I rode my bike today oh boy
It was a fun ride, all except the grades,
And though my legs were rather bad
Well I just had to laugh
Wish I had a photograph
I crashed my ass off, on the road,
I didn't notice trucks had spilled their load.
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen me crash before,
Nobody was really sure
If I could ride back to the shop...
I fell on film today oh boy
The trucks, they leaked some awful motor oil
It spilled right in the roundabout,
But I just spun right through,
Having read Prehn's book.
I thought I'd ride straight on...
Went down, fell on my head,
I wish I'd stayed in bed.
Water bottles shot on down the road
And looking down I saw to my dismay,
My leg skin had all gone away,
Crashed from 30, and skinned my butt,
Then I laid upon the roadside and went into a dream.
I crashed my bike today, oh boy.
Wiped out on oil up there in Odenton.
And though my cuts are rather small,
I find they ooze a wet unsightly pall.
Now I know how many many pedal turns it really takes to fall,
I'd love some no-o-o-o-o va-a-a-a- caine....
Yes, I crashed hard in a traffic circle near the Burns Crossing Road waste disposal center, when I failed to notice a long dark streak going around the circle - which I am pretty sure is trash truck leavin's, based on its location. The rear wheel went out as if on oil at about 30 MPH. I went down pretty hard on the left side, my water bottles did take off down Burns Crossing Road at a high rate of speed. The bike, thankfully, is fine, just a few scrapes on the left brake handle, some gummed up handlebar tape and a little tear in the rubber on the shifter hood. I have road rash on the left calf and buttock, serious strawberries with underlying bruising on both forearms, and on the left hip. The palms are badly bruised in the meaty part, bloodshot. Total Equipment Death Toll: One pair of bib shorts, one pair of MTB gloves, and we'll need some new grip tape. About $120 worth of gear eaten up.
It's all part of the game, I guess. Doesn't make it suck any less when it happens though.
[UPDATE: For what it's worth, the excellent Dr. Arnie Baker - cyclist extraordinaire and the Floyd's doctor, has a good article on how to treat road rash here. I employ a combination of his old school & new school methods. I prefer to leave road rash uncovered as much as possible - it seems to heal faster and be less painful generally if you keep it uncovered. On the other hand, hard scabs tend to be sort of painful. So I keep the area uncovered, if possible, and douse it with a light coating of anti-bacterial Neosporin. If the thing gets weepy, I will apply a dressing with a heavier coat of Neosporin, if for no other reason than to protect my dress clothes from rust stains, though if it is deep rash keeping the wound moist will prevent big thick scabs from forming, which later painfully crack and bleed when you move. Your mileage, of course, may vary.]
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
The Best
- Watching a classic cartoon with your three year-old son, especially a cartoon featuring the best opera overture ever, is simply The Best.
- Getting into mid-season form, losing that weight, getting your hill climbing together, and finally dropping some people on the club ride, is The Best.
- The first time you finish a race and manage to hang in with the pack, is The Best.
- When a friend hands you a water bottle on a tough ride, and you take a swig, it's The Best.
- When a buddy gives you a shove up a hill when your legs are completely shot... that's The Best.
- Forgetting there's a bike race on OLN (VS?) and accidentally flipping into it just as the decisive move is going down in a spring classic, is The Best.
- When you plan a move in a race with some friends, then execute it as planned and one of your buddies podiums... that's The Best.
- The Muffin Ride - 90 minutes of recovery and mindless chat with friends, bracketed with coffee and a muffin, is The Best.
- Nice new tires that have lower rolling resistance than any others you've ever rolled on (Vredestein Fortezzas, 150 PSI, if you must) are The Best.
- Your wife suggesting you need to go out for three or four hours to get a good long ride in... that's The Best.
- Your wife wanting some equipment and bike clothing upgrades so she can ride with you, is The Best.
- Your three year-old saying he's going to learn to pedal the tricycle well so that you will get him a trail-a-bike "to GO WITH DADDY" is The Best.
- Getting to throw yourself back into bike culture after a winter layoff... that's The Best.
- Turning on three or four friends at work to riding is The Best.
What are The Best things in bicycling from your standpoint?
- Getting into mid-season form, losing that weight, getting your hill climbing together, and finally dropping some people on the club ride, is The Best.
- The first time you finish a race and manage to hang in with the pack, is The Best.
- When a friend hands you a water bottle on a tough ride, and you take a swig, it's The Best.
- When a buddy gives you a shove up a hill when your legs are completely shot... that's The Best.
- Forgetting there's a bike race on OLN (VS?) and accidentally flipping into it just as the decisive move is going down in a spring classic, is The Best.
- When you plan a move in a race with some friends, then execute it as planned and one of your buddies podiums... that's The Best.
- The Muffin Ride - 90 minutes of recovery and mindless chat with friends, bracketed with coffee and a muffin, is The Best.
- Nice new tires that have lower rolling resistance than any others you've ever rolled on (Vredestein Fortezzas, 150 PSI, if you must) are The Best.
- Your wife suggesting you need to go out for three or four hours to get a good long ride in... that's The Best.
- Your wife wanting some equipment and bike clothing upgrades so she can ride with you, is The Best.
- Your three year-old saying he's going to learn to pedal the tricycle well so that you will get him a trail-a-bike "to GO WITH DADDY" is The Best.
- Getting to throw yourself back into bike culture after a winter layoff... that's The Best.
- Turning on three or four friends at work to riding is The Best.
What are The Best things in bicycling from your standpoint?
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Environmental Hypocrisy
I see that the organizers of the Carl Dolan circuit race are making it a carbon-neutral event. You can become carbon neutral by one of two methods - dying, or buying "carbon offsets" from a firm that becomes fabulously wealthy by selling you a notional reduction in carbon dioxide production, in order to save the Earth, and to assuage your vague sense of guilt that you should be doing something, big, something important like saving the earth, but enlisting in the Marines or selling your Ford Explorer and riding a bike or walking everywhere is just too much to ask. Have you ever tried to get a case of beer on a bike? Only the Surly guys do that, and we all know they are crazy.
The way it works: The carbon offset firms buy carbon dioxide reductions from carbon dioxide producers (like powerplants), who can sell the credits by agreeing to abstain from producing carbon dioxide. Say a coal fueled power plant could notionally produce a million tons of carbon dioxide every year. But the firm decides to go green, and therefore has a million tons of pollution it could possibly abstain from producing. In order to meet your emotional needs, and the earth's environmental needs (which are about as objectively measurable, given existing science) you pay the carbon offsets firm to pay the power producer to not produce CO2.
