Happy New Year!

Another laid back day hanging with B-Man. Some shopping, some playground action and some Ben 10. Wifey home by 4 my ass on the trainer by 4:02 and spin/weights/core done by 5:30.

6:00 our friends Y&M are coming over for pizza, bevies, and conversation. Goal tomorrow is 2 hours or riding. OR closer to 3 if I can get outside. Who knows?

Have a great and SAFE! New Year's Eve. Don't do anything TOO stupid and remember tomorrow is a day off. Don't ruin a ride with a freaking hangover. (God I hope I read this tomorrow and don't regret typing it!! See edit below)

I think New Years is sort of a dumb holiday. I mean it's just a date change. BUT I'll take the day off from work no problem. I look forward to another year of riding and racing and wish you all the best of luck. May you have endless miles of single track, low traffic roads to ride, and a successful 2008 race season. Cheers!

Later. See you in 2008!

January 1, 2008 A.M. EDIT: Feeling A-OK this a.m. It got REAL crazy last night. I'm kidding of course. Y&M came over. We ate copious amounts of pizza and we had a few bevies. Y&M scooted just before 11 to relieve their sitter before the midnight "ball drop". Then some NY eve crime was fought, a midnight kiss was had and at 12:01 I was in bed. Weather is too "Witch Tit Like" for me today. Wind blowing hard with a "reel feel" of 18 degrees. Yeah, I think I'll be sweating all that Luciano's garlic on the trainer.

Electro Melt Down Rebound

After the aborting of both an outside, then inside ride this a.m. due to mental, physical and and electronic gadget meltdowns I think I'm back on track.

Battery replaced in HR Monitor Chest Strap and since I don't speak/read Dutch or measure distance in Kilos I redid the setting on the Simga computer.

As far as my mental and physical rebound I owe that to a day of slack at my Dad's with B-Man, then home to cook up some Guacamole, and some Colon Blow Mexicana (whole wheat pasta, double beans and veggies etc., etc.,) and wash it down with a Sierra Nevada.

When I was at Wal-Mart the other day I picked up 2 bottles of my FAVORITE Mexican hot sauce (El Yucateco Green Habanero) da'Mart is the only place I have ever seen it. So I stocked up.

Of course the purchase lead Wifey to ask me- "should someone who just two days ago thought he had a hemorrhoid issue and made my buy Preparation H be eating this much hot sauce??" I say burn the pain right out!

BONUS!: Wifey took down all the Christmas decorations. LIFE is 99% back to normal! Whoot! Whoot!

No BIG New Year's plans tomorrow. Some Luci's pizza with a couple good friends, a couple fine beers and hopefully some nice rest for a long indoor or outdoor ride on Tuesday. It's sorta sad that I'm not more in to New Year's Eve since it is the anniversary of the first night I ever met Wifey. One of the few night I ever went out on the holiday and I meet the woman I end up married too. Odd. AND some damn good luck!

Later.

A Sunday Blow Out!

No ride Saturday. Took the day off from riding. We went to a family wedding last night. Wasn't a bad time, but I will say if your wife asks you to slow dance at a wedding. You better say yes. Yeahhhh, I didn't really follow that advice.

Got home by 10, but then I stayed up 'till Midnight watching Football Factory. Not a good move for someone who is feeling run down, fighting a slight head cold, not getting enough sleep, and wanting to ride Sunday a.m. outside.


Yeah, the ride really didn't happen. My legs felt like lead and my head has a.m. snot sludge in it. SO I figured I'd spin on the trainer for an hour or more. My HR monitor refused to sync with the strap, and my bike computer was now wanting me to pick a language! Italiano? Dutch? WTF!!!!!!????.

So I'm taking the hint. Gonna get my gear in working order, spend the day resting and try again tomorrow.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm ready to go back to work. I want my routine back. Eating, hydrating, sleeping, training is all out of whack.

Later. I need a mind enema.

Catching Some Gray. Rolling Some Miles.

My afternoon of slack never materialized. I couldn't do it. The temps were in the mid 40's, I had a sitter for B-Man, and the roads beckoned for some mileage on the Mamasita.

I once again had a blast riding the Mamasita on the roads. It's no road bike, but once you get used to the gearing it's damn cool. I do find myself riding through much more of the crappy parts of the WPA roads though. I need to break THAT habit before I soon go back to the 25c tires, and find myself over the bars and eating some gravel!

Today's ride also made me realize for a mountain bike racer training on the road, IMHO, there's no difference between riding a 17 lb. road bike, a CX bike, or a mountain bike. You can get the job done with ANY of those bikes. You may not want to join your local roadie group ride (I don't) or do a road race (I don't) with your CX or MTB, but IT CAN BE DONE, and be damn fun! It's all about getting the miles in, getting the legs in shape, and the heart/lungs ready for race season. Your legs, lungs and heart could give a shit what bike you're riding! Just ride!!!

Don't get me wrong, I miss my road bike and long for my new ride coming soon, but I'm in no way stressed out because I'm riding one kick ass 29er on the road!

One of the coolest parts of today's ride was riding over a hill that had a MILLION tiny birds flying back and forth in formation overhead! I thought they were bats, but they weren't. There were so many, and they were so low I could here the flapping of their wings. AND hear the bird shit splatting all around me. How I avoided being hit I have no idea!

The suck part of the ride was first feeling over dressed and hot and THEN feeling under dressed and cold by mile 25. Every climb I felt too hot, every descent I felt too cold. But hey, I'm freaking riding outside and it's almost January! SWEET!

