old.  But I was just too flipping tired to leave the house to get to Freddie's Dawn Patrol ride, and there's no riding into the shop today because i've got to haul the big kid home and run a pile of errands.  Yes. If the car wasn't an option I could probably figure out a solution that involved the bike.  It would probably mean riding the borrowed tandem with the trailer, alone.  Into the city and then hoping for dry weather on the way home with the kid.  Possible, but it isn't going to happen.

Time for some more coffee.

Need to make some prints of the images, there's another employee show coming up, I had a moment of inspiration for a big image set on the drive, using some of the MIT collaboration samples and doing two big landscape shots at very disparate mags...  i might even have the images I need. Have to hit the printers. I owe someone else a print too.  Would be nice to monetize the process, get a return on the creativity and time spent.

A talk yesterday mentioned a pivotal lecture.  It drew parallels, in my mind, to The Rider.  A book every cyclist should read at the start of the season, or at least every couple of years.

The lecture is titled: There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom.

I'm not in the physical sciences world as much as biology but the biologists and the physicists are intertwined in the history of the microscope.  A good lecture.  A good thought provoking read.

I did say I was going to get more coffee. I guess I'll close, move on and get some more.

heddwch
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truth rings clear

Paul does some crazy sweet stuff.  I've been aware of his bikes for a very long time...  well before I ever saw one in person.

Plenty of internet references are out there supporting and talking about his work.  His blog is pretty fucking awesome.

Reading the post up there now got me thinking.  Most all of those points work for the whole bike industry, and to an extension, ANY craft industry.  Where you make something.  Where you are exploiting yourself, taking raw materials and adding value purely with your own time and knowledge and skills.

The most noble of professions, no?  One where you take the raw materials and create value that didn't exist before without exploitation.  Value comes from how well you do it, and if you keep doing it right for a while, it creates interest on itself.

Wed Night Recap

Last night, a bit different circumstances.  We started off the ride up at the shop.  Greve had left the new kits at the shop so I was able to ride in the new duds.  XL vermarc bibs are tighter than large hincapie bibs fwiw. Made me think I should have gone to XXL, but they stretch a bit over time and hell the extra compression holds stuff in place and in theory helps blood flow in the quads.  right?  And they were just tight worn over tights, so on bare skin they're probably fine.

We rolled out with a bit larger group than normal, 7 rolled from the shop and we picked up Andrew and Mike Brier down at Waterman Circle when we actually finally made it there.

Greve's gotten skinny, and his regular regime of fancy compu-trainer riding hasn't slowed him down a bit.  Paul's on a tear, looking for a W before cashing in his upgrade points.  Derdowski has been riding much better since he stopped that running thing, and fresh off his weekend riding with his brother's he has been killing it.  Andrew is just a fucking lung, strong and steady and weighs NOTHING - BMI has to be in the teens, he's got some serious promise.  Brier is consistently strong, still has his odd distinctive pedaling style and decides which sprints he's going for independently of the goals of the ride, but when he shows up the pace is boosted a bit.

Wind Map

http://hint.fm/wind/index.html

Click and zoom...  crazy cool.

Still.

After weeks of seeing it pop up.

Still don't get tired of it.
...

one thing i do get tired of...  people getting pissed at me for talking/writing too much about "elitist" food "snobbery" and all that.

sorry - getting tired of friends getting the big C, or dealing with health issues as they get old...  certainly some people did everything they could and still got nailed.

But sort of like walking across the tracks with headphones on and reading a book.  99/100 you can do it and not get hit by the train.

Up to you, put the effort in, in the off chance that today is the day when you might not get run over if you go the extra step.

Sigh

i give too many shits about other people...

it is a problem...

need to be more selfish i suppose...

heddwch
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Missed most of the rain

But man alive, the [under the] road construction was brutal.  And then there was this little encounter


At a red light a woman flags me down as I'm riding past in the open right lane (after the stop light the parkway is only one lane, this lane is open except for when you have race cars wanting to pass people, or folks turning left into the hospital).

It is drizzling, and she rolls her window down and asks:

"Is 'that' legal?" (gesturing to the bike and trailer). I kind of look dumbfounded at her and reply, "Yes," with a bit of confusion in the tone.

She says, "I mean taking up the whole lane? Is that legal?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Light turns green, she drives off. Meanwhile a lane jumper, someone who's been held up by traffic (the left lane was stopped for a long ways - people like to get a few cars ahead, you know, because they are RACING!).

Mid-conversation this car flies up, I'm mid-conversation and I holdout an official, don't think about proceeding, universal palm facing them gesture. But as soon as I get on the bike, ZOOOOM little crappy corrola sedan (light in one corner was held on with duct-tape, rusty and sounded funky) with a pile of people in it buzzed by w/in a foot.