In this way, it's a bit like the federal government paying farmers to not produce anything. The rationale behind that is keeping arable land un-tilled keeps prices high, and keeps farmers rich. The direct payments don't hurt either, apparently; numerous celebrities have purchased non-farms as investments, which they then proceed to non-cultivate, in order to cash in. This makes one wonder how carbon offsets are calculated. It's possible to become rich not farming, collecting money for not living off the fruits of the land, all the while not sending food to market for the masses to not consume, thereby not sating their hunger. Anyhow, I wonder how far you have to go to generate an offset. (Or to not generate it, really). For instance, if a coal burning plant abstains from throwing in a shovel full of coal, is that worth an offset? Or if one of the giants in the power generation world decides to not build a plant, even though they could, does that generate offsets? Would they need to at least have a permit to build the plant before they could create offsets by not producing power? What about if Al Gore jets all around the world, lives on an estate that doesn't look shabby compared to Biltmore House, heats the joint by piling one piece of old growth redwood after another onto the fire, and then lectures us about global warming but refuses to debate it with reputable climatologists who disagree with him - does the CO2 he avoids producing by dodging open debate offset conspicuous production lifestyle?
But I digress.
My disappointment with the Carl Dolan organizers is while they are querying where we are driving from, whether we are car pooling and so forth, is they haven't asked some key questions about us. For instance, I am a fat bastard. It takes more energy for me to get around a circuit race course than for somebody smaller, like my friend Scott. In the course of producing that additional power, I consume more oxygen and emit more CO2 than Scott. Who is supposed to make up the slack for my lardbutt? Shouldn't I be made to pay more due to my enhanced huffing and puffing, which comes from riding at threshold on the hill when others are merely riding at Tempo? Don't the skinny guys abuse Mother Earth less? I'm feeling guilty here. How about varying Gu consumption during the races? Some people eat a Gu or two mid race, others don't. That stuff takes energy to produce, and if you're one of the Gaia-beaters who eats Gu in a short race, you should have to pay more. What about the ambulances for the inevitable crashes (shouldn't you pay more if you plan on crashing?), the spectators, and the traffic changes caused by people having to alter their paths because a lovely 2.1 mile rolling circuit, with no technical turns and a short big ring climb, is closed, causing detours?
It just doesn't seem fair. It's great they are going a little carbon neutral, but there's so much more they can do to help Mother Earth out here, before she gets really angry at us for cars and airplanes and warm houses and cow farts and breathing and stuff, and just kills us all. It's the height of hypocrisy to say your are carbon neutral, but then fail to ask about my weight and to calculate the additional amount of CO2 that I will generate riding around the course, and I'm not sure I want to be a part of that EarthCrime.
I really need to thank the race organizers for making me think about this. I hadn't considered how badly my bicycle racing abuses the Earth. Is This tempo Ride Necessary? Man, even on my bike commute, I generate scads of CO2. I don't want to be a part of this Earth Abuse any more, and think I may have to skip Carl Dolan, and stay home. It's called "monkeywrenching," right, where we refuse to be a part of crimes against the natural world? After all a range of groups that deeply care about the environment have just asked the Supreme Court to decree that CO2 is a pollutant, which would make it subject to regulation under various federal regulations. You know what that means? When we ride our bikes and start churning out CO2, you and I are just like Union Carbide Chemical in Bhopal, just on a smaller scale. Maybe it's time to put the bike up and stop polluting at such a high rate. I don't want to make Gaia cry any more... do you?*
*This post has been satirized for your protection (and updated to take out certain errors in grammar I made at 6:00 AM while drafting it). While I believe the Earth warms as a trend and cools at times as well, I am fairly certain that we don't have a clue how much effect man's activity has on global warming and cooling, outside of microclimates (urban heat bubbles and the like) and am also fairly certain that most of the climate models don't do a very good predictive job. Yep, I believe that good stewardship of the earth is a basic human responsibility (which goes along with those basic human rights) but think that before we should re-order society around a politician's PowerPoint briefing, we ought to actually be certain that our utopian plan is based on reasonably stable facts, rather than on one side of a set of dueling hypotheses filled in with a lot of "assume that..." What's more, is I get the impression that a lot of people who are interested in this reordering of society aren't into it with genuine environmental motivation, but instead appreciate the current debate for the opportunity it presents to gain control over many aspects of our daily lives. The first line of my civic religious creed is, "the government is best, that governs least." I see this current debate, where actual debate isn't permitted (go ahead, call me a 'denier') as framing an 'argument,' the only possible answer to which is "the government needs to closely control many more areas of your life." I am for the opposite of that, preserving the maximum amount of individual liberty that is possible, and there's no room for that in a debate where one side are arguing that disagreement with them on any given point probably ought to be criminalized. As some wise men once said, "know your rights," especially #3. No, I don't work for oil companies, nor do they give me any money, and in fact the stick it to me on a regular basis every time I put gas in my car, or turn on the heat at home to keep from freezing to death.
Here ends today's sermon/rant. We now return to our regularly scheduled bicycle-mad programming.
[Update: Of course I registered for the race. I despise the politicization of everyday life, I ride the bike to get away from that kind of stuff. It would be pretty dumb of me to obliquely hammer on DC Velo for making a political statement with their race, and then make a political statement by not going. So of course I'll go, do the race, and in all likelihood get dropped like a bad habit. Which is pathetical, not political.]
The way it works: The carbon offset firms buy carbon dioxide reductions from carbon dioxide producers (like powerplants), who can sell the credits by agreeing to abstain from producing carbon dioxide. Say a coal fueled power plant could notionally produce a million tons of carbon dioxide every year. But the firm decides to go green, and therefore has a million tons of pollution it could possibly abstain from producing. In order to meet your emotional needs, and the earth's environmental needs (which are about as objectively measurable, given existing science) you pay the carbon offsets firm to pay the power producer to not produce CO2.