Another sub par part was at about mile 32. I rounded a bend that has an immediate up hill. I turned, stood up, put the hammer down and FOUND myself in WAAYYYYYYY too hard of a gear. I gritted, grunted and showed the chamois a Fig Bar "turtle head", but with about 20 yards to the top of the hill my legs shit the bed harder than a caffeine freak hopped up on laxatives, bad beer and bran muffins! Grrrrr!

I limped/rolled the remaining 3 miles back to the Soob. I was happy to get some more outside miles in, and VERY happy I ended my ride when I did, since it stared pissing down rain 2 minutes after I loaded up the car. A nice 2:30 on the bike and roughly 35 miles. Mmmmm, I could smell the 1900 Christmas calories burning off!

After the ride it was a quick trip to Wal-Mart to stock up on some goods. Sure I had to stand in the check out line for 15 minutes, but I DID see an urban male sporting a "man fur", so that made up for it. I mean it was freaking 47 degrees today, and dude had a MAN FUR ON?? Plus it was pouring down rain! It must have smelled like wet dog. Oh well who am I to judge? (except a dude that would NEVER wear a f*cking "man fur" unless I was vacationing in 1943 Stalingrad!!!).

Not sure if the tomorrow will hold and saddle time or not. Even though I swore to God that I would NEVER attend another wedding, we got ourselves an O'Leary family wedding to go to. I can only hope they have an open bar, and mix a good Gin and Tonic.

Later.

Forks, Memories, And An Itch

Another pretty sweet day today. Me and B-Man hung out all day playing, watching cartoons, going to the bike shop, and the mall playground.The only way to really top all that off would have been some outside saddle time. That didn't happen but my trainer/weight workout did. I guess I have to take what I can get.

Felt so/so on the trainer. My normal strength routine is 10 min steady spin/10 min 50 RPM interval/Weight Circuit/x 3. But since my indoor work out "Mo" wasn't "Jo-ing" I cut my steady spins (except for the first) to 5 minutes and kept the 50 RPM "money intervals".

B-Man and I took the Trek to Dirty Harry's today to have the fork looked at. In the words of Scooter "it's ready for the trash heap". So photos were taken, the bike was left, and a new Bontrager fork should be making it's way to the 2200 in the coming days at no cost to me. It's time with me will be short lived and then I have to decide it I want to sell the frame/fork/headset or keep it and make it my new "trainer/bad weather bike". Come January the Campeon's sexy ass will be coming my way. Hmmmm. I love thinking about his stuff. Big thanks to Dirty Harry's for top notch warranty service assistance. Thanks Scott and Scooter!

______________________________________________________

In other less bike oriented news and on a more personal note. Today marks the 7 year anniversary of my Mom's passing. Seven years gone and I still miss her. You want to talk about endurance. My mom suffered with MS for almost 20 years. From a slight limp to a having no control of her body below the neck. But despite ALL of that she was the most positive loving force I ever encountered.

Me and Mom circa mid 70's. Check out that shag "do" that I'm sporting. She was still 100% at this point and sadly I can barely remember that part of her life.

If I could muster even 10% of my Mom's attitude I would be a force to be reckoned with. But alas I have not yet mustered. BUT, I do have something to strive for, right? Her passing 2 days after Christmas MAY have something to do with me not enjoying this time of year, but I'm sure there's more to it. What's life without a few issues?

_______________________________________________________

B-Man is spending the afternoon with Papa-O' tomorrow so I have to decide if I want to ride in the afternoon or catch up my "me time". I may opt to ride Sat. a.m. before we head out to a family wedding in the afternoon. Non riding "me time" is something that I get too much of, so I may just slack my ass off.

_______________________________________________________

In even MORE personal UN-bike related news. I may have a problem....

I think my "issue" has passed, but it didn't stop me from making Wifey go to the store to make this embarrASSing purchase rather than me. JUST to be safe. See what can happen when your chamois gets TOO "soiled"?? HA! I think I just heard ONE more reader make the decision to NEVER come to this site again. I say "let he/she who's ass has not itched cast the first stone"- YEAH! That's what I thought M.F.!!

I pray I don't have to use this. Actually I pray I never have to got to my Doc for this issue!! I can NOT even imagine being bent over the table while my female Doc gives the corn hole the once over. DEAR GOD! I think I'd rather just resign myself to a life of skooching along the floor like a dog with a bung worm.

Later.

Chilled Meat Sticks (Hold The Mayo!)

Sweet day today. First of all- NO WORK! So we're talking good from the get go. Then I got to fire up my new coffee maker that Wifey got me for Christmas and fill my gullet full of bust ass java. B-Man and I hung out watched some Barn Yard, then headed out to my Dad's digs in Scottdale.

B-Man was into the idea of hanging with my dad for a few hours, my dad was into the idea of hanging with the B-Man, and I was into the idea of getting some hours in the saddle of the Mamasita. So EVERYone was happy.

Ride time temps were in the mid forties. Not bad for late December in WPA. I'll take that shit any day of the week. Little knee warmer action, little wind resistant clothing and some T6 woolies and I was good to go.

My plan was to do my normal 40 mile loop on the Mamasita. I STILL have not taken my Trek to get the fork checked, and I fill uncomfortable riding it until someone says it's all good. My Campeon won't be hitting the W.O. until January sometime., so I've been road riding on the fully knobbed Mamasita. It continues to be pretty cool. I only wish I would have done more of this last spring/summer. I think riding it on the road would have be GREAT prep for the Mohican 100 and for the Wilderness 101.

