Kangaroo Jumps

Has anyone ever tried these? Where to buy? How much? Just what I need for those pesky 40 cm barriers. Thanks for reading.

Problems

Despite my unpracticed, but near-perfect remount form, as you can see, all is not well in the land of Solocross. Never mind that problem #6 is missing entirely. I guess we'll leave that one up to you. In case you can't tell, this is the base of the Canton runup near the track. The first lap I managed to ride well past this point, but after that fatigue and clumsy riding had me bailing out early in to running mode. At least when I got to the flat part on the track at the top, a few times I was able to sprint away before remounting and gap potential wheelsuckers before the pedaling even started. All this running is good for something.

Last night I headed down to Middleboro for the Union Velo training series. All you guys missed a chance to pick up an easy 40, because I was no speed machine. There were around 25 riders present, including many of the usual suspects - Markie, Hines, Lynchie, Belknap, some Bike Barn guys, etc. Much of the Wompatuck crew it seemed. The lighting at the park was a mixed bag. There were a few dark spots but since there were no holes, rocks, nor roots, it was OK. More unusual, considering that Middleboro is among the flattest areas around, the course had significant elevation change. Combined with the fairly tall, lumpy, and wet grass, the conditions led to some pretty high-power grinding at times.

This week they also had two sets of 40 cm barriers. One had a fast approach and the other slow. As this was a training race, I saw a lot of riding around them. Before you scoff, I can understand why. After about seven laps, I started getting a sense of deja vu to the days of old when cross courses were a dismount festival. You stop attacking the barriers and end up trudging over them in survival mode. It's kind of stupid. One set per lap is plenty.

Despite trying to not go out too hard, I became toasted quickly. This was probably due to Sunday being my first cross race of the season just two days prior, not to mention I'd done a hard 6.5 mile tempo run in the morning (just what constitutes hard will remain a secret). By 31 minutes, which felt more like 51, I had to shut it down for a few laps. I was going to call it a night, but after another ten minutes I latched on to Lynchie and another guy and we raced it out fast for the final two. All in all a good workout. I'd go back so long as it's not wet or too cold, although after a Sunday race it's a bit much.

The local punkus domesticus were throwing vulgar heckling at us throughout the night. Pretty sad really. Didn't do too much for my view of the state of youth in America. I had some witty retorts in mind, but I was good and kept them to myself. I've seen enough crap that can't be respected without joining in. Thanks for reading.

More Love, Just for Gewilli

This was from the 1984 tour. I saw this one at Walter Brown Arena. Whipping Post was the encore. Thanks for reading.

Stirring the Pot

Gewilli must feel like Gerry Cooney after the Holmes fight today. Where is Mills Lane when we need him? Thanks for reading.

The Flying Foley

Here is the ass shot so many of you have requested. Sorry that you can't see the "too much information" stuff I've had the pleasure of telling you all about, but the Funboy Three will be glad to note that if you click in and zoom in on the high-res version, you can even check out my junk. Credit for this super cool action shot goes to Robert Tyszko. Thanks to the Cronoman for passing this along. Ge, you'll notice my form is perfect (and I mean that in every sense).

Last week over on GeWilli's blog, (at least I think that's where it was), a thread formed in the comments about the best and worst cheering/heckling you can hear when racing cross. As noted yesterday, The Mighty A-man made the trip to Canton to dish out some quality heckling over by the track. On lap three we debated the origins of my bike, and just how shameful it was to ride like shit at the back of the pack with the name Lemond (A-man's hero, and still the best) on my frame, even though it's just a Hot Tubes machine painted up for the benefit of the prior owner's sponsors. But that wasn't the my favorite spectator commentary of the day. Canton also features a set of low barriers over on the woods side. These lay at the top of a gravel rise which follows a tight 180 turn. This year on most laps it wasn't too hard to execute the turn nicely and carry enough momentum up the rise to coast into the barriers normally and hurdle them smoothly. However, on one lap I messed it up and ground up the slope, then didn't get the pedals in the right spot and ended up making an awkward step behind and clumsy dismount. One of the gathered bystanders, obviously extolling his expert wisdom upon his companions quipped "now that guy has bad technique." Thanks for reading.

