Tuesday Confession

Last night it was raining when we went to bed, and it was already about 62 degrees. So I said to myself that I was going to hit the trainer this morning instead of the road. It's really early in the season to be hitting the trainer but then the reality struck me at what exactly is going on here. At first it makes no sense but follow me here.

I've been stressing to myself lately that I need to make sure I'm having fun on the bike. So if I race, just go out and have fun. On weekend try to hook up with some of the team and enjoy the ride more than making it a training ride. Try to do rides you enjoy as often as possible. Enjoy life.

So when the alarm rings at 4:50 on a Tuesday morning, here is how I enjoy life the most: Go back to bed. No matter what I do, I'm not exactly enjoying myself to the fullest out there when the sun isn't even up and it's 5:23 am. Here's the reality of the situation. If I only ride to have fun, I'll ride 2-3 times a week.

That basically translates to the other 2-3 rides being work. And if I'm going to work, let's make it as short and efficient as possible. That means it's time to hit the trainer, which is exactly what I did this morning.

This might not make complete sense to some people, and I can understand that. But I'm having problems getting out on the road, doing my full interval session, and having time to catch the second train. The trainer makes the ride much more efficient and cuts time off either end of the ride. So I'm done with my ride by 6:30 and showered by 6:40. That gives me 50 minutes to eat breakfast, pack lunch, and relax. If I hit the road I'm often out of the shower after 7:00 and rushing to get out the door in time.

I'm not all in on the trainer yet but I am likely to hit it 1-2 times a week from now on. In an ideal world I would be able to ride my bike 20 miles to work, shower there, then ride home at the end of the day, 5 days a week. But the world isn't ideal so I'm on the train to Brooklyn after having done the trainer thing this morning.

So while it may seem insane, and I admit that it does, it also makes sense in a lot of ways. I'm ok with it for now, especially since the dark days of winter have not yet arrived. In 4 months you may want to point me to my own post and point out that I was ok with this back in August. For now it's ok though.

No Magic in 2008

Today I opted for the lower level of the double decker. I'm shifting hours this week to align more with when my boss is here. He never made it yesterday because his plane didn't leave Chicago until 1:00. I guess he went right to the hotel and called it a day. The lower level is also a new perspective because you're lower than normal. Still comfy and smooth.

I find people who sit on the outside of the 2 seater obnoxious. They clearly don't want to share with anyone and often time put their bag on the other seat and sigh when you ask to sit there. What's wrong with people?

But that has nothing to do with the magic. The magic is the biking magic. I had fairly high hopes coming into this year and I think today I'm going to go ahead and say that those lofty hopes are not going to bear fruit, or at least the kind of lush, tropical island fruit I was hoping for. The plan was to come into the season really hot and compete for a top 5 spot in each of the first 5 races. Well I bagged Tymor but in those 4 races I did compete in 3 but came up empty, getting 6, 6, and 7. Not bad by any stretch. But not what I was hoping for.

Of course a lot of my spring momentum was stalled by going to Taiwan and going from 186 to 195 and even above, at one sad point seeing 200 again. So understandable I would drop a few spots out of the top 5, no big deal. This still left the second half of the season, and right before Chicago I saw 189 again and things were looking good.

But then a week out there, drinking before, drinking after, and a scale which read 195 yesterday and 194 today tells me I'm just not going to get there. I thought I was back on track last week but then I jumped from 191 to 195 in 2 days. I need to string together some reasonably healthy weekends but this summer shit and the gatherings with the neighbors suck the life out of any momentum I build during the week.

It's not like I'm having a bad time of it. I'm totally enjoying myself on the weekends (obvious), getting in huge rides and then having fun with some friends after. But following up a 50 mile ride with 5 beers and pizza leaves me all sorts of beat up, unable to consistently make a push for those much needed lower 180 scale days I need in order to compete for a podium.

And it's not like I'm slow on the bike either. This morning I went out at 5:25 am. Without question when I ride at that time of day I'm unable to pull the same average as mid-morning or afternoon. But I did my long 24 mile swamp loop and pulled a 20.3 average. That's goddamn fast for a fat drunk. 2 years ago a 17 would have made me happy now I'm doing 20+ at 6:00 am. All in all, not bad.

But I don't think I'm going to take that magic step this year. It's not an awful realization but it is a realization regardless. So there I am. I don't think that changes anything but maybe I need to come to grips with the fact that I'm never actually going to see 179 like I had hoped. Maybe I make it to expert after next year. Or maybe I get sick of waking up at 4:30 and 5:00 am and dial it back and enjoy things more and push myself less. Or maybe I get on track, hit 182 by September, and podium the last 3 races. Either way as long as I'm enjoying the ride, literally and figuratively, I guess I have to take what I can get.

Weekend Riding

Another Sunday post about my riding weekend. Nothing of note for those of you who come looking for the chicks on the train or my musical tastes or even my general observations on life. So you've been warned.

WFH Friday so was out on the mountain bike and did some local boy scout trails, repeatedly sprinting up hills until that got boring then found the one dirt road in town and did repeats up that hill. Today (Sunday) was hill repeats on the road bike. 24 minutes Friday and 30 today. Saturday was my long ride.

Did almost 50 miles up in the Mendham Hills yesterday, MB link here. Overall had a really strong ride considering the vertical on that ride. The middle third was just ridiculous climbing. I didn't hit any sort of wall at 2:40 this time, though by the end I was starting to fade. I think I have my 3 hour pace down fairly well though yesterday was too hot for the DH40 pace.

I used my lap button on the GPS and once I got out of the hills I managed to pull a 19.8 average in the 2:00 to 2:30 time range. That really picked up the average which had fallen quite a bit from the climbing. I have been making myself stand on hills more and more and I found myself more comfortable than ever out of the saddle yesterday. I decided at 2:10 to not stand anymore because I was starting to feel it, but then just got out of the saddle again less than 20 minutes later.

The ride today was in the dead middle of the 97 degree day and it didn't bother me at all. So I think I'm getting used to riding in the heat. In all the GPS tells me I did 1400 feet of climbing in 6 miles and 30 minutes of actual "on" time. The other 30 minutes and 9 miles were going down and between hills.

Weekend Rides

Going to actually put up a training post this afternoon as a record for myself. Unless you have an interest in my training I'd suggest skipping it.

Was out in Chicago all week so I was 5 days off the bike. Didn't go nuts out there but came into Saturday at 193, feeling pretty tired and bloated and so on after a pretty rough Thursday night of eating and drinking and drinking. That was a +2 on the trip and +4 on my recent low of just over a week ago. For the record I'm just not concerned with weight at this point because I'm very happy with the results of my balanced protein intake and how much easier it is to keep eating stable.

