Thank you Chipotle!

I know that some have a low opinion of "fast food".. So I stopped eating the burritos wrapped in a tortilla and I switched to the "burrito bowl", which is a lot fewer calories, fewer carbs. The bowl is simply a couple of scoops of rice, some meat, peppers and onions, hot sauce, sour cream and grated cheese. So satisfying.. While at the AToC the other week, we won a whole bunch of free Chipotle food coupons at the Chipotle tent. And dear wife's Blackberry has GPS and can find all Chipotle's in our vicinity- there are a few out there! Our favorite was the one in Encinitas. So yeah.. couple or 3 times a week, I indulge in a Chipotle burrito bowl. I encourage you to try one with the green chili sauce- medium hotness. Such good quality food for only about $6-7, IMHO.. All their ingredients are promoted as hormone free, organically raised, vegetarian fed etc.. good things. and I am in love with their minimalist decor. The raw edges of veneer core plywood exposed, foregoing the application of edgetape or solid wood nosings- which add lots of time and cost, but little else.. The minimalist menu.. simple, easy to understand.. really makes the menu at TGIF or Chilis or Applebees or (pick one) look like a French whore. Okay enough about that subject..
So Saturday I weigh myself pre-ride.. and for the first time in a very long time, I am under 170.. pre-ride.. where before I would set out weighing 172 and get home weighing 168. I'm firmly into the good side of 170. Success!
No riding for the past two days and I'm grumpy.. but to my credit, I have been getting up at 4:30 am to get to Boston appts at 7:00.. That, and dear wife has bronchitis and laryngitis, so I'm playing nurse maid for the past few days. Monday was a deliberate rest day. Last night, not so much.. but I was fatigued from the two early and long days in Boston and stressed about wife being sick, so.. let it be.
I'm eying Plainville and Wells Ave this weekend to have a little fun, but we'll see. If it's under 40 degrees either day, I'll be more inclined to do a couple of long rides. Playing it by ear.. Thanks for reading.

Dearest in Christ.

Must-contain-maniacal-laughter.. I populate one of my other blogs (www.scamlisting.blogspot.com) with about 4-5 of these Nigerian advance fee fraud e-mails, every day. (Yes it is purely for the Google Adsense dollars, but at least I am truthful- and believe it or not, people have thanked me for it) This is the first time I am seeing a person so twisted that they exploit and lie about terminal illness and religion in one neat little package. The scammers are getting more bold and more creative as the economy goes down in a death spiral. This one is original, I'll give it that. I encourage you to write to these cretins and have fun with a little bit of scam baiting.  From: From Charles and Elizabeth. charlestoure_001@yahoo.com Subject: Dearest in Christ. To: sarawak_cardiology@yahoo.com Date: Thursday, March 5, 2009, 8:21 AM From  :Mrs Grace Tapia Email :grace.tapia@ymail.com Address:N11-Olof Salem Street        P.O. Box 59022,Safat 13060 Kuwait. Dearest in Christ. With Due Respect And Humanity, I was compelled to write to you under a humanitarian ground. My name is Mrs Grace Tapia,from Kuwait.  I am married to late Dr Ramsey Tapia  ,who worked with an oil company in Ivory Coast for Thirty-two years  before he died in the year 2005. He died after a brief illness that lasted only four days Before his death we were both born again Christian. Since his death I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of (US$5.8 M)(Five Million,Eight hundred Thousand United States Dollar) in a General Trust Account with a prime bank in Abidjan . Presently,this money is still with the bank. And Recently, My Doctor told me that I would not last for the next six months due to my cancer problem (cancer of the lever). Presently this money is still in the Bank.  Having  known my condition I  am in need of a HONEST Hearted Individual Christian or Church that i will utilize this fund the way I am going to instruct herein. I want somebody that will use this fund according to the desire of my late.husband to help Lessprivilaged people, orphanages,widows and propagating the word of God. I took this decision because I dont have any child that will inherit this fund, And I dont want in a way where this money will be used in an un Godly way. This is why I am taking this decision to hand you over this Fund. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going.I want you to always remember me in your daily prayers because of my up coming Cancer Surgery. Write back to me as soon as possible because any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing another person for this same purpose, Hoping to read from you soon. With God all things are possible. As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Bank in Abidjan. I will also issue you an authorisation letter that will prove you the present beneficiary of this fund. May God bless and keep us as we seek to serve him. Yours in Christ Mrs Grace Tapia

Hell

It's 60 degrees colder here than in San Diego and I'm back at work with another head cold. G-d help me to refrain from clawing my own eyes out and/or jumping off a ledge.

