Which Direction

The nice thing about taking the road bike out is that you can ride in any direction and not have to use your car to get there, which is good when you have an infant at home that wants alot of attention. This morning the little one awoke rather early so I was able to get out of house at 7am for a good 60 minute ride (not much for you pro's but good enough for my sleep deprived state of mind). It was pretty crazy to see all the wind and rain damage after last nights thundershowers swept through. Lots of downed tree limbs, road washouts, etc. Got home in time to feed the little one and do some tummy time with him. He was in a good mood so it was a ton of fun and I missed what apparantly would be considered toxic waste...a good pooping.
The mountain bike is degreased, cleaned up and ready to roll again. The shifting isn't as crisp but its still clickin' away hittin' all gears so I can't complain with 8 year old shifters
Brother in law was also in town filming a pilot for his pyschic improv group. It went really well and I can't wait to see the finished results. It should be pretty amazing. Alright, gotta get this day started and start knocking things off this to-do list, becuase its a long list, that only grows and grows. Sounds like the neighbors garage door opener is about to die, so i'll probably have to take a look that too, better add that too the list.

Passing the time

My pirate name is:

Dirty Harry Kidd

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You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Even though you're not always the traditional swaggering gallant, your steadiness and planning make you a fine, reliable pirate. Arr!

Get your own pirate
name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Drug testing

You have to be kidding me. Just what cycling needs now, another doping scandal. It's too early to throw Floyd under the bus like so many already have, the US media has pounced, like it always does when a scandal appears. I thought the riders name was to be kept in secret until the B-sample or a guilty verdict was place. What do I know. Does anybody really have any idea what happens to the human body, the metabolism issues, cardiovascular, hormonal, endocrine, regulatory system. The list goes on. You are looking at a complicated network that keeps us doing what we do everyday and to place hard, sustained, painful, efforts, day after day after day. Sure his B-sample can be positive for Testasterone again but why would a cyclist take it, to bulk up, that last thing a climber wants to do is carry his huge 24 inch pythons up the Alp De Huez. Then again, a quick search of Medline shows an article like this

High doses of alcohol increase urinary testosterone-to-epitestosterone ratio in females.

Karila T, Kosunen V, Leinonen A, Tahtela R, Seppala T.
National Public Health Institute, Laboratory of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Helsinki, Finland.

The effect of alcohol (1.2 and 2.0 g/kg) on the urinary testosterone-to-epitestosterone (T/E) ratio was studied by two experiments each conducted with four healthy females and males. The intake of 2.0 g/kg of ethanol within 5 h in the evening significantly increased plasma testosterone concentration and ratio of T/E in urine collected next morning in females. The results suggest that alcohol increases the T/E ratio more in females than in males. The effect of high doses of alcohol on urinary T/E ratio must be kept in mind when doping tests are performed during training periods.

NO matter the outcome, his win, his name have all been tainted. Its done, its draining, exhausting and the effort to debate this is wasted...lets talk about something else....how about those Bears