Saturday

Rode out to my parents house in PA. Motionbased link is here.

Started out pretty slowly as the off week certainly left me lethargic. Didn't really pick it up until after about the 2 hour mark when I started to get some more legs under me. That's when I was able to creep the average from 17 to 17.7 until the last few short climbs to my parents dropped me down to a still respectable 17.6 for the ride. At the 2:40 mark I started to really feel it, which makes sense roughly. That time is pressing my limit so it was expected. Was able to bang out the last 15 minutes though so hopefully I'll be able to knock out a 3 hour Gilligan tour next weekend.

The total vertical on the ride is respectable at 4570 over 51 miles. That clocks a 9k vertical over a century so I have to be content with that. I was hoping to pull the 18 average but didn't realize just how much I was climbing at the time. I didn't love the route from the 512/513 intersection to the base of Jugtown Mountain. I think next time I'll shoot a little north of Califon maybe through Long Valley and head south of Washington and miss route 173 entirely. Another option is to shoot south to Round Valley and then up through Pittstown to Holland and the back way up the Delaware.

Sunday

The ascent of Warrenville Road, Motionbased link here.

Started really slowly Sunday and crept my way down towards 22 and decided to do Warrenville Rd, which is about as steep as it gets. Looking at the elevation chart this was just a series of ups and downs, and not knowing a whole lot about those roads I was not smashing the downs so much so I lost a lot of average there. After the climb itself I was at 15.1 for the ride and managed to bring it up to 16.3 over the last 40 minutes or so. Not terrible but not amazing either. Didn't feel fantastic though.

My official Warrenville numbers, using the lap button, are .57 miles in 5:48 with 338 feet of vertical. I guess my aim would be to get that under 5:00 by the end of the year but not doing it the day after my longest ride of the year would likely give me 20 seconds or more right there.

In all something like 80 miles in the 2 days. So even though I had a 5 day break I managed 6 rides in the last 11 days for a total of 240 miles and about 13.5 hours of saddle time.

Back to Tubeless

On Monday's ride at Lewis Morris I flatted 20 minutes into the ride which ushered in the 29er tubeless era for me. I wanted tubeless from the door but the tires weren't available and we were looking to get the bike on the trails sooner than later. So we went with tubes and they lasted all of 5 rides. Well, not even 5 rides as the 5th was hardly a full ride at all. So about 55 miles for $50 of tires.

I made my way down to the shop and inevitably spent 90 minutes there, which is probably an all-time low for a trip there. My wife thinks it's a good thing that the shop isn't in town because it would be way too easy for me to fall into a time warp. The way I see it I could bring Julia there and we could spend all sorts of time destroying things.

For all the bad things I've said about other bike shops, this shop is the complete opposite. I love this shop. Jay and Chris not only know their stuff, I enjoy just blowing time there. Not that any of you don't know what I'm talking about but I might as well mention that it's Halter's Cycles. If you don't go there, go there. All other shops suck in comparison.

Bike

Back to Indiana Jones and the Trainer of Doom this morning. It's warm enough now to ride outside in the morning but I don't have lights on and with only an hour to ride I'm going to keep pounding the intervals and stick with the plan. Maybe mid-June I can start piling up some serious saddle time and go out for 2 hours before work once I'm back in the mode of losing weight and building a bigger base for the second half of the season, as well as prepping for the Darkhorse 40 which is probably replacing the 24 hour race this year.

Jake says, "dude, this is great stuff. keep up the good work on the train experiment. by the way, whatever your FGI is, you're flying, so throw it out the window. maybe two (three?) years on the bike consistently is the magic number."

I'm thinking a few things here. On the road I have the new bike fit which makes me faster. Off road I have a new and much better bike which makes me faster. But I think the key is the constant riding. Since Julia was born I've basically ridden 4-5 times every week. That's 100+ weeks of continuous riding. This year I've really focused myself better to get the most out of my workouts and I think the 2 year baseline is really helping me maintain that. I do feel pretty solid on the bike these days. Just keep at it.

Cycle 8

Wednesday morning. I was thinking of just having 1 post a week with all the accumulated numbers from the week but decided that tacking it on the end of my daily crap is better.

Victim: White, woman, 19-29, not married, regular, Murray Hill, not fat, long blonde hair. Possibly the most attractive "victim" yet. But to be honest it's hard to tell when someone is sitting right next to you. It's kinda rude to turn and look right at someone as they sit an inch away. She's reading Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. I thought I smelled cigarette smoke when she sat down but now I think it may be the guy in front of us. Oh! Oh! It's the smoker from yesterday in front of us. Goddamn smoking is gross. Anyway, granola bar and water, then to the book. Strokes her hair with her left hand while she reads.

Assessment: All in all a good co-rider. Even though we were delayed (what a surprise, NJ Transit delays) she was quiet, kept her space, and just read her book. No phone, no makeup, no space violations. Score another one for the Murray Hill women.

Tired, Fat, and My Brain Hurts

Been really quiet this week for no good reason. Life is more of the same I guess but a few things of note I can talk about, though it's generally more of the same old, same old, kind of thing. Friday and I'm pretty happy to see the end of the week come. I'm exhausted.

I'm doing something wrong on the exercise and nutrition front. I worked from home Tuesday and went out for an afternoon ride after lunch only to blow up like I've never blown up before. I was so wasted I cut the workout short, something I haven't done all year. It's not something I do much at all, in any circumstances. To have it happen when I'm supposed to be at some sort of peak fitness is troubling.

Also, I'm out of control with my weight and eating. Today I hit 197, which is the highest I've been since 2006. It's not a good development at any time, let along 2 days before the first race of the season. I'm beginning to get very frustrated with everything, and have little to no desire to bother with any of this shit any more. Without question the vacation plus hangover has shot me physically in any number of ways. My hunger is out of control, motivation is lacking, and the scale is there as an objective measure of this.

Then there's the flip side, where on my good days I'm riding 2-3 mph faster than a year ago. Also, I was forced to start wearing my smallest khaki pants for work this week and they fit the same as 11 pounds ago. I'm also wearing one of the shirts that run snug, and the clothes don't really seem much tighter than before vacation. Plus, I don't feel like I'm eating any more than before vacation. Before the trip there were days I would go to town with a spoon on a jar of peanut butter. Now, I'm not doing that so much and here I am blimping out. It's all very annoying, let me say. To top that off, I'm probably short 2 hours of sleep every single night, and when the alarm goes off I feel hungover more often than not.

I could cry and whine some more but it's not going to do me any good. I'm just at a point where I don't know WTF to do. It seems like I've crossed back over some magical metabolism line where I seem to not be burning as much as I was before the trip. Are my eating choices that bad? Or are my workouts that little that I'm burning that few calories? I don't know, but when I see 197 it makes me want to punch the wall. As I sit here at work I have a pounding headache.