Airport security

They threw our son's 8 oz container of sealed vanilla milk in the trash (along with our three small bottles of Coke, which we figured would happen) A one liter bottle of water is $5.05

Only in Cali..

Will you have a female spin instructor who is over 60 and kicking your ass.. We are guest members of the Escondido YMCA this week and let me tell ya, this place makes the Kent County Y look like a pile of Puke, and it makes the best Bally's you ever saw look like a rinky dink P.O.S. Last night's spin class was FULL. After 5 days off the bike it was just the thing- I felt rested and strong. Tonight's class I held something back so that I could drill it hard tomorrow. Now I need to choose which class to do- there are 6 or 7 to choose from throughout the day, all with different instructors. In fact, the entire fitness schedule is up on a pair of 52" plasma screens- kind of like you would find in an airport. Impeccable. Exemplary.

T minus 12 hours

At about 4:00 am we will be putting shoes on our feet, grabbing our carry-on bags and skooting over to TF Green for our 6:30 am connection to Newark.. in none other than a Dash-8 400.. Yuk. I'm having trouble believing that I passed on taking my road bike on this trip. What was I thinking? Maybe I can rent a bike if the urge to ride is just.. unstoppable.

San Diego Time

We're at TF Green airport at 4:30 AM Saturday to catch a 6:30 flight to Newark, then a 6 hour flight to San Diego which has us landing about 9:30 AM. TIme enough to get checked into the hotel and on the road to Saturday's finish of the ToC? Mebbe. We are definitely spending Sunday in Escondido for the finish of the final stage.
I will not be bringing a bike with me on this trip- we're hoping to find a local YMCA where we can work out and join the spin classes. I will probably go a little insane about not being able to ride, especially if it's sunny and warm, but the thought of carefully packing a bike and paying $100 each way to check it, and potentially have the airline lose it [like the last time], isn't so attractive. In other news, I got my new Powertap sharkfin to replace the one which was repaired twice. No love from The PT folks on this- I payed the full $60 price for this part. Oh well. They did not have a lot of sympathy for the fact that my heart rate strap has never worked properly. I guess I should have reported the problem within the first year of using it, some time before clocking 12000 miles on the thing. I am so tempted to buy a pair of used ZIPP 404's with PT.. Tubular.. I can use this tank-like DT hoop as a training wheel and race on the good stuff. Before you begin to throw rotten tomoatoes for suggesting ZIPP with PT, consider that the very best data comes from racing. Being that this stuff interests me and engages me immensely, it makes sense for me where it might seem silly to others.
The last time I was in San Diego for the 2007 ToC stage in Long Beach. Mark Mc and I coincidentally raced the masters crit which was held right before the pros raced on the nearly identical course. I did not finish due to a crash. No, due to the officials not realizing there had been a crash- they pulled my group of 10 guys in complete ignorance- we were chasing after coming to a complete stop to avoid the crash.. which was caused by someone hitting one of those infamous reflective pucks at 33 mph. For the 1/2 race that I did complete, we averaged 28+ mph, in February. I think Mark got 3rd or 4th. I wonder who I which New Englanders I might bump into this time out in Escondido??

Bad Ass Mofo

Finally, my three year old idea to use a label maker on a race bike is catching on.. at least at Rock Racing:

Wanna Race?

From left: Murat, Bill D, Matt K, Joe B and Ralf G.This was not a repeat of last weekend where I trained more miles than the Tour Of Cali peloton raced in the past two days.. Instead I did my favorite hilly 40 mile loop- and twice! Saturday I went out in the afternoon with the intention of trashing myself from start to finish. I'm after a key piece of data and the only way to get it is to just drill it for over an hour. My previous attempt on this route was January 10th and my time was 2:19:39. This time, I took off 11 minutes (2:08:38) and added over 20w to both avg and norm power. This is especially encouraging when you consider that I'm about 3kg lighter than Jan 10th.. Our team's annual spring ride/meeting was Sunday and we repeated the same route, but at a pace where we could talk to eachother.. and besides the legs kept reminding me of Saturday's effort.