I'm the MOST popular person for everyone's commute I guess. First there was one lane for construction closed, held up a half dozen cars riding through there. THEN that incident.

Finally up by the old Chevron Terminal the shoulder was completely closed and the road narrowed (high speed now, 40mph speed limit for the cars), heavy traffic and well, no choice, with on-coming traffic, here I am, taking up the lane again.

At least today I have my fancy shiny reflective 'slow vehicle sign' on the back of the bike trailer.

I need a few of these in my pocket to hand out next time.
http://www.dot.state.ri.us/documents/bikeri/DMWbrochure2g.pdf

Adventures in bike commuting.  Bike path can't open soon enough for all those special snowflake drivers.  Can't hold them up for 100-200 yards at a time going 15-25 mph, oh no, they need those precious seconds.

heddwch
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streaks are for ...

I dunno, something. Scotty D said something along those lines with a negative connotation.

Well this is the last day of April and I didn't get in a PVD-BOS-PVD ride in this month.  Russ suggested I just count the RdR3.0.

I would but then it I would be conceding that the streak is more important than the actual ride.  It was touch and go riding up there today.  Should have maybe.  But didn't.

May.  Do I call it a 'winter' thing and move on to other long rides? Woods Hole?  That would be one hell of a round trip. head over there for lunch, and return.  Maybe a CT trip.  Mystic perhaps? Although I never got into that place much. Maybe I ride down to New London and hit Fire road and Pig Hill for old times sake.

Part of me is sad I didn't carry it through, but another is more resolved to make sure I get out on a long mental health ride as soon as possible.  They do seem to help quite a bit.  Maybe I needed to get one in last week.  Like this past Friday perhaps.

Besides - they are fun to write about.

heddwch
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Red Lights are for Bikes Too

So this shot. I'm sitting here, waiting to turn left. The road is a one way (hence the no right turn sign between the lights).

You see, no cars there on the other side? Right. The light turns green, we start to go, but a helmetless iPod'd oblivious cyclist on an old geared road bike comes blasting through.

The thing is, the light was green an a Chrysler 300 or some other large sedan is motoring FAST down towards the intersection.

If the driver hadn't slammed on their brakes (they had a clear and solid green) the cyclist would have been hit.

Best?

Cyclists was in such a hurry that they stopped, 1/2 way down the next block to take out the ear buds, move his U-lock around. Could have stopped at the red light and done that there.

"Lights are for bikes too."

No wonder there is palpable animosity towards cyclists...  le sigh.  

Back to hauling rocks

After 4 days of driving the Newport Biodiesel powered rusty race wagon, I'm back on the bike.

Loaded the trailer, added a new safety wrinkle to the rig and left the rain cover at home.  The rain cover makes it significantly more aerodynamic, in addition to keeping the contents nice and dry.  Not content to just have the drag from the uncovered trailer, I popped the big rock back in the seat, with the back loaded on a monday (extra-stuff it seems).

The safety "wrinkle" was temporarily attached with some wire for the moment.  I think a reflector bracket would would perfectly for the top attachment point.  Bottom one? Might actually get away with a rubber band or something else to provide a bit of tension.

A nice morning ride in.  Cars were extremely polite on the way in with one exception.  An old dude driving and aging Camry didn't leave much room.  He probably thought he was based on the fact that he was 6" away from the curb after passing me.  One of those drivers more afraid of the other lane than the curb on the right side of the car.

Links from this morning:

If you see this link, tossed around as a reason to drink and drink and never get dehydrated, well keep in mind, VO2 was unchanged between the two trials.  It would be been more informative if they had a third group actually consume enough fluid to be hyperhydrated (pushing close to the hyponatremia level) to see if that did anything.  Nice study but it still doesn't offset the fact that marathon runners seem to do best with much higher losses than that (up to 10% even).  Better to be dehydrated and balanced in salts than heading to hyponatremia from drinking far from isotonic fluids.

FWIW: To make something isotonic with just salt, you need about 9 grams of sodium chloride per liter of water.  Cambell's Tomato Juice (not the low sodium one) has a touch more than 7 grams of sodium chloride per liter.  Pretty f'n close.

As gross as it sounds, and sometimes is, if you're out on a long hot ride, start cramping and need to buy something? Get the tomato juice.  V8 is pretty good, much much higher in Potassium (esp the spicy one) but significantly less sodium (still 2-3x more than a pre-bottled sports drink).

It also seems that Gatorade, aka Pepsi, has quietly bowed to the market pressure and switched from HFCS to sucrose and dextrose.  Still likely derived from #2 corn (pure speculation on my part), so better than HFCS? Maybe.  Maybe not.

Speaking of #2 corn.  Plenty of opinion is being written about this study. (like this one).  Can we avoid it? No, but can "we" do something? Maybe.  

This isn't an uncommon opinion. 