I was so stoked to be riding, and the meat sticks felt great. I did feel like I had about 3 lbs. of turkey in my belly for a while though. MAYBE that was because I DID have 3 lbs. of turkey still trying to make it's way through my intestine. Did I mention how friggin' bomb my turkey turned out?? 6.5 lbs. of brined goodness!!!

I did 98% of the ride in the big ring. A couple climbs just felt a tad better in the middle but for the most part the 44 did it just fine. I was shocked how even though I was cruising pretty good on the Mama, it's STILL not like riding a road bike! The loop is a hair under 40 miles, it normally takes me about 2:10, and today it took me 2:30 on the nose. So needless to say it will be a mental boost to roll some of these loops on the skinnies again.

For December I'm feeling damn good about my legs right now. Riding the mountain bike on the road is a tough workout, but I'm really getting into it.

Finished with 2:30 of saddle time, 39+ miles and nearly 2,000 calories burned up. Did the whole ride on 2 bottles. One bottle of regular GhettoAde™ and one bottle of Carbo Pro mixed with GhettoAde™.

The '08 Twin-Six Argyle socks rock! A tad higher than the 07s and look bad ass. Or at least as bad ass as argyle socks can look when combined with my white skin, knee warmers and spandex.


I felt the need to see my aging, whiskered face. I saw a pict of myself from Chirstmas Eve, when I was freshly shaved and I looked like a butch lesbian. I mean there's nothing wrong with looking like a butch lesbian IF you're a butch lesbian. BUT I'm a dude, so it REALLY was not a good look for me. I will never shave again.


The top half of my face. AND a better shot since my face is NOT in the pict. BUT the kick ass Hammer cycling cap is. This cap has the most flippable bill of any lid I own.


Pretty typical WPA back road.


WPA farm. B&W for that "depression era feel". For a depressed area.

That's about it. I was gonna skip a couple beers and eat light today, but when I reviewed my net calories for the day I had 3,000+ calories to play with, so I said "what the frig?" and enjoyed a nice healthy sized plate of Mexican rice and beans and a couple brews.

Not sure what's goning on tomorrow, might try to get the Trek to the shop and will probably do my weight and spin workout in the evening.

Later.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FOLKS!!!

All in all a good holiday, but I'm glad it's over. We had incredible weather there today. A nice crisp, sunny day. To hell with the snowy Christmas I say!

Mid day holiday burn out has set in. B-Man and Wifey are sacked out on the couch. I've got my turkey going and sweet potatoes made. Time for a little blog brake and some some picts...

Wifey hooked me up good with a new Chef's knife for my White Trash delicacies.

Wifey also got hooked me up with a cool ass book of one of my faves-
The late Hunter S. Thompson.

Of course it did lead to this conversation-
Wifey: "He's dead, right?"
Me: "Yeah, he killed himself with a shotgun."
Wifey: "Why the hell did I buy you that for Christmas???"

But the book IS cool. Say what you want about the guy, but I know that if it wasn't for him, Henry Miller, Bob Roll , and my love of cycling, I would not even attempt this digital fish wrap that I call The Soiled Chamois.

Yeah, it's cool to get shit, but the best part of Christmas for me is B-Man.



Of course he got some new Ninja weapons. ALWAYS a good choice for B-Man.

In case you're wondering that's a juice stained tongue, NOT the blood of a slayed victim (me). Moments after this shot he lopped my head off. Luckily through the miracle working of one Doctor Boo Boo Gone, my oft empty head was reattached.

Time for turkey, and a complex carb fest. Again, Merry Christmas to all. Tomorrow we're having highs near 50. My ass is gonna be on the Mamasita getting some base miles in. I hope you are too. It doesn't HAVE to be on a Mamasita, but it should be. IF Santa was good to you.

Later.

Pre Santa Burn

Man the weather was great here today and I was chomping to be outside on the bike. BUT Santa through me the ride c*ck block and stacked my schedule. BUT I was able to squeeze my normal Monday 1:20 weight/spin workout in. That combined with 37.5 mg of Daddy's Little Helper and I should be emotionally ready for the onslaught of family and holiday madness that awaits me.

Eating plan: NO HAM! (too much salt, makes my fingers swell up), NO COOKIES! (Unless there's Thumb Prints! The Thumb Print does me in EVERY TIME!). Other than that I should be good to go. NO POP! (I usually can avoid this, but often fall for the lure of a quick caffeine/sugar fix and get left with that nasty sugar taste in my mouth for the rest of the night. NUTS! Easy on the nuts. I love them, they love me with their protein and healthy fats, BUT they are pretty high in calories and must be scarffed down in moderation. I guess If I cheat it's most likely gonna be with nuts (why does that sound dirty and a Lifetime TV movie waiting to happen??).

Making a brined turkey, sweet pots, corn, and whole wheat Stove Top (Bbox stuffing? I now its' lame!) for my family unit tomorrow.

Very geeked for B-Man. Focusing on him and the shear joy he gets from this holiday is what makes it fun. If you have kids, enjoy it and soak in that joy for sure.

Hope you all have a great Holiday! May your stockings be stuffed with SRAM X.O and Hammer Gels.

Later. Time to get ready to get my Holiday Freak on!

Thom Yorke's Spinervals For Hipsters Vol. I

What a fecal like day here in WPA. Rain, chilly, heavy wind, dark grey. In other words a normal day in WPA. Given the weather I found myself on the trainer to keep the legs loose and burn some calories.

Today's workout was tittled Thom Yorke's Spinervals For Hipsters Vol. I™.