PS - Oh yeah, does anyone know who the girl was who kept yelling "Go Yogurt!" Cracked me up...

PS2 - Joe's Blog today. Heh-heh.

Dumbass Versus the Right-Wing Conspiracy

Every year, we set our clocks back one hour on the last Saturday of October, also the day of the Canton Fall Classic Running Race. I didn't hear anything about it, so I was wondering about it a little, but when my computer, which uses NTP, set itself back, I figured I'm in the clear. Learned something about NTP today... it just sets you time precisely based on GMT, but timezone configuration is left to tzdata (on 'nix type systems anyway...).

I got up "early" even though I watched every pitch of the Sox win last night, and I packed up the cross bike in the car "just in case" I felt up to racing after the 10k. I then proceeded to sort through all the nifty new running clothes I'd bought on Saturday's spending spree, kitted up in my new shoes, prepared some bottles, and went out for the ten minute drive to Canton. I think it's 9 am. I get near the race and hmmmm, the cops are out here awful early... The parking lot is full. Hey, there's some people running, the fun run must have started at 9... Oh shit. I guess I was the only one who set my clock back last night... Fuck, and this is the one time I pre-registered. Oh well, good cause, I hope.

Over to the cross race. I'm still in shock, sort of, and I'm thinking the 45+ race started at the "real" 10 am, but I can still make the 35+. It's 10:45, and I register for the race. I find the Cronoman to pin me up, and he says the 45+ didn't start yet. WTF? I'm all out of sorts today. Well, at least now I have an hour to warmup, but of course I'm going to really get my assed kicked. I rode over to the Blue Zoo and ran around a bit to warm up. My calf felt tight; maybe it was the crappy MTB shoes, but maybe I missed the 10k for a reason. Got back to the cross race venue, but did not have time to take a lap of the course, so we're doing it blind. Only about 70 starters. I just lined up at the back and planned on the first lap being a preview.

Timmy was there, having just finished the 45+. At the gun we rolled off slowly and I just followed Timmy. In the first turn the Ringer had tangled with an RS guy, and we went around them. The RS guy came by quickly, so now just Carl is behind me. Halfway through the lap he comes by me too. So far, all of the course is just like last year, so I am good. Then Timmy bails on some mud, so I'm on my own and I start racing. The pack is all strung out. Around the running track I passed a few backmarkers, and then found the tight chicane part was not muddy and not staked very tight so it's real easy this year. The whole course was easy, fast, and with a good flow to it.

The rest of the race I just cranked it up on the paved parts and the open areas, riding the tighter stuff conservatively. I made steady progress and passed about twenty people total. I think we only did five laps. On the last lap I made a good run and had the Ringer in sight but only got up to a second or two behind him at the line, finishing 45th. At least it was a good workout, probably similar intensity to what I would have got in the 10k. This was close to home and a good way to get my feet wet in cross this year without actually getting them wet. I am not a mudder and one of the signs of a good cross race to me is when I don't need to clean my bike.

This can go into history as the lamest race report ever. Sue me, I don't give a crap. Got to see Gewilli, always nice, and also the A-man came to watch and he dished out some quality heckling over by the track. It's always fun when you don't care about your result, because then you can heckle back. Now it's up to Moveitfred's wife to decide if we go to Farmington. Thanks for reading.

Ouch

Well wishes go out to Feltslave who suffered some scary injuries at the cross race in CT yesterday. Ouch. Glad you're sort of OK Matt. Feltslave is the second cross racer I've heard of this week to suffer serious facial injuries. My spies on the west coast tell me that Wednesday night, Master 40-44 National CX champion Mark Noble, father of up and coming pro Chance Noble, broke his fork while practicing, also breaking a cheek bone and his clavicle. Didn't I just do an entry on cross and injuries? Excuse me, but I'm going to go race a 10k... Might just spectate at the cross race... Thanks for reading.