So this weekend's race, I expect nothing. Maybe I should just say fuck it and drink beer all weekend. It seems like I'm stuck in a Chinese finger lock, where the harder I try the worse off I am. I legitimately thought I was going to see 194 or 195 this morning. That it was a +2/3 just deflates the fuck out of me. Might as well just enjoy the bagel and cream cheese if I can't make any progress with the almonds and fruits and veggies, of which I'm up to about 9 servings a day now. I mean, how the fuck do you gain weight this much when you eat 9 fucking servings of fruits and veggies a day? It's fucking absurd. And it's not like I feel good. I feel like ass. I'm tired, fat, and my brain hurts.

I'm usually good at just letting the world be, letting it tell me what to do. Maybe I need this? I don't know why, or for what. Maybe I'm going to kick ass this weekend and it's going to illustrate that I don't really need to worry so much about those extra 10 or 15 pounds. But I doubt it. I suspect I'm going to have trouble with the last 10-25 minutes of the race, struggling to knock it out when all is said and done. I'm really toning things down to the simple combination of not crashing too hard, and trying to enjoy myself as much as possible while wearing spandex in the woods. I hope I don't lose, but at this point I don't even know if I should expect that much.

Taste the Pain

Off today. Looks like I'm going with 3 on, 2 off, 3 on, then fly away.

My teammate Ruth, national xTerra qualifier, seems to think I don't need to worry about 2 weeks off at all, that I would be fine if I didn't ride at all and would in all likelihood come back refreshed. She may be right, and a small voice inside my head, the one next to the guy saying, "Eat it! Eat it all!!!" is saying the same thing. Take 2 weeks off, enjoy yourself (as best you can), get on a bike here and there if you can, and come back refreshed.

Maybe, but I'm not entirely buying it.

ChrisG

"Damn straight it hurts. I went out late Saturday morning on my geared road bike, first ride (apart from the trainer) on that bike since October 28. I rode 45 minutes to the bike shop in Atlantic Highlands to hook up with two teammates, and then we headed into the hills of Middletown and Holmdel, a set loop which I've done several times this winter on my fixed gear. The first climb I stuck with my plan of staying in the saddle and spinning an easier gear at a higher cadence. It was immediately clear that the high-end power part of my fitness is compromised right now, as that climb HURT in ways that hitting it out of the saddle in a bigger gear has not. This scenario was repeated on several more upgrades over the course of the next 2 hours or so. So I feel your pain. I assumed I'd be in this place training-wise now. I have eight weeks to work on this element before mtb race season really kicks in. Wahoo."

I'm glad someone else is there with me. I'd really like to get some more rides in with you and some of the other team. Can you guys all move to Long Hill? And do your wives do babysitting?

Plenty of time to get there, and since you've been there I would imagine it's easier to get back, though neither of us is getting any younger. Well, I did last week but that was because of the aliens and the vodka, not in that particular order.

So Greg Lemond said that it never hurts any less, you just get used to the pain. All this time I thought he was being snarky but it's more true than I would have guessed. I'm pushing up hills at an effort that would have cramped me last year. And I feel my legs on the edge, ready to pop, but they never do. But I'm used to it now and I have a much higher pain tolerance. It used to be that this amount of hurt would last 15 seconds then I would have to back off. Now I can press, and press, and press, and it hurts like a bitch but I keep going. This is resonant with something else I once read that said you'll never know how hard you can go if you don't keep pushing. They also said it's farther than you think you could push.

So when you wrap that all up, I'm at a level I've never seen before. The last thing I want to do is drop it because I'm a load for 2 weeks. After the cruise in the fall I had dropped like a brick but there was also a lag before vacation and a 10 day drinking binge. I'm almost entirely off the sauce right now, last Thursday notwithstanding that comment.

That's the bike post for Tuesday.

This Biking Thing Hurts

So here's the biking recap on the weekend. For non-biking posts from the weekend look here for beer, Clinton, poop, and grief.

I never made a conscious decision to go from tempo/threshold to the beginning of the high-end work. As a reminder, here is the general structure of the high-end part of the year:

• Saturday - mountain biking
• Sunday - road tempo, 2-3 hours
• Monday - high-end Ross trainer intervals
• Tuesday - high-end Ross trainer intervals

Wednesday through Friday are off days. On the weekends, if it rains or if I have very limited time I'll swap out a day with another high-end trainer session. Ross says to do 4 straight high-end days. I have no doubt that would be a very fast way to get in race shape. I also have no doubt I would quit biking if that were all I did. Saturday/Sunday are the fun days, and Monday/Tuesday are the pain cherry on top.

So I'm out of my plan which means I'm not sure how to play the rest of the week. Right now I've done 3 high-end sessions in the last 5 days as well as a race pace ride of just under 2 hours yesterday. Of all 4 rides, yesterday on the road hurt quite a bit. I did some stuff around the swamp but also hit the hills on the edges which was where the pain was involved. In all, I climbed 5 significant hills and on 3 of them, there was someone ahead of me. On each of those 3 I pressed hard and passed the person in front because I saw them as prey. One guy tried to keep up but he only hung on for 30 seconds then blew up. I pressed pretty hard and was reminded what it feels like to go at race pace again.

Here's the thing. This shit hurts. The trainer sessions are pointed and well-defined, and you bang out what you're supposed to bang out. It hurts but it's a very structured and relatively short thing. On the ride yesterday, it's more free form and you just press press press everything because as soon as you let up in a race you've thrown in the towel.

So I'm stacking up the high-end stress right now. As I said it wasn't a conscious decision I just got sick of 90 minute trainer sessions. The high-end stuff hurts but you can do the whole session, including warm up and cool down, in an hour. So that limits your time in the dungeon.

That's it for now. I'm thinking to take the next 2 days off, then back on the last 2 days of the week and get a few hours of the road in Saturday. Then once we get to Taiwan I have no idea what's going to happen.

Marked Man

I'm a marked man now. I got an email from the Internal Affairs Department of the Taiwanese government inquiring about my trip in 2 weeks. Apparently one of my emails to the bike shops was forwarded to the government. I guess renting a bike is synonymous with terrorism to some people. I can give them a pass on this one, as there is a national election there within a month. Last time there was an election the incumbent Chen Shui Bien was shot while making an appearance somewhere. He wasn't killed and that ended up propelling him to be reelected. Currently his approval numbers make Bush look popular so this year we'll see a new president for Taiwan.

