TT ( The Nausea Drill )

Note that TTing requires head tipping as shown in exhibit A above.

Had my first indoor TT test this morning since 2003. I have only done three and all in the month of February.
2002 was when I got some coaching from Mt W and NHIS Series hammerhead Seth Hosmer. When we started he set off right away with an assessment which included a 20 minute TT test on a computrainer in his hot( a furnace where New Guinea tribesmen suck the tanoana out of shunken human heads) apartment. I think part of my brain remains between the floorboards. Result 227 W. Av HR 177. Max 180.
2003 was another, only not as hot and with some earpleasure TT motivation rock a la Zeppelin, Lenny Kravitz and the Dead. Result 246W. Av HR 180. Max 186.

Today, the TT was hot and compounded at 5 minutes in when I asked for more resistance. The computer that makes the adjustment to the mechanism has a delay, which the operator didn't allow for and next thing you know I can hardly pedal, and over 400 watts is coming out o' me wee lit-tle legs - and drops to 200W for the next minute as my blown legs recovered and I got back into the rhythm. Started out at 260, lulled into 250 here and there capped with 336 for the last minute.

Result: 262W. Max 409. Av HR 177. Max 190. Bonus: 5 minutes of nausea as the nasty metabolic byproducts flushed out. Blechh!
Feel pretty good about it now. It was friggin hot indoors again but I was functioning. Some delicious chocolatey goodness(milk) helped the blood sugar bounce back. And then I got to watch, and fan with a piece of cardboard, Mike Lambert's TT. Serious.
I weighed 161 lbs when I stepped on the scale this morning for est 16 lost in the past 3+ weeks. That makes the power to weight ratio 262/(161/2.2) = 3.59. People do this because they want to. Imagine.

"Hey, is that a pair of Amfib(TM) tights on that bikin' guy?" Funny you should ask...

Set your clocks 'cuz right now is "Blithering Idiot Exclaiming The Virtues of a Product" time.

Pearl Izumi Amfib(TM) tights are a wicked super comfy three season tight. F'in, they ARE the awesomest awe-inspiring awesomely super awesome epitome of what every mountain biker finds to be perfection when riding, and when standing around in a parking lot afterward. The front panel is wind and waterproof, the rest has fleece pile everywhere inside, and 8" ankle zippers make it pretty sweet for form fitting warmth. Awesome. Awesome awesome. They are, yes, indeed they are.

Just got my second pair in 4 years. Life is short so treat yourself. If I write "awesome" one more time, my head will explode. Awesome

He always looks like that.

After a sweet night ride.

The scene at Massabesic:

Michaux Bound

Decided that 4 hours of early season racing in Pennsylvania is AOK. Last year I did it on a whim with Mike Patrick and Rickey Visinski and had a good time chillin with some other nutties out in the middle of the woods, riding bikes and basically, staying out of Chris Eatough's way. I got in 4 x 9 mile laps, a broken finger and a lot of driving. I can bend the finger enough now that I can actually make a closed fist again- after one year - which I will likely use to punch another rock at an inopportune time on March 14.

I wonder how my Trek will do on the 3 feet of snow they received? Guess I'll find out soon. C'mon sun and do your tidings- melting away the vestiges of winter before we arrive.

Here's the link: http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=9743

They have good beer.

Two More, Including a Bike

Blair Mathieson and I descending off the Pang la with Shishpamangpa in the background. Ya, the place is biiiiiggggg.

Blair's bulging surfer legs almost got in the way of Everest - I'm still waiting for a royalty check from Chris Charmichael. Think I should send him a bill?

Old Ride, Good Memories

This time of year evokes longing to ride on actual dirt wearing shorts and short sleeve jersey on some sweet singletrack. And it also evokes random memories, but still biking related. Today I am remembering riding in Tibet, so here are a few pics from 2005...