Basically it was this. Start in 39x25 and an interval consists of the length of a song from the newly acquired Radiohead Live In NY. When the next song starts, move it on down to the next gear. When you end up at 39x12, go back to 39x25. I avoided stuff in my 53 so as to try to have my legs reasonably fresh for a ride or weight workout before the holiday madness begins. I can't begin to imagine Thom Yorke riding a bike let along doing an interval session, BUT Radiohead makes for a nice soundtrack to spend 1:25 on the trainer.

Helmetless BMX?

I found some BMX stuff on our Comast OnDemand cable. I thought B-Man might get a kick out it. But when I looked at it I was a bit dismayed. Not one rider in a helmet? Too cool for helmets I suppose. They'll look pretty cool when they're on a life support machine too. So I ditched the idea. I like that B-Man is in to wearing his helmet. Another turn off was the "gangster rap" soundtrack. I get enough of that from the Escalades that play it as they roll up my front street all summer long. I don't need it more of it.

Oddly enough, later in the day I was coming down Lincoln Way (our main street here in the Dubya-Oh) and there was a group of BMXers doing tricks and what not. And not one helmet. Hmmm I wonder where they got that idea. I noticed that the BMX vid had some pretty big name sponsors. I hope they're fine with the idea of a kid emulating a rider that they sponsored, biting it and cracking his skull open because he wanted to look "cool". F*ck, I'm officially an old man now.

Later. Gotta wrap Wifey's gifts!

A Bike Geek Saturday Ride

Anytime I can get a ride in outside in late December is a HUGE serotonin boost! Today's weather was great for WPA in December. Cloudy, and a crisp 48* or 50* at start of the ride. Warm enough for a vest, arm and knee warmers. Took out the full knobbed Mamasita again. I'm really sort of diggin riding the Mama on the road. I don't feel nearly as stupid riding a HT 29er on the road as I used to riding a 26" wheeled mountain bike.

My computer wouldn't work today, but that's fine by me. Nothing worse than when you're on your mountain bike on the road, look down and see you're going 14 mph on a road you normally go about 20 mph! I did have my HR doin' it's thing, so as long as I could see my time and HR I was gold.

This is the course I did today...

The start is a the top of the map at the Norwin area soccer fields. You can check out the full mapped ride on Bikely.com. End up being a tad under 34 miles. A great way to spend 2:20 of a Saturday 3 days before Christmas!

A disply of bike geekness.

During my ride I saw Santa on top of a fire truck. I wave and screamed what I wanted for Christmas. He waved and I tried to snap som picts. But the camera did not cooperate, drat!

But apparently he found his way to my house to drop off
a little pre Christmas gift from his elves in MPLS-

Freaking sweet! Woolies, Bike Geek and a Speedy T, to to mention some new un stanked bottles. Woot! Woot! Muchos gracias!

I was geeked (no pun intended) to get my Geek on and Wify snapped these....

The second picture display what the shirt SHOULD say with me wearing it.

All in all a sweet day. Nice ride outside, wrapping gifts, and some Santa goodness from T6.

Later. Time for food.

Friday Part II

Have you ever been just going through your day and then stop and think.... "I wonder what Maja is doing right now?" I mean I NEVER have, but someone might. I mean you never know. Right? And update your freaking English site Maja!!!! We don't ALL speak Polish you know! I mean you know, if you like "care" about what she might be doing. HA!

Happy Friday!

Ahhhh... Friday.

Got out of the office early today.
Hope to ride outside tomorrow in December!!
B-Man and I are playing our asses off.
I have some good beer I didn't have to pay for in the fridge.
I don't work again until January 2nd!

Freaking good Friday!
Hope your's is good too.

And THIS...

Your "Friday Moment of Zen"

Later.

Some Times It's Better To Receive

Wow, another in as series of junk kick days at work. I was once again asked to lend a hand laying out and type setting some auto inserts. UG! BUT, it once again made the day go fast.

The suck part was the drive home when I was forced to brave Monroeville traffic. Monroeville is one mall, strip mall, restaurant, fast food joint, mini mart, min mall, drug store, red light, stop sign and big box retailer after another. So as you can imagine this is NOT the time of year to be out and about. Holy shit! It took me 15 minutes to go about 1 mile.

When I sit in the Soob, stuck in traffic (right after I finish thinking how if I was on my bike I could be cruising down the shoulder, passed the line of traffic) I can't help but wonder what the Holiday season is like in other countries and cities. Is Spain a mass of shoppers buying up everything in sight? Are German's maxing out their credit cards to finance a room full of gifts? Is Utrecht a wall to wall mass of a cars and trucks all inching forward to make it to a mall? Good grief I hope not!

I'm not getting all "reason for the season bumper sticker" on your ass or anything, I like stuff, (too much stuff!) It's just sometimes I don't understand people, or I should say human nature. But I think it's more I don't like my 25 minute commute taking 40 minutes. That and I suffer from Grinch issues amongst other issues. Sorry.

Having said that I WAS on the sweet ass receiving end of Christmas giving today. The reps I work for got me a case (A FRIGGIN' CASE!!!) of Dog Fish Head 90 Minute I.P.A.. Hands down the best gift any sales staff has ever got me. The Sisters of Huss (my name for the all female sales staff, and yes they know I call them that) did damn good. Thanks!

So between my second day of type setting b.s., and the drive, I was pretty fried by the time I got home. It was a major success for me just to have the will to chamois up and make it to the basement. But I did, and felt better in the end. That 10 min warm up on the trainer was enough to make me want to climb off and walk right out into traffic though. Again, I'm glad I didn't. Ended up feeling good and I was happy to get what is my last time in the basement until maybe Sunday or Monday.