Rest Day

I was dog meat at last night's spin class. A hard weekend, followed by two days off the bike in favor of upper body and core work- legs are not feeling the love.

Monday-Tuesday.. Wednesday

Nautilus-Pilates.. SPIN Class tonight.

No Rest for the Weary

As much as I wanted to sleep-in late on Sunday morning, I knew that this would have been incompatible with my goals. A shorter and less intense ride was needed to keep the legs feeling loose and so I ventured north on 116 to meet some of the other RI locals at the infamous Gazebo between routes 6 and 6A. Timing my departure perfectly, I got there with a few minutes to spare in just under 40 minutes. Lucky for me, the ten of us meandered back towards the roads I know and love, and where route 14 crossed 117, I said my farewells and headed back east towards home. It was a wet and warm ride punctuated with some stiff winds and even some rain towards the end. All the snow runoff made for a messy ride though. The bike is in very sad shape.. Here's the data which you have come to expect: I adjusted the Polar pickup on the fork so it holds the signal better. I also repaired the Powertap- the two were off by only about 1/4 mile of distance. Thanks for reading.

First Century of 2009 in 5:12:30

Funny thing about today's ride. The Powertap quit working at the 4:20 mark (he-he) The question is, how long ago did the wire snap? Since I look down at it pretty often it was a minute at the most.. You might recall my very ugly but effective repair job I did two months ago. Well it's the first place I looked when I noticed the speed and watts readouts went blank. The purple wire was separated again. Your quick thinking hero had a back up plan, of course. His Polar heart rate monitor was busy recording speed, distance, heart rate, elevation and so forth, so he immediately hit the lap button to at least get good data for the rest of the ride. The Powertap was kaput, but it was reading 4:20 and 84 miles ridden- that's 19.4 miles per hour. Being so ticklishly close to the century mark, I decided then and there that I must do at least another 16 miles or else regret it until I die. Expecting to do the same average speed for the rest of the ride home, I did all kinds of math in my head in terms of how much longer I would need to ride. (One sucky thing about the Polar 720i- it refuses to give you the mileage of a ride, while you're recording data) With the Polar now recording a new lap for me, it seemed like a sure bet that one more hour would cinch the century, no problem. In fact, I got to my neighborhood a little bit early and just kept riding- went up Seven Mile Hill Road and back down it, adding 1:07 to the 4:20 I clocked on the PT. Surely this meant that my total would be around 105 miles or so. Unfortunately, I doubt if I'll ever know the true mileage- it turns out that the Polar was losing signal all throughout the ride and it only recorded 80 miles at the 4:20 point, where the Powertap recorded 84 (these two are usually dead nuts even) Oh well. I just wanted to know one thing- the exact duration of my 100 miles. Well it's anybody's guess, but I'm going with a conservative 19.2 mph average (the first 4:20 was 19.4) and going with 5 hours and 12.5 minutes to complete the first 100 miles. (16 miles in 52:30 makes sense) Sounds like a safe bet. Of this, I rode solo for one hour to meet the group, I rode 2:30 with the group, and then I rode 2 hours solo to get home. Please use the comments section to congratulate me and heap praise upon me for my accomplishment.
Overall ride time: 5 hours 28 minutes
Overall distance: 105 miles
Average speed: 19.2 mph

Above, the Powertap data is more reliable than the Polar, at least until wires break. The purple speed graph below shows a lot of 'zero' speed, when in reality we stopped only twice to pee, once for food and I stopped once to check out the PT.

Never forget your hard hat!

One of my jobsites has a good way of deterring visitors from forgetting to bring their own hard hats.. Below, we spy the 80 ton crane that I have to rent in order to hoist Premium grade woodwork in through the window of a Penthouse on Beacon Street. Why does the name of a local racing team come to mind? Interestingly, I have a team of carpenters working on all levels of this 11 story building, for the past year, and one of them is a former racer who was probably better known as "Big Dig". He has an open invitation to join my team, as his employer and mine are both owned by the same person, but I understand completely when the "life requirements" of a 20-something make it necessary to hang the bike up for a while. Been there, Derek. Your place is reserved, whenever you're ready.