This one was taken after Cha Cha decided he owned the road going up the Karo La. When we got to the top, there was a Tibetan woman knitting and another collecting dung, yak dung to be specific - in a big basket that was slung behind her back and lashed to her body. Can you imagine saying to your wife in the morning just before you leave for a day of barley harvesting "Hey honey, would you mind going to the top of 15,600' pass and collect some ... dung?" I know my wife would come through and I'd have a big heaping pile of dung when I got home. Fo sho'. Hey, waddaya know - here she is now:

A few miles later we rode by a clan of hotties lounging on some rocks, who for some reason are into dogs, very unfriendly dogs, and cute little sheep, and beer... there was a pile of Lhasa Beer empties behind them, like say 300 empties. Come to think of it, that's a good afternoon - hanging with the peeps, mountainside, waiting for brightly colored foreginers to ride by on bikes while sipping a tall one. Yeah!

The last is from the Lamna La after leaving EBC. This was at about 16,000' and in an area of many stones, many many stones about the size of a head that rumble the living shite out of your arms, shoulders and head. I got stoned that day by some naked kids as we rode past a small bridge. Literally. Seems stoning foreigners is a quick thrill for the little ones. No wonder kids are stoners and the ladies drink bee-ya.

Anyone want more?

Weigh In 1 and 2 And ...Riding

Last week I walked into Health Services' scale room and mounted the platform.... 173.75 #. Hmmm, not bad but geez, I felt the weight melting off all week and somehow had 8-9# loss in mind. Coming in at 6.25# lost, I felt an odd sensation of "Hey! I worked harder than that. Were my brake pads rubbing of something?" - just like in a post-race review where everything went well but you end up slower than last year's race, or slower than the guy you beat last year. That just goes to show me it'll come off as fast as it does, but there is a redeeming explanation too: my weight has just been moving around! Ah, yes, surely the bench presses I added to my weight (pun irresitable) routine 4 weeks ago must be adding muscle mass in my upper body as I lose it around the middle! Eureka.

Today I stepped on and my weight was 171.75. What the?! I ate less calories and exercised more than the week before. Conclusion: my upper body must be bursting forth like Arnold or Rocky. Impressive. My mirror says otherwise so there must be a mysterious force at work. Logical huh? This morning's weigh-in also taught me something else, that MLW and my decision to discard our "other" scale at home was fraught with ego... we kept the one that was 5-6 pounds less than the discard some years ago. I stepped on it today before leaving home and it showed 166 pounds. OK, so my scale at home is 5-6 pounds light - which means race weight is really 160# and I had 20 to lose, not 25.

Somewhere on my body is a chamber labelled "super dense fat inside". It has a tiny little hole from which yellow ooze eminates and dissolves into my bloodstream when aerobically exercising.
Which brings me to riding.
Saturday morning I ventured out on my Canterbury loop 22 miles of solid riding on snowmobile trails, marshes, some road and plenty of hills. It was 16 when I left and 24 upon return... I stopped three times for a nice 2.5 hours ride on stuff that was solid and offered some long continuous pushes. The legs felt pretty beat later on but not enough to keep me from going out again on the same route on Sunday with a new riding buddy, Pete. 22 more miles. 5 hours in the dead of winter on that route. It puts a smile on my face like the one that grew across my face last night when New Orleans intercepted Manning's pass. That's all folks.

Back to Riding

I can't imagine anyone wants to hear about anything other than bikes, bikes BIKES! So here's more on bikes.

Any one of you reading this blog know that last July, Clayton and I rode some of the Western Slope in Colorado, namely Crested Butte but also some in Gunnison and the high ridgeline of Monarch Crest.

We shot video at MCrest and I pieced together a condensed version of ONLY 8 minutes. Since the ride is 30 some miles long and descends from 11+ thousand feet down to Salida at 7700, it's hard to cut out the boring stuff cuz none of it was boring. We lucked out with a perfect day, 'cept for the hailstorm on Rainbow Trail as we neared the end.

The speed and terrain were quick and rumbly once we were off of the first main ridgeline. I can see why people doing the Continental Divide consider this section among the finest.

So HERE is the video.

In other news... my new riding bud Pete put this edited VIDEO together of Ft Rock when we rode. Dig the nice musical edits...

Does anyone like this stuff? Does it make you nauseous, hate me like a drunken boasting idiot, or am I able to simply convey some enthusiasm and, at least for a moment, share some of the good bike vibe? Well?