Friday, August 25, 2006

ouch

I know sometimes i bash BR a bit, but after reading this i thought the town deserved a tourniquet, yow!

In other news, Amy, Ryan and I have joined the Varsity Sports marathon training program. Jenny guarantees in three months you'll run your first or just a faster half-marathon. In order to celebrate our embrace of a more formal running training plan, the three of us joined Caroline and ran a willy nilly seven miler Saturday morning. We paid for the rest of the day with the funny walking thing. Tonight we ran over to Kleinert and ran 8x220 in front of BBT's old pad. Definitely the most fun i've ever had doing running speed work.

Amy and i are both getting deeper into the world of tri. It's fitting into our schedules better and it's optimizing the smaller chunks of training time that we're able to eke out lately. That being said i limped through a swim workout today at lunch. I don't think there's a worse swimmer in the world than me. I'm in desperate need of some coaching or maybe just a shrink. Tomorrow was looking pretty exciting as two docs and myself were planning to swim the PBRC lake at lunch but our plan to have a boat to escort us fell through, so i guess it's thrash time in the pool again.

Mucho thanks to JJR who gave me some great advice on this gadget, i think i may go this way which is virtually the same, just minus the altitude. I was heavily swayed by the new Garmin which looks super cool, but i think the Polar will be a better fit for me. No purchase yet, still weighing my options.

Next post will probably be from the Beehive State, we're heading to Utah on Wednesday. PEACE OUT

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Amy's Tri Debut




Saturday was Amy's debut in a swim/bike/run tri and she kicked butt, finishing third in her age group. Ryan and i were there for moral support and to take these photos. The start was staged with swimmers entering the pool 10 seconds apart which kept the mayhem to a minimum. The bike leg was a loop with a small hill in it, and then the final run ended up at the Cajun Dome. It was a really good time, fun hanging out after, and great to see Amy race so well.

Oh yeah and i almost forgot the best part, Dwyer's Sweet Potato Pancakes on the way home. Very nice.

Kimmage Interview

I thought this was worth reading for some interesting insight.

coming soon to a blogger blog near you

These new features sound pretty sweet, i think i'll wait to give my site the facelift that i've been putting off for months.

Monday, August 21, 2006

District Timetrial Report brought to you by MASTER CARD

Earplugs ... 20 cents

Disposable Razor ... 50 cents

Aero booties ... 16 bucks

Crappy Cateye Computer, guaranteed to stop working 5Ks after the turn around ... 30 bucks

Dorky bullet shaped timetrial helmet ... 150 bucks

Vintage Specialized Trispoke from the Team Motorola Garage Sale ... 250 bucks

Renn Forrest Renn Disc Wheel ... 400 bucks

Euskaltel Flavored Erik Espade Orbea TT Bike ... 1,500 bucks

Coming in over two minutes past your goal even though you had all this aero shit ... PRICELESS

Friday, August 18, 2006

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

my 250th post!

like the cobbler's kids who have no shoes
my household bears the brunt of being owned by an IT professional
alas our internet has been down for days and days now
i replaced my cable modem, and things were good
then record-breaking lightening storms hit the area and just like that, the modem died
lucky for me, comp-usa comp'd us a replacement and we should be back in business tonight
haven't blogged in a while, so much to cover
apparently the ugliest kit in pro cycling will be no more, who can blame them after their last two leaders eh?

Austin has a crit course for cyclists, how does Baton Rouge answer?
The Mall of Louisiana.

That is until yesterday. Jealous of Randy's morning rides in NOLA, i started my own, riding various established rides in BR as well as the loop around the mall, which i'd heard about from various tripeople. It is a nice place to ride, it might be one of the nicer places to ride in the city, which is both ironic and sad.

But anyway, there i was rolling my 2.3 km loop when i decided to switch it up and hone my crit skills by blasting up the Col du Sears, then nailing the descent into the off-camber 180 lining up for the Col du Foleys. Things were good, very good as the various islands and flower beds around the mall were creating infinite crit possibilities. I even began to visualize AM training crits, perhaps one day a race, and that's when a couple of Baton Rouge's finest Mall Security guys pulled me over. Basically, cyclists are welcome to use the "outer ring" but not the parking areas...grrrr.

Down but not out, i proceeded towards work. As i negotiated traffic and pulled into the turning lane on Perkins, i saw a window open ahead of me and heard "Hey Unfrozen Caveman!" Who could it be but Ed "The Nemesis" Hardin heading home from an am workout of his own. We chatted very briefly then as i exited Walden, i ran into Uncle Gaynor and his trusty companion Bandit the wonder dog. I've never seen a dog as laid back as Bandit, he must have Californian or Hawaiian roots. He has no interest in other dogs, he is in his own space and he's happy with it.

Gotta run.

Friday, August 11, 2006

friday lunch blog

Now my dad's getting in on the Landis bashing, i got this from him today:

Landis Excuse #88
The reason he tested for steroids was because on the second to last day he French kissed Barry Bonds.


Not a pretty image, but hey doping is ugly. On that topic, i gotta get a pair of these.

My eye doctor appointment last week has evolved into multiple trips back, filled with lots of phrases you don't want to hear from your doc such as:

"I don't want to touch you, you're infected!"
and
"It's strange to see so many punctate ulcerations"
and let's not forget
"I want you to see our corneal specialist, because this isn't your average run-of-the-mill single punctate ulceration"
then finally
"you mean on top of all of this you've developed iritis too! You are a special case!"