In this way, it's a bit like the federal government paying farmers to not produce anything. The rationale behind that is keeping arable land un-tilled keeps prices high, and keeps farmers rich. The direct payments don't hurt either, apparently; numerous celebrities have purchased non-farms as investments, which they then proceed to non-cultivate, in order to cash in. This makes one wonder how carbon offsets are calculated. It's possible to become rich not farming, collecting money for not living off the fruits of the land, all the while not sending food to market for the masses to not consume, thereby not sating their hunger. Anyhow, I wonder how far you have to go to generate an offset. (Or to not generate it, really). For instance, if a coal burning plant abstains from throwing in a shovel full of coal, is that worth an offset? Or if one of the giants in the power generation world decides to not build a plant, even though they could, does that generate offsets? Would they need to at least have a permit to build the plant before they could create offsets by not producing power? What about if Al Gore jets all around the world, lives on an estate that doesn't look shabby compared to Biltmore House, heats the joint by piling one piece of old growth redwood after another onto the fire, and then lectures us about global warming but refuses to debate it with reputable climatologists who disagree with him - does the CO2 he avoids producing by dodging open debate offset conspicuous production lifestyle?
But I digress.
My disappointment with the Carl Dolan organizers is while they are querying where we are driving from, whether we are car pooling and so forth, is they haven't asked some key questions about us. For instance, I am a fat bastard. It takes more energy for me to get around a circuit race course than for somebody smaller, like my friend Scott. In the course of producing that additional power, I consume more oxygen and emit more CO2 than Scott. Who is supposed to make up the slack for my lardbutt? Shouldn't I be made to pay more due to my enhanced huffing and puffing, which comes from riding at threshold on the hill when others are merely riding at Tempo? Don't the skinny guys abuse Mother Earth less? I'm feeling guilty here. How about varying Gu consumption during the races? Some people eat a Gu or two mid race, others don't. That stuff takes energy to produce, and if you're one of the Gaia-beaters who eats Gu in a short race, you should have to pay more. What about the ambulances for the inevitable crashes (shouldn't you pay more if you plan on crashing?), the spectators, and the traffic changes caused by people having to alter their paths because a lovely 2.1 mile rolling circuit, with no technical turns and a short big ring climb, is closed, causing detours?
It just doesn't seem fair. It's great they are going a little carbon neutral, but there's so much more they can do to help Mother Earth out here, before she gets really angry at us for cars and airplanes and warm houses and cow farts and breathing and stuff, and just kills us all. It's the height of hypocrisy to say your are carbon neutral, but then fail to ask about my weight and to calculate the additional amount of CO2 that I will generate riding around the course, and I'm not sure I want to be a part of that EarthCrime.
I really need to thank the race organizers for making me think about this. I hadn't considered how badly my bicycle racing abuses the Earth. Is This tempo Ride Necessary? Man, even on my bike commute, I generate scads of CO2. I don't want to be a part of this Earth Abuse any more, and think I may have to skip Carl Dolan, and stay home. It's called "monkeywrenching," right, where we refuse to be a part of crimes against the natural world? After all a range of groups that deeply care about the environment have just asked the Supreme Court to decree that CO2 is a pollutant, which would make it subject to regulation under various federal regulations. You know what that means? When we ride our bikes and start churning out CO2, you and I are just like Union Carbide Chemical in Bhopal, just on a smaller scale. Maybe it's time to put the bike up and stop polluting at such a high rate. I don't want to make Gaia cry any more... do you?*
*This post has been satirized for your protection (and updated to take out certain errors in grammar I made at 6:00 AM while drafting it). While I believe the Earth warms as a trend and cools at times as well, I am fairly certain that we don't have a clue how much effect man's activity has on global warming and cooling, outside of microclimates (urban heat bubbles and the like) and am also fairly certain that most of the climate models don't do a very good predictive job. Yep, I believe that good stewardship of the earth is a basic human responsibility (which goes along with those basic human rights) but think that before we should re-order society around a politician's PowerPoint briefing, we ought to actually be certain that our utopian plan is based on reasonably stable facts, rather than on one side of a set of dueling hypotheses filled in with a lot of "assume that..." What's more, is I get the impression that a lot of people who are interested in this reordering of society aren't into it with genuine environmental motivation, but instead appreciate the current debate for the opportunity it presents to gain control over many aspects of our daily lives. The first line of my civic religious creed is, "the government is best, that governs least." I see this current debate, where actual debate isn't permitted (go ahead, call me a 'denier') as framing an 'argument,' the only possible answer to which is "the government needs to closely control many more areas of your life." I am for the opposite of that, preserving the maximum amount of individual liberty that is possible, and there's no room for that in a debate where one side are arguing that disagreement with them on any given point probably ought to be criminalized. As some wise men once said, "know your rights," especially #3. No, I don't work for oil companies, nor do they give me any money, and in fact the stick it to me on a regular basis every time I put gas in my car, or turn on the heat at home to keep from freezing to death.
Here ends today's sermon/rant. We now return to our regularly scheduled bicycle-mad programming.
[Update: Of course I registered for the race. I despise the politicization of everyday life, I ride the bike to get away from that kind of stuff. It would be pretty dumb of me to obliquely hammer on DC Velo for making a political statement with their race, and then make a political statement by not going. So of course I'll go, do the race, and in all likelihood get dropped like a bad habit. Which is pathetical, not political.]
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
You Know You're a Biker When...
Had a nice two hour ride with Jon this morning. He talked about having those moments where you know you're a biker. His was being able to put together a decent toolkit for a ride, from stuff just laying around the house. This got me to thinking...
You know you're a biker when...
- Your wife asks, "Dear, do you have a bad stomach flu... oh, nevermind. That smell is just your knee warmers. You shouldn't leave them out like that."
- You attempt to give the hand signal to slow down when you approach a wreck on the highway. But you're driving your car.
- Your wife says "baby needs some new shoes," and you immediately reply, "what's wrong with the Gatorskins?"
- Your friends all go to bed at ten o'clock and get up at 5:30, and they aren't all in the Army or an old-age home.
- You select vacations based on whether you can ride there, or perhaps to there.
- When your fondest dream isn't a weekend in a Roman hotel with Penelope Cruz, a case of Barolo and some baby lotion; rather it's a week riding in the Italian Alps with Andy Hampsten's wife, who is an excellent bike tour guide, I am told.
- When people ask you what you think about the problems with doping in the pros, and you talk about EPO, synthetic testosterone and Dick Pound, rather than human growth hormone, Dianobol, and Barry Bonds.
- When the best day ever off the bike bums you out far worse than the worst day ever on it.
- When you have two legitimate options for "rain bikes" and deciding which one to ride is so tough (because you love both) that you just about missed your last ride in the rain - even though you kind of like riding in the rain.
- When you are worried that your 'cross bike will have hurt feelings because you haven't ridden it in the dirt in four months.