Really hope the weekend cooperates with some road or long rail trail mileage. Right now Saturday looks to be the best day.

Wifey joined and started back to the gym today (way to go!) Should be cool. It's close to home, the have a bunch of classes for her (including a Spin class) and they have a day care for B-Man for the times when our schedules don't mesh. Some might frown on the idea of parents taking their kid to a health club day care so they can work out. I say "ballz" to them. B-Man plays great both with others and independently and Wifey said he really seemed to dig it. I think it's great that he sees his parents doing things to stay healthy, get exposed to folks having fun and trying to stay fit.

Making riding, or working out something you enjoy and part of your everyday lifestyle is a great way to influence kids that physical activity is NOT a chore. It can be fun. I love when B-Man comes to my races. He gets to see that there is way more to life than being a couch spud, and playing video games. I want him to think people who don't eat healthy and stay active are the odd balls.

Man I have a real stick up my ass today. Sorry. I need tomorrow to be over and 11 glorious work free days to start. That reminds me I better make sure I didn't miscount my remaining vacation days or it might be 10 glorious days off. Either way, I can't wait!

Later.

Little Burn In The Old Meat Sticks

Wow what a day at work. EEESH! I was called to help out another department today since our deadlines are all jacked up due to the Christmas holiday, and DAMN you KNOW it was was a big ass double sided insert with lots of 6 point type. Oh yeah! My eyes are FRIED! But I got it done and was able to get 1/2 of another one done for them. So all should be able to hit the presses by the weekend.

Annnnnnyyyyway- Really had a good one on the trainer tonight. Bunch of threshold stuff and spinning that had me burn up 1000 and ready for tomorrow's weight workout.

Had a great bunch of tunes going tonight on iPodious. How is it back in 1992 bought Radiohead's "Pablo Honey". Other than the single "Creep" I thought it sorta sucked. I sold it. Fast forward to 1997's "OK Computer". I think we're getting somewhere! Then each album just got better and better after that. I admit, I need to be in the right mind set for them, and lately I have been. Spawned by some live stuff I have from a 2003 show in Atlanta. Great googly moogly is it good show. Wow! I sorta went on a real Radiohead "love fest" there, didn't I? Sorry.

Thanks for the ton of comments on yesterday's "must foods" post. Lot of good input and it seems most of us are on the same page nutritionally. Thanks for the tips on the Salmon too (Ian and Marcy). I definitely need to add that to the rotation. I dig Salmon a lot. Just need to get my confidence preparing it.

Neat "Salsa Christmas Wish List" post over on the Amigos Blog. Jason asks "imagine asking Santa Pepperman for just one new product from Salsa Cycles. What would "IT" be?" My comment? Ti Dos Niner! Oh yeah! Seems like I wasn't alone either. Even Double-R had to succumb to the Christmas lust of Titanium Dos Ninerness (is "Ninerness" a work? I doubt).

Many others "asked for" for one as well, but many a commenter wished for an FS 29er. I can't say I thought about one much. The Dos Niner seems to fit that bill for me. I will say sometimes it would be nice to get say 3"+ rather than 1". As long it was a SIMPLE, light XC design without a lot of pivots and breaky things I'd be happy to put under the tree beside the Ti Dos Niner ;) BUT the rule was ONE wish. So for me Ti Dos Niner it was.

Now if Santa Pepperman REALLY existed!

(this is where a PhotoShopped picture of Jason from Salsa in a Hot Pepper/Santa outfit would be. BUT I'm too chicken shit to put a PhotoShopped pict featuring the head honcho of one of my teams main sponsors on the blog! So just use your imagination! UPDATE: The man said go for it (see comments)

Santa Pepperman might scare me. This might have been a bad idea.

Later. I need to get some sleep instead of playing around with my copy/paste keys!

What Are YOUR Must Have Foods?

As an endurance athlete I try to eat healthy as often as I can. That's no secret to anyone who has stopped by here more than once or knows me. I've been pretty sucked into my new book "The Eat Clean Diet", and I'm always reading over some of my other favorite books like Chris Carmichael's "Food For Fitness" and Liz Applegate's "Eat Smart, Play Hard". (Side Note: apparently Sports Nutrition is such a popular subject, you can find "Eat Smart, Play Hard" on Amazon for .01¢. Nice.)

When I read over these books I always end up thinking about food, and what I have stocked up for the coming week's meals. See I do all my own cooking (barring the occasional weekend night out) and 90% of the grocery shopping. So as I make my lists and mental notes every week I see certain foods that make their appearance EVERY week without fail.

I thought I'd put down a list of my "must haves". Stuff that I find in my basket EVERY week. Feel free to comment on what you find in YOUR basket or if you don't do the shopping, what you find in your cupboard every week, and can't go without. So here they are...

• Red and Green Peppers
• Onions
• Granny Smith Apples
• Navel Oranges
• Bag of Spinach
• Black Beans
• Kidney Beans
• Whole Wheat Pasta
• Brown Rice
• 100% Whole Wheat Bread
• Lean Ground Turkey
• Chicken Breasts
• Albacore Tuna (in water)
• Fat Free or Low Fat Yogurt
• Skim Milk
• Salsa
• Low Fat Peanut Butter
• Whole Grain Cereal (ColonBlow™)
• Shredded Mozzarella and Mexican Cheese

So I know not ALL of this stuff in 100% healthy. I don't eat health ALL the time. God knows the beers I enjoy on the weekend would NOT qualify as "health food". Cheese is also a hard thing for me. I love me some cheese!! BUT I have recently found that a little cheese can go a LONG way. Just adding 1/4 to 1/2 cup (a "serving size" is 1/4 cup I believe) can really add flavor and texture to stuff like rice and beans or pasta with peas and tuna. I have recently learned to poo-poo "low fat cheeses" too. The cost to calorie/fat content just does not make sense. Especially since I learned to control cheese portion size. Cheaper to measure the cheese than to pay the extra buck to save 1 or 2 grams of fat!

