Friday, February 24, 2006

S- A- T- U- R- D- A- Y morning
S- A- T- U- R- D- A- Y morning

The Bay City Rollers come to mind, because if it's not Scottish IT'S CRAP!

Next month, Saturday's will change...

Can you feel the hype?

Olympic Trivia

When did the bobsled become the bobsleigh?
Sounds like something from a Christmas Carol.

sick day

I ended up taking a sick day today, due to some kind of head cold/sore throat thing that's had me drugged up and napping most of the day.

Unfortunately i missed Mitch's dramatic crash this morning at the BRC, how often do folks crash on their trainers? I wish i'd been there, but if i had i would have probably been toppled. :)

Good luck to Taylor and all the local folks heading out for the weekend of racing in Austin. Those are some great races, especially Pace Bend which i'd love to do again.

Due to this head cold thing i can definitely say i'll be rested for Rouge Roubaix.

Every man needs 5 bikes...


well maybe not just 5, but for now it works for me.

Here's my new pista, the no-frills Specialized Langster. It's every man's bike, shipping with a rear wheel that can handle a fixed or a freewheel single-speed cog, a full brakeset, bottle mounts and even rear pannier mounts.

I rode it Wednesday night at the track and it's great. My previous track bikes have been a little on the small side and it was nice to have a better fit, but i need to ditch some of those spacers, it's way too comfortable to be fast.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Congrats Congrats

To Eric and Lisa and Zack who welcomed Katherine Brook King to the world this week. She is a beautiful little baby.

Tour of Cali

ESPN2 is killing me with the way their late night programs run over schedule. I watched the TT coverage this morning only to find Steven Smith's NBA show running 30 minutes over, so voila no finishing coverage of Stage 3. Same thing happened the other night with the first sprint finish. I guess i need to tape the show after the coverage just to be sure.

Obviously the Landis position is fast, he was 20-30 seconds back of Zabriskie at the first time check and beat him on the long drag in i guess. Zabriskie looked bad-ass. I thought Julich looked clunky, Bob said he was pushing a huge gear but it didn't look smooth, maybe those damned rings.

buzz buzz

and your Saturday mornings will never be the same

Monday, February 20, 2006

Amgen Stage 1

Watched the Amgen Tour of Cali coverage this morning and it was ok. The good news is that ESPN2 has Paul and Bob. The stinker this morning was no timing on screen. Pretty much you had to wait for the rider to finish and then Paul would tell you what their time was. Also the coverage of the last few riders really flew, just a few seconds of each, especially George and Levi. Floyd's position looks so painful i can't believe it's that fast. And Bobby J. is still turning egg-shaped cranks but it's obviously working.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Cursed by God

Yes, clearly scallops are cursed by God.
Damned to forever be at the bottom of the foodchain.
Where else could you be when you naturally taste like butter?
Hell, if i was a scallop, i'd eat scallops.

Why rant on mollusks?
This weekend Amy and i celebrated our 6th anniversary. We dined away our Valentine's Day with the G-Town Homies at Ruffino's which was great. For a change of pace, and our second night in a week sans baby, we hit Baton Rouge's most recent move into the top tier of nation-wide franchises, P.F. Chang's.

This joint has been a favorite of ours for years, but we'd yet to make the Baton Rouge location. Several times we'd dropped in only to be told, "The wait for a table is currently 1 hour and 15 minutes." My response to this one is typically, "Hey, we could eat in Metairie in that time." Don't ask me why but that doesn't go over too well with the hostess. Anyhow, the Kung Pao Scallops are unbelievable, followed by a dangerous stroll over to Whole Foods for some gelato, fantastic night.

After reading Lance's race report, i can't complain about the weather too much. It was cold and humid and nasty here. I rode the trainer on Saturday and got in about 2 hours on River Road today. It felt the way my 2005 Ghent Wevelgem DVD looks.

That's about all i've got, i know Rouge Roubaix is going to hurt, it's two weeks away.

Sounds like the Austin Marathon had some challenging weather.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Figure Skating must GO

Really, it isn't even the skating that bothers me as much as the commentary. Last night's Chinese pair that won the silver after wiping out made for good TV, Dick Button waxing on about FLARE is just BAD.