- When you can choose between buying more bikes or having more kids, and you get a vasectomy.
- When you like the feel and aesthetic of shaved roadie legs (your own) so much that you keep doing it, even though it's winter, you won't be wearing shorts for three months, and it's really cold out.
- When you have a choice of writing about anything in the world, but you choose to write about bikes, time and time again.
When did you realize you had become a biker?
You know you're a biker when...
- Your wife asks, "Dear, do you have a bad stomach flu... oh, nevermind. That smell is just your knee warmers. You shouldn't leave them out like that."
- You attempt to give the hand signal to slow down when you approach a wreck on the highway. But you're driving your car.
- Your wife says "baby needs some new shoes," and you immediately reply, "what's wrong with the Gatorskins?"
- Your friends all go to bed at ten o'clock and get up at 5:30, and they aren't all in the Army or an old-age home.
- You select vacations based on whether you can ride there, or perhaps to there.
- When your fondest dream isn't a weekend in a Roman hotel with Penelope Cruz, a case of Barolo and some baby lotion; rather it's a week riding in the Italian Alps with Andy Hampsten's wife, who is an excellent bike tour guide, I am told.
- When people ask you what you think about the problems with doping in the pros, and you talk about EPO, synthetic testosterone and Dick Pound, rather than human growth hormone, Dianobol, and Barry Bonds.
- When the best day ever off the bike bums you out far worse than the worst day ever on it.
- When you have two legitimate options for "rain bikes" and deciding which one to ride is so tough (because you love both) that you just about missed your last ride in the rain - even though you kind of like riding in the rain.
- When you are worried that your 'cross bike will have hurt feelings because you haven't ridden it in the dirt in four months.
- When you can choose between buying more bikes or having more kids, and you get a vasectomy.
- When you like the feel and aesthetic of shaved roadie legs (your own) so much that you keep doing it, even though it's winter, you won't be wearing shorts for three months, and it's really cold out.
- When you have a choice of writing about anything in the world, but you choose to write about bikes, time and time again.
When did you realize you had become a biker?
Monday, March 26, 2007
Sweet Merciful Rest
After riding about 15 of the last 17 days, with all the rest front-loaded, I needed a break. So I took today off. Forthwith, a Top Ten list - Top Ten Ways of Resting
10. Just plain not riding, old school style.
9. Sleeping in a little bit late. Taking the car to work.
8. Lying on the floor and putting your legs up on the bed.
7. Lying on your girlfriend on the bed, and putting... hey, I'd better stop.
6. A 45 minute light spin around the neighborhood.
5. Drinking beer. Hey, it's carbo loading!
4. Sleep. Blissful sleep.
3. Working the whole day with your feet up on the desk at the office.
2. Going to bed early.
1. Dreaming about riding tomorrow, after my rest day.
10. Just plain not riding, old school style.
9. Sleeping in a little bit late. Taking the car to work.
8. Lying on the floor and putting your legs up on the bed.
7. Lying on your girlfriend on the bed, and putting... hey, I'd better stop.
6. A 45 minute light spin around the neighborhood.
5. Drinking beer. Hey, it's carbo loading!
4. Sleep. Blissful sleep.
3. Working the whole day with your feet up on the desk at the office.
2. Going to bed early.
1. Dreaming about riding tomorrow, after my rest day.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Never Mind the Ball Bearings... Here's the Chastity Pistols!
- Spam email sender names of the day: Hpxvoltaic Calculable. Jwheelhouse Wynn. And the name of the day: Gzhuniform Septillion - it sounds like some kind of classical Roman military unit - you have your cohorts, your legions, and the Gzhuniform Septillions... Honorable mention: Zrectangular Gloucester, which sounds like a new kind of fishstick.
- Watched Milan-San Remo, la Primavera, twice this weekend. The first time was an RAI sattelite feed at Il Duce's house. The race ended early since the riders were out in the rain for a lot of the race, and didn't feel like riding "piano" for the first four hours, so they hammered to get in out of the rain sooner. And who says we aren't like the pros? On the RAI feed, they had a retrospective of the great past champions. I was struck by the films of Mercyx and Fausto Coppi in their primes. I'd seen photos... but in film, Mercyx looked like a man in a hurry on a bike, and off it it the fine young Cannibal looked like a rock star. Amazingly charismatic. As for Coppi, il Campionissimo... On the bike he was the picture of grace, he looked to be pedaling effortlessly, and off the bike he looked like Errol Flynn, just that classic 40s/50s Big Hollywood Star kind of appeal. Either man would be an enormous star today. Now I get it.
- There were some massive crashes in la Primavera. It happens every year. I'm starting to think that the three essential elements of racing are having some kind of triumph (top 20 in a 125 rider field would constitute a triumph), getting shelled badly, and crashing. I suppose training, sports drinks, lycra, and cameraderie are all there, but they aren't all that essential. You can race on water (I have), in wool (I used to TT in it, back in the day) and you can ride among enemies who are not comrades. But it isn't racing without a winner, a loser, and a crash of some sort.
- Who are your favorite racers and why? I like:
* Jens Voigt - he's strong, easygoing, and follows the classic military German military dicta, 'when in doubt, attack.' I recently discovered he's the rider's representative to the UCI, and he's also an outspoken opponent of doping in cycling. He seems to be an all around standup guy.
* Matthias Kessler - a less spectacular version of Voigt. Call him Eisenhertz. Last year in TdF Stage 2, he pulled a solo break but got reeled in maybe 35 yards from the line; the next day he pulled a solo break and then won; and then a few days later he crashed hard in the mountains, came up with rocks stuck in his helmet, and remounted and hammered off.
* Magnus Backstadt - I love him because he is 'too big' to be a good bike racer, something I've heard. Magnus apparently doesn't hear so good. He won Paris-Roubaix in 2004, and has placed at Ghent-Wevelgem. I like people who "aren't ____ enough" but who don't listen to the experts, and make it happen anyhow.
* George Hincapie - Strong rider in the northern classics, set a great example of a guy who was willing to sacrifice himself for the team, and appears to be a standup guy.
- Rest day tomorrow. Did a lovely 3+ hour zone 2/1 ride yesterday. Rode tempo on the fixie for 2+ hours today. The legs are blown, and my HR couldn't even hit zone 4 on a hill sprint. Can you say "over-reach?" Time to have a day off.