On a sad note I will say, I'm eating all this stuff, counting calories, keeping food logs, trying to watch what I eat, and there are still THOUSANDS of racers that can eat a bag of Doritos, pound a Pabst and kick my ass on race day. Oh well maybe SOMEDAY this will all pay off, right? HA!

So anyone care to share their "Must Haves"? Anyone?

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In ACTUAL cycling related stuff: Saw this pict on
the VeloNews.com Reader Photo Gallery:

By: Bikeman.com teammate Troy Nye "The Science Guy"

That photo freaking rocks! Nice job.

No workout tonight. Just hanging, blogging, and what not. Back to the trainer for a longer steady effort ride tomorrow.

Later.

Tasteless? Yes, But It's Hammer Heed

I had all the mojo of a pig on a slaughter bound semi this a.m.. A cold, snowy, Monday is NO WAY to start a week. But through the day I got some stuff finalized for my my new frame, and it should be White Oak bound in the coming month or so. After much waffling, e mailing and obsessing, I went with the smaller 51/58 size.

Why? Well, after comparing my some of my Trek's measurements directly with the suits (ha!) at the Big S (oops, Specialized might have that copyrighted) I came to the conclusion that the 51/58 size would allow more "wiggle room" with the stem lengths, heights, etc., The 53/60's long head tube lenght would most likely have me running zero spacers and possible a negative rise stem to try to get my desired position. Not much room for error in that regard, and NO room to go lower if I choose. I like to have options. We shall see.

Once home I was happy to get on board the trainer and get my workout going. Increased some weights tonight and am starting to feel it a bit. Nothing too nutz-oh, but more weight than I've pushed for a while. 1:20 later it was time for my wash down and some food cooking. Made one of my faves tonight: Brown Rice, Black Beans, Chopped Onions, and Chicken Breasts stir fried with some EVOO and hopped up with some Franks Red Hot. Mmm. Wifey says it smells like B.O. while it's cooking, and smells worse when it makes it's late night marriage bed exit, but I don't care. I dig it the most.

I forgot to mention during my weekend posts that Hammer Nutrition had included a sample pack of Unflavored Hammer Heed in my last order, so I tried it out during my road ride on Saturday. Holy crap! I'm all about this stuff! Tasteless! No taste! I mean it is VOID of ALL taste. In other words- IT ROCKS!
One of the big problems I developed during my 2007 season was an aversion to the taste of Heed and Perpetuem. I've only tried the unflavored Heed right now, but I can only hope that Perpetuem is just as tasteless. The stuff rocks, but I spewed forth more than a few ounces of Perpetuem during some early season races due to my taste buds revolting. I can only take so many hours of the Orange Heed too before it starts turning my stomach. Hope to get my mitts on some more of the stuff to give it an extended testing. Good thing I got me some referral credits in the "Hammer Bank"!.

7:08 A.M. EDIT: I'm sure many of you heard about Ryan Trebon's crash at CX Nats that knocked him out. I've be wondering how how it happened, and found the crash on YouTube. Man it really sucked. I hope he's doing ok.

That's it.

Later.

Relax, Clean Eating & A Dot Com

Not much going on at all today. Legs were sorta of feeling it from yesterday's 2:30 in the snow, so I figured a nice day of relaxing was in store before Base II starts tomorrow. So just a day with B-Man out at Pappy-M's.

Wifey gave me one of my Christmas gifts early yesterday. She found an uber good deal on a book I wanted so she went ahead and gave to me- The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. The book is real good. First of all to call it a diet is crap and even the author says it's a "lifestyle change". That is something that I FIRMLY believe in. The book is a LOT of what I already do. Several small meals through the day based on lean protein, complex carbs, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. No pop, no junk food and lots of water.

Where I differ with the diet is the "small meals" I tend to eat "quality snacks" like Oranges, Apples, granola, etc., through the day and finish the day with a post workout BIG meal. I like the idea of rewarding myself for good eating and a hard workout with a healthy dinner time portion of food.

Clean Eating is not really about alcohol either. And as you know I like a few GOOD beers on the WEEKEND. To the author's credit she does acknowledge that that there are certain benefits to a LITTLE bit of alcohol. Like getting your partner drunk enough to "fight crime". OK I made the "crime fighting" part up, but the rest is true, but it DOES sorta work for me!! Clean Eating is also not that "in" to sugar, and I of course like a few teaspoons of sugar in my coffee. I have heard Adam and Dave talk of Stevia as a substitute, but I personally have not tried it yet.

Other than those couple things I'm pretty in to the book and Clean Eating. I like the author's use of "lifestyle" instead of diet. This is something that I believe in 200%!! You want to lose weight? THINK about what you eat. KNOW that you can NOT eat out at restaurants 4 to 5 times a week and loose weight. Think of food as fuel for your body to do a job. I of course do make some adjustments for being an endurance athlete. That being PROBABLY more calories and complex carbs than any diet might recommend.

