Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Bad Pool Karma

Whats up kids? Everyone groovy? Looking forward to the weekend? Thats right, we are almost there!!! Now go grab yourself a cold one.

I go to the pool after work today and had another experience of instant bad pool karma. I only brought it upon myself. Here is how Karma handed down the punishment I deserved.

I hop in the pool my set is as follows:

300 warm up (easy)
1000 form (5 x 100 form, 100 stroke)
1500 (3 x 300 pull, 100 kick, 100 free)
100 (4 x 25 free fast)
200 cool down (easy)

Voila, 3100!!!


Halfway through my 1000 form a woman on the pool deck asks me if I am going to be doing kick the entire time. I wasn't sure exactly how much of a jerk I wanted to be. I should have responded, "Yes, I am doing 3000 kick today, tomorrow I will be doing 3000 butterfly. It is a new swim workout plan called super distance sets." Instead, I quickly yell to her my entire workout and keep going. Here is my issue . . . .

If you have to ask me, what I'm doing before you hop in my pool lane. You best find another lane. Trust me, swimmers that ask, always mess your workout.

Wisely, or so I think, she hops in the other pool lane. I may have been rude, but everything worked out. She is swimming, and I keep doing my workout. Until pool karma came along. . .

I'm now doing the first 300 pull in my 1500 and suprise, someone joined my lane. No worries. They seem to be going fast (at least that first 50 was fast). However this swimmer's second 50 wasn't even a legitimate stroke. It was some squid like back stroke (think breast stroke, upside down). Needless to say I spent the next 1000 either passing or turning around before the wall. Pool karma had got me. If I was nice the first lady that asked me about my workout, I may not have gotten stuck with the squid stroker.

All in all I the Karma punishment fit the crime. I still got a good swim workout in but I needed to be reminded that it pays to be nice to people. Lesson learned.

Monday, February 26, 2007

A tear for Jan


I'm sure you have all read the news . . . . if not go here, here and here. But then you get jerks like this guy.

Jan Ullrich retired from professional cycling. I think I shed a tear when I first read the news flash on cycling news. He was a great cyclist! You can't argue with that. He won the Tour de France and finished second 5 other times. Most of all he did things his way. When everyone was hopping on the high-cadence spinning craze to get through time trials or over mountains, he was still pumping through his big gears!

Yeah, he partied a bit too much. Getting busted for taking "e" or whatever it was certainly didn't help his position with the more elitist among the cycling crowd. Oddly, that only made me like him more. Some say he was waisting his talent. Perhaps. But life is all about balance and I've been known to enjoy a PBR after a race. He was still able to compete at the highest level and everyman needs to find their own balance in life.

Worst of all this last year just seemed to me like complete bull shit. Some jerks in Spain write a report with a few cyclists names on it. They have evidence but they don't want to use it. A year later some riders are competing some are stuck without a team contract. I beleive Jan got it much worse than Floyd in some respects. At least there was a test that came back positive with Floyd (however flawed that test maybe is a completely different blog post all together). Jan had no test. He was just covered by a cloud of suspicion. This cloud ended his career. It is a shame for cycling and I feel rather sad for Jan.

Remember the 2006 Tour de France? Remember how exciting it was? Imagine if Jan was there too? Imagine the kind of battle it could have been . . . we will never know.

Yo yo!!!

All right, I took a bit of a blogging vacation, and one of my readers was mildly upset. So what did I do on my blogging vacation. . . .

1) There is this thing called a bicycle and I have been riding it. Last week I put in 3 hours through snow squals. Yesterday, I put in 4 hours through the just plain cold. But It feels good.

2) I may have had a beer or two since I last blogged. Ok. So thats a lie. I went to beer tasting. Ommegang, Victory, Magic Hat, and Troeggs were all there. I guess it was a beer tasting for people who drink Coor's Light all day cause I only think I had a few beers that were new to me. It was still a great time. It was held at World Cafe Live, which seems like it would be a great venue for a concert.

3) Started swimming again. Did you know I signed up for 4.4 mile swim in June? The Chesapeake Bay Swim. I don't think I've ever been concerned about my ability to finish a race, but I can honestly tell you this event has me very concerned. My big mouth may have talked me into a hole (about beating former Div. 1 Swimmers by 10 minutes) but I've got bigger problems if I don't even make it to the finish line. I swimming 3000 tonight. Anyone care to join me.