- Watched Milan-San Remo, la Primavera, twice this weekend. The first time was an RAI sattelite feed at Il Duce's house. The race ended early since the riders were out in the rain for a lot of the race, and didn't feel like riding "piano" for the first four hours, so they hammered to get in out of the rain sooner. And who says we aren't like the pros? On the RAI feed, they had a retrospective of the great past champions. I was struck by the films of Mercyx and Fausto Coppi in their primes. I'd seen photos... but in film, Mercyx looked like a man in a hurry on a bike, and off it it the fine young Cannibal looked like a rock star. Amazingly charismatic. As for Coppi, il Campionissimo... On the bike he was the picture of grace, he looked to be pedaling effortlessly, and off the bike he looked like Errol Flynn, just that classic 40s/50s Big Hollywood Star kind of appeal. Either man would be an enormous star today. Now I get it.
- There were some massive crashes in la Primavera. It happens every year. I'm starting to think that the three essential elements of racing are having some kind of triumph (top 20 in a 125 rider field would constitute a triumph), getting shelled badly, and crashing. I suppose training, sports drinks, lycra, and cameraderie are all there, but they aren't all that essential. You can race on water (I have), in wool (I used to TT in it, back in the day) and you can ride among enemies who are not comrades. But it isn't racing without a winner, a loser, and a crash of some sort.
- Who are your favorite racers and why? I like:
* Jens Voigt - he's strong, easygoing, and follows the classic military German military dicta, 'when in doubt, attack.' I recently discovered he's the rider's representative to the UCI, and he's also an outspoken opponent of doping in cycling. He seems to be an all around standup guy.
* Matthias Kessler - a less spectacular version of Voigt. Call him Eisenhertz. Last year in TdF Stage 2, he pulled a solo break but got reeled in maybe 35 yards from the line; the next day he pulled a solo break and then won; and then a few days later he crashed hard in the mountains, came up with rocks stuck in his helmet, and remounted and hammered off.
* Magnus Backstadt - I love him because he is 'too big' to be a good bike racer, something I've heard. Magnus apparently doesn't hear so good. He won Paris-Roubaix in 2004, and has placed at Ghent-Wevelgem. I like people who "aren't ____ enough" but who don't listen to the experts, and make it happen anyhow.
* George Hincapie - Strong rider in the northern classics, set a great example of a guy who was willing to sacrifice himself for the team, and appears to be a standup guy.
- Rest day tomorrow. Did a lovely 3+ hour zone 2/1 ride yesterday. Rode tempo on the fixie for 2+ hours today. The legs are blown, and my HR couldn't even hit zone 4 on a hill sprint. Can you say "over-reach?" Time to have a day off.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Water Bottles - Gene Frenkel Memorial Edition
- Al Gore testified on Capitol Hill today about global warming. He said, "The Earth has a fever." We all know that can mean only one thing: The prescription is... MORE COWBELL!
- I know a lot of other people probably said the same thing. I don't care. As soon as I read the news article, I knew immediately, that More Cowbell! is the solution to all the earth's problems.
- Rode the Hains lunchtime ride for a couple laps. Given my present unfit state, I just wanted to see where my legs are and do a few hard efforts, then slip away back to work. That's exactly what I did. The legs are fine, the muscular endurance isn't. After the second reasonably hot lap I was about to burst past my lactate threshold (Yep, I kept it in high tempo/subthreshold even when the pace picked up) and I reasoned that I'd rather keep a few matches in my back pocket to burn over the weekend. So I bugged out and rode back into Northwest with Kurt, who also had to get back to work. The confidence is definitely bouyed quite a bit.
- Spam email sender names are getting ever better and more random in an effort to beat firewalls. It used to be that oddball names would show up - Mortimer Testes, Occular Oclusion, Homer Plato, or Rodriguez Mitchell. But the names themselves actually made sense as words. Now, to beat the logic, it apparently takes a greater degree of randomness. Forthwith, some names yanked off the "Sent From" lines of my last ten spam emails, and what I think the occupation of people with those names would be:
* Genisa Bsub: Probably a vendor of chicken beeks, and chicken elbow skin. I don't know why, that's just the impression I get. Or maybe Jar-Jar Binks's banker.
* Smcclure barrington: Ray Smuckles' upscale great uncle, who is an attorney in London.
* Dxexonerate mohawk - a post-punk punk rocker. Clearly.
* Gresonate chalice - a former East German Stasi torture meister, now reduced to being a monastery dentist.
* Wnoon bulldoze - an African heavy equipment operator.
* Special bonus best subject line: "Upon My Basophilic." Sounds like something you'd say if you were a pagan warrior about to swear reveng on some other pagan warrior - "By Grabthar's hammer, Upon my Basophilic, I shall be avenged!"
- Best off kilter cartoon ever - Red Meat. Nobody else comes close.
That's all I got for now... that... and MORE COWBELL!
- I know a lot of other people probably said the same thing. I don't care. As soon as I read the news article, I knew immediately, that More Cowbell! is the solution to all the earth's problems.
- Rode the Hains lunchtime ride for a couple laps. Given my present unfit state, I just wanted to see where my legs are and do a few hard efforts, then slip away back to work. That's exactly what I did. The legs are fine, the muscular endurance isn't. After the second reasonably hot lap I was about to burst past my lactate threshold (Yep, I kept it in high tempo/subthreshold even when the pace picked up) and I reasoned that I'd rather keep a few matches in my back pocket to burn over the weekend. So I bugged out and rode back into Northwest with Kurt, who also had to get back to work. The confidence is definitely bouyed quite a bit.
- Spam email sender names are getting ever better and more random in an effort to beat firewalls. It used to be that oddball names would show up - Mortimer Testes, Occular Oclusion, Homer Plato, or Rodriguez Mitchell. But the names themselves actually made sense as words. Now, to beat the logic, it apparently takes a greater degree of randomness. Forthwith, some names yanked off the "Sent From" lines of my last ten spam emails, and what I think the occupation of people with those names would be:
* Genisa Bsub: Probably a vendor of chicken beeks, and chicken elbow skin. I don't know why, that's just the impression I get. Or maybe Jar-Jar Binks's banker.
* Smcclure barrington: Ray Smuckles' upscale great uncle, who is an attorney in London.
* Dxexonerate mohawk - a post-punk punk rocker. Clearly.
* Gresonate chalice - a former East German Stasi torture meister, now reduced to being a monastery dentist.
* Wnoon bulldoze - an African heavy equipment operator.
