Just glad to be here...

Not a moment too soon, the first of the grand tours started today (you thought I had changed my page to pink to match my toenails?).  The best pictures and coverage are over at Pez Cycling News.  Do go check it out.

Ssmagliarosa

The Giro is huge this year -- all the best teams are there, and it's packed with time trials and mountains.  And it's started with an absolutely HUGE result.  Slipstream/Chipotle, my new favorite team in the Whole Wide World, won the opening team time trial today.  American Christian Vande Velde was first across the finish line for Slipstream, and therefore dons the leader's jersey, the maglia rosa.  Bellisimo!

Great Weathercat in the Sky:

Yes, I understand it's sposed to rain for the next five months. 

Alltherain

I'm cool with it.  In fact, it's a fine rain, good for the crops, keeps me from having to mow the lawn a few more days.  Just a couple requests:

1. Can we get 2 hours off tomorrow morning for the group ride?  Can still be wet, but not sopping please.  Fenders, okay.  Ark, bad.

2. Please smite the carpet installers so they cannot come this weekend.  No use getting rainy dirt all over our new berbers.

3. Make it sunny in Palermo for the Giro start.  It's my favorite grand tour, you know... at least until July or September.

4. Let's get this all worked out by the 18th so my next race will be dry.

Plzkthx.

Bull_Cuts

With my now-superfast metabolism, I'm at least slightly hungry all day.  Not that I should complain.  I get plenty of food, and I eat like 6 or more times a day.  But the times in between, my stomach sometimes feels like it's going to digest itself.

So the 15 minutes after lunch may be the best part of my day, at least so far.  I actually feel full for a little bit. 

I'm working hard to avoid overeating.  Or undereating.  It's a difficult balance, because my brain often takes a few minutes to catch up with the fullness of my stomach.  At the same time, I think all day about the calories that I'm taking in.  I try not to obsess over it, bbut I do try to be conscious of it.  Making it all even more complicated, I can't eat the same every day.  I have to consider what activity I've had already today, and what if anything I'll be doing in the evening or the next morning.  

Like most folks, I don't want to gain weight.  Wouldn't mind shedding a couple more pounds, but I'm happy to maintain.  But at the same time, I'm deathly afraid of having a stingy metabolism.  [Excellent reading on the topic from one of my favorite authors, Robert Sapolsky.]  I would much rather lose a little weight, or at least maintain, by consuming and burning a lot of healthy calories.  So it's tons of food, spread out over the day, and tons of exercise.  Don't want to starve myself thin.  That wouldn't be very much fun at all.

On the upside, I'm starting to look the part a little bit.  While I may be off the back of the race and looking like a slack-jawed yokel in this pic, at least the bike isn't moaning the way it used to.

See you at dinner.  Or in 20 minutes.

283377633_XHYVM-M

PP squirrel 1

PP squirrel 2

No, I did not do this.  Yes, I laughed.  A lot.

I came across (via Boingboing) a great charitable project that Poopreport.com (!) is running (!!), build toilets for schoolchildren in rural Uttar Pradesh, India.  Does it get any better than that?  I can't imagine how.  They can build a latrine for $250.  In the Heifer.org model, maybe you can afford a share of a toilet?  Perhaps a tenth?  Hop on over there and kick in a couple bucks.

...More or less.  Long, rambling, have-another-beer post.  Let's give it a whirl.

I'm looking at this blog, and you would think that all I do is ride the bike.  Well, no.  It's just that I try to keep my work opinions to myself, try not to over-publicize people who might not want their name or picture posted on the interwebs, and don't have much going on beyond bike, work, family, and friends.

But I will say something slightly different.  It originates in cycling, but it applies across the board.

Having the right people around you is huge.  You hear about this in so many circles.  They talk about it in MBA classes.  There was a great article in Fortune a few months back about the CEO from Pepsi and her coworkers, and how well they work together.  I certainly see it at work too.  We all have our quirks, but we don't have anyone who's an out-and-out prick.

I'm even more astounded at the quality of people when it comes to family.  You know when you get a little older, into your 20s or 30s, and finally realize that your parents are people?  And you look at siblings and -- wow -- these people are adults all of a sudden, with mortgages, sex lives, and fungi growing in strange places?  This is when I started realizing how big the quality of people is. 

The ~wife and I talk about it from time to time.  We imagine our parents 20 years ago.  Neither of our families was destitute, but we weren't rich, and with 32 kids each, a lot of things were a struggle.  How did our parents buy christmas trees, at like $50 or more a pop, back in the 1980s, when that was real money? 

Good people make things happen, they encourage you, and they make you want to be good -- better -- easter people -- yourself.  On a somewhat smaller scale, but still important, I'm really glad for the people around me who are better than me, and at the same time encourage me to improve myself. 

My ~wife was at a party with me and the cycling team at some point last year, and remarked about how skinny everybody is.  And she pointed out that's probably quite a bit of motivation for me.  No kidding.

It's a lot easier to want to be a better person -- whatever that better is -- when you've got good people, good role models, I spose.  Tonight I had the privilege of hanging out with some guys who are at the upper end of my abilities.  When I got home, I read a very kind and encouraging email from another guy who's at least a shade better than me.  These people are a bit above me in one respect or another, but so many of them are very encouraging.  Both by being a little better, and by making me feel like I can get there too, they help me out immensely.

I guess it's nice to find the good in people.  It's double-nice when it's easy to find. 

Slipstream / Chipotle chief Jonathan Vaughters posted recently about the risk in racing on the team's blog.

To suffer is the currency of racing. To risk life over and over is just a simple rule of the game. Ever think about jumping out of a car at 55 mph in your underwear? That’s what a crash in professional cycling is. The young riders I’ve seen grow up over the last five years all take this elemental part of racing and accept it over and over again: Crashes are a part of the “game.”

Well, my bike will never see 55mph, but the comparison is apt.  Why bother?  I can almost understand it for the pros.  They do get paid (a little) after all.  But what about us dopes who go careening around the office parks of South Jersey at speeds of 35 mph?  All while closer to our competitors than we would ever get to the same guys in any other setting.

After my crash a couple of weeks ago, I had some time to think about all this.  I got rocked pretty hard on April 6th; easily the worst crash that I've ever had (though mine was better than some teammates).  After that, it took a little effort to get back into racing.  Not so much because I was afraid to crash, more because I was afraid to hit the same hip again!  Even one week later, I was pretty much 75% or so there, mentally.  Thing is, I don't know why.  I have very little competitive inclination.  I'm not the fastest bike rider in the world.  I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I do know I could really hurt myself doing this.  For all the time and effort, I may never win a race.  And that will be just fine.  But still... I love to race.  

Today I completed a survey the USA Cycling Federation had on its website.  Two or three questions asked, in a nutshell, why do you ride?  They had a few choices -- competition, commuting, fitness, environment, etc. -- and the perennial "other."  Fun?  What about fun?  

Turns out the primary reason that I ride is because I love it.  It really is that simple.  The biggest reason I race is because I love it.  I really enjoy bicycling, and always have, since I was a wee little momo.  I hope to ride till I die.  [Not to ride to my death, mind you...]  Some day the racing won't be worth the risk to my then-osteoporitic bones.  I'll still take the risk of riding on the road, just as fast as my old man legs will take me.

Longride

Evesham group shot

Yesterday my schedule lined up so that I could go to the Greentree executive park for the Thursday night ride.  The group there is really incredible... it's everything from category 1 and 2 racers, to the occasional pro, to cat 4s and 5s, and guys who have probably never raced. 

Last night was probably my fifth or sixth time at Greentree on a Thursday.  Often I take a lot of crap from some of the people who take the whole thing way too seriously... as if it were the world championships.  You're going too fast, you're pulling too strong, hold your line, all this stuff.  And indeed, I need some work in a lot of these areas. 

Last night I got through relatively unscathed, even though I did manage to screw a few people up, I'm sure.  Last night was really one of my worst nights, though.  I was all over the place on the course, didn't corner well, didn't really hold a steady speed. 

Still, I don't despair.  I was thinking about it afterward, and chatting with one of my friends about it...  In a way, it's actually rather nice that I have so much to learn.  I'm still fascinated by bicycling in general and racing in particular.  I have some really good friends and teammates, and I feel lucky that I can learn from them.  Hopefully I can avoid knocking anybody over while I'm learning...

I haz dem.

I'll spare you the pictures (you're welcome).  Still, good news.  Turns out that tattoo aftercare is just about the right formula for healing road rash, too. 

We're in the looks-like-swiss-cheese phase right now, with a decent amount of scabbing and nastiness.  But things are getting a lot better, and the swelling on my hip has gone down quite a bit. 

Now if only I had the bike-handling skills to match...

This past sunday, at least one person I know, and possibly myself, had lives saved by bicycle helmets (see previous post).  Now, I'll give you that we take an extra risk because we race.  We were going 30+ mph.  But if you ride a bike outdoors, you too run the risk of hitting your head on something hard.  If you ride on or near a road, an encounter with a car or truck could mean your head, and the rest of your body, hurtling through the air at 30 miles per hour or better.  If you ever had any doubt that you should be wearing a helmet, you should have a look at my helmet.  Here it is.

The first picture is what a new helmet looks like, from the back, and then on my head.

New helmet back

New helmet on head

Based on my recollection of the crash, I think that my head was the last thing to hit the ground.  I was pretty well slowed down by the time my head hit.  Still, my helmet is TOAST.  It is totally spent... it did its job, and did it well.  If you look carefully -- click to enlarge the pictures if you like -- you'll see about five cracks through the helmet, all in the back where my head hit the ground.

Here, note the crack between the two black plastic bits:

Dead helmet 1

Note the huge crack down the bottom of this picture:

Dead helmet 2

This one you may have to enlarge to fully appreciate... multiple cracks, horizontal relative to this picture.  Note how they go across both sides of the center yoke area (that looks like an arrow):

Dead helmet 3

Another view of the inside cracks.  Chewed to bits:

Dead helmet 0

The shots of the inside of the helmet are the real winners.  All of those cracks, inside and out, go all the way through the helmet.  I shudder to think the state I'd be in had I not been wearing that helmet.  I really get chills thinking about my friend who cracked her head twenty times harder than I did.

Now, explain to me how dad's going to ride down the street next to their kid, kid's required by law to wear a helmet, and dad can't be bothered.  Or even better, here's the would-be professionals having a go at it (remind me how many professional cyclists have been killed in training rides, versus in races in recent years?):

We are idiots

1 comment

Don't even get me started on the idiots who don't wear motorcycle helmets...