I need a lot more coverage of cross country skiing or anything that contains it (biathlon, Nordic Combined, etc.). Any sport where the competitors cross the finish line and fall over into the snow in a heap is alright by me. These guys are tough. What can you do for us Karen?

Monday, February 13, 2006

Feb 13

Happy Birthday to my Dad who turns 65 today!

In other anniversaries, Amy reminded me that a year ago today i completed the Austin Marathon. My first and last ever exploit into that particular distance. What started out as an enjoyable jog became a debilitating shuffle that ultimately finished with a handy stress fracture, as I did my best Tim Conway impersonation across the finish line.

Fresh in my memory still is the hour or so i spent laying in a field after, surrounded by friends, with my legs convulsing randomly.

If i find the link to the photos that were snapped of me that day, i'll post them. They made me laugh the last time i saw them.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

maybe not too epic

Cold weather be damned, i met up with Tim, Brian and Mitch to ride the gravel sections of the Rouge. Somehow, Norm used a Jedi mind trick to lure me into signing up for our own Hell of the North. We drove up to Greenwood Plantation to start.

Mitch was aboard his new ride but brought the wrong shoes. I'm pretty glad he did, because he still rode tough even without being able to pedal full circles.

No lying it was cold, not the crazy 27 with a feel like factor of 8 or whatever weather.com promised, but all in all it wasn't too bad after you put on a hat, ski gloves, a base layer, two long sleeve jerseys and a vest with legwarmers and the full-blown jacques cousteau neoprene booties.

Good times, we rode the first section, down and then back up the Pond Store climb, and a new-to-me alternate entry into the Tunica section. One thing i learned today is that i'll never ever race down the Pond Store climb, that was terrifying. Huge sections of washboard gravel shaking your teeth out mixed with sand.

The good news is that the side we'll be racing up is well packed and in the best condition i've seen.

Winter Olympics Weekend Highlights

My latest favorite winter sport is the Nordic Combined, combining ski jumping with cross-country skiing. The results of your jump handicap you on the start of the cross-country, so 1st place starts 1st, 2nd place 2nd, etc. This race was super cool to watch as the German winner of the jump led the race from start to finish and klled the Austrian in the final sprint. Very cool road-race like drama.

In other news, i think it's really great that they let the Flying Tomato snowboard with the guys, she's obviously good enough to compete with them.

Save Bubbles and Oreo



A co-worker of mine is trying to find a home for two dogs that are Australian Shepherd/Border Collie Mix. They've been displaced by the hurricane and are in desperate need of adoption. Bubbles is pictured in both photos above, she's orange and white, 4 years old, very playful, great with kids and spayed. The other dog is Oreo, she is black and white, also very playful and 2 years old, not spayed.

If you're interested, please contact Andy at 225.667.9607
If they can't find a home soon, they'll be taken to the pound, so spread the word.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

more material for Todd Barry

The Grammy's

The single greatest collection of creative professionals in the entire world.

Tonight Bono explained

U2 isn't really a rock band,
we're a folk band,
a really loud folk band,
but sometimes along comes a song like Vertigo,
that just makes you burn your house down to the ground


That's exactly how i feel everytime i hear Bono shout 1,2,3,14.
That does it for me ... really it does.

And what's the Grammy's without a pointless collaborative medley of disconnected artists who would have never met unless it were to honor, in this case, Sly and the Family Stone.

"Who would make a fitting tribute," puzzled the Hollywood producer, "i know... Joss Stone. Folks will think they're related, yeah Sly and Joss. You know, that 19 year old white british blues singer. Yeah, and we'll do a strong finish with none other than Steve Tyler of Aerosmith." Nice touch.

The best moment of the whole show was when Jay-Z started his duet with Linkin Park, which was going great until they worked the medley angle into a Paul McCartney/Linkin Park duet. Hova stood there next to these two white guys like a muzzled pit bull in a cage full of rabbits. I wept and wished he'd ignore them and cut into "H to the Izzo" but it was not to happen.

Then i was hoping that the medley mojo would continue when the Boss started channeling Bob Dylan, but alas Bob didn't show. Too bad.