As predicted Julia's cold caught up to me. Slightly under the weather today but not bad. Still tired as I didn't get to sleep again until 11:30. My wife yells at me for not playing with Julia enough when I get home but these days I am so beyond exhausted that it's all I can do to sit upright after dinner. As I woke up this morning I couldn't help but think that 4:30 tomorrow is going to be a tall order. Plus a buddy from work wants to go have some beers after, so I may be struggling by the end of tomorrow in a big way.

My bike build is coming together really nicely at this point. I could have the bike before I go but I don't know if that buys me anything. It gives Jason more time to put it together if I want until after I come back. I'm going to need to convince him to hook up with me on Easter day so I can ride it when I get back. I almost have all the pieces together and on paper it should come in around 24 pounds, which in reality means it should come in at less than 25 which works for me.

I'm still torn on what to do with the Stumpjumper. Part of me wants to build it up with scrap and keep it as a FS bike. The other part of me wants to just sell it to help cover the cost of this bike. Between the frame and shock plus suspension fork and some wheels I should be able to get $1000 for it which would make this build a lot cheaper than planned.

Not much more to add at this point. We're almost out of the tunnel so it's about time to call it a wrap for the day. But the train has stopped because there's not an open platform for us to park at. After all these years and all these trains they still can't get the morning rush hour stuff right. I don't complain much about the trains but I would guess 1 in 5 mornings we're on time and every 2 weeks there is a major problem coming home. The efficiency of NJ Transit is hindered massively by Amtrak, because I never see any of these issues when I go in and out of Hoboken. Once the weather warms up I may switch back to that line for a little to change things up again. Routine is always a call for change.

Next and final stop, New York Penn Station.

Sleep Is For Suckers

ChrisG

"That all looks like a good use of trainer time. As the cadence/resistance/duration varies, do you find that your "limiter" moves between your legs blowing up vs. losing control of your breathing? Right now, the majority of my painful trainer work has my legs engulfed in pain before the labored gasping kicks in. A shitload of fun, I tell you."

I find starting with the higher cadence stuff it's my cardio that goes first. As the gearing gets harder and cadence drops, my heart rate and breathing seem to stabilize and my legs feel the slow creep of pain come in. Aside from making the workout more varied while still targeting the high end area, I think working different resistances is better for the sake of variation of training. It can't hurt to be able to go top shelf at different pedal speeds, or at least be used to it.

No reply from the 2 Taiwanese shops I emailed. I'm going to ask my brother-in-law to look into renting a bike for me if I don't hear from them soon. I'm now thinking that anything with 2 wheels will suffice just so long the basket in front doesn't have a dog in it. I'm also thinking a Walmart-style bike would do the job in a pinch, and I'm sure something like that can be had for $100. Maurice suggested I bring a bike with me but it doesn't really work from a luggage and transportation aspect on either end. If I can find a real beater bike to buy for $200 I'll take it and go from there. When I'm done I'll give it away or take it apart and send it home. One of the shops has hartdail mountain bikes for $25 a day so if I go the Walmart route and drop $100 and ride it 5 times it's already a bargain. Given than 85% of the bike industry is already in Taiwan you would imagine this should be easy.

Got Performance on the phone yesterday and they were all sugar and spice. Couldn't have been a better experience as far as I'm concerned. Not only will they replace it no questions asked, they're going to credit my card with whatever it costs to ship it back to them. I'm considering an upgrade but unfortunately they don't have one with a power meter. My plan is to stick this one out until we leave then send it off the day we fly out. If all goes well it will be back when I return from Taiwan. I will more than likely upgrade in some way, but at the same time I like the variable resistance as it gives me a lot of options. Maybe I should just go with the CycleOps because it gets good reviews.

The evidence is mounting that I'm digging myself a much deeper hole right now than I think. I am tired as I can recall and I'm eating like there's no tomorrow. I suppose I was in the saddle for a stretch 8 days out of 10 up until yesterday, which adds up. Take 2 off, go 4 more, then 2 off, then 4 and we're out the door to the airport and what happens after that is anyone's guess. Hopefully I can blog here and there but I'm not sure if I'll be able to post pics.

Oh hey look at this.

Steve

"now that sarah is turning 2, my wife has been getting those nurturing feelings. not that she wants to be pregnant and go through the baby stuff all over again,it seems like a biological need to nurture something. so in a moment of weakness while my father-in-law was in the hospital, i responded "yes" to, "dan and kim just got another puppy and it may not work out with the dog they have now. can we take the (older) dog if it doesn't work out?" i played the odds that someone would not give away their family pet of three years for a new puppy, and it would all work out. so 2 weeks ago, i "lost". meghan came home with a 7 pound turd with legs named "cupcake". however, it seems to have satisfied her need to nurture..."

A 3 year old dog that weighs 7 pounds and is named Cupcake? I'm guessing, and I could be wrong, that you've come up with another nickname for this dog by now? Just a wild guess.

The reality is that I'm good with 1 child and I think right now Nat is too. Take this trip for example. If we add another child it just becomes financially burdensome to fly 4 people to Taiwan. In less than 2 months Julia is going to cost 75% and a child under 2 will cost roughly 25%. Add that up and your cost just to get there is like $4500. Now add in the fact that flying 20 hours with 2 children is just plain nuts and we'll never get back. Obviously there are other variables but right now the verdict is one and done.

That reply was a long time in coming. I wonder if you even read this thing anymore.

As an update, apparently there is an exercise bike that my brother-in-law bought a few years ago. This is down in Lotung where we'll be staying a fair amount of time. This is far from the ideal situation but at the very least I can get some time in on something that resembles a bike. Knowing my brother-in-law he wouldn't have bought a cheap one so hopefully this allows me a good fallback plan. It's also something to consider that it rains in Taiwan like every day in the late winter. I don't mean every other day, I mean every day. I looked at the forecast a week ago and it was rain in the forecast for 10 straight days.

Julia had another rough bit of it last night. Another cold which hasn't been too bad but around 11 she woke up and totally lost it. By the end of it she was hyperventilating she was so upset. We were expecting her to vomit the mucus out but it never happened, she just snowballed into oblivion and really was in a mess of a state. Hopefully this passes really soon. But then after that explosion she seemed to sleep well. But for me, my personal hole is still there as I laid down at 10, slept for 15 minutesn then was up again until 11:30. Sleep is for suckers.

2 Work Weeks

I have 2 work weeks and then we're off to Taiwan. As coincidence would have it, Nelson is going to be in Taipei for 3-4 days while we're there. So we may get to hang out for a night or 2 or maybe even a day in there, if things work out. You know how details go though. On the trip, I picked up one of the Taiwan guide books today and will probably read about it for 2 weeks, so I can fill my head with a bunch of Taiwanese things we probably won't have any time to see.