Successful Resting

Let me reiterate, it's a "rest week", not a "rest weekend"..
This week: A grand total of 3 hours logged in four sessons on the trainer, none exceeding 130 watts average. I've been good. I'll do another hour tonight with a few 60 second spin-ups to 140 rpm in a small gear. The legs always feel "funny" after a rest week, and gently reminding them that they will be required to do very hard work after said rest, is probably a good idea.
It will be a good weekend to pound out a couple of solid 4 hours rides, and I will refrain from doing them with a hangover this time!

Frederiek Nolf found dead in hotel room at Tour of Qatar

Exerpt from VN article:
"The Topsport Vlaanderen team quit the tour Thursday morning and race organizers were making arrangements to return riders and staff to Belgium. Other riders on the team have also withdrawn from the Etoile de Bessèges in southern France, said team director Walter Planckaert.
According to Merckx Thursday's fifth stage — from the Camel Race Track to the Doha Foundation — will be shortened to 40 kilometers and neutralized in remembrance of the young Belgian.
"Out of respect for Frederiek Nolf, the riders will form a cortege throughout the stage," said Merckx."

Catching up with last week

I didn't post much last week because of a nasty sinus infection which developed on Sunday, the day after my epic 87 mile ride (talking about 10 days ago here) In spite of my head feeling like a drum, I went to YMCA and did my weightlifting Sunday night. Monday I was kaput- could barely get out of bed- I called in sick.. this didn't stop me from going to my spin class at 6:00 though. I felt horrible in the beginning, but at the end I was better. Tuesday I dragged myself to work and put in a double shift until 11:00 pm, leaving the office only for lunch and to do the Pilates class at 6:30. Feeling a little better at this point. Wednesday was awful in terms of what I went through at work. People generally need to exploit weakness (if/when they can find one) in order to get the best of me.. and a handful of different people decided to throw me under the bus on Monday while I was out sick and still answering calls and e-mails with my Blackberry. This made for a highly stressful and depressing week overall, but all the more reason to stick to the training program- I did indeed go to the SPIN class at the Y on Wed after work. Thursday I rested- no bike, no workouts or Pilates or anything. Just rest. In fact, I went to bed at 8:00 and slept until 7:00 am. I really needed that. Friday was business as usual, though thoughts of a different career path were very strong and at the end of the day, I was almost surprised that I wasn't packing my things into a cardboard box. Friday night I did a highly challenging 75 minute ride which averaged 225 watts- I drilled a large number of 1-3 minute intervals with 1-2 minutes of rest in between. Much of the week's frustrations were driven into the pedals I think. Saturday an easier indoor ride with three FT intervals of 5:00 a piece- not leg breaking, but it felt hard after the previous workout. Saturday night your hero went out drinking and shooting pool with good friend and former co-worker Kaan Duru. We went to Snookers where I easily won all but two games in a three hour period. I used to play for money. My cue stick was purchased when I was 16, about 22 years ago. I'm a little better than average right now because I hardly ever play, but with a little practice, I'd have no fear of entering a local 9 ball tournament.. So Saturday night I pretty much had a good time and drowned my sorrows with six Sam Adams Light beers and a Mojito for good measure. In bed at 1:30 with a spinning head, meant that I was in rare form Sunday morning for the LBL ride, which you've already read all about. Sunday night I did not go and lift weights- too tired and cramped up. I did my Nautilus last night though, and wow, I looked in the mirror after all that lifting and couldn't help noticing the torso taking on a very distinctive V shape. That fires me up. This morning I did a 20 minute recovery spin and tonight there's Pilates, so.. yeah the beat goes on. This is a rest week so I will be reigning myself in on the SPIN class and the intervals. I'll save myself for a nice long hard ride on Saturday when it's predicted to be over 40 degrees out. Thanks for reading.