* Special bonus best subject line: "Upon My Basophilic." Sounds like something you'd say if you were a pagan warrior about to swear reveng on some other pagan warrior - "By Grabthar's hammer, Upon my Basophilic, I shall be avenged!"
- Best off kilter cartoon ever - Red Meat. Nobody else comes close.
That's all I got for now... that... and MORE COWBELL!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Water Bottles # 12(b)(6)
- Want to know what makes for a great local bike shop? When the LBS guy is good people, honest in business, a strong racer, and he is charitable to you when you are on the LBS ride and your unfit legs cramp up and blow out. It's good for the local bike culture when there are people like that around. It's the difference between a bicycle retailer, and a bicyclist who sells bikes and gear. I hope you all experience a good LBS some time.
- The legs are coming back quickly - all that fixed gear training and single speed cross racing built some leg strength that seems to have stuck around over the winter. The form is off a bit (takes a while to reacquire a smooth pedal stroke) and I'm still fat, though that is coming off quickly now that I can ride every day. Maybe there's hope.
- Rode the fixie to work today. Aside from the zen quality of fixies, and the superb control they give you whilst moving at speed, the thing I love the best is the relentless workout. My commute worked out to 28 total miles today, and it managed to make my legs hurt. Going into work, I did nothing other than one brief stoplight sprint, not really for training purposes but to ensure a run of 7-8 straight green lights. Coming home, I did 2-3 sprints, and 20 minutes at tempo pumping uphill into a hard wind. My legs were thrashed. I had fun, too though. I hit 30 MPH a few times in traffic, including carrying 30 or just under for about a mile coming down Penna Ave, onto K street into Georgetown. (That's ~155 RPM on the pedals, in case you were wondering). I skid stopped that bastard three or four times today, too, just for good measure. The fixie shows no mercy, and asks for none... It's like a good, rough dog.
- Do you have any idea how nice it is, not to have your water bottles freeze up every time you are out on the bike for longer than an hour?
- I hate the trainer. After a dismal snowed in Jan/Feb, I can admit this now. Next year I'm going to hit it harder. But I hate the damn thing. I'd shoot it if I didn't think I'd need to ride it next winter.
- Kudos to Dave for getting his butt royally kicked at the University of Maryland President's Crit, and then having the desire to keep racing. After a good training race showing, a big time butt kicking... welcome to racing, Dave. Sometimes, it works out great. Other times, for no apparent reason, it's horror show, and you can't make excuses or rationalize it away, you just have to accept it, redouble your efforts, and register for the next race. C.f. Bug, Windshield / bear, ingestion metaphors. Kudos also to Tom the Wrench for his similar experiences and apparently undimmed desire to keep sticking his nose into the peloton.
- The legs are coming back quickly - all that fixed gear training and single speed cross racing built some leg strength that seems to have stuck around over the winter. The form is off a bit (takes a while to reacquire a smooth pedal stroke) and I'm still fat, though that is coming off quickly now that I can ride every day. Maybe there's hope.
- Rode the fixie to work today. Aside from the zen quality of fixies, and the superb control they give you whilst moving at speed, the thing I love the best is the relentless workout. My commute worked out to 28 total miles today, and it managed to make my legs hurt. Going into work, I did nothing other than one brief stoplight sprint, not really for training purposes but to ensure a run of 7-8 straight green lights. Coming home, I did 2-3 sprints, and 20 minutes at tempo pumping uphill into a hard wind. My legs were thrashed. I had fun, too though. I hit 30 MPH a few times in traffic, including carrying 30 or just under for about a mile coming down Penna Ave, onto K street into Georgetown. (That's ~155 RPM on the pedals, in case you were wondering). I skid stopped that bastard three or four times today, too, just for good measure. The fixie shows no mercy, and asks for none... It's like a good, rough dog.
- Do you have any idea how nice it is, not to have your water bottles freeze up every time you are out on the bike for longer than an hour?
- I hate the trainer. After a dismal snowed in Jan/Feb, I can admit this now. Next year I'm going to hit it harder. But I hate the damn thing. I'd shoot it if I didn't think I'd need to ride it next winter.
- Kudos to Dave for getting his butt royally kicked at the University of Maryland President's Crit, and then having the desire to keep racing. After a good training race showing, a big time butt kicking... welcome to racing, Dave. Sometimes, it works out great. Other times, for no apparent reason, it's horror show, and you can't make excuses or rationalize it away, you just have to accept it, redouble your efforts, and register for the next race. C.f. Bug, Windshield / bear, ingestion metaphors. Kudos also to Tom the Wrench for his similar experiences and apparently undimmed desire to keep sticking his nose into the peloton.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Water Bottles 07-01
- Did the first bike commute/training ride of the year, now that the weather has broken. It was kind of cold in the AM (I was dressed too light) and kind of hot in the afternoon return trip (I was dressed too heavy). No matter the flaws, it was about a million times nicer than sitting in a car on Route 50, waiting for the traffic to start moving.
- With the first nice weather, The Bike Trail Guys are back out. Don't be a Bike Trail Guy. What's a BTG? A guy who gets wayyyy too much validation from passing somebody on the bike trail. For example, I was cruising up the Cap Crescent on my sore, heavy legs, turning the fixie over at about 17 MPH. I was teetering between zone 2 and 3, trying to keep the HR down in zone 2 in order to keep the legs (something like) reasonably fresh in order to keep putting in the training volume. Along comes a guy on a nice bike, a C-Dale, I think, and he pulls up next to me, kind of bobbing. He grunts out a "hey," sounding like he was choking on a whole onion caught in his throat or something. Then he jumped, probably pipped up to about 20, and wheezed away up the hill, bobbing up and down like one of those birds you put on the side of a bowl of water. I could hear him gasping until he was maybe 25 yards up the trail. Nicely done, BTG. I'm frickin' impressed.
- Want to know the worst thing? Until I started racing, I was a bigtime BTG. Yeah, an asshole. I'm not any more because passing somebody on the bike trail is no big deal. Maybe you dusted off some guy who is in a pissing contest with you. Great. Maybe it was somebody who really can't go fast, and you just wanted to show you are hot stuff. Perhaps it was some fat out of shape racer who probably could put a move on, but was trying desperately to keep a few matches in his back pocket, and who wasn't breathing hard or even really working when you passed... doesn't matter. You pass somebody, or eight or ten guys in the last 100 yards of a tough race, that's something. Passing a guy with grandchildren as you bounce up the W&OD... not exactly impressive. The Bike Trail Guy... don't be him.