I don't expect much out of this trip, other than hanging out and eating. The flight there will be enough of an adventure. After that I'll take what I can get. I'm trying to find a bike to rent so I don't turn into a big fat slob while I'm gone. It will also allow me to get out while Nat hangs out with her family. Not sure what I'm going to do if I can't find a rental. 2 weeks off the bike is an awfully long time. If I wasn't racing I could give 2 shits. But with the first race coming on the first weekend of May it could be tough to take 2 weeks off. Or maybe 2 weeks off would do me a world of good.

Another option would be to blow it out from now until next Saturday. The main problem with that is that I will be placing bike fitness above sanity, which isn't a great idea. In the end, if I have to take 2 weeks off then so be it. I'll come back and be ready to roll on Easter day, even if a step (or 3) slower then when I leave.

I've already concluded my 4 day block. Last week I was 4 on, 2 off. Then since I was home Friday because of the snow I hopped on the trainer and knocked out a trio of threshold sets. Saturday was crap weather so trainer again. Yesterday road, where I was sluggish. Then I tied up today with a 4:30 wakeup to the trainer again. Blah. But here's the real sucky thing. The trainer is shitting the bed. Well it still works but it just makes a lot of noise, clicking noise. It used to last for 3-4 minutes but today it was still on & off for 45 minutes. That's not acceptable and I need to bounce it back to Performance Bike to have them take care of it. When I bought it they said it was 100% satisfaction guaranteed, which the rep told me meant at any point while you owned it. It's been a winter and a half on it, and it's time to make that call. Well, to make it again. My first attempt resulted in a non-answered phone.

This week will also be 4/2 then another 4, which leaves the last day of that set on Saturday, the day we leave. So stacking it that way will maximize my saddle time before we leave.

Also in the next 2 weeks I have 2 Crank Brothers orders to nail down, the team jersey to help design, samples of the jersey to pass out for fittings, a bike to build, a castle to storm, a GPS to send to Garmin to fix, and the accountant stuff to work out. This on top of the Taiwan stuff. So basically, now is not a time to drag my feet and wait until the last minute. With that said, let me go nap under my desk now because I don't feel like dealing with reality.

Weekend Post on Trainer Session

I don't feel like waiting until Monday to put this workout in, and there's not enough space in my riding log to enter it. So I'm going to put it in now so I remember what I did today. This is all high-end work so it was all at the highest resistance on the trainer. The weather sucks butt.

I warmed up for 10 minutes, roughly. Then I did the following basic set:

Resistance 5
Gearing 52x20 (ish)
Cadence roughly 100
1 minute on, 15 seconds off
1 minute on, 15 seconds off
1 minute on, 15 seconds off
1 minute on, 15 seconds off
1 minute on

This totaled 5 minutes on, out of 6 minutes. After this I was off for 2 minutes. Then I did it 3 more times, but I changed a few details:

Set 2, gearing at 52x19, cadence 90
Set 3, gearing at 52x18, cadence 80
Set 4, gearing at 52x17, cadence 70

The last set I did 2 minutes on, 1 minute off, 5 reps. This brought my total "work" time to 30 minutes. I walked back up the cadence pyramid with this last set, each rep a higher cadence in easier gearing, same resistance.

Set 5 breakdown:

Rep 1, gearing 52x16
Rep 2, gearing 52x17
Rep 3, gearing 52x18
Rep 4, gearing 52x19
Rep 5, gearing 52x20

The cadence was basically what I could handle for 2 minutes. The second minute I usually pushed it up a bit, then the last 30 seconds I would push as hard as I could to finish it off.

After that hour, I did 20 minutes of tempo on top of that and cooled down for a bit and called it a day.

Recovery

I'm finding that the 4-on-3-off structure of training is changing the way my body reacts now. You would think that by Tuesday I would be exhausted and insanely hungry. While I am tired and hungry, it's not nearly as bad as you might think. What I'm finding is that Wednesday I start to totally shut down and eat like there's no tomorrow. It was all I could do to not eat everything in sight yesterday. By the afternoon my legs were sore as could be. This morning I hit snooze which is something I never do anymore. It's not good or bad, it's just a different pattern that I find interesting.

Now that I'm in a pattern I will more than likely change it up over the next 15 days to get ready for the trip. We leave on Saturday the 8th and I will be able to ride that day as our plane doesn't fly until 10:30 at night. But I'm not going to take 3 days off then ride once then get on a plane. I'm more than likely going to overload before I leave so I don't feel the need to try and ride 10 times while we're over there.

ChrisG

"A 19.5 avg solo is hauling ass. That's a good indicator of your fitness at this point. I'd say that your focus on building strength at lower rpm is good. The most intense and volatile fitness is that which is required to push big gears at high rpm, so the building combination of big gear/low rpm and little gear/high rpm is just what the doctor ordered for this time of the year, IMO. That's what I'm in the midst of myself right now."

Things seem to be working out so far this year, which is nice. I really wish I could get down to Allaire every other week to follow you guys around but it's just not practical. And it seems like right now we don't have a core of guys who train every week up here in the Frozen Tundra of Green Bay. I'm hoping to be able to maintain this state for the 2 weeks we're away then really start to focus on pressing the ceiling up once I get back. Oh and getting a new bike too!

Really pushing the big gears at higher cadence is something I've never done. I suppose I touched on it last year but it was awfully painful so not a whole lot. I'm feeling a lot more prepared for the demands of racing this year but as the astute observer might notice, it's not even March yet.

Walter enjoyed my train observation the other day so here's my morning observation. There's a big black female conductor who always seems to be in the car I ride in (they usually take care of a block of 3-4 cars each). She gets people to show their tickets by basically getting up in their grill and announcing, "GOOD MORNING ALL TICKETS DISPLAY!!!"

She does this 12 times per car, at least. She also seems to relish arguing with the passengers.

Mano Y Mano

I read someone complain recently that "mano y mano" actually means "hand to hand" in Spanish and that people who use it instead of "man to man" are wrong. The problem with that is it ignores the evolution of language. The word decadent has changed since I learned it as an SAT word in high school, much to my chagrin.

A bike recap. Saturday on the road where I was in the Bernardsville hills for 90 sluggish minutes. I had to really hammer out the last 4 miles to push the average up over 16 for the ride. Lots of vertical but that ride took forever to warm up, possibly a hangover effect from the 3 days off structure. On Saturday ventured down to Allaire again where I took part in a huge buzzing train of riders. I didn't feel overly good on the bike and had some mechanical problems to boot.

Yesterday I turned in my fastest ride ever, pulling a 19.5 average over 36 miles and change. I'm starting to push bigger gears at a lower cadence on the climbs which seems to keep me at a higher pace and a lower perceived heart rate and effort level. I've been trying to train at a 90 cadence but my self selected cadence seems to be more like 80 which feels better. On climbs it seems to slip to 70 where I'm happy.