Controlling Aggression

Main Entry:
ag·gres·sive
Pronunciation:
\ə-ˈgre-siv\
Function:
adjective
Date:
1824

1 a: tending toward or exhibiting aggression b: marked by combative readiness 2 a: marked by obtrusive energy b: marked by driving forceful energy or initiative : enterprising

This one's been sitting in the drafts folder untouched since I started the week before Gloucester. I'm not trying to be a low-rent Josh Horowitz or anything, but what good is being a know-it-all if I don't share the wisdom? There's more to Nega-Coaching than just telling people they suck.

Before G-ster, there was a lot of chatter about first-lap aggression in the huge fields. Almost everyone likes to think the early-going bottlenecks bear responsibility for their shitty finish later on. Some of our podium hopefuls simply felt that starting strong and then doing "the slide" backwards through the field better suited their style. Gloucester is also a drafting course, so thinking that a great start might allow one to slot in to a fast group that's going to take you to the promised land would not be too much of a stretch.

I'm not a big fan of doing "the slide." You might hear similar advice regarding getting over big hills in road races. Conventional wisdom says that if you're a shitty climber, you should get to the front before the start of the climb, then get in the way of the strong climbers as you drift your way back, thus giving yourself more time to complete the climb without losing contact. That method doesn't work well for me. Two main reasons: one, the energy/adrenalin expenditure to get in position for the climb takes a toll. This parallels what happens in a cross race if you burn a bunch of matches at the start. Sure, you're right up front, but now you're half-blown, or worse. You pissed people off getting there, which will ALWAYS come back to haunt you in the future should you stick with the sport (trust me, I have a long memory when it comes to this shit), and now you're in the way of smarter riders who have business to tend to. Exactly what did you accomplish here?

Reason two, a bigger factor is how doing "the slide" affects you mentally. Suffering on a major climb in a road race (and I'm not a gifted climber by any friggin' means), nothing's more likely to crack my sorry ass than having rider after rider swarm by. I'm much more motivated if I'm picking people off and jumping from wheel to wheel, group to group. Success breeds success. Same thing in a cross race. Moving up will motivate you to get aggressive at the end, and race, not just survive to the finish.

Now I'm not suggesting that you kick back and have a latte on the line while the field roars off. One of my best mates recently sent me some advice to help with my leaning-out efforts: live on the edge of hunger. Good advice. The edge of aggression is where you want to be. Don't waste energy trying to force things to happen. Be tough, take spots, but stay in your limits. Don't be the jackass who tries to take twenty spots under braking. Yeah, I know it works once in a while, but often you get nowhere, burn a match, and earn yourself a shitload of bad karma. Of course, I know the guiltiest aren't going to take heed here...

Aggression control benefits you many places other than the start of a cyclocross race. The concept can be expanded to the planning of your entire training season. You have to push your limits; conservative training will only yield conservative gains. But you have to be smart, staying on "the edge" and pushing just enough without going over and getting yourself injured, burning out, or just leaving yourself flat.

Running races are a place where I'm having trouble following my own advice. My running history doesn't contain many examples of negative split times. Last week at Brockton was typical, albeit at least a good result and a "slide free" race. The effort also left me with a tight calf. My LMT did not return my calls this week, so I was left to deal with it on my own. The foam roll proved quite useful, as did the heating pad. By Wednesday I was ready to test it with a 4.5 mile jog around the pasture. The knot was there, but I endured. The next few day I stuck with the cross bike. By Thursday night, I'd conceded that the Canton 10k coming up tomorrow was going to be a training run. Last year I tried to break 40 minutes on the tough, hilly, acorn and chestnut-strewn course. After an overly aggressive 5:45 first mile, I faded in miles two and three, and lost my chance when mile five took 7:07. I finished in 40:27. After my recent physical setbacks, missing the Pinnacle Challenge and all of cross season so far, I'd been banking on a good performance at Canton to salvage my fall, but the way my leg felt made me realize a sub 40 on this course was highly unlikely. So, shifting gears, Friday morning, instead of easing into the weekend, I did nine miles at a decent 7:50 tempo pace. What the hell right?