- Ahhh, traffic. I had two or three near road rage incidents today. I saved the good one for in the car. Coming down off Wisconsin onto M street, to get over to Key Bridge, I waited through three or four red lights to turn, with five or six cars inching through each time the lights turned, just waiting for all the pedestrians to waddle across the zebra crossing. At last, there was just one car in front of me, and the light turned green. He inched forward and waited for a big mass of pedestrians to cross the street. They did cross, but he didn't move. Lo and behold, there were a couple European looking kids standing in the middle of the crosswalk, blocking traffic, taking pictures facing down the street toward River Road. I had the windows down and in about 20 seconds, exhausted every curse word in my vocabulary at the top of my lungs, as well as a few curse words that hadn't been invented yet. The light turned red, and they ran out of the intersection as oncoming traffic started to head west. Bastards. You couldn't be that inconsiderate and stupid if you were trying to be inconsiderate and stupid.
- That's it. I'm tired and going to bed. You know how you feel all-over weary when you have been off the bike for a while and then get back on? That's me now. Need some blissful sleep on the big bed. (Got some new high thread count sheets on there, it feels sweeeeet... the sheets actually feel too nice for somebody like me to own. I'm waiting for the people who really own them to come along, kick me out of the bed and call the cops on me, like a Mid-Atlantic version of Robert Downey Junior...)
- With the first nice weather, The Bike Trail Guys are back out. Don't be a Bike Trail Guy. What's a BTG? A guy who gets wayyyy too much validation from passing somebody on the bike trail. For example, I was cruising up the Cap Crescent on my sore, heavy legs, turning the fixie over at about 17 MPH. I was teetering between zone 2 and 3, trying to keep the HR down in zone 2 in order to keep the legs (something like) reasonably fresh in order to keep putting in the training volume. Along comes a guy on a nice bike, a C-Dale, I think, and he pulls up next to me, kind of bobbing. He grunts out a "hey," sounding like he was choking on a whole onion caught in his throat or something. Then he jumped, probably pipped up to about 20, and wheezed away up the hill, bobbing up and down like one of those birds you put on the side of a bowl of water. I could hear him gasping until he was maybe 25 yards up the trail. Nicely done, BTG. I'm frickin' impressed.
- Want to know the worst thing? Until I started racing, I was a bigtime BTG. Yeah, an asshole. I'm not any more because passing somebody on the bike trail is no big deal. Maybe you dusted off some guy who is in a pissing contest with you. Great. Maybe it was somebody who really can't go fast, and you just wanted to show you are hot stuff. Perhaps it was some fat out of shape racer who probably could put a move on, but was trying desperately to keep a few matches in his back pocket, and who wasn't breathing hard or even really working when you passed... doesn't matter. You pass somebody, or eight or ten guys in the last 100 yards of a tough race, that's something. Passing a guy with grandchildren as you bounce up the W&OD... not exactly impressive. The Bike Trail Guy... don't be him.
- Ahhh, traffic. I had two or three near road rage incidents today. I saved the good one for in the car. Coming down off Wisconsin onto M street, to get over to Key Bridge, I waited through three or four red lights to turn, with five or six cars inching through each time the lights turned, just waiting for all the pedestrians to waddle across the zebra crossing. At last, there was just one car in front of me, and the light turned green. He inched forward and waited for a big mass of pedestrians to cross the street. They did cross, but he didn't move. Lo and behold, there were a couple European looking kids standing in the middle of the crosswalk, blocking traffic, taking pictures facing down the street toward River Road. I had the windows down and in about 20 seconds, exhausted every curse word in my vocabulary at the top of my lungs, as well as a few curse words that hadn't been invented yet. The light turned red, and they ran out of the intersection as oncoming traffic started to head west. Bastards. You couldn't be that inconsiderate and stupid if you were trying to be inconsiderate and stupid.
- That's it. I'm tired and going to bed. You know how you feel all-over weary when you have been off the bike for a while and then get back on? That's me now. Need some blissful sleep on the big bed. (Got some new high thread count sheets on there, it feels sweeeeet... the sheets actually feel too nice for somebody like me to own. I'm waiting for the people who really own them to come along, kick me out of the bed and call the cops on me, like a Mid-Atlantic version of Robert Downey Junior...)
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Happy Happy... Joy Joy!
The weather is nice out for the first time in weeks. It was around 60 degrees yesterday afternoon, and a not terrible 35 when we started the Family Bikes LBS ride yesterday morning. They boys did about 35, I cut off with Dave for another 15. The pace seemed a bit hard... that's what you get for lacking the discipline to hit the trainer 5 times a week when the weather shuts down the outdoors riding for 6 weeks. Still, it felt good and now the snow is gone, the fitness will come back quickly.
The rain forecast for this morning seems to have come and gone during the night. As the sun is coming up, it is 45 degrees and will hit 50 by noon, no rain in sight. While I'd prefer to be doing the Tradezone training crit, I'm not fit enough to get any value out of that right now so I will try to get out and lay in some nice zone 2 miles, maybe work on spinning up some hills and just enjoy the day. I will be cranking up the volume harder than is advisable, so I should keep the intensity low until I have some miles in the legs.
Yep, it looks like a good day for another ride - what are you doing reading this? You should be out riding.
The rain forecast for this morning seems to have come and gone during the night. As the sun is coming up, it is 45 degrees and will hit 50 by noon, no rain in sight. While I'd prefer to be doing the Tradezone training crit, I'm not fit enough to get any value out of that right now so I will try to get out and lay in some nice zone 2 miles, maybe work on spinning up some hills and just enjoy the day. I will be cranking up the volume harder than is advisable, so I should keep the intensity low until I have some miles in the legs.
Yep, it looks like a good day for another ride - what are you doing reading this? You should be out riding.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
I'm Baaaaaack...
Just got back from Merrye Olde Englande tonight. Quick thoughts:
- Two week vacations are better when you don't spend the first week vomiting green sputum and trying in vain to get a doctor's appointment. Thanks, Nationalized Health Care!
- On the plus side, although you can't get a doctor if you have bronchitis in England, you will be able to get one in the U.S. if you wad up your bike in a crit. Their National Health Service just trained 8,000 doctors, but fired them, claiming the system can't afford any new doctors. They did just ramp up and hire 5,000 new IT professionals to run the new personnel system, however. The big plus side of this is the U.S. and Australia stand to gain roughly 8,000 new doctors, and India can probably supply England with all the IT professionals it needs. They consider this a pretty big scandal. Not as big of a scandal as we consider the most recent missing blond girl, but definitely a bigger scandal than our latest celebrity racist crack.