Sunday's LBL ArcenCiel Ride

The ArcenCiel team has an annual ride that's called the "LBL" and I was fortunate to be a part of it this Sunday. Your hero had a terrible day of cramping and low energy, but the good people in today's ride got me to the end of the 66 miles with lots of generous pacing, pushing and encouragement. I think the total TSS of Friday and Saturday was more than I realized, and that the six or so beers I uncharacteristically consumed late into Friday night did me no favors. (It was a very rare guy's night out- and such nights are not to be wasted on sobriety) Anyway, it was a hilly and scenic ride where I had no idea where we were most of the time, and I never knew when the next hill would appear, or how far it was to the top. This is never an advantage. The first hill where I cramped hard was in CT- actually on the Stonington RR course, heading up to the winery in reverse. I was doing A-ok up until about 2/3 the way up, then I fell apart very hard and very suddenly when the cramps attacked. Then we hit a steep pitch not long afterward where I was cramped so badly I thought the legs were going to just lock up and send me to the ground. The profile chart below shows two similar hills in succession- these are the ones which hurt me, and ironically on the really big hump afterwards I was able to hold it together without too much difficulty. Humor me as I make my excuses- it's the fourth week of a strong and gradual build-up of TSS- to wit, I've gone from 50 to 70 in the span of 31 days. (Same period last year I went from 43 to 53) Check it:
The next chart tells the story in detail. I also pasted in the values of todays CP60- which gives a very encouraging 255 watts of normalized power. On this date last year, my best Norm CP60 was 243 watts, and I was 7-8 pounds heavier too. Need to look for the positive in today's poor performance, and there it is. Even on an off day, at the end of a challenging 4 weeks, the data proves that I'm way ahead of the curve relative to 2008.Thanks for reading. Here's the profile of today's ride:

M1 Racing is growing

Our budget for fuel is the same in 2009 as it was in 2008. This means that with gas prices under $2 (instead of over $3) we can afford to support some more racers. Reach out to me if you are interested using reiscotools@yahoo.com. There are some requirements for those of you who want to be considered for the "A" team. If you are as fanatical about training and racing as I am, it's obviously a big plus.
M1 Racing are also in the process of developing a package of benefits for prospective members of our new "B" team. This program is going to be an attractive way for new racers to be in an environment which nurtures, develops and teaches the things which can't be found in any book about bike racing. It's also a smart way to shoe-horn yourself into a pretty darn good New England team, one that is attached to one of the finest racing clubs in the country, the Genesee Valley Cycling Club.
You can learn more about Millwork One Racing as well as the new "B" Team by writing me an e-mail or by attending the Providence Bicycle Introduction to Bicycle Racing Night on February 19th. I will be there along with Mark McCormack and Matt Bodzione of NBX Bikes to help people find their way into New England's strong local racing scene. This event requires you to RSVP to either joe@providencebicycle.com or to me at reiscotools@yahoo.com
See you there!

Bananas in the tailpipes

You know the scene- Beverly Hills Cop- Eddy Murphy stuffs Taggart's tailpipes full of bananas. That's what it feels like to have a nasty sinus infection, I think. I'm miserable- all yesterday, all night, and so far today. To add insult to injury, our heating oil company "forgot" to fill us up and we ran out of oil Saturday night. House was 50 degrees- thank goodness for the propane fireplace in our mester bedroom. They came and filled us up on Sunday, but now our hot water heater is not working, probably from sucking down blockage from the bottom of the oil tank.. Oil company is back here today, working on it.. I hope they realize that this is a problem which they themselves created. At any rate, I'm home sick today- caught myself a bad head cold this weekend- though I suspect that it's been incubating for at least a week. Saturday your hero did the unthinkable and went out again for 5 hours- 4:45 of it actually riding. Saturday morning at the 8:00 am ArcenCiel ride, our large group had the pleasure of including FUJI team members Mark M. and Tobi S. I rode down from my house with a nice tailwind, then I rode with the group for 2 hours, then I broke off right after we passed Ninigret Park and headed solo up Route 2 all the way home in 1:45, just like last weekend. This time it was a little tougher, with winds gusting to 30 mph, it was slow going on some of the flat stretches. So 4:45 of ride time overall, 87 miles. It was not terribly cold out, but I can tell you that the temp was highest when I left the house- a balmy 39 degrees. It dropped throughout the morning. I had some cramping issues! It was an occasional ping here and there, mostly in the hamstrings, mostly in the 5th hour. My left hamstring is still a little tight and has some soreness.

Last night, I felt lousy but I forced myself to stick to the Nautilus program.. went to the YMCA to do my double set of weightlifting. Did a 15:00 run on the treadmill first (1.5 miles) and hopefully this was not a mistake. My hamstring feels worse than it did after the ride Saturday. Tonight's spin class was full as of last night, so I'm on the waiting list.