Mad Mud Cycling

Hola Amigos
So i've been on vacation. I don't even know where to start this long ramble. Vacation was pretty good. It started the same day that Ryan Trebon rocked the US Nationals and Barry Wicks gased it in the Short Track Contest. Way to go for Adam Craig who nailed the Super-D and last but not least Carl Decker for the SS win. A great weekend for Kona. I hope to see some great performances at the worlds for those guys. Also, I cannot forget to mention the man of the hour, Floyd Landis. A great and inspiring ride. He has done something that I personally never witnessed, bringing back an 8 minute gap with a nice solo effort. Pretty nice. It was a good and unpredictiable tour.
So...vacation. Needed to take some time off with the little one and we packed it up to maine. Had a great trip and Aidan of course had a good time, he filled his diapers with excitment!!! Got my 1st long MTB ride in of the season with Vuth at Mnt Aggie. A great ride with plenty of time to get lost...seriously, we got lost but eventually ended back up on the road, so it was all good fun. A warm day but it wasn't too bad in the woods with the shade and all the friendly mosquitos. I was able to manage a good 2 hour ride on wednesday that included two climbs up the Mnt Aggie access road so that put the hurt on. I biked along the ocean and the york harbor area for some fun every day to keep the mileage up. We found a really good Tapas place...yes I know what you are thinking, over-priced tiny dishes of food. No...at this place you got plenty of food for your 5 bucks. All Tapas were 5 dollars, the most expensive thing was the cheese platter but it was worth every penny. Chapman Cottage was a great place. Good food, nice and quiet, a good little escape for the wife and I.
So, back to reality, decided that I needed to see how my two weeks of training went so I entered the Root66 Nutmeg Nor'easter race. It had rained alot but I wasn't too worried about that. Since i haven't raced in a while I was more worried about having trouble riding upright. The course has a small climb right at the start banner, this leads up to some single track that was rather muddy. I had to get a good start becuase once everyone funnels into the singletrack I didn't want to get stuck behind people slipping, sliding and falling over, that would just allow the leaders to get away. So being inspired by Tree-Farms approach to the nationals, I figured if it worked for him, it should fail miserably for me. The start whistle goes off and I set a good tempo going up the first hill and enter the single track leading the pack. I kept the tempo up, further stringing out everybody behind me. It was a great start, i thought i was going fast and riding strong. I managed to keep that position for about a mile and then i got passed like I was standing still. That was tough but i held onto second for as long as I could, but eventually got passed by the 2nd and 3rd riders, they were never to be seen after the 2nd lap. i couldn't keep up the strong effort, I have to find a way to get my heart rate to recover quicker and have the legs to close down gaps. I finished in 4th. It was a real challenging mud fiesta. I had some serious chain-suck issues and derailleur shifting problems...more like lack of shifting that was the problem. Dirt really cakes onto the front derailleur and it just won't budge after a while, so I have to be very selective in my gearing. I had a few good slips, the Fire-Pro XC were the wrong tire choice, they caked with mud and never shed any of it. I had a great time and I wish I could race more as it felt amazing to lead that first mile or so. I had high hopes and finished with high hopes. It was also the first time that members of our age group were talking about training techniques and diet...none of which I follow but it really showed how riders want to improve, move up and keep the level of competition high. I have to motivate and get more mileage on the legs if I want to keep up. Thats about it for now, if I get motivated and the little one lets me, maybe i'll post a pict or two.

Poor Timing and No Motivation

I don't really even know where to begin. What people can do with a snowplow, some paint and lots of time. It was a fast week at work and at home. Only got to ride on monday and tuesday but tuesdays saddle time was cut short due to thunderstorms. I tried getting up this morning with good intention of getting at least 90-120 minutes of riding in before I went to work , however, Aidan didn't wake up at his usual 5am so we got to sleep in. Maybe i should be more happy about that. However the fact of the matter is that I have two weekends of racing coming up and I have to get more time on the saddle. Also I want to improve at wells ave and maybe win an intermediate sprint, just maybe, these seem like lofty but attainable goals.
Cyclocross is the next idea floating around my empty head. Hopefully the owner of ESC will let me borrow his CX bike for my first CX event. Any suggestions out there? So knowing that i want to participate in that sufferfest, I want to start getting ready for that as well so I don't choke miserably. Gotta get ready for it all.
Hopefully this weekend and next week will be a good riding week. I do look forward to riding Mount Aggimenticus this weekend. That should be a great ride on sunday with Vuth. He'll back on the mTB for the first time in weeks and I'll be back on the Giant for the first time in months...and this time...I'll have brakes. Just got it tuned up and ready to go .
As for the Tour. Levi leienheimer and George Hincapie have not been the presence everybody though. Nor has Chris Horner but he is still there giving good interviews and all that. More mountain stages to come but Floyd Looks strong however I wouldn't rule out Cadel Evans right now. He is right up there as well and this is a tour of anarchy as someone put it, so anything and everything goes.
Gotta run, and keep and eye for the US National MTB races this weekend.

Weekend Success-Wells Ave

I can't believe it's already monday. It was a good weekend. The little one went on his first shopping trip, Trader Joes. Yes, really exciting but were able to hit up the isles of trader joes as well as Russo's market and get plenty of food for the week without incident. It turned out pretty good. Enjoyed the weather on saturday, got some yard work done, some cleaning, overall it was a good day.
Wells Ave racing was in store for sunday. Waking up early, the legs were pretty sore from MTB on friday so I wus'd out and drove over to the training race. Cat-5 C-race. 15 laps, about 14 miles overall I think. I wasn't expecting much with my last poor performance there. This time the field was much larger. Right from the roll-off were going 26-28mph, and we basically held that most of the race, a few slower laps when traffic got on the course. I hung with Francisco for a few laps but he charged to the front before he rode his goal to lead a lap and then dropped back. I was actually feeling pretty good tucked in the middle of the group. I made my way to the front with the help of someone we'll call Mr Arms...(HUGE biceps, body builder type racing in a white tshirt)..we got up to the front by going to the outside but we got passed by another surging group of 5 or 6 t(here were only two of us). We tried going for one intermediate sprint bonus but fell short by 50 meters. We faded back to recollect and recoup for a few laps. Tried again but went at it alone, big mistake and I paid the price, but I did get to the front and then faded back quickly. On the final lap, Mr. Arms and I tried getting to the front and working our way up, but we probably started too early on our sprint pullout and got beat going down the last leg. However this race, for whatever reason was alot better than my other wells ave attempt. So with yesterdays good race and good effort, I went home to grill up some goodies, have a few beers in the summer sun and play with the little one.

Lycra Fights

Yikes, it's friday. Its been one of those weeks where you can't keep the days straight becuase you already started off sleep deprived, over-fed and half brain dead waiting for the next upcoming weekend. The Tour de France has been pretty good so far. Its too bad Chris Horner busted up his hand, I hope to see him perform well in the mountains, maybe pull out a shocker but we'll see. Can you imagine two skinny lycra clad cyclists going at it while on their bikes. The exerpt is pasted below, it must have been pretty funny to the viewers
The two who got it on yesterday without boxing gloves were Walter Beneteau of Bouygues Telecom, whose teammate Jêrome Pineau is leading the mountains classification and Saunier Duval's David de la Fuente, who is second in the rankings. The two mixed it up previously, being fined for "irregular behaviour" on Wednesday.
Writing on www.sports1.de, Voigt described the scene this way: "Today the two were riding next to each other and all of a sudden, the Spaniard hits Beneteau full in the face! It was really loud, just like in a boxing match! Beneteau's helmet and glasses practically flew off his head! He swerved, because of course he hadn't been expecting anything like that."

The weekend is upon us. Hopefully we'll be able to talk to the new neighbors about their smoking and it seeping into our condo. I'm looking out for my infant and nobody else, he is all that matters when it comes to anything right now. Don't want their second hand smoke cuasing problems later on. Too much information has come out recently about the complications. Anyhow, thats condo living, can't afford anything else but we got a pretty nice pad so I can't complain, plenty of room for all the bikes, parts and accesories that always seem to find their way home to my house. Hopefully get some more grilling in this weekend, should be good weather, NO RAIN in this forecast. We'll see if I can get up on sunday AM and be ready for anothing ass-kicking at wells ave Cat 5 style. Fun...I'm such the beginner
Gotta run.

Ribs and Hill Climbs

Got to admit. These three day work weeks are pretty sweet. It was one of those weekends that could have kept going and you wouldn't have thought a second about what day it was. Got in plenty of BBQ action on saturday. Crazy steak tips, Chicken, Bacon wrapped corn. Bacon Wrapped Corn that was grilled to perfection...Smoked Ribs where the meat just fell off the bone. Saturdays feast was BBQ perfection. Saturday evening was spent sipping some Peebers on the StockPot deck with Jack. Catching up and just taking it easy seaside. Portsmouth is an amazing place to visit and probably an even better place to live, oh well...until then, its just enjoying the time spent there with friends....drinking beer on a deck somewhere.
Sunday, spent some time on the Maine coast. It was great weather for the first bike ride in 5 days. Got in only 20 miles before I gave up and headed home. Good to get the legs back into it and give the new Crank Brothers pedals a try out. The Quattro's are pretty nice. The first ride, they felt perfect. The rest of sunday was spent helping out around the condo, BBQ with the in-laws up on a lake cottage. A good time. Plenty of good eats as well. Never leave a table of food in front of me, becuase I can decimate an all you can eat BBQ like you have never seen. I apparantly digest food before it even hits my stomach.
Monday was spent on the saddle once again but I managed to push out a 2 hour ride, a tad over 30 miles, but the big thing for this rider was my first attempt at climbing Mount Agamenticus. There is a service road to the top, no flats, no false flats, all uphill. I managed to make it with no stops, a big feat for me becuase i'm usually to beat to even try it by the time i get there. Spent some time on the beach and once again eating a huge meal at a surfside fried seafood shack. Polished off a post-ride recovery meal of fried flams that were average and a fried haddock sandwich to top it off. Love the fried seafood.
Tuesday, headed back home to make it for the BBQ de Gus. He had a brazilian BBQ 4th of july style party. Good times. Many of his shaved leg cohorts were there to watch the Italy/Germany soccer game followed by that days Tour De France Stage. I had the hairiest legs of the bunch, those roadies can teach a woman how to shave her legs, it's just unsettling. They are a good group to chat it up with. But being a MTBer it's sort of like skiers vs snowboarders.....I'm done rambling on, till the next day. Gotta keep watching the tour, hopefully Chris Horner will have a stage suprise (but his hand injury might put the axe on that), maybe George or Levi will open up it up a bit, but then again the Bobby Julich could be the dark horse bringing the time trial pain...