- If you want to seriously ride in England, you have to really truly frickin' like riding in the rain. I don't mean drizzle; I mean pissing down, shoulda-brought-swim-goggles rain. I got in four rides in the second week when my health was improving. All involved rain.
- Riding on the roads in England will make you faster. They are as wide as Belgian lanes, and as heavily trafficked as the Leesburg Pike at rush hour. The drivers go about 45 MPH in heavily populated urban areas. There aren't any shoulders, either. Consequently, you spend a lot of time really hustling to get wherever it is you are going, just to get away from the cars that keep zipping by two inches away from your right knee.
- I thought riding on the canal towpaths on a mountain bike would be a good workout. It was. I pedaled to my father-in-law's place about two hours away. Counting a half hour wrong turn, it worked out to a nice flat 2.5 hour zone 2 spin. It was easy, except for the puddles every ten feet, dodging other riders on the two foot wide path, and the deep mud over the last five miles as I left Birmingham. I was in very low gear just grinding through wheel-deep mud for the last half hour of the ride. A cross bike would have been hard pressed to keep moving in that with anything short of real mud tires. I had to borrow some of the father-in-laws sweats, and have his wife hose me and the bike off before we could come into the house.
- I fixed up a friend's old Raleigh Flight while I was over there. We had a shifting problem, the chain was jumping. It was a new chain her father had thrown on. I bought a new rear cog block (six speed) and a new chain. The result, with Shimano 600 non-indexed downtube shifters, was the smoothest, sweetest shifting I've ever felt. My old Canondale with 600 shifters and derailers (later rebranded "Ultegra") never shifted as well. Then I looked at the cogs. Turns out the new cogs, even for 6 speeds, are cut with all sorts of funny angles and mini-ramps on them, just like the latest 10 speed cassettes. No wonder the shifting was smooth as buttah. The old cogs... square cut. No ramps, no angles.
-Downtube shifters with a high end gruppo... good stuff. Not as nice as integrated STI's, but still really, really good. There's a reason that system hung in for 70 years, and why the champs still use it on the hill stages where weight is at a premium.
- Coming back to the snow here sucks. I'll be riding tomorrow AM and looking forward desparately to cutting some weight when the weather improves, and meanwhile cramming in rides whenever I can. At this point, my plan of getting in shape late in the season and trying to cherry pick late races is shot, as that is what everybody else will be doing. At this rate, I may have to go to the Coppi training camp just to get some quality miles in. I really don't want to go to that hill-fest *that* fat and out of shape, however.
- Anybody up for a long easy ride this weekend? I may be up for minor traveling for a decent rural ride. Nothing race paced, I'm basically in December, training wise, maybe do a couple hard efforts but mainly interested in cranking out three hours of cruising, 16-18... Hills okay, if you're cool with slow...
- Two week vacations are better when you don't spend the first week vomiting green sputum and trying in vain to get a doctor's appointment. Thanks, Nationalized Health Care!
- On the plus side, although you can't get a doctor if you have bronchitis in England, you will be able to get one in the U.S. if you wad up your bike in a crit. Their National Health Service just trained 8,000 doctors, but fired them, claiming the system can't afford any new doctors. They did just ramp up and hire 5,000 new IT professionals to run the new personnel system, however. The big plus side of this is the U.S. and Australia stand to gain roughly 8,000 new doctors, and India can probably supply England with all the IT professionals it needs. They consider this a pretty big scandal. Not as big of a scandal as we consider the most recent missing blond girl, but definitely a bigger scandal than our latest celebrity racist crack.
- If you want to seriously ride in England, you have to really truly frickin' like riding in the rain. I don't mean drizzle; I mean pissing down, shoulda-brought-swim-goggles rain. I got in four rides in the second week when my health was improving. All involved rain.
- Riding on the roads in England will make you faster. They are as wide as Belgian lanes, and as heavily trafficked as the Leesburg Pike at rush hour. The drivers go about 45 MPH in heavily populated urban areas. There aren't any shoulders, either. Consequently, you spend a lot of time really hustling to get wherever it is you are going, just to get away from the cars that keep zipping by two inches away from your right knee.
- I thought riding on the canal towpaths on a mountain bike would be a good workout. It was. I pedaled to my father-in-law's place about two hours away. Counting a half hour wrong turn, it worked out to a nice flat 2.5 hour zone 2 spin. It was easy, except for the puddles every ten feet, dodging other riders on the two foot wide path, and the deep mud over the last five miles as I left Birmingham. I was in very low gear just grinding through wheel-deep mud for the last half hour of the ride. A cross bike would have been hard pressed to keep moving in that with anything short of real mud tires. I had to borrow some of the father-in-laws sweats, and have his wife hose me and the bike off before we could come into the house.
- I fixed up a friend's old Raleigh Flight while I was over there. We had a shifting problem, the chain was jumping. It was a new chain her father had thrown on. I bought a new rear cog block (six speed) and a new chain. The result, with Shimano 600 non-indexed downtube shifters, was the smoothest, sweetest shifting I've ever felt. My old Canondale with 600 shifters and derailers (later rebranded "Ultegra") never shifted as well. Then I looked at the cogs. Turns out the new cogs, even for 6 speeds, are cut with all sorts of funny angles and mini-ramps on them, just like the latest 10 speed cassettes. No wonder the shifting was smooth as buttah. The old cogs... square cut. No ramps, no angles.
-Downtube shifters with a high end gruppo... good stuff. Not as nice as integrated STI's, but still really, really good. There's a reason that system hung in for 70 years, and why the champs still use it on the hill stages where weight is at a premium.
- Coming back to the snow here sucks. I'll be riding tomorrow AM and looking forward desparately to cutting some weight when the weather improves, and meanwhile cramming in rides whenever I can. At this point, my plan of getting in shape late in the season and trying to cherry pick late races is shot, as that is what everybody else will be doing. At this rate, I may have to go to the Coppi training camp just to get some quality miles in. I really don't want to go to that hill-fest *that* fat and out of shape, however.
- Anybody up for a long easy ride this weekend? I may be up for minor traveling for a decent rural ride. Nothing race paced, I'm basically in December, training wise, maybe do a couple hard efforts but mainly interested in cranking out three hours of cruising, 16-18... Hills okay, if you're cool with slow...
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