This morning I did my 3x20 sets at a higher resistance and gearing but kept the cadence in the 70 range. As evidenced by yesterday's ride I'm solid on flat and rolling terrain. I need to work on higher resistance at lower cadence for race season. I also put the backup road bike on the trainer last night and tried to fit it as close to the roadie as possible to get the most out of these sessions. I also gave up on the bike computer on the trainer. Who cares how many miles you ride on the trainer? What does it mean anyway?

There is a woman standing in the vestibule of the train with a smirk on her face, a seemingly permanent thing. That must be strange to always wear.

There's a guy sitting next to me that is enormous, but not in the fat sense even though he is a bit portly. His forearms are the size on my calves.

Mano y mano, but what if it's 2 on 2? Many y many? If they're both named Manny? Manny y Manny? All named Manny? Mannys y Mannys? Or just many Mannys? What if Manny wants to fuck up a Mango?

Term Oil

I was always amused that you could write SHELL OIL on a calculator as a kid. You could not, however, write turmoil. Sometimes it's written in the stars and you just have to go with the flow. I got one of these email forwards recently which said that you can judge a person by how they handle lost luggage, the elderly, and 2 other things I can't remember. Maybe trench coat flashers and being stabbed. I forget. In the end you just need to go with the flow and do your best to enjoy the ride.

Enough with the vagaries. On to comments!

ChrisG

"I think I've asked this before, but what gear are you using for these tempo sets? Did Jason give you a back rub at the end of the fitting?"

Yes he gave me plenty of back rubbing and has me obsessing about the fact I have awful posture.
I think you asked what gearing I was using on the trainer for the threshold sets, which I forget the answer to. On the trainer it's mountain gearing so big ring then next-to-smallest ring. This is with resistance at 3 (of 5). So gearing isn't as useful because the resistance changes.

On the road it depends, sometimes 52-16 realm but usually 42-13 realm. I say realm because I don't know my exact cassette cog counts.

Today was the same as yesterday, overall cadence a bit lower, more like 87 than 90 which is good for day 4. I'm really noticing my bike fit on this is way off. I have my original mountain bike on it which is a size too small. So my saddle is far too back but not high enough. But if I do the saddle right my bars will be way way short. I think I'm going to slap the other roadie on there after I set it up right.

BikeNBen

"Just wanted to comment so you know I'm reading...As you pointed out, the saddle sore is a product of the trainer. On the road or trail you are constantly moving around on the saddle. Each crack in the road or root on the trail changes the position of you butt in the saddle. You get none of that on the trainer so you end up rubbing and rubbing the same piece of skin. Make a point of moving around while on the trainer. Ben (been known to use bathroom utensils to remove sores)"

Hey great to have another person commenting on the blog. Maybe it's a good thing that I have such a crap bike fit on the trainer because this morning I was squirming all over the place. OK, maybe not. I've also ditched the diaper shorts. Good for 2 weeks now.

I just found a "pore cleaner" that my wife uses sometimes. She hid it from me because when I find any zit anywhere I immediately smash it. But I caught her the other day and now I have the ultimate weapon for saddle sores. This is a long, needle-like implement that will be next to impossible to use without an assistant. But when you gotta pop, you gotta pop. I read somewhere to put a warm compress on it first to soften it up.

This is an old one I never got to:

Jake

"wow, lots going on: 1. good luck wiht the job. if they cut my web access, i'd quit. i'd also be in big trouble b/c i work from home 2. julia is wicked cute. i'm leaning towards the tom cruise theory. 3. walt is not real. he's the id."

The work blockage was a temporary glitch and it came back later in the day, thankfully. Yes we all agree at the Zurawski household that Julia is a cutie, almost surely a mistaken donor at the lab :) For all the commenting Walter does, he sure doesn't seem real. But I understand he's busy with work and things like that. It's like the rest of us who have to write blog entries in their car while waiting for the train.

Would you believe this whole entry was done in my car? The train is now 30 minutes late. Going to be a late start at the box factory today. You know, like I said, go with the flow and see where it takes you. Sometimes it's more interesting than you might imagine. The train later ended up getting stuck in the tunnel. Term oil indeed.

Our First ER Visit

I have 2 observations this fine Monday morning:

1. The sun is rapidly rising earlier. This time of year it rises earlier by 10-12 minutes a week, so week to week you see a real difference in daylight.

2. It's freezing out there. 12.4 when I woke up.

Let's get the bike stuff out of the way first. Saturday was Walter's F29er at Round Valley where the takeaway is that I was able to clean 3 hills I've never *ever* cleaned before as well as Puke Hill for the second time ever. I'll offer a full write-up for the forum. Later that day I spent some time at Halter's shop where no fewer than 10 MTBNJers made an appearance at some point. I got my roadie fit properly and took it out Sunday. I was tooling along at a solid 18 mph clip for 90 minutes then the bottom totally fell out.

If you looked out the window yesterday and saw the snow coming down sideways, I was riding into it. At one point my speed drooped from 20 mph to 8. On the flat. This was the strongest headwind I've ever experienced. The storm was coming in at this point and 5 minutes later I was in the snow. A few minutes after that I was being blinded by the snow, visibility 10 feet, at best. I was going west, the snow was driving east. The temperature dropped 11 degrees in about 5 minutes. Subsequently my average went to pot. When I got home I literally knocked 1/4 inch of snow off my helmet. Then I took a warm shower and the world was a happier place.

Then this morning knocked out 3 sets of 20 minute threshold intervals. Today's pace felt stronger than a normal Monday probably based on Ben's talking about intervals and semi-pro pace and whatnot. I wish I could justify a power meter. But then, what sport racer uses a PM?

Made our first ER visit yesterday as well with the little girl. She's 22 months almost so that's been a long ER-less run. She had an ear infection, which we suspected. And the ER was dreadfully slow, where we sat for 2+ hours for a 3 minute doctor visit. I felt so bad for her because she was sick and scared of being there. She kept saying, "Julia. Bye bye. Daddy, bye bye." She desperately wanted to leave and I can't say I blame her.

As soon as we walked out the door she was fine. But when the doctor examined her all hell broke loose, which is par for the course. We know this is going to happen and we warned the doctor. So of course both the nurse and doctor say, "No problem, that's normal." But we warn them, our child is different. And as soon as the screaming starts, both the doctor and nurse look at us as if to say, "Holy shit you weren't kidding." I have to laugh.

The guy who just sat down next to me smells bad. Not BO bad but like Old People bad. Hard to put my finger on it exactly.

Jason told me my posture basically sucks, essentially opening my eyes to something I already knew. Sitting it's really bad, which is what I do most of my life. So now I'm conscious about how I sit at home, and currently on the train. I've gotten to the point that sitting up straight actually hurts my back. My desk job doesn't help I imagine.