Well, today my calf feels pretty good! We'll have to see. My plan is to hold back, hold back, hold back at the start. This will be tough to do because the first half of the race consists of mostly downhill, the latter half thus being predominantly uphill. Even splits therefore could be considered negative. My goal is to contain the aggression as an experiment and see if I can put in a decent time. Now as the Cronoman says, I'd better get out on the bike before it stops raining. Have a great weekend, see some of you Sunday at the cross race (right after, and right next to, the running race). Thanks for reading.

Slime From the Video

I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set



I'm the Slime, by Frank Zappa. Tina Turner and the Ikettes did the background vocals!


The World Series. Again. Do the names George, Mike, Rico, Joe, Tony, Reggie, Carl, Elston, and Jim mean anything to you? If they don't, then you're just not a Red Sox fan. I've been doing a lot of running lately, and it dawned on me that the first time I ever ran a mile straight was running home from elementary school to watch Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals take on and defeat the 1967 Boston Red Sox in the World Series. Many games were in the afternoon then. I was even lucky enough to be sitting in the bleachers at Fenway for the second to last game of the regular season that year. I was a little bummed the next day, because when the Sox won the pennant (no playoffs in those days) everyone got to run on the field. Pandamonium, which was a new word for me back then.

TV was black and white. At least it was in our house. Now we're here watching the Sox in the series for second time in three years. On television...

I don't have cable. I had it for free due to a cable company error (I'm not kidding) for several years. It sucked. Yeah, I could watch the Tour (did not buy a Lincoln Navigator), the Giro (never once have visited the Olive Garden), and even the Vuelta (don't remember the ads, but at least it was a break from the WTC incident). When the evil Comcast sent me a letter noting that they had "corrected their error" and pulled the plug on my free ride, I declined to start paying for something that really wasn't worth it when it was free. Most of the time I don't miss it. Then there are the baseball playoffs...

Messing with the rabbit ears kinda blows, I'll admit it. I've thought about just getting rid of the box altogether and recovering the space. But it's nice to watch the games at home sometimes, although the late starts have me falling asleep. The constant ads though - WTF? Are ED and frequent urination really that big of a business that they can finance a full scale assault on the senses during the entire fucking World Series? I get it, I get it, you can't get a boner and you have to take a piss. Now get the fuck away from me, ok?

Then we have Joe Buck. Truth be told, Joey is not getting on my nerves so much this year. Maybe they hired that obnoxious promo guy (some comedian?) to do the "only one October" spots just to make Buck more likable. Not that McCarver doesn't already do enough of that. Get him a condo in Palm Springs and send him on his way with some complimentary Cialis and Flomax, but no more "insight." Yeah, I know, he was a '67 Cardinal, maybe that's why I don't like him. Good reason.

GO SOX, but kill your television. I'm going to have a Kill Ugly Radio. Sorry 'bout the Rockies Bold. Thanks for reading.

Surrounded

Responsibility for our successes and failures ultimately rests on our own shoulders. OK, maybe not on our shoulders, but somewhere on us. We make our own reality. That doesn't mean that every success, failure, or result somewhere in between can't be influenced by factors outside of our control; we still have potential for credit, blame, and misplacement of each. Racing can transform even the best blogs into excuse machines when things go wrong. What about when they go well?

Today marks my final week in a position I've worked at for the past five and a half years. Next week on November 1st I'll be starting in a completely new and different role at the same company. With the transition looming, yesterday I attended my first meeting in my new capacity, and the reality of how much different "work" is going to be set in. This transfer was a big change, and one which I took the initiative to pursue. In the past, in my professional life, and probably the rest of it too, I've allowed complacency to set in and taken a "go with the flow" approach. Sometimes this worked out well, and sometimes it didn't. This time around, feeling unchallenged and unrecognized in what I've been doing, I stepped out and found something better.