Anyway, sorry for the food tirade, but the book is a pretty good book for the price and it hopefully help some folks that live in the Yo-Yo/Fad Diet world wake up and eat right. Thanks for the book Wifey! You rock in a "wow that nerd can rock" sort of way.

In the coming days this blog will be/should be switching it's web address to thesoiledchamois.com rather than this current blogspot location. You should be redirected and it should pose no problems. I'm sorta geeked (in a damn, I'm such a f*cking geek sort of way) to have my own web address. I hope to have a 30 second spot ready for this year's Super Bowl.

Lastly, curses to Salsa Cycles. I am not a roadie. I like to road ride, but I do it more for the purpose of staying in shape, training and making sure I can race my mountain bike without making a COMPLETE freaking ass of myself (easier said than done). I NEVER think of racing a road bike and really don't lust for road bikes or parts. BUT with it looking like a Campeon may coming my way I find myself looking at better, newer road cranks, wheels etc., Curse you, curse you Salsa for making me lust.

My priest will hear about all this lustfulness at my next confession. Of course if he hears about that he'd have to hear about that chick with the nice rumpus I saw at the mall last week. OK, forget it, you're off the hook! And FORGET confession! I guess I can live in a world of nice rumps and cool road bikes.And since I really don't go to mass, it's all good Salsa. No worries. Viva la mall rumps, viva la road bike!

OK, time to watch some cartoons with B-Man, dinner and get my mind in the zone for Monday.

Later.

Routine Turned Epic

Mid morning decision time. Trainer for two hours or road ride in 33 degree weather? Hmmm. After several cups of coffee, Net cruising, a monster PB&J sammy, and some weight cutting the decision was made... Road ride.

I think it took me 35 minutes to get ready! Layer after layer of wicking, warming, "breathing" water repellent, wind resistant layers of clothing. Then get the Mamasita ready to roll. The temps weren't that bad and I was happy with my decision to not ride indoors.

Two layers of socks including my T6 Woolies.

I started from the Boston Rail Trail parking lot. Then headed STRAIGHT up. This climb is hard enough on a 18 lb. road bike with 25c tires. Now I'm on a 26+ lb. 29er with full 2.1 knobbies. THEN at the steepest part of the climb I got the "car follower" that won't pass, just rolling behind me at 5 mph. I wave it around. Nothing. I slow down to a near stand still. Nothing. I look back and see it's a woman in a "Christmas Sweater".

You know, the kind with the freaking Santas and snow flakes all over them. GOD I HATE THOSE F*CKING SWEATERS! So now I'm jacked. The sweater set me off. I give one last hard wave for her to go around, and yell "GO AROUNNNNNNND!!!" I felt like a knob, but she was killllling my "mojo".

My HR was just sick on that fist climb. I was hitting like 178. Yikes! And moving SSSSSSSSLOW. BUT once I got to the top I recovered pretty well and got in a groove. Riding a mountain bike will full knobs on the road will NOT make you feel fast, but it is one hell of a work out.

Classic WPA back roads and classic WPA gray/white sky.
This helped me get another really good layer of "pastey white" on. Oh yeah!

At about the 1:15 mark it started to spit snow. Buy 1:25 I was riding in full on snow showers. It was kind of cool at first, but then it lost it's cool factor when it became more intense and I started getting wet, and sort of an "ice cream headache".

Blurry cockpit shot. I'd like to say it was blurry because of the incredible speed that I was producing, but sadly it just a shaky hand and a bad camera.

Then it lost ALL cool factor when it turned into the dreaded "wintry mix". On the last steep ass, switchback descent, I was getting pelted in the face what what felt like a weed whacker, but was in reality it was said wintry mix.

I saw this sad sight. Pepperman road kill. WTF? I mean HOW does a hot pepper end up on the side of a back road?? One of the last picts taken before the snow came down and the camera had to hide in the Craft jacket.

This ride normally takes me a bout 2:05 on my road bike. Today, with the weather, and being on a mountain bike, it turned into 2:35 with a one or two photo op stops. Eeesh. I won't say today was one of my favorite rides, but it did help me earn some much needed "hard man" points with fellow cyclists. You can't get that with a trainer ride. I also got some all to normal "look at this whack job" points from motorists.

Mamasita with the now snow covered Soob. I swear before I left there was no sign of snow on the radar. Oh well. It's winter. Snow happens.

Enter one slush covered head tube with sweet ass Salsa head tube badge.

This pict was supposed to show my bright red "Rudolph" nose. But the flash killed it. So it just looks like I'm taking a DUI test in my car. I passed.

I'm glad I got outside. If the ride proved anything it's that riding your mountain bike on the road is hard, and that no matter what I try on the trainer, an indoor workout can just NOT compete with what the body goes through outside. 2:30 of ride time, 35 miles, 2101 calories burned, and an avg. HR of 150.

Time for a beverage and some turkey sausage stromboli.

Later.

Welcome To My Den Of Slack

Not much going on tonight except slack and a whole lot of it! So pull up a chair, grab your fez, slippers and smoking jacket. Then pour yourself a malty beverage. NOW, you can continue reading the crap I call my blog.

The week was a good one filled with good news from the folks like Salsa and Ergon and I got some really good workouts in. I still have one or two more to get in, but a nice week to end my Base I phase of training.

I was also happy to spend some time talking to a fellow blogger via the phone today. He's got some serious roadie knowledge and he dropped a ton of it on me today and I (a road bike using dirt worshiper) was happy to try to absorb as much as I could. Thanks a million Radio Freddy! I only wish I would have had the afternoon to bend his ear about all things "roadie".

