An Even Dozen

I know you really don't care, but...

About 15 minutes ago I took my 12th crap of the weekend. I don't say this for poop humor, as I don't find it particularly funny or anything like that. It is what it is. But what I get out of it is that I'm still so out of touch with my body that it can get so bent it feels the need to harbor any and all solids and go out of kilter like this. I guess the 4-2 lineup threw me for a loop of sorts, then it was all topped off by Thursday's beer and not enough sleep that night.

I don't know. I know it's a lot of stress on my body but is it that much? Am I really throwing myself that under the gun that I react this way? I guess I should do a little research to see what exactly this is indicative of. But jeez, my ass is sore from all this freaking 7th Generation toilet paper. Sure it's recycled and all that stuff, which is cool. But at this point I'm pretty sure it's 98% cardboard.

Fried Day

Man I am toast right now, mentally not physically. Sitting on the train Thursday evening as I start this post and a full day of training has my brain bleeding out my ears. Remarkably I managed to make my usual train by 2 minutes so that's a major bonus. Downside is that the loud-mouth reject that gets off at South Orange is on this train. Why do I sit in the front half of the last car? She's always there. Ugh on me.

The only thing going on right now are the details of the bike build, if you can call it that. Kirt suggested lo-rise, hi-rise, either is fine just get the bar you want and pick up the stem after that. Makes sense. 2 of my bikes have 135s and the other has 100. The DumpTrucker is the 100 and that's the most comfortable of the 3, but all of that means nothing because Trek bike geometry for a hardtail is going to be different than Specialized geometry for a full-suspension.

Steve

"i have heard that the geometry should be similar on your bikes, be it road, mtb, tricycle. so if the dumptrucker feels comfortable, try to match it. thinking out loud, what about a set of bar ends on the trek?"

It is comfortable, so I'll try to match it. I need to get it reasonably close to put together and then adjust the details as needed. That's probably why buying the stem last is a good idea. Really all we're talking about is bar height and the distance from the seat, which probably has some name like effective nuts-to-fingers length or something. Seat height will be easy to measure and fore/aft of the saddle is easy as well.

I was never a big fan of bar ends. They just never did it for me. Almost surely I'll pick up some Ergon grips for the bike but not sure which ones. They have an XC grip that isn't as big/bulky as the ones I have now which I may try. They're easy to get on/off so if I want to ride distance with this bike I can easily take them off the Dumptrucker for a day.

Walter

"I agree with shaggz, I remember someone on mtbnj reporting that their roadie and their mtb's were set up so that their angles and reaches were almost exactly the same on all of their bikes. I have a 100 mm, 6 degree rise 4 bolt Ritchey stem I took off the mary you can experiment with if you'd like."

I would like, that would be great. The stem I have on the SS is 135 so that would show me what will work best to get the setup close to the FS bike. I think ChrisG mentioned all his bikes are setup the same and it's a good idea in theory. No idea how it works in practice as far as porting your road bike fit to the mountain bike.

I don't have any shifters either. Add that to the list of things I'll have to pick up. Damn, just another piece to add to the pile of things I need to buy. All in all not a bad tally but the more things I need the longer this project will take. You know how impatient you can get when dealing with this stuff.

After much deliberation I'm going to pick up one or possibly even 2 of these. Both Kirt and Jason at Halters think it's a good deal. Jason believes the 25.4 bars are dying a slow death and there will be lots of good deals on them going forward. So something to keep an eye on. Other than that the site is pretty pricey, so I probably won't add much else on. Probably a few stem spacers and a Powerlink or 2. Possibly the SRAM chain and maybe some Avid brake pads for when my current ones wear down. That would leave a stem, which Walter has graciously offered to let me borrow, as well as shifters, which I've yet to think much about.

Wow, a 450 pound man just got up to get off at the next stop. Of course I'm guessing but holy cow is this guy immense. I know it's really rude and all to look at people like that and even comment on it. But who am I kidding? You really have to be taking bad care of yourself to let it get that bad. I was probably 285 at one point and right now I can't fathom how I let myself go like that. I guess that's a good testament that we all live in our own reality and that reality exists in one's mind. If reality is indeed an illusion that's a strange game to play with it.

Moving on. After 5 days off I was supposed to get on the bike this morning but when I woke up at 4:50 it was pouring, so I went back to sleep which was fine by me because Julia didn't go to sleep until 11:00 and then woke up crying and vomiting with congestion from 12:30 to 1:30. At 2:00 I got back to sleep for 3 solid hours. I took the trainer setup down a few months ago to give me more basement floor space so I didn't have that option. I may need to put it back together with the rainy season coming upon us fast.