While pouring down over the rocks of the stream bed that's made up my working career, I've worked with, and for, an incredibly diverse group of people. It's been said that working for a great person is the best way to become great; observing great performers can be the best way to learn to become one. I've worked for some great people, and I've worked for some real bozos too. Most likely, so have you. One of the reasons I took this new position was to get back in a position where I could interact with, observe, and learn from high quality professionals in my field, while also doing things for which my existing skill set is better suited to than what I've been doing.

What's this have to do with bike racing, or blogging? Everything. I've gone on before about my belief that people who are taught too much begin to lose the ability to learn. There's too much emphasis on teaching now, from the cradle all the way through college and entry into the work force (at least for those who make it that far, and don't become so dependent on being taught that they just continue playing in the academic industry machine forever). We're seeing this in bike racing too. Everyone has to have a coach, and pay them to teach them what to do. Personally, I prefer the mentoring-learning idea. I'm seeing many people undervaluing and even disregarding their own experience, instead allowing the teachings of others to dictate how they train and race. Sometimes it's worship of the professional racers who compete in an entirely different arena, and sometimes it's mundane factors like peer pressure from other bloggers, but the result is the same.

I'm certainly not immune. Influence from those we're surrounded by can be good, bad, ugly, or in between, but it cannot be avoided. Who and what we surround ourselves with then becomes pretty important, doesn't it? The opportunities to learn, to observe, to be mentored, and even to be noticed and taught are unlimited, as are the opportunities to be jaded, discouraged, corrupted, and weakened. The responsibility to make positives out of our interpersonal experiences lies with us. But I already said that at the top...

I've been very lucky to have some great people to learn from, especially in bike racing and running. I'm happy to share credit for any success I've achieved. Some of those who've been unlucky enough to mentor me viewed me as stubborn and resistant, and I probably was and still am, but I see it as more of a willingness to learn than a refusal to be taught. Question authority, right? I've managed to piss mentors off, making them take every question as a challenge to their knowledge and to their authority. Some see this as disrespectful, and others found it downright intimidating. Bad solobreak, no biscuit. Note to self, here's another opportunity to learn about interpersonal skills, and how to be a good mentoree.

That takes us to crappy writing. I haven't been doing writes and rewrites lately. My entries, including this one, are filled with weak verbs, disagreements, made up words like "mentoree" and I'm sure a host of other problems I haven't even noticed. This is my responsibility too. It's a shame that those who do take the time and effort to put forth great writing in their blogs don't always get the recognition they deserve. I'm afraid that often times the works get skimmed in the feed reader and the subtleties and nuances, if not the basic message of these works are entirely missed by most. What blogs you surround yours with matters too. I know it's my responsibility to get my message across, be it in a blog entry or an email or a monthly report at work. I can't just blame the reader for poor comprehension of the material, expecting them to carefully read and re-read until things are clear. If you know the audience is just going to skim, then I guess you can't put too much message in there, can you? It looks like once again I'm already guilty. Thanks for reading.

Say No to Crack

For anyone who enjoyed the first two minutes of the last, and probably final Nodcast from Concord, here's a snapshot from the Bay Area showing something similar. Thanks for reading.

Another Sidebar Update

Ran the Caring for Kids 5k over in Brockton today. Flat, fast, USATF certified course that ran mostly through the grounds of the VA hospital. This was a big-time PR for me, 18:31, just barely breaking the 6 minute/mile barrier that has been stonewalling me. Good for 6th overall in the small field, 3rd in my age group, and a $5 gift certificate at Dick's Sporting Goods. That's right folks, $5 worth of Dick's.