I have comments to get to. But I need to read a little on the way in. This concludes my Monday morning brain dump.

Monday Morning Quarterback

I always wonder what I should name these blog entries so today I'm taking the easy road and going with the Super Bowl theme. I watched half the game and then we left the neighbor's house and went home. I found out this morning who won. Football is that important these days, yes.

To get the obligatory football stuff out of the way first, Tom Brady is ugly. I've seen the watch ads when he stands there and looks pretty and sure, he's a good looking guy. But when that guy opens his mouth to smile, he looks like some sort of Franken-Monster to me. Seriously this guy is supposed to be the culmination of humanity's best looking? I'll take Strahan's honest gap-toothed grin any day.

That's about all I have on the Super Bowl. The only down side of the Giants winning is that we still have to deal with the fucking 1972 Miami Dolphins. Blah. Otherwise, congrats to my buddies who root for the Giants, notably ChrisG. Good for you guys that you get to enjoy the win.

Sore throat this morning. It's another case of Daddy & Daughter Illness week. That means we all sleep like dogshit. Waking up today wasn't bad though, surprisingly. And my 3 sets of 20 weren't either. They felt like they "should", whatever "should" means. I wasn't dreading life midway through the second set which probably means I'm starting to adjust. I got a flat on yesterday's road ride later in the ride which cut short my session from about 2:15 to 1:45. Taking off that extra 30 of tempo probably left a bit of gas in the tank for today. Still, with Saturday's hills and yesterday's hills, the weekend was yet another ratchet up in intensity. I know I'm pressing because after the flat I got caught at a light and when I stopped my right hammy tried to lock up on me. Pushing right at the boundary of what I can handle is where I want to be.

Lots of vertical this weekend as a contrast to the usual flat swamp tempo rides. Back in these Bernardsville hills and these first 2 rides are tough. I'm not just climbing but now connecting the hills with tempo pedaling and sitting up on the downs and pedaling through. I'm out there for a workout, not free speed. So I try and pedal through everything. When I started doing hills more last summer I found my fitness dropped a bit because I think I was soft pedaling between hills and coasting down. Now, all pedal, all the time.

Got my bonus last week so I looks like a 29er race bike is on the short list. At the top is Niner, which means that Team MTBNJ takes a step towards Team Niner. More details to come, I assure you.

A New Bike Obsession Ensues

Coming at you Monday morning 3 days into the block and with a sore ass. Yes indeed that is correct, an aluminum hardtail for 2 days in a row leaves you with a sore rear-end. All the benefits of dropping 5 pounds off your other bike fade away rapidly when you bomb some of these LM trails on that jackhammer. There has to be a happy medium out there somewhere.

So it really is 5 pounds. I weighed the Dump Truck and it came in at 31+ pounds. Where does this weight come from? The frame and rear shock add 3 I guess. Then the fork is heavier on the FS. And I suppose the bars, grips, and brakes take up the rest. Just like that you have a bike that's heavy enough to ride DH runs on but without the 7 inches of travel. I'm in limbo with my bikes right now.

Saturday got some solid riding in with Chris, Chuck, and Bill down at Allaire. Boy has that placed changed. Fantastic park, great stuff. Last time I was there (years ago) it was sand central. These 3 guys are a pair of expert-level riders and a semi-pro. So this measly old sport class rider was pretty happy that I didn't get totally buried down there. I think they pulled up on the gas a hair after an hour because I started to fall off in a few spots. And by the end I was about done for. But all in all I was happy to be able to keep up with the pace, which was buzzing by my standards. I also got to ride Bill's 29er which was really nice and sheds even more doubt on my whole bike situation.

Yesterday I did basically a race simulation at Lewis Morris. I did the same course as the '07 race but on the HT bike. I pulled a 35 minute first lap but then went to shit with 38 and 40 minute laps after that. To be fair, I was tired from the day before at Allaire as well as having only gotten 5 hours of sleep. On top of that the bike was rough on the constant chatter of Lewis Morris. Finally it was goddamn cold and by 45 minutes in I had no working water bottle. Still, I was disappointed that I was only able to match my race time from this past year and not beat it.

This morning I was on the trainer again with 3 sets of 20 minute threshold intervals. The first was not too hard, the second definitely started to feel harder, and the third really started to make me want to be done. But in all a good workout for a Monday morning. I think before long I'm going to need to sprinkle in some more high-end efforts. Nothing crazy just yet but the time is coming fast to start working on the odds and ends that really make the difference between finishing 33rd and cracking the top 10 or even 5.

Penn Station, here we are. My legs hurt and I'm too tired to want to stand up. My wife asked my why I don't just take Monday off and ride Tue/Wed. My reply is that I like the idea of having 3 straight days off. That's what helps me wake up Monday and Tuesday, knowing that I'll get 3 decent nights of sleep after that.

Winter and Hurricanes

The days are getting longer now but the temps are still dropping. They will continue to do so until February 1/2/3 when the average low and high bottom out at 37 and 19, respectively. For now be happy with the fact that the sun rises earlier and sets later. While we're only 1 month into winter it gives you something to look forward to. In 2 weeks it will be halfway over and we'll crawl slowly towards spring after that. By February 29th your averages will be 43 and 24.

We paid for our tickets to Taiwan yesterday, so that's on the pretty short-term radar. We head out on March 8 and I come back 2 weeks later on March 22, the day before Easter. Nat comes back 2 weeks after that. So I'll have 2 weeks of total freedom which will likely leave me totally puzzled at what to do with myself.

My weekend wasn't as productive on the bike as it could have been. I went out Saturday for 2+ hours where my saddle sore screamed in pain at times. I just didn't have the energy to put the disc brakes on the Trek because I was worried the sore was going bad fast. I ended up on the trainer Sunday, Monday, and this morning which is totally weak for a 3 day weekend. On the flip side I got the hardtail setup and ready to go for this coming weekend where I hope to get 2 off-road rides in. The road is just brutally cold right now.

In the home stretch with the environment book and I should be done by Friday. I think I'm less than 50 pages now and I'm looking forward to having that done with. I'm on the global warming chapter which is, as usual, somewhat eye opening but not as much as the other ones. There seem to be a few takeaways here. First of all we really don't know how much impact humans have on global warming. There seems little debate that we have some. But global temperature increases have been happening since 1850 which does not coincide with the rise of CO2 emissions, which is a relatively "new" phenomenon when looking at a time scale of 150 years.