So as we get closer to '08 the first half of my schedule is looking pretty set...

Leesburg Bakers Dozen, April 19th, 2008 (b)
12 Hours of Lodi Farms, May 3rd & 4th, 2008 (c)
24 Hours of Big Bear, June 7th & 8th, 2008 (a)
12 Hours of Cranky Monkey, June 21st, 2008 (c)

I'll be pumped for Leesburg since it's the first race of the year, and then Lodi will be a good race to work on night riding as well as see some old friends. The main focus of the first half will be the 24 Hours of Big Bear. It's close to home, I love the course, and damn it, I can afford to race it this year!!!

After that a brake it will be time to figure out what the 2nd half will offer. It could be a Mid West trip to the Solo Nationals in Wisconsin or Salsa's 24 Hours of Afton in Minnesota. I'm also waiting to see if MASS is going to do lap races or marathon enduros this year. If they do some lap races I might try to do some of those if time, finances and recovery permit. Whatever the race WHEREVER the race. I'm pumped and it's only December!!!

Finally, off the subject of bikes I leave with B-Man all hopped up on "It's A Wonderful Life"...

"I wish I had a million dollars, HOT DOG!"

Later

Goodnight To The Rock And Roll Era (Strength Training Mix)

It freaking POURED rain here all freaking day. I mean POURED! You would think were were kickin' it in the PNW without Nike, MicroSoft, good coffee, and a kick ass Indie rock scene. Oh well let it rain,. better than snow and what the hell, I'm holed up in the basement anyway!

Speaking of holed up, basements and what not- I got my 1:20 of spinning (with 10 minute, knee surgery inducing, big ring intervals) and my "strength" training (you couldn't see, but I was doing air quotes back there). I mean I think B-Man lifts my weights. I knew I must have had a few decent work outs in this week because my legs were screaming pretty good by the end. I like that. Should make tomorrow's rest day that much better.

The weekend looks to be a shitty as far as any potential riding so it will be more time indoors. Nothing too major since I want to get some rest before the next training phase starts.

I plan on enjoying a couple Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stouts this weekend. They will be perfect for the damp chilly weather.
Dark as night and 10% ABV so beware if you try some. It's one of the best Imperial Stouts I've tried. If you're new to Imperial Stout this is how Beer Advocate describes defines...

" Inspired by brewers back in the 1800’s to win over the Russian Czar, this is the king of stouts, boasting high alcohol by volumes and plenty of malt character. Low to moderate levels of carbonation with huge roasted, chocolate and burnt malt flavours. Often dry. Suggestions of dark fruit and flavors of higher alcohols are quite evident. Hop character can vary from none, to balanced to aggressive. Average alcohol by volume (abv) range: 8.0-12.00%"

What does Imperial Stout have to do with bike racing? Ah, nothing other than giving me something to look forward while I'm on the trainer on a cold, wet, potential snowy weekend.

Also get well wishes to my friend Yancy who is gonna be laid up a few days with a nice respitory infection.

Later.

P.S....

Punk rock died when the first kid said "Punk's not dead"
-D.C. Berman, The Silver Jews

Fork Issue Part III & Sponsor Stuff

Wow I've had a pretty good last 24 hours. More on that in a second. First things first...

It was back to the bike today for some longish threshold stuff. The legs had a ton of mojo in them and my resurrected iPod was getting the job done for the 1:20 sweat fest. Right on! Back to the weighs and some big gear stuff tomorrow then a night of RE-Lax-Ation on Friday.

____________________________________

Another update on my recent fork issue: I found out today that via my good friends at Salsa that I'm gonna have the opportunity to get an Alpha Q CS20 fork to replace my scabby Bontrager Race fork. But the best part of it is there's gonna be a Campeon frame attached to it. FRIGGIN' BOSS! Muchos gracias!! I just need to get my size dialed in for the compact frame.

Coming from a Size 60 Trek 2200, it looks to be either a 51c or 53c Campeon.
Click to make BIG:

If I could track down the exact geometry for my Trek, it would be easier to get an idea. I don't trust myself with a tape measure. I'm leaning towards the 51 based on the ETT measurements I took of the 2200.
____________________________________

I also found out via Mr. Kerkove that I'll be an Ergon athlete in 2008. Sweet!

Check out the talent that is on this list. My name seems very much out of place on that list. It really is cool to be part of Ergon in 2008 and I look forward to another season of uber comfort with Ergon grips. Big thanks to Ergon USA for the support in 2008.

Good day indeed.

Later.

Bontrager Fork Issue Part II, iPods & Lust

No workout tonight, I woke up feeling pretty run down, and couldn't shake it all day. Rather than risk getting sick, I aborted my spin and will get my long steady trainer ride in on Wednesday. AND as a bonus I WILL have iPodious for the spin! Tom worked his iPod magic. He would not divulge all of his secrets, but it boiled down to gunked up hard drive wires or something. Gunk removed, magic worked and 4,000+ songs saved too. Thanks Tom!

If you remember last week I reported and showed you my '04 Trek 2200's Bontrager Race fork with it's scabbing laminate near the drop outs. Well, today I stopped in Pittsburgh Pro Bikes to ask them about it. Their advice? "Stop riding it now!" and take it to their Trek store to have it looked at and the warranty processed. Well I guess winter is a good time to get it taken care and hope that some sort of warranty can come through. I do now I'm off of it until it's checked out. Words like "catastrophic failure" were used. That's the nice way of saying I could potentially scrape all skin off of my face using some