And why is U2 winning these awards? Seems like that album was out in late 2004, what gives?

Tivo, the only way to watch the Grammys in like 40 minutes.
:)

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Norm's the Man with the Masta Plan

The Team Time Trial on Sunday was a blast. We had a great turnout with 63 teams coming out. The bad news, Norm and i finished last in the 1,2, the good news, our time was 4th fastest on the day.


For our warmup, we began by working registration. Within 20 minutes of sitting in the cold, my hands stopped working and doling out change became a real challenge. Randy shared some wisdom with us, "In the summer, set up registration in the shade. In the winter, set up registration in the sun." We needed this.
Another wise decision would be to not set up downwind from the generator which gave us the essential carbon monoxide we needed to really roll.

Sunday also marked Amy's first race back as she paired up with Caroline. Never fear about Ryan, he was warm back at my parent's house awaiting the post-race/Super Bowl festivities. Anyhow the duo rode well together and finished 3rd of 8 teams. Considering how much Amy's been riding, that's a victory in my book.
Mucho thanks to Jeff, Charlene and Nixon who came out to spectate and snapped these photos with my camera.

For our ride, Norm and i started nearly last, just before the two Herring squads. Our teammates had warned us about the last 6 miles which were supposed to be dead headwind and tough. Others talked about not taking enough advantage of the tailwind section.

Norm took the first pull off the line and set us up around 27 in the crosswind as we headed to the right turn. After that, we started cruising 28-29 in the tailwind. This was when Norm really started to go, his pulls were consistently a mph faster than me. Topping off at just under 32, i began to imagine what it would be like to have to dismount our bikes in the coming headwind and walk. It was at this time that i had to ask Norm to hold his pull a little longer because i was dying. We hit the bend and the wind shift. From this point on Norm never pulled below 26, and i kept it over 25.

Here's a shot Randy took of me finally pulling through on Norm at the finish line in our euro-helmets. What better way to thank your partner than covering him up completely with your big ass in the finish line photo.

The course was longer than 10 miles, and our average turned out to be 27.2 which i was pleased with. The Herrings beat us by nearly 2 minutes which probably means they did 29 or faster. JESUS

Prather is Innocent

Got a chance to talk with Prather over the weekend for the first time since all this crap came up. I can't even imagine how he and Janice have made it through it. Prather explained to me that he has no idea how the images got on his machine and that charges are being dropped right and left. I hope all can be made right for them and that Prather's name being cleared will receive at least as much press coverage.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Cheeseball 70

That's the name of my newest playlist on the ipod. I'm finding it to be a wonderful warmup mix for the first 10-20 minutes of the ride. Here's what i currently have in there, kind of a Tarantino eye-piece on the 70's. Gimme suggestions if you have them...

Stuck in the Middle with You
Dream Weaver
Afternoon Delight
Right down the Line - George Rafferty
Baker Street - George Rafferty
Ventura Highway - America
Old Man - Neil Young

This morning i came up with
Renegade - Styx
and a plethora of Supertramp

ttt in the hiz-ouse

ok, that doesn't make a lot of sense, except to say that tomorrow my team is putting on a 10 mile 2 man team time trial. Norm and i rode this morning, we were both on our time trial bikes, but instead of practicing we just rode and caught up. It was a lot more fun than paceline practice, which we probably don't need since we've done this a million times before. While we headed back to LSU, we were chased by a pack of 4-5 dogs who were very enthusiastic about having some cyclist for breakfast. The largest of them is in pretty good shape, and ran in a ditch near us for a good half mile or so. Needless to say, i took Highland to Ben Hur on the way back. These are probably the same dogs who chased down Pat and Ed on their long run last week.

I've been enjoying the incredible amount of smack being thrown down in the baton rouge tri forums about the race, this was good but the Battle at Brokeback Levee takes the cake.

It should be fun, too short to really get into a groove of any sort, just go fast recover as you can, repeat. Mom and Dad are going to take care of the bambino so Amy can race as well, with Caroline.

Ryan's newest trick is toe sucking, he seems to have discovered his feet yesterday and now can't put them down. It's pretty entertaining.

Gotta run...