4) Back to cycling for a second. I have never ridden this much before in Febuary which gives me hope that come May, I might actually have some fitness. I also have no climbing power?!?! I don't know what happened. I get dropped like a fat man every time the group ride goes up hill. This is very, very bad. As a result, I may hit the weight room for two months to build some leg strength.


5) I've also been riding the indoor trainer so much, I think I've developed a man crush on Coach Troy. Can you blame me?

All right, go get youself some Spinervals DvDs.

Well, I'll get back on the blogging train.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Movie Review!

Have you humped your trainer today?


Well, I'm back in training mode. I'm nowhere near in shape but I've been riding my cyclops trainer all day everyday (or so it feels sometimes). I do approximately an hour and half per session. 45 minutes to an hour of that session will be a specific workout. Somedays I put in a spinerval video, and some days I pull a workout off the internet. Sometimes, you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. High Road Cycles has a good spinerval blog. Go to Human Zoom for all your cycling needs!!! (keeping the sponsors happy)


I do feel that time is important in these trainer session. Anything less than an hour and a half feels like a waste. This of course lends itself to some quality movie watching as long as the heart rate monitor tells me that my heart rate is still high enough!!!


So . . .on to the movie review . . . Today I will be reviewing one of my favorite films . . .Rodger Doger


This movie stars one of my favorite actors, Campbell Scott, as Roger and Jesse Eisenberg as his high school aged nephew, Nick. Roger is a smooth talking ladies man, and Nick seeks him out in NYC to be taught how to interact with women. The line of the movie, "So Nick, you need some help with the ladies?" After Roger utters this question, Nick is swept into an evening in NYC chasing women nearly twice his age.

Going from bars to parties, Roger bestows on Nick, what almost every guy takes as common knowledge. I consider this movie to be a "dood movie". Some women don't really understand it or like it.

Roger sets Nick up with ladies and comes down with heavy criticism when Nick fails to meet the standards of a veteran to the NYC night life.

As the story continues, you learn that Roger is not completely unfallable and Nick may not be completely ready for his life as a ladies man. The movie ends with Nick back in high school in Ohio. I'm not about to spoil the ending, but it is worth sitting or pedalling through the movie.

But don't take my word for it, go see it for yourself!

Lack of Post-age

Happy Valentine's Day, kids.

Its time to see how the mazda plays in the snow!

on a side note: leave the fan on is somewhat more legit.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Ask and you shall receive (a few days later)

You wanted them, you got them. . . . .

These are the first 1/2 day at Paris pics. Our train got in around noon. In that afternoon, we managed to hit the Lourve, the Champs, the Arc de Triumph, and the Eifel Tower!!! There was a lot of walking going on everyday.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

The Parisian Hangover

Today I am coining a new term. Yes, I am allowed to do this. I will call it a "Parisian Hangover". Here is how it will be defined in the dictionary.

Parisian Hangover n.
1) The combined headache and tiredness of returning to the United States after repeatedly drinking espresso during your extended stay in Paris.
2) The combined headache and tiredness of returning to the United States after repeatedly drinking too much wine during your extended stay in Paris.
3) The v.d. and combined headache your life turns into after dating Paris Hilton for an extend period of time.

I am currently suffering from the first and most formal definition of the Parisian Hangover. Thanks to the Lavazza espresso you see pictured in the left.

My head will not stop hurting. I know it is a lack of caffeine because every time I drink a cup of coffee it goes away for 20 minutes. It is going to be a few very painful days as my body readjusts to lack of caffeine. If anyone has any tips to cure me, please let me know. One home remedy I have found is Stoudt's Winter Ale replaces the headache for about an hour. After the hour I need to grab another winter ale.

I should not have had so much coffee (un cafe, merci bo que) but it tastes really good and with an ad campaign like this how could i resist?

A couple near and dear to my hear!

"We are at war, and they don't even know it" (was the other title of this blog post.)

Lets do a little compare and contrast exercise this morning.

First, I want you to visit the following website. BikeReg.com. Notice the simple easy to read layout. The tabs at the top allow you to select with type of cycling race for which you want to register. They aren't just tabs though. Scroll over them and you see that they break races down by region making easier for you to find races in your region. You can login right away (on the left) if you are so inclined. There are a few ads but nothing that I would say severely takes away from the readers ability to find exactly what he wants. All in all an excellent website for registering an athletic event. (Awesome, we all love you bikereg keep setting the standard!)

