Observations

You can be really fat but have a modicum of fitness. Did an 'easy' ride today that was mostly pretty easy, a lot of steady grinding along, until Fatguy Racer left us. (He had to go race fat guys or something). A couple of the guys I was with started laying it down pretty good up St. Stephens Church Road, and I after 2 hours of L2/L3 riding, I didn't have much left. I thought. So I got gapped and Young Tom tried to drag me up, which he did successfully one time, but then we hit another hill and I just didn't have it. Pretty humiliating, right? Well, not exactly. In an effort to hold the tail end of the group I managed to average about 30 watts over threshold for about 15 minutes. If you take out the zeroes it's closer to 11-12 minutes at 100 watts over threshold, broken up over that same 15 minutes. I wasn't quite going all-out, but it was a stiff, stiff effort. So the basic riding form is recovering a bit after cross and there is a surprising amount of fitness left over, just not the kind I'm used to maybe. I'm still fat as f*** though which doesn't help. Fat + surprisingly fit = weird.

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The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are still hot. The NBC cameras are lingering on them just a little more than incidentally. They don't have the skank appeal that some other teams' squads have (I'm lookin' at you, Philly) but they have this wholesome thing going on - great teeth, big but not Long Island hair, fit but not "Um, actually, I preferred to be called a dancer" fit, cheerful without the wired skeletor grin that a lot of cheerleaders have, and none of them look like they were out doing blow until 4:00 AM today. It's either a good corporate culture with the Cowboyts that allows them to preserve one of their living trademark features that well, or there must be something in the water down there in Texas. Quite possibly both.

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The Redskins on the other hand... They got crushed by the Bengals today. Even a furious comeback - furious because it was halting and Dan Snyder was probably chewing through his tongue with anger - wasn't enough to save them, and the loss ended their playoff hopes. The franchise is a good example of an axiomatic principle in life and sports: if it's flashy it probably isn't that good. The Redskins have spent years and many needless draft picks chasing expensive free agent wide receivers and defensive backs, and occasional over-the-hill franchise defensive linemen with big names. When other General Managers see Vinny Cerrato coming, they must get the same tingling sensation that P.T. Barnum got, because the Redskins are about to trade away too much talent and too many draft picks, and pay too much money, to buy Somebody Else's Problem. You know where they haven't been spending draft picks or money? On offensive and defensive lineman. Their highest picked O-lineman is a #3 pick from 2004 or so who has been on the scout squad for a few years. He only slipped into the lineup this week because Chris Samuel is out for the season. But the Redskins did feel the need to burn four draft picks on wide receivers last year - none of whom contribute in any way, unless you count "contributing to the team's headaches by oversleeping and missing practice" as a contribution. Yes, the Redskins have gone for Shiny New Things. Meanwhile, the NY Giants, with a raft load of O and D linemen that they have drafted, are stomping all over a bunch of other teams. The lineman generally aren't shiny, they aren't pretty, and it isn't glamorous to burn draft picks on them. But the Giants have been winning fairly consistently for a lot of years; it just took their young quarterback figuring out a few things to turn them from a solid team into a very, very good one.

The lesson is clear. You want to ride better? Hold off on the 1200 gram wheelset and spend your money on gas driving to Thurmont to do hill repeats, the 30 minute kind; diet better; be stricter on yourself in adhering to rest / work cycles. Bling is shiny and nice to look at, but winning the war is about being solid where it counts. You only need one capstone on the pyramid, but it takes a hella big foundation to hold that thing up there.

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Kevin Dillard took some shots at Reston a couple weeks ago. His photographic observations are always good and worth checking out. He's the nicest guy, a strong rider, and a gifted photographer. His big gallery of velophotos is awesome. Here are some of my favorites from Reston:

"Enough of the negative waves, Moriarty;
It's a beauty-full tank."

Possibly the least credible gang sign evah.
Plus the blue & the red - that'll get both sides shooting at you.

Joel Gwadz giving Gunnar some lovin...
Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course...

Joe J. trying to look menacing... Probably ought to lose
the hat with the floppy ears if that's the goal.

Trust the Gorton's Fisherman...
I can haz ur Hennepin alez?

Thanks for another great season of chronicling the races, Kevin.