Rowan B-day 4.0

66 Miles of Hills

600 To Go.




What on earth is Sheri doing in this photo?
Her new Waltworks frame is in the house. I made her build most of it. Pics when it is finished since we are still waiting for a freakish long spindle length BB. I dare say this will be one of the coolest bikes in WORS. It's pretty sexy. The bike is also nice.

Madison-Blue Mound-Madison

I took the day off aiming to head out and ride some hills for a while today. I tried Map My Ride to find a good route that included Blue Mound Park, View, and Ryan road. I found a good loop and headed out with plenty of food, legs, and with a little cheat sheet taped to the top tube. The longish climbs near the park are a bit sandy but they are clear for the most part and ready to ride. Ryan road is so sandy that it took over 5 minutes to descend while keeping it under 30.

Turns out my cute little cheat sheet was missing a vital turn. In order to pick up Hwy P out of Cross Plains from KP, you have to take a right and head through town to get to P. I kept following the KP signs out of Cross Plains all the way to 19. Whoops. It turns out that chunk of road, KP between Cross Plains and 19, is really cool and I will be seeing it again. I will be getting very familiar with this area in the next few years. But today I was lost and frustrated. 55 miles in, lost, 20 or so miles to go, 45 minutes to get there. I stepped into a manufactured home/tavern on 19 to use the phone. I have never felt more unwelcome. When I asked the guy if I could use his phone, he stared at me and didn't answer for like 15 seconds. He was wondering if he was going to catch some bizarre gay space monkey aids case from letting me use his phone. We are going to have to put together a 20 strong group ride that stops at this place for beers. When we get there we will hassle him to put the TDF on all the TVs. Anyway, I made a $40 mistake today after having to call a cab in order to pick up Rowan on time. Noob.

Cross-eyed

There is something wrong with me. It's March 11th and I can think of nothing but Cyclocross. I aim to take Cross' quite a bit more seriously this year while keeping WORS races more fun and less freaking out. Yes, I am told that I tweak for the entire weekend when it is time to race. I didn't know that. I'm sure it's because it was my noob year and this year will I will be more relaxed.

So...... Has WCA posted a schedule yet? How about now?

The Power of Jebez

I've got two months experience now in training with a power meter, and I'm still not sure if it helps any more than having a plastic Jesus glued to my handlebar would. It would have been quite a bit more affordable to write "You are slow" on a piece of masking tape and put it on the bar. In 8 weeks I could have replaced it with one that says, "You are still slow".

I joke of course (but not about being slow). A wannabe expert such as myself might be separated from my competitors by a whole lot more than the fractions of 1% that training with power might help overcome; but that doesn't mean it isn't a useful tool. With a real job and a busy family life, it does really help to make the most of the time that I have to spend on the bike. That is what success in racing is all about right? Power and efficiency? I can say one thing for sure, the added dimension that the wattage data adds to your workout makes stationary training a MUCH more bearable experience. I don't have any good numbers from outside yet since I've been riding other bikes with more disposable parts outside this winter. I can sit spinning at 200watts pretty much forever in the basement now at a E2ish 145bpm effort, but I don't really have anything to reference that to. I haven't established my zones yet, but I think my power to weight ratio is something like: slow/fat. I am hoping by July the roads will be cleaned up enough to take it outside and get some good data.

Hands Off

While our Democratic candidates for President Rochambeau themselves towards a fiery August death match, I'm just going to sit back and watch. Even before last night, I had begun to develop a nagging case of "Obama Fatigue". His hope speech that only 6 weeks ago was lighting a fire under the collective ass of primary voters, now sounds like a serial regurgitation. As he attempts this current shift in message from hope to policy, the depiction of his campaign as eloquent nothingness doesn't sound so inflammatory. I hope I am wrong, but so far he is not holding up well against the detail oriented Billary. He also has yet to prove to us supporters that he can return some punches when he really needs to.

This is supposed to be a golden election year for Democrats. Lets hope that after the dust settles we can salvage an electable candidate that won't send our grandchildren to Iraq.

Thank You

Obama Carries Children's Vote

Madison, WI

Riding the momentum of an eleven state winning streak, the Obama campaign scored a big win among young voters at the Woods Hollow Children Center. Senator Obama wins this historic day care contest with 55% to Senator Hillary Clinton's 45%. Democratic turnout was huge, eclipsing the Republican vote by a factor of five.

Despite McCain being the now presumptive nominee, he was only able to split the 6 Republican votes with Huckabee to end the contest with a tie. This is a harsh blow to McCain after having poured substantial campaign dollars into Television spots. McCain targeted the preschool audience airing commercials before Dora the Explorer, depicting the geriatric Senator as sort of a grandpa figure, taking naps and using sippy cups. The three McCain supporters at Woods Hollow were unavailable for comment, as they were all fighting over a plastic M1 Tank.

Said political commentator Flatfield Greens of the results: "I'm not surprised that 4 year olds swing heavily toward Obama and the Democrats, these kids are big whiners and they look to candidates that appeal to their whiny sensibilities. In addition, this place is run like some hippy socialist commune, kids are taught to share and have compassion for one another. Conservatives can't compete in the Day Cares."

The Obama campaign hopes to carry this momentum into tomorrow's heavily contested primaries in Ohio and Texas. Four-year-olds are still not allowed to vote in these primaries, or any primaries for that matter. It is not yet clear how this victory might influence future contests.

Gas is expensive? Gee, I hadn't heard that.

Our buzzkill society has decided that it isn't PC to use the word retard anymore, unless of course you are referring to the President of the United States of America.

On another note, I think our winter here in southern Wisco has been hard on some folks. There are probably a bunch of Midwesterners that snapped somewhere around February 12th. I saw a woman today that was shoveling water. If I see her doing it again next weekend I'll tell her it's OK to stop now.

Sheri and I had a hard time deciding today whether we wanted to fall on our asses on the bike paths, or get down and dirty on the roads. We ultimately chose both.

Slackers on Ice

We met up at the Seminole lot at 1:00. I wasn't seeing any 35 degrees yet, it was still cold and icy. It was starting to look like ditching the knobs was a bad idea. Of 14 riders I was the only guy without big knobs, studs, or both. I got served by the T-servs but they didn't slow me down too much. I'm sure it was a good bike handling exercise. We did the "winter loop" counter-clockwise, and it was covered in sheets of thick ice. Lots of people fell down and keeping traction uphill with a 38x14 was challenging the spin. We stopped at some bar on Monroe and pitchers of beer were poured and drank quickly. Another 20 miles or so as the conditions were softening up from the sun, and it was all good.