Friday and Saturday I did not run. Saturday I did some work on the cross bike, fitted a 10 cm stem in place of the longer one that was on there. Took out the spacers too, and the new stem is a 17 degree drop, so altogether the change moved the bars down an inch or so, and about half that toward me. I liked it, but the deep-drop Kore bars are now too low in the hooks, so I'll probably switch them out to shallow drops to keep both my back and Gewilli happy. He'll still be grouchy because I'm leaving the top mounts on. They came on the bike, and there is no way I'm paying for new cables just to get rid of them. I also swapped the chainrings back to 38/47, but the shifting still sucks. As noted by master Ge, with the fd as low as it can go without hitting the ring in the front, the 52 arc of it leaves the tail end way too high, and it fails to push the chain soon enough. This is made worse by the indented part of the inner plate being designed for a ring 13 teeth smaller than the big ring, and thus it never really hits the chain at all. So my options are to take a Dremel to the outer plate so I can lower it (which just makes the latter problem worse), try a bigger big ring, or another fd. I'm thinking option b.

I also mounted up some Michelin Muds on half-decent clincher rims and threw a 13-25 9 speed cluster on there. Since this was a shakedown run, I rode the road mostly, and stayed out for 2.5 hours, ~60k. Felt good too, riding in shorts in October. Sunday morning I just took the MTB over to the running race and previewed the course, after which I rode home, got dressed to run, and drove back over. It's only four miles away. This gave me a bit of a pre-warmup.

Once I got my number and all that, I even did a "real" warmup for a change and ran about 4k. I tried some increased tempo stuff for two telephone pole lengths at a time too, then jogged a bit before heading to the start. The field was not very big, just over a hundred running and a bunch of walkers, but I recognized some of the local masters from other races. Lining up in the front, my plan was to keep it steady and not blow up in the first mile, hopefully taking about six minutes to do so, and then increase tempo from there. This did not work out. I stayed behind a few people, but it seemed easy, so I kept going at their pace. The best pulled away a bit a half mile in, but I was still not too far back, on the heels of two other guys.

Mile one came up at 5:48, and my HR was already 170 bpm at this early stage. Well, this should be interesting... At least it was flat. I focused on a rhythmic cadence, and "pulling my belly button back toward my spine" as I had read about on coolrunning. This does seem to stabilize the pelvis and get more leg drive out of the hips. I just put myself in a trance, tried to breath as deeply as possible, and stayed close to the two others. One of them pulled away, and I passed the other guy just before the two mile mark came up at 11:50. I was in the deep red now, but it's only seven more minutes right? And there was even the tiniest of downhills about a k from the end.

I drew myself up to the next guy just before that point, then just hung on. I freewheeled down the grade and we turned back on to the last road. I'd never been in a running race before where I was actually racing for position. I could still hear steps from behind too, but we had a few seconds. The finish was in the parking lot of a medical complex. Before we turned in there, when I could see the banner, I looked at my watch and it said 17 something. Screw this guy, I thought, I'm running for time. I upped the tempo as far as I could and made the turn in front of him, but then found that the course snaked around two more 90 degree corners before heading back to the banner. I was expecting about 50 more meters but it was more like 150. I still held him off until the last turn, but he came around me going into the chute. I didn't really care, one because I was ready to blow chunks and was just glad it was over, but two because I saw the clock and realized I'd gone a few seconds under 18:36, which is six-flat pace.

Talked with a few of the competitors, and found out they were accomplished runners and multi-sporters. I had a hot dog (they were grilled to perfection and I could not pass it up), then stretched before heading out to cool down. This did not work out either, as after a few minutes my right calf totally locked up. I tried to rub it out (huh-huh) at the roadside, but no dice and I walked back. I'm icing, heat-padding, massaging, foam-rollering, and biofreezing this mofo now, but it's still pretty tight. It doesn't feel serious, but I already sent my friggin' entry in for Canton next week, and I damn sure want to keep preparing. We'll see. Thanks for reading, congrats for making it to the end. Go have a piece of pie or something, it's that time of year.

How many times...

