146.4, 142.8, 146.2, 144.4, 140.8

So much of cycling is about numbers, or can be about numbers, if you are trying to do things scientifically and optimize everything (as I am, and as I try to do)

Don't get me wrong, I love the whoosh in my hair, and the little fright that comes from tipping into a corner at full speed, as well as just in general being outside a lot. I like not using my car to commute whenever possible. But I also like charts and graphs.

The numbers in the title are what happens when you have a thing for riding bicycles in 100 degree temperatures:

146.4 - weight Sat morning
142.8 - weight Sat afternoon, post race, and after 90oz of fluids
146.2 - weight Sat night, mostly recharged (whew)
144.4 - weight Sun morning after making the earth just that bit more humid while sleeping
140.8 - weight Sun afternoon, post ride, and after 140oz of fluids near as I can tell

There's just over 15 ounces of water in a pound. So apparently I'm 80 or so ounces of water away from being rehydrated. It's going to be a long evening.

And that despite every Cat 2 on Team Oakland collectively deciding we were cooked and bailing out to take the BART train home :-) (edit: Maury actually toughed it out and rode home, chapeau, sir)

The cooler air coming in tonight will be very welcome...

In other news, I have been racing some - I've done two races now, both of which were P12 crits (okay, one was P123). Both worked out roughly the same - I was strong enough and good enough at bike handling and pack positioning to be in the right spot when the winning moves happened, and I was mentally aware enough to know they were the right moves, but I didn't have the extra capacity, so I sat in the field. Then the field rolled around until the end came, and I could get in position for the pack sprint but not without my legs starting to cramp a bit.

Why cramping? Good question. My current thesis is that my training bands were way too low (they were, 20% - LT is 256W now instead of 210W from April) so I hadn't trained muscular endurance enough. I've changed that and we'll see in two or three weeks whether things have improved when I toe the line again. It's also possibly diet but in a 60-minute race I think that's pretty easy to discount, though if in 4 weeks I haven't gotten past cramping, I'll work on diet.

That's the haps. Hope everyone has avoided melting

Rain Meditations

If you keep the wind off you, and the rate of incoming water is low, you don't have to stay dry, but you'll stay warm.

Really, a cycling cap to shield the glasses from water, shoe covers to keep the feet from freezing, some fenders to stop water from kicking up and drowning you, and a jacket is about all the gear you need for that.

When you ride by other cyclists who are journeying into the rain on two wheels with you, more often than not you'll share a grin, as if you were both stealing something.

When you ride your bike to BART in the rain and get on the train all kitted out and sopping wet, it's no longer paranoia, everyone actually is looking at you. No one smiles though, and they don't hold eye contact.

Earthworms are everywhere on the pavement when it rains. Someone should play Taps, it's a massacre.

Little glass pieces are everywhere as well. Flatting in the rain pretty much sucks, but finding a huge covered space to change your flat? Priceless.

When a car goes through a huge puddle next to you while riding in the rain, it's fun and comical instead of annoying like it is normally.

One little desk fan is capable of drying out all of your cycling gear in less than 8 hours just by blowing over it.

When it rains a lot, all the people that can't stand riding in the rain and burn out on the trainer become relatively weaker. That's what I tell myself, anyway.

Cheers

Holy Cow, it's Christmahanakwanzakah already!

Winter cycling blog update



This cake pretty much says it all - kinda poo brown, with the value-neutral sentiment: "Winter"

Yep.

Bushwhacked by some job responsibilities that I thought I would have cleared by now but can't quite seem to shake free of, getting sick here or there and doing the requisite holiday party hop.

I'll be a cyclist again at some point, I know it

Fastsqautch Monthly Update

My adoring fanbase demands yet more updates, so here you go. (thanks, both of you, by the way)

Mike's average weekly time allocation in November:

60-70 hours work at Tacit Knowledge (finance and infrastructure stuff)
56 or so hours sleeping
20 or so hours eating taking care of self etc
4-10 or so hours riding my bicycle
2-5 or so hours on finance education and personal finance
2-4 or so hours watching movies
1-2 or so hours work for Merritt's estate
.5 or so hours work for Teresa's web design company

Reeks of glamour, dunnit? Yeah, I'm not sure what happened to the pie slices I imagined growing up that were supposed to be at least 5 hours of fighting fires and operating earth-moving machines, or the one labelled "spacewalks for zero-g science experimentation" etc.

Can't really complain though, there's also no "5 hours, cleaning prison lavatories" or anything.

I do feel as though I need to justify my complete failure to either post interesting material, appear on group rides, or cause any suffering on said group rides. So there you go.

I will say that I went for a fan-tas-tic ride just now though. Lacked motivation the whole day but with just enough time before sunset on the last gorgeous day of the last weekend before "they" warn wet winter storms will start rolling in, I pulled my head out and climbned around the East Bay hills. Glorious - not sure why I didn't get out sooner. Something they call motivation I suppose. I recognize that I've never been one to train for no reason, and that reason is usually a race. I'm going to have to commit to some races next year to get the motivation up, and get back on the road again.

I'm not going to take credit for this picture, but this is pretty much the treat for pedaling up the hill behind my house at sunset:



Who wouldn't want to do that more often?

Surely carving 5 hours out of that bloated pie slice at work wouldn't result in the ruin of the company? Nah...

Unless something more interesting happens I'm probably not going to post again before Turkey Day, so happy thanksgiving everyone, with a wish that you have things to be thankful for and realize it in time to enjoy it.

Cheers-
-Mike

Updates, people want updates

Here's some Frankfurt airport fun for people, apropos of my ride last
night

People appear to be saddened at my lack of updates, but not nearly as
saddened as I am at my lack of fitness!

Unbelievably painful for me last night, and humbling. I appear to have
taught my legs that they only need to store enough energy for an hour
because I didn't just blow up (though I *did* blow up), I also bonked.

Now, seriously.

Here's hoping there's enough time between now and Spring for some real
training or I'm definitely on the downgrade path :-)

Great to see everyone as always though. I do love that port ride...

where's mike?

started in san francisco

stopped in chisinau, moldova

played for a bit in istanbul, turkey

flew on to manhattan in new york

just about to head back to oakland

will continue to guadalajara on thursday

whew!

lots of work, some fun - good to see the world a bit

I miss my bikes though, hopefully I can make it to the POO on tuesday

cheers, all

Bike Art and some randoms

Thursday evenings are usually reserved for my honey, but recently I've been working about 482% too much. You can't ever really make up for that, but trying to is fun, you know?



(firepit burns *wood* which is the purported theme of 5th anniversaries for traditional gift giving. Copper is also good for the 7th anniverary, so hey, if this firepit lasts long enough I'm all set. Obligatory bicycle - Hillary, if you were wondering - in the background and I'm sure if you look closely enough there'll be a cat in the house looking out)




Teresa and I just redid the backyard last year with something like 50 cents and a lot of elbow grease, plus a couple special assists from Sean Smith (thanks Sean :-) ). And we haven't gotten to enjoy it much this summer, but this is definitely nice. Obligatory two-wheeled machine in the background (that's "Scout" if you were wondering)


Meat!



I pass this bicycle graffiti every day, and I have to admit, it's not bad:



A visual feast. Shouts to all the guys and gals racing this weekend - good luck to everyone and keep the rubber side down (unlike that graffit)

Thanks for stopping by