What does all of this mean? It means i've put more drops in my eyes over the past week then i've done in my entire life. I'm off contacts perhaps for good, and i have a sensitivity to light that makes me sympathize with vampires. This last one has me walking around town with the drop-in style glare blocker pseudo-sunglass thing that sort of screams School Bus Driver or Granny or Ray Charles.

I did manage to put in about an 11 mile timetrial last Saturday, followed by a 60 miler or so on Sunday up in the Felicianas. But since then due to the whole eye thing, i've been hitting early morning spin classes at the Y. Everyone is good natured and trying their best, but these just suck. Some of the top phrases over heard this morning include:

"Okay the climbing is over, let's slow back down to race-pace"
"This is not recovery people, you should just be at race-pace!"
"Get back into that raceline! go! go! go!"
"Next up sprints, the first one will be 4 minutes, go! go! go!"

And somebody's not being truthful because we did about a 5 minute climb this morning to an extended dance mix of Frankie goes to Hollywood's Relax and about half-way through when our instructor said "Give it a full turn" i could hardly turn the dial at all. The resistance was so high that i immediately pulled out of the spd pedal and yet we continued to add "one more turn" every minute for 3 or 4 more minutes. All the while the 100 pound woman next to me is spinning at about 120 or so. Well at least i got a "ride" in.

Off to the rodeo tonight with my nephew! Maybe i'll become a fan and it will explain the strange love affair that OLN/VS has with cycling and bull riding.
Later

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Friday, August 04, 2006

new heroes

I love juggling. I've probably been juggling for about 20 years and up to this point i've always worked with 3 balls, but a few years ago on a cruise i was able to attend a brief clinic taught by Pete Matthews where he showed the basics of how to 3-ball juggle and for the more experienced jugglers, 4-ball and even a bit of 5-ball. Well i've struggled with 4-ball ever since, but i stumbled upon this video a few weeks ago. Check out the ease that this kid juggles with, and that was back in 1997. The stuff he does now is unbelievable, turns out he and his sister are professional juggling studs (obviously) and their videos are incredible. Don't you love youtube?

Anyhow, i got some clubs on ebay yesterday, we'll see how that goes.

Eric needs a blog again

Eric emailed me this little gem, and i thought it was in need of reprint, so with permission...

Alright, I gotta get this off my chest. I know doping bugs the crap outta you, I can relate, so you may just as well should delete this right now. Chances are high I won't say anything that's new or relevant anyway. This is to help me vent.

Now that I've given you fair warning....

We, the cycling fans, are stupid. For years we have heard DOPING DOPING DOPING. BLAH BLAH BLAH. We generally bought the party line that if a rider didn't' test positive he/she was clean. "Freaks of nature" or "Naturally gifted athletes" are the terms we called them.

Man did we have our heads in the sand. They all dope. Anabolic steroids are easy to catch but synthetic HGH, Testosterone and the like are close to impossible. All we can do is monitor the blood for "signs" of doping... like too many red blood cells and a rider isn't using EPO he's just unfit to race. It's just all about levels in the blood.

How did we come up with these "approved" blood levels anyway? Who negotiated these terms? "Look fellas, we still want you to be able to ride faster than the wind so you can use a little just not a lot. Okay?" "Deal."

The fact that each team has a bevy of doctors should be a sign something is up. Why would each team needs blood work done on a daily/weekly basis? Oh, because cycling is a gruel ling sport. Yeah, that's it.

Is it cheating to take something right up to the line? "They say I can only have 4 to 1 ratio of testosterone... Ok doc give me a 3.9999999999999999999 to 1 batch please." Then it's shame on you for going over. But an athlete can never say "Yeah, I took a shot, a pill, and a patch. My doctor just screwed up on the dose." We want them to be like us only better.

Who should we blame? The riders? The Cycling governing body? Fans? Sponsors? Hell, I don't know. I'm just pissed off.


and this was pretty great too,

Thanks EZ-E

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Tuesday Night's Alright

First off, Congratulations to Taylor and Chris who were married last Saturday. We had a super nice ride that morning to send them off, i was able to catch up with Norman, Kenny and Jairo none of whom had i seen in a while. Joining us for my last lap was none other than Bob "the legend" Abbott, always a treat. And also good to hang with Nixon, the first time i'd ridden with him in months, at least Pre-Cheaha.

Last night's training race was a blast, i decided to follow the lead of many other riders and break out the timetrial bike. My beloved Orbea, which i've decided to nickname Erik Espada, more in homage to Indurain's bike and my favorite California Highway Patrolman than to the Obsequious Psychophant, but hell, he's in there too. Anyway, Seabass was on his Colnago TT rig and Norm was on board this brand spankin new Bianchi curvy beauty.

I was anxious to try out my new position, i talked with Darren a bunch and decided to raise my handlebar by nearly 5cm and bring it back a bit. My previous position had been a bit extreme and this one, while still very aero, is more comfortable and less Chris Boardman-esque.

Anyway, we kept the pace pretty high all the way out, then Seabass and Ben got away at the prop sprint. I bridged up to them with Tre and the four of us started rolling, opening up a big gap. Eventually Ben dropped off and it was just the three of us in full blown TTT mode. The gap got even bigger and we kept it all the way back to the finish.

Not long after us, Smackey rolled in alone then Patrick and Warren. Patrick was mad that Smackey had punched tickets for the last miles then sprinted for 4th and called him a Zorro. We all laughed so hard, it was hilarious, not sure what it means, but it was damned funny.

Speaking of slang, i'm proud to announce that two of my own personal favorites, toolshed and chupe, are now published at psuedodictionary. I didn't create them, that honor belongs to Patrick A. and Chris K. i just like to say them. Look them up, they're there and it's a pretty cool site.

Later.