...does a dog have to bite you before you stop playing with him? With cyclocross mania in full swing, this is a question I'm asking myself. My reason for giving up on cross in the past can be summed up in one word - injuries. Some people never seem to get them. Others do, but quickly recover. Injuries both large and small have always been one of my main limiters. Push hard in training, some body part complains.

Then there are injuries resulting from the rough and tumble. Cyclocross breeds these kinds of injuries: broken seatpost knife wounds on the inner thigh, bruised shins, sore and out of joint hips, concussions, groin pulls, fractured wrists, torn menisci, hamstring issues, black eyes, the list goes on.

As much as I don't want to mess up my current training with the potential for injury, I must admit, the Gloucester buzz made me think about doing some cross. Though unable to attend, internet video provided me with a look at how hard everyone was riding. This was no parade. That part is fun. Ride hard or go backwards. Maybe both at the same time. Of course it helps that Gloucester was a highway course. No wonder they got 1200 riders, even if a few complained that the course didn't suck like most of them used to. Take note, the "old school" races draw about 1/10th the riders...

So yeah, that's my little dilemma. Adding to it, I've only ridden my bike once in the past month (yeah, that's right, I rode this week), so I'm not ready for this weekend, and next weekend doesn't really work either. There's always November, but when a couch is all you've been riding for the past four weeks, going up against riders who've been racing anaerobically every single weekend probably would not be too much fun.

Yeah, I know, "harden the fuck up." If I had a nickel for every wiener who's dabbled in bike racing for a few years and is now plastering that advice all over the internet, I might be able to buy a Dugast tubular. Come see me after you've finished your 1000th race, hard guy. As if any of these wankers have anything in common with Stuey... Thanks for reading, have a great weekend, keep smiling.

Walk of Life - 2

I thought that title sounded too familiar. So much for originality. The local blog neighborhood will be flush with race reports from Gloucester this week, an area where I've nothing to contribute, so rather than blank space I'll ante up with yet another boring training piece, even though I haven't been training much.

In lieu of training, what I have been doing is looking at the dietary side of the weight equation. This week I began using the tools at Buckeye Outdoors to track all of my food intake, as well as my calorie burning. I found this site through the Throughth3wall Challenge. I've always heard that keeping a log of every single thing you eat provides the best way to understand your diet. I'm not sure what's under the hood at Buckeye Outdoors. It's a little slow, I think it's a bunch of Perl scripts linked to some database, but the tools are extremely well developed and worth the wait. There are lots of foods already in the database, and adding your own is very easy. The tool also tracks training, and even stuff like how many miles you have on a chain if you set it up right (you include an item in an "equipment set" and the tool tracks the mileage from your workouts. Very cool).

This past week I did a bunch of running, pretty much every other day, totaling 25 miles or so. Saturday I did the first 10 miler that I've completed since the spring time. I ran my Town Forest-Borderland loop that is mostly soft surfaces and flat, averaging exactly 8:00 minute miles. Kind of disappointing considering that my average HR was 144 and my perceived effort was rather high. Concerned, I looked back at the logs from last winter and found most of my long training runs had similar or slower stats, yet I was still able to produce sub 7's in all my races. Weird. I had one long tempo run on this course last Christmas Eve where I ran 7:45s, but my average HR for that was 154, a very hard effort. I think I need to get into a running race this weekend. This fall I've done double the mileage that I completed prior to the Canton 10k last year, but with no racing and the 11 day layoff from the surgery, I feel unprepared. Lacking any efforts on the bike doesn't help. Maybe I need to jump into a cross race to shock the system... Stay tuned.

Anyhow, entering these run workouts into the Buckeye tool, the system uses your weight and distance to come up with a "calories burned" number. I quickly noticed the number the tool was giving me was much higher than the number my Polar HRM supplies. Researching the Polar OwnCal S method reveals it takes into account the user's VO2 max number that was entered upon initial setup. I checked mine and it was 35, so I think I just accepted the default. I also discovered that I was still plugged in there with a max HR of 185 and a weight of 178, both obsolete numbers from years ago, which I adjusted to 178 and 170 respectively. So now where to put the VO2 Max?