Screw em, people know that shit isn't healthy, they gotta want to be fit/healthy, and it hasn't come to that yet.

So where does that leave you.  Not giving a shit? Or caring too much.  Obviously I bounce back and forth between sides.  Never sitting on the fence, but if you only see one snapshot, it might seem that I'm only on one side.  With the Corn issues and the BT and the rest of the GMO byproducts in the food source, how does it make you feel about companies that load up on maltodextrin as their "fuel" source?  Me? Not so good.

But then I'm not a fan of Xylitol or Stevia so I'm often not using the one big company that banks on maltodextrin.  Xylitol is a naturally occurring sugar alcohol.  But what you find in those is generally made from a chemically treated corn products.  Stevia? well that is another sugar alcohol (basically). Still probably extracted from plants but i'd be surprised if one of Monsanto's companies isn't making it out of corn right now, even if only in the lab.  

Nothing but opinion about the sugar alcohols.  Want to use them? go for it. Just not my preference lately.

Anyway, my plans today: ride in, make coffee, deal with morning stuff, go do the east side hill circuit (I need to drag someone along with a garmin - or get lazy and just map it out myself on the computer) on the steep side a couple times and then get back to dealing with stuff.

Never made it out.  Have to head to the remote facility today so I'll at least get one go round of the hills.  Maybe I'll do a few loops on the steep section of College Hill (down Hopkins, right on Main, right and up the 17% grade on College, right on benefit, down Hopkins...) it is a 10-15 second all out high torque interval.  Why not. Structured training? Pfft. That's for fast people, or for closer to the season.  Right now I'm just trying to manage life fatigue and riding enough to maintain some level of something.

Whoa, a bit more wordy than I'd planned to get out there.  

*shrug*

it is what it is

heddwch

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Feel Good Friday

Nope. Yeah not really at all.

Chabot's got it right.  Today sucks.

It shouldn't, by any reasonable metric.  But it does.

couple videos

So going to have to make these some day, soon.  

Dad of the year contender:

Mike McCabe photos

from Sunday's Ninigret 3/4 race

3 man TT

Well not quite, three man body blow kick each other's asses ride more like it.

Fox and Derdowski showed up, pretty solid crew.  Derdowski has been riding with focus and determination lately and Fox? well f'n Fox is just strong.  Not lightweights these too, so it was a watt fest throw down.

I headed down to the ride with a few drops of rain falling, drops that probably scared everyone else away, and you know what? I'm okay with that.  Riding with just two other well matched friends is one hell of a good way to destroy some legs.

Go Hahdah

I have this image printed out and above my desk here in the office, 9/14/2010 (based on the printer header) is a long time to glance up and see Pete giving it everything at Quad Cross.

Todd P took the image.  Now I'm not super keen on the de-saturation or filtering of the image - just go all black and white or stick with native colors, but man does it capture what it takes to give it your all at the finish of a race.  CX or otherwise.

Pete Smith.  A guy who is doing it right.  Now go buy some stuff and get a Birthday gift with your order.

When does cross season start?

Race day

Yesterday.

Managed to get a race in.

Prov Velo Club new kits aren't in yet so I dusted off the perforated CX Racing dot com skinsuit and hoped I could get one more number pinned on there before the square of fabric popped out like a paper cut out doll.

the week... is over

So these stay at home with the girls while they are on vacation really is not a great way to get miles in.

Nor is it a good way to go into a race on Sunday.  A week off the bike.  Mentally I am a bit more rested.  Physically too.  But man do I feel slow.

Wed's ride was tough, very tough.  Got my butt kicked after I flexed a bit too much. I did manage to ride in to the shop last night, then swing through the picture factory to fix a few microscopes.  So I got a few miles in there. 

Today i wasn't sure if I was going to be driving the oil burner (finally back on Newport BioDiesel) so I fed the girls some lunch, asked them to be nice, and set off for to do a loopy thing.

Rode 18 min down to near Syl's house and went around a short circuit. And around.  And around.

15sec on, all out, as hard as I could go.... 15 seconds off...  had to increase rest for the corners and once for a garbage truck, switched over to 20s-20s but going with an easier gear but focusing on spin.  Those hurt. Finally back to 15s and full out of the saddle sprint with downshifts.

The ride down to the loop was into a pretty stiff headwind, but even on the old croll with fenders and those crazy wide bars I was going about 20mph when other user traffic was light. Pretty easily too.  

When 23 min rolled around I was cooked, felt vaguely pukey, solid cross gut going and was feeling it.  So back home, lets see if I can be gone just for an hour.  

And with the tail wind...

i was only able to maintain 12 mph most of the time.

cooked myself good.

got back, ate some food, ran an errand, and headed  into the shop.

on my bike.

oof.

hopefully it did some good - was fun, and felt good to get targeted intensity in, even if it is on the commuting only bike.

heddwch

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