The second is that the cost of global warming isn't really very clear and in some cases it seems there is little cost at all. Crops will flourish due to longer growing seasons. Additionally, claims of more severe storm damage, floods, cyclones, more frequent hurricanes, and the like are not corroborated by actual data. There are many lines of discussion on this topic but one that is easy to grasp is the of hurricane damage.

Hurricanes are said to be stronger now than ever, causing more damage. But in reality there are 50 times more people living in the 2 highest impact counties in Florida than there were in 1940. That's 50 times. On top of that, the average wealth of each person living there is substantially higher than it was in 1940, using 2000 dollars. So without question a hurricane in 2008 is going to cause more damage than it would have in 1940. In 1926 an unnamed category 4 hurricane hit roughly where hurricane Andrew landed in 1993 (I think) which experts estimate would have been more costly than Andrew was. Yet it cost little because it affected so few people and those it did affect were of relatively lesser wealth than those living there today. On the other hand, I think this is somewhat inaccurate as well because houses and buildings in 2008 are likely more hurricane resistant than in 1926 or 1940. Still, the example is worth illustrating I think.

The discussion can go on and on in this vein. A lot of good stuff in the book, and it doesn't claim that there aren't problems, just that "the litany" the media and environmental group spouts off about is just a lot of smoke that isn't substantiated by fact.

Regardless, I've had enough of it. I need something else to read.

Ranting Lunatic Post Warning

A few things to babble about today but I don't feel like typing the whole way on the train so not sure how much I'll get through. I'm going to start with Coach G again since biking is more important than the other stuff.

ChrisG

"Cool. I assumed a 5 minute rest interval would be a good choice. Since you're time-limited, how long do you warm up before the work begins? I find I can't get much accomplished on the trainer w/o at least a 10 minute warmup, and I usually do 20, particularly for high-rpm, intense stuff."

Warm up has been a battle over the years but last year I finally, finally, finally understood the value of it. I'm sure you know that already. But for the other guys out there - Steve, Jake, Walter - who may race this year let me say that warming up before a race was 1 of the 3 main reasons I made such big progress towards the end of the season. If everyone in the field warmed up properly I believe there's no way I come in top 10 at Ringwood. That's how important I think it is and most of the guys I see out there don't warm up enough.

To answer your question, it depends. On the 3x20 days I warm up 15 minutes. On the tempo days it's only 10, but the first 10-30 minutes of those tempo rides are on the lower end of tempo so it's sort of an integrated warm up where I slowly press up based on how I feel. On high end days it's 20 minutes and even that doesn't seem like enough as usually the first few intervals are sometimes really tough. But it's hard to set aside 45 minutes to really warm up properly on those beastly days.

I might say that being able to jump into the 20 minute block after 15 minutes of warm up might suggest I'm not going right up at threshold. But I will also tend to start at a bit of a lower cadence at the start, say 85-87 and try and drift up to 90/91. I know now from experience that "toughing it out" and warming up at full speed is a sure way to toast your legs and crush motivation.

On to other things. Damn, it turns out I have too much to talk about today and not enough time. There are at least 2 more things I wanted to get in but may not have the thumb-cycles to bang it out. So instead I'll go with this one.

I have a saddle sore the size of Saturn right now. I woke up this morning with rings and moons and NASA satellites around my butt, it's that bad. This must be the first one in about 6 months so that's good. Incidentally, this may correspond with my getting back on the trainer regularly. Or it may have to do with wearing the diaper-shorts on the trainer Tuesday. If you've ever had diaper shorts you know what I mean. They're not really called anything different they just have a chamois that could buffer your head against the windshield in a high-speed car accident. Thick, soft, and not ergonomically sensical at all. I think I may opt out of my diaper shorts on the trainer for a while and see if things get better.

In reading the environment book I came across some good stuff yesterday. You may have heard the assessment that we as a world are losing 40,000 species a year, or that in 50 years we will have wiped out 50% of all currently existing species. It's an interesting number, this 40,000, especially when you look at the data to support it. The man who made this claim does have field experience and is a trained scientist, like Batman. I'm going to now present some of his data.

On average this is how many extinction events he observes every year:

1

The most extinction events ever witnessed by this man in one year:

4

Extrapolating from this, here is how many we should assume:

40,000

Solid science. Actual data and models suggest that in the next 50 years we will lose .7% of all existing species. This is a number much higher than what "should" be dying out. But it's significantly lower than Greenpeace, WWI, or the Sierra Club would have you believe.

The point here is that man does infringe upon nature and that it is a problem that needs to be addressed. But it is not a "holocaust" as some institutions claim.

The more I read this book and the more I follow the election process the more I see govermnent and politics as a white elephant of a burden to society. People wonder why this or that world event takes place and nobody cares. I'm starting to understand why. This is because so much of what you read and what you are told is bullshit. In the end it seems that almost everyone who gets 1 minute of Andy Warhol's fame becomes a politician. They cannot hold any sense of morals and somehow feel the need to lie and push an agenda. People seem to convince themselves this is done for the "common good" so that they can sleep at night. I see it in all walks of life, from the top of the country down to a personal level. I wonder if it is possible for man to exist and not lie in order to reach some personal aim that they have deemed more important than being honest.

This is funny in light of the fact so many people believe in god and feel that god is guiding their actions. If there is a god, and I have no idea if there is or not, how can this god entity be anything but disgusted at the collection of nearly 6 billion liars that this world has become? Or is this part of the process? Is this god reading my blog and thinking, "Well looks like human being #435,123,456,997,000,001 learned a lesson this week. But what's all this me-in-vain shit going on?"

Yes, this turned into a rant. My train broke down and now I'm in Secaucus waiting for another train to pick up a few thousand stranded passengers. So it goes.

We had layoffs yesterday further destabilizing the already unstable work environment. I think we lost roughly 2 out of every 7 people in the department. Not a morale booster but these things never are. I'm not going to say much more than that. I honestly had absolutely no idea if I was going to get called in or not. Job security is at an all-time low. Like the broken down train, so it goes.

I had a Brooklyn Chocolate Stout last night and it was good. In the 4/3 scheme I have now Wednesday or Thursday are OK for beer. Those days give enough time for recovery from Tuesday's morning ride without compromising Saturday morning's ride. It was 1 big beer though, and that was plenty. I figured I deserved it since I hit 185 yesterday. When we sat down for dinner Julia said out of nowhere, "Daddy...beer." Like Homer Simpson, don't mind if I do!

I made some homemade trail mix yesterday which was your standard nuts and raisins and chocolate chips but I cut it with Kashi O's cereal to bump up the carbs and the volume. The biggest downer about trail mix is that you can take 200 calories in a small handful and not even realize it until your bathroom scale says 245 a few months later. As the day wore on, however, I worried that it might be too good but...

Alas that wasn't the case as the scale said 184 today. Look out 181 here I come. I hope.