In my quest to raise the standards of my training efforts this winter, one of the things I've considered was to invest in some comprehensive testing at a performance lab, getting the body composition, VO2 max, etc all professionally tested. That may still happen, but for now I just needed a number. I looked around online and found the Rockport Walking Fitness Test seemed to be an accepted method of estimation. I also found a quick calculator based on running times. Plugging my numbers into that one, I came up with around 51 for a peak aerobic capacity. Unsatisfied, I headed over to the high school to try the Rockport test. It was windy, but I walked the 4 laps of the track in 13:20 with an average HR of 95 and a peak of 100, which calcs out to about 49 for a slob my age and weight, so this is the number I used in my Polar. I refiled the last running workout and this bumped the calories consumed from about 780 to 800, but the Buckeye tool, and other weight/distance tools I found online give me over 1300 for a 10 miler. I'm not sure what is up with that, but it doesn't really matter that much either. By tracking my food, workouts, and weight, if I stick with it long enough, I should be able to gain a better understanding of my nutritional needs.

In other boring training news, there is a new post on Ferrari's site about crank length, but really the piece contains nothing new. Still, interesting reading for some of you. To everyone who is enamored with the cross scene, here is the feed I use to get all the latest cross pictures from flickr. There was something else, but I can't remember what it was. Thanks for reading.

Read BKW Today

McDogfood, lunch of champions. Thanks for reading.

Shy, Quiet, and Reserved

I received a few complaints this weekend from people who got a bit squeamish hearing my tales of anal woe. Apologies are probably in order. Those who know me best understand how out of character such stories are for me. Normally I'm very private, reserved, conservative in conversation, almost bashful in a way. Certainly not the type of person prone to spontaneous displays of public nudity or anything like that... I guess having a half dozen different doctors give me the two finger salute in a 72 hour period, combined with having a different nurse come to the house every day and say "lie on your right side and pull your left knee up to your right chest. And could you reach back with the free hand and pull the cheek aside a bit so I can have a better look?" somehow desensitized me, and I let that lack of sensitivity slip into both my blog and personal conversations. I hereby apologize to all of you who were left speechless and squirming. With any luck, it won't happen again. Thanks for reading you fucking pansies.

Just three more days of this

Thanks for reading.

Trial Run

Wednesday I finally met up with a doctor who both seemed to know what he was talking about and was very optimistic about my prognosis. He felt only four more days of wound packing would be required, and he cleared me to start running. In his estimation this was not as serious as I had been led to believe, and the risk of further complications not all that high. Woo-hoo.

This morning I wasted little time in lacing up the shoes and heading out to the Sheep Pasture. Twelve days of sitting around doing nothing apparently left the running legs a lot worse off than when I just ride and don't run. Only four miles at an 8 minute flat pace and my quads were protesting. Oh well. I knew I'd lose the edge I'd been honing. Two weeks ago I was really working hard and in excellent shape, ready to do a final week's push before tapering for the Pinnacle Challenge. I was running low-mid 7's with minimal effort. Today I wasn't totally sucking wind or anything, but clearly the layoff and the rest of this ordeal took it's toll. I'll try to get out again on Saturday, maybe 6 miles or so, then Monday on the holiday too. Next week I'll get the wound rechecked and have a better idea of when I might be able to ride. I've made a deal with myself to finish up at least a few of the bike projects I've got going before I take to the roads.

Thanks to all for your support. This did not turn out too bad after all, but man did it suck last week. Special thanks to the friends who were there when I needed you. Thanks for reading.

Spilled Pelvis

So what do you think, is this a "Spilled Pelvis"?. WTF am I talking about? Look here. I think it's spilled, but not quite enough.

Doing better today. If this just heals up and goes away forever, that would be cool. Not so bad. Thanks for reading.