Speaking of rain this weather has tossed my weekend plans entirely. I could go to the Mooch and promise BobW to attend some TM sessions but that plan has 2 major problems. First I don't do TM. Not that I don't want to, in theory. I just never get around to it. These TM sessions end up taking more of my day than a 5 hour bike ride. As usual, if they started at 6:00 am I could make them. But they normally run until 1:00 and that just eats up the day. The second problem is that I hate getting my bike that filthy dirty. I just took it all apart to clean it from last weekend. I'd prefer not to have to do it again.

On the other side of that coin are 2 obvious questions. First, do you think it's not going to rain for the 24 hour race? Alex said yesterday the place is a mess. And as far as I can see it's been pouring for at least 2-3 hours now. So this is already setting up to be one whale of a messy race if this weather keeps up over the next 2 weeks. The second question is, if this weather scares you off are you in the wrong sport? Rain happens. Mud happens. Deal with it. I guess I better put in an order for more bearings, huh?

So I may do that anyway, which would also give me an opportunity to see how those Blue Grooves do in the wet conditions. Or I may do the same plan but on the road bike from the house, which sounds dreadfully boring. Ah, dog dick.

Friday's FGI average: 189.71

That's .72 pounds less than last week. My low weight for the week was 188, the high was 191. It's a good stabilizing week especially considering I was off the bike for 6 straight days. The last time I was off I blimped up by 5 pounds. It would nice to be firmly in the 180s by the 24 hour race in 2 weeks and in the 185 average realm or lower for the 50k.

Moron Nutrition

More on nutrition. Moron nutrition. Too appropriate for me. Go with Walter's comment first:

Walter

"Sorry norm, but Metro Park was without power due to the storm, so when I got home, wifey was here waiting. I read through the MTBR thread, so, what this company does is you tell them your specific goals, issues, training routine, etc., and they create your own custom formula to suit your needs??? Sounds like an interesting idea, hopefully its as good as it sounds."

I wasn't actually at work at 4:00 since the subways weren't running when I got to Manhattan. So I wasn't online. About this nutrition thing. If I had time I would take some screen shots and show you but I have training today so my time to make pictures and stuff is limited.

There are 2 ways to do it. They have these "slider bars" of attributes. So the first one is flavor, you can make it strong or light. Then electrolytes. Calories. Caffeine. And a few others I don't remember. It helps to be sort of insane to begin with to do it that way. The other option is a questionnaire which is a lot more simple. That probably makes more sense for most people, if not everyone. You can make and save as many mixes as you like. So maybe you have your XC racing mix which is probably higher in glucose or some other fast-burning carb and an enduro mix which is higher in maltodextrin. And so on. His opinion for a 24 hour race is heavier and with protein in the beginning and when you get sick of that go lighter, less protein, but with caffeine.

It sounds good on one hand but overkill on the other. I traded emails with Maurice yesterday and his opinion is just go out and ride your bike and eat normal food. Backing up that opinion is Chris Eatough, who I believe eats turkey sandwiches. On the other side of the coin is that Pua Whatever who eats nothing but liquid calories in her races.

If you read the forum enough it basically boils down to this. Everyone goes through this process. You just need to find what works for you. I'm obviously still going through the process. Maybe it ends up that I choose banana cream pie. It's looking like I'll have nothing but 3 scoops of Perp, some Heed, and Accelerade for this weekend unless the Infinit stuff gets here. I may try to find a retailer with the Carb-BOOM and pick up some powdered Gatorade or just find the Hyrdo-BOOM instead.

Getting a bonus day at home allowed me to get the bike all back together. Still dirty in spots but ready to roll overall. I should probably bring it up from the basement and run it around the neighborhood to make sure it works as expected.

Kirt stopped by yesterday and said the Trek 8000 frame is a solid frame. I think I only need a stem and handlebars to get it up and running, plus a chain. The problem is I don't know how to go about buying them. The Easton carbon bars are nice and light. But do I get hi-rise or lo-rise? How do I make sure they're not narrow like 2 of the ones I have? And how can I tell what length my stem needs to be? I suppose I'll try to copy the DumpTrucker as much as possible because that's a really comfortable bike. But I'm not sure if that's the best approach or not.

Last day off the bike today so tomorrow morning I'll be back out there bright and early unless it rains. Nothing special just an hour or so to wake the legs up and make sure I'm not a slug Saturday.

George

"" An overabundance of cake will leave you fat, disgusting, and laying on the couch. An overabundance of beer will make you want to be romantic with those that are fat, disgusting, and laying on the couch. See the difference? " I s e e...(Homer) Too funny! But yet so true.. You would be a top notch salesmen...there Mr. Z!"

Nice Homerism. Hard to get the inflection across sometimes. But purple is a flavor.

Wasting Time Until Walter Gets Home

Thanks to Jake I have a backup bike to ride for Allamuchy. He has graciously agreed to let me use his Trek Fuel if I need to. Thanks Jake, much appreciated.

Speaking of bikes mine is going back together and more apart. The cranks and rings and chain are cleaned and reassembled as well as the BB pieces. But while I was down there I decided to take a look at the 2 bearings that connect the BB shell with the swingarm. I took it apart and the bearings were rusty and seized. As a general rule, parts that are supposed to be lubricated and rotating don't perform well when rusted and seized. So I popped them out in less than 10 minutes. My experience in working with the linkage bearings made it oh so much easier this time around. I still need to press the new ones in which will be a hair trickier because I'm dealing with the bike frame now, not a $35 piece of linkage. The risk side of the risk/reward equation is a bit steeper now.

So it looks like Saturday is a go. I talked to Allamuchy guru BobW and he said that loop looked pretty reasonable all around. Now it's just a matter of going out and doing it. No idea what bike food I'll be brining along right now though.

Didn't sleep great because we have crickets in the house. If I were a monk I might be able to deal with them but I'm more like Bill Murray in Caddyshack so they bother the shit out of me. Regardless I feel good this morning, my minor cold having all but disappeared.

The weather was bad last night across all of North Jersey it seems. I started getting NJT alerts just before 6:00 saying various trains were canceled. So I took it easy this morning, enjoying my coffee as I worked on my bike. I could have worked from home but it's hot and sticky upstairs and that cricket would be the end of me if I had to listen to it all day. Plus I would just want to work on my bike all day and would get no real work done. Well I took the train in to Hoboken, waited for the delayed Path, then got to Manhattan to find all the Brooklyn subways were down. I turned around and went home. On the bright side Nat managed to kill the cricket while I was gone.

More on InfinIT Nutrition. I replied to the guy's email and he sent me his cell phone number and said we could work something out, which of course is the sales pitch. No big deal let me call and see what he says. I'm on work's dime so what else is there to do until 4:00 when Walter gets home from work?

The usual sales stuff, as expected. Their gig is that they make up the mix for you as a personalized thing. So you sort of mix and match various attributes and come up with a powder you can use. That's fine and all but I just ordered from Hammer and I don't want to drop another load of cash on something 2 weeks before my 24 hour race.

Well he says let me credit your account with $20 and that can help you out. Plus there's a money-back guarantee if you don't like it. Only 1 person has ever used that, he says. He goes on to create 2 mixes for me. A strong mix and a lighter mix. The lighter mix has caffeine and no protein. Apparently some people get iffy with protein after a while and you can move off that for the next batch. I hem and haw and he says think it over, we created the account, you make the choice, I don't want to pressure you. And that was that. Still it's going to cost me like almost $70 for the 2 jugs. Same price range as Hammer stuff but a lot of money for an experiment.

After the call I checked them out on the endurance forum and found a little bit, but not much. Seems they're just trying to break into the market so they're relatively new to the biking scene. They do, however, have one major feather in their cap. "Pua" who just won the female solo 24 worlds is a big fan. And Jeff Kerkove who I've talked to before says a few of the people he rides with are huge supporters and that he was very interested in checking them out.

So now I'm really interested, but not ready to drop that kind of cash yet. I hem and haw some more and finally decide to take a half-step. I grab one each of the 12 serving jugs for a total cost with shipping of $29 after the $20 is taken off. That's a much better price for an experiment at this late hour.

The MTBR link grew a little bit but what came out of it was a list of drink mixes that are made up of different carb sources. This was the list:

Cytomax
PowerBar Endurance
GU2O
Hydro-BOOM
e-Fuel

At some point I need to come up with a comparison chart and list the cost per serving of this stuff. I also want to try the Gatorade plus Carbo Boom option. So far straight Accelerade was a no go and Hammer products are TBD. We'll see. Hopefully this stuff gets here before the weekend so I can try
it this Saturday.

Jake

"i see you still have jane's on the brain.."

My titles are all subconscious now. When I start the writeup for the day it's usually on the train ride home. So I just sort of go, blather on about whatever I was thinking about or researching that day at work. The next day I add a little more and reread it, then make it a little more readable, adding little comments here and there in an effort to be more entertaining.

So probably whatever is in my head will pop out one way or the other.

George

""Didn't you crack your ribs at Allamuchy earlier this year? Hard to believe you're sending me to the place of your doom... " :O Er ah...ask not what Allamuchy can do to you...but what Allamuchy will do to you, er ah! lol. Well, I didn't crack the ribs at Allamuchy..it was my left hand. Yes my doom for sure, that place can be rough for the unintiated and inexperienced! Such as myself (doh) The ribs were cracked in flag football this past winter. BTW, no more football for me. At least that is what I'm saying now... Hmmm, more beer, less cake... I'll have to mull that one over Norm."

Yeah it can be a rough place, but it also helps to know how to crash. I must have gone down 6 times Saturday and it really helps if you do it properly. So crash more and become an expert. An overabundance of cake will leave you fat, disgusting, and laying on the couch. An overabundance of beer will make you want to be romantic with those that are fat, disgusting, and laying on the couch. See the difference?

I should be in sales.