These things have about as much class as a pair of Crocs, but they're cheap, brand new, all mesh and extremely light. I plan to break them in over the next 6-8 weeks in spin class and then decide (ugly or not) whether they are worthy of replacing my tired and nearly four year old DMTs. My other purchase from this weekend is a little more unusual for me:
I haven't the slightest idea what to look for in a running shoe, but These ASICS Gel Cumulus are double wide and they fit like a glove. Tried them out for 15 minutes on the treadmill at the Y- blissfully comfy. I think I did all-right getting these for $29 at Marshalls. 
Your Hero did 1% of 2008's total mileage today, in a duration of 4:35. I'm a little worn out of course, but I'm very happy about my knees. Usually, at about the 2:15 to 2:30 point, the knees begin to protest, and by the 3rd hour, they're doing more of an LA riot than a protest. I can attribute today's pain free ride to a few things. See if you'll agree:
1. On Friday I did a one hour Level 1 YOGA session at the Y (awesome- I loved it and I'm going back for more.. Nega Coach will be proud- always preaching the importance of stretching)
2. The yoga was followed by two completions of the Nautilus circuit (Very light weights, 20 reps, focused on establishing settings and proper form) a light soreness today is accompanied by the positive sense of progress in the "structural fitness" department.
3. It's warm today! (56 right now) My worst knee pain occurs primarily on the very cold rides- when it's under 30 degrees.
4. Lately I noticed that my seat's a touch too low, primarily from observing my reflection in the window when I'm on the windtrainer. I hoisted it up about 4-5 mm and it feels so much better.
One other revelation of today's 80 mile ride- very cool that I did not cramp up even once during the ride.. But after I got home and leaned over to remove my booties, THEN I felt a nasty and breath-taking pinch in my hamstring. Data galore and possibly some other trivialities coming up later. Thanks for reading.
Nothing does as good job of proving adaptation to stress, than a power meter. To wit, a week ago I did a set of one leg intervals. They were pitiful- 119 watts average, per leg. (Call this my untrained benchmark) Four days later, I was able to do two sets, same gear (39x19), separated by a 5 minute recovery (1 minute between each leg) Average watts were high 130s in the 1st set, low 130s for the 2nd set. Speeds and distance also way up compared to the workout. My next session of one leg intervals will be in the 39x17, and go 2 full minutes. The data of the 1st 90 seconds will be fun to watch. These intervals will increase in duration by 30 seconds every couple of weeks, until I reach 3:00 minutes. They are indeed evil as Brendan correctly pointed out. Those last 10 seconds really turn you inside out. Another interesting observation: leg is stronger than the right.
I love saying that, if not for it's raw truthfulness, for it's tendency to make certain peoples' skin crawl. I can now do 50 consecutive push ups. The last five are tough- they take a second or two longer than all the others, but I do them.
I should admit here that this was the most fun I've had in a cross race, and I'm wondering if maybe it was because I was in the 2/3 field and not the Masters 1/2/3 field. It seemed to me that these younger riders were more interested in having fun than in beating each other's brains out. End result- 64th place out of 67 finishers and 73 starters. Thanks for reading.
..or fell back off of it, depending upon your opinion of Power Meters.. For the past couple of months, your hero has been manually entering mileage, duration and even estimations of average power into his Peaks software. This was so that I could maintain some semblance of correctly maintained data which represents my TSS and the running averages called CTL and ATL. I thought the Powertap was kaput when all this time it was nothing but a broken wire near the shark fin. I crimped the two together- it's ugly, but it works. I'll add a pic later. Data is so intoxicating. I promise to share as many power charts as my time allows, from now until the next wire breaks.
Here, get used to seeing a lot of this in 2009.
Many thanks to my friend and team mate Rick Gervais for introducing me to Viga. I'm in my car horking down a serving of chicken Pomodoro.. This is sooooo good. Their pizza is excellent too. Look it up: Viga Italian Eatery. Walking distance from my projects on Beacon Street.
I'm at Harvard for an appt but the fire alarms went off and everyone's outside. Standing near the dozens of bikes these students and faculty ride around campus, it seems as though there's competition to have the crappiest, least maintained Piece of Shit humanly possible. Homeless people have been observed riding better bikes. There's a Schwinn "Le Tour" from the early 80s with what appear to be the original tires on it. Do these college pukes have any self respect? If you can afford this tuition, you can afford a bike that doesn't suck this badly, I think. There are limits to what is considered safe to ride..
I'm glad I did my 3-1/2 hours yesterday- it's wet and miserable today. Despite Sunday rides offered to me by my teammates and others, I decided to take rest and get some extra sleep. I'll add the Polar chart later on. So I left the house at 7:00 am Sat to make it to Sophies on Route 2 at 8:00. I was right on time, give or take 2 minutes. Nobody was around.. I had pretty much lost all hope right then and there. Took off my glove unzipped the jacket and retrived the Crackberry so I could e-mail J-Lo "where r u?" Hoping of course that he carried one also. Before I could even hit SEND, a train of yellow-orange-red came streaming out from behind Sophies, where I did not bother to look. They all turned right onto route 2, seemingly oblivious to me as I stood there- unzipped, ungloved and unprepared to jump onto the train. No worries- I sorted myself out and chased up to them before we hit route 138. It's always a lot of fun to meet up with the Arc crew. What sucks is that it's a one hour ride to get to Sophies, and I generally try to stay close to the house when it's very cold, so I always feel a little vulnerable and paranoid when I'm so deep into Southern RI. To wit, after riding with them for an hour Saturday, I was already into my 3rd hour and it took almost 90 minutes to get home after that- all on Route 3 north which, as I'll show you later, isn't at all flat.
Time to break out the rollers and wind trainer- looks like the weather is going to suck for a while.
See www.raceofchampions.com for ticket details.
Now for the very interesting data. Know your rival will also give you a report of who you are most commonly shouldering, hooking, elbowing, cursing, and trying to pass when there's 100 meters to go.. Here's my list of rivals:
There are still some things which need to evolve a little more- our team's website isn't listed for example, and neither is our parent club, GVCC. My 18th place result at the Blue Hills Classic is missing too- but that's most likely because I registered 'day-of' and this almost always guarantees that someone will mis-spell my name, my team or my license number (that's an inadvertant plug for Bikereg- your personal and team data is always consistent and spelled right- meaning no missing results) I expect that the blanks will slowly be filled in over time- it depends on the owner of the site having the continued resolve of a Buddhist monk. I hope it continues because it's informative and entertaining to tool around with. It's going to be interesting to see the condensed results of particular teams, those other than my own that is. Give it a try. Look up any team's results, then filter it to narrow it down to age, category, wins, or even particuar events.
Murat sprints for 4th, but it feels like a win. Mr. red/yellow threw his bike too early. Click to enlarge.
..Then mine must say that I hate myself. I'll post a picture of it tonight. Although, to be fair, I used to use a SEIKO, which is the company which came up with the above tripe in the first place.
To be continued.
I go out of my way sometimes, to do business with companies which support cycling and bike racing. It's no challenge at all when it comes to Chipotle. If you have not tried one of their overstuffed burritos with the hot green chile sauce, you are missing out. If you've seen the Chipotle kits with the burrito 'in the jersey pocket'- it's misleading. Those burritos have a girth that is equal to their length. You would NOT EVER put one of these gut busters in any pocket. There's a Chipotle on Route 2 in Warwick, right across from Panera and the new Trader Joe's, which I haven't checked out yet.
Fast forward 10-11 years and add about 40 pounds (I am about 190 in this picture) This was something I wanted to try for a long time, so around the year 2000, dear wife and I were in Turkey, and I said -uck it, no time like the present. We were at a salon for hours while she and her mom got the royal treatment. I became so bored that I jumped into a chair and said "let's do this thing".. Here, we're at a waterfront restaurant which has a view of one of the bridges connecting Europe and Asia.
Doesn't it make you all happy inside to see what my AM commute looks like? The infamous West Warwick/Cranston Bike Path- pretty scenic these days and usually deserted in the mornings. The tunnel which is pictured is very dark in the middle (during the day) - such that yours truly crashed violently back in 2003 after striking 6" x 6" x 5 foot long piece of pressure treated lumber (positioned there intentionally by some -uckers) Letters written to the state did get results- they fixed the lighting inside of the tunnel, which now only lights up at night. I guess they missed the part about me crashing in there after sunrise one morning. I guess we take what we can get.
I never considered myself to be vertically challenged until I saw this photo of solobreak, me and ilbruce. 
My trusty Redline 9-2-5 commuter recently had a makeover, as you can see from the junk on the floor. Hey maybe I can use those things to do push-ups or something.. I bought this bike on impulse because it had the flip flop rear wheel. A heavy steel fixed gear bike with fenders, bullet proof wheels and tires? Sold! Soon I'll be doing three hour weekend rides on it. Who wants to come with me?
This is the bike upon which I was hit by a car back in 2006. It's a little big for me, but it I've repaired it since the car crash, so except for the rear tire being flat, it's in perfect condition, making it a fine back-up bike in case something should ever happen to the Look 486.
I haven't shown my face here in a while.. so here's a pic of me after the final Ninigret crit this summer, with a bad case of helmet head. Thanks for reading.Elite 35+ had 82 starters, 67 finishers. Your hero started from the very back of the field, passed some folks down on the fields, but lost most positions gained by the time lap one was completed. Got lapped by the leaders during my 5th lap, and then passed by 20 more guys just before completing my 6th lap in about 43:30. I did very consistent lap times of 7:05 to 7:15 each. I guess if I had done all 7 laps my finishing time would have been right around 51 minutes, or about 6 minutes down on your other hero, Solobreak (55th), who started right beside me at the very back... When results come out- make no mistake- I was not dead last! That distinction does not belong to Murat. Great weather today. Plus I didn't crash. Bonus! Lapped by only 1/4 of the field. Woo-hoo! Not DFL. Totally awesome! Super intense workout. Yes today rocks! I'll be imbibing spirits at il Brucie's house tonight with Nega-Coach and maybe Gewilli.. Who can ask for more?? Somebody pinch me.