Now, when you are done enjoying the ease of use that is bikereg visit Lin-Mark.com I know it isn't obvious what the website is from the URL, but it is safe for work unless you consider possibly consider a man wearing a speedo dangerous. This website is not a bad website for say 1999. It has a rather quaint use of frames and the lovely scrolling in text at the top that has a great "i just learned java script" now what can I do with feel. (sorry that was the comp sci boy talking) There are no ads which is nice, and there are "tabs" at the top which are for navigation. To sign up for a race click on "events" and enjoy the way the next page fades in. Hmmm. Well, I hope you know exactly which month your race is taking place. After you select a month, you will have to scroll down further and see which races exist. This website is very functional but it gives the sense of a lack of organization and professionalism.

Ahhh, but now we are the point of this exercise. A lack of organization. You see I was attempting to register for the Chesapeake Bay Swim this week. I even got an email telling me that I won the lottery and to complete my registration. I click on a link in the email to register for the race, and I get a web page on Lin-Mark telling me online registration is closed?! Well there must be some mistake? How can I simultaneously win a lottery to get in something and not be allowed to register? This makes no sense in my mind.

I go to there web page and I see a big box telling me registration is closed. hmmmm. I send an email to lin-mark asking for clarification. As of yet, I have not heard anything. Granted it is currently 9am and maybe they are like me, busy updating their blog before work.

Well, I am looking forward to some terse email telling me how I was somehow too slow to register for this event. Which again doesn't make sense to me since the point of lottery was to eliminate the need for speed when signing up! I may do a triathlon this year, but I hope that it doesn't involve me having to go to Linmark to sign up.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

More Blogger Love and Pics

I feel the love. Do you?

Mud and Cowbells gave some love to my previous post of what I learned at Cyclocross Worlds. Greg is running a quality cyclocross blog over there. Nothing like what I'm feeding you all on a daily basis. He doesn't mess around, so go check it out already!!!

Finally here is some more random eye candy for you all from Worlds. I'm going to join Shutterfly or Fliker or some other photo sharing site as soon as I pull my head out of the dark stinky cavern in which it seems to be stuck.


The man warming up.


The mini man racing it up.


Shit, I forgot my bike!


Hienz Curry. It seemed like a good concept but trust me it misses the mark.


Is this line for the bathroom?


Even the Pope likes Cross worlds.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

10 Things I learned at Cyclocross Worlds.

Thats right kids, my first international escapade is in the record books. I've been up since 6:30 am Paris time, so pardon the extra spelling and grammatical errors. Here are 10 things I learned going to 2007 Cyclocross Worlds.

1. Belgiums love cross. Ok, I already knew this one but I didn't know how much they love cross.



2. Mud. Lots of Mud. Did I mention there was mud? I have a pair of running shoes that have died at cyclocross worlds. I will try to save them but it might be too late. Everyone was wearing knee high duck boots.

3. Hooligans show up even for cyclcross worlds. This was the first year that world championships had tickets, but people still bought tickets for the only purpose of drinking Primus (Belgium lite beer). Need proof?


4. The american cyclocross present and future is amazing!!! Page, Kompton, and Summerhill. You did already read about the races at cycling news!

5. Cyclocross worlds is a dood fest. The male to female ratio on Sunday was 9:1. Not that I'm there to pick up chicks, but I do like girls.

6. Belgins are actually quite shocked to hear an American accent cheering, especially when the American guy is leading the race.

7. Pros warm up on the course just like you and I do. Only faster. That blur is Sven Nys.

8. Belgium course don't look super technical but did I mention the intense amount of mud? There aren't that many off-camber turns but that just means the pros ride faster.

9. When the Flemish flag is flying, just go with the flow.


10. Italy is gonna rock in 2008.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

bonjour!!

thats right kids!!! I am blogging from Paris.

Cyclocross worlds was AWESOME!!! When Page was leading for almost 3 laps, I nearly pee'd my pants. INCREDIBLE!!! I also got the "holy crap what is an American doing here" look when I cheered him on. That was really funny. Three second places finishes ain't bad for America.\

Yo, Matties, there is a world cup race in Vegas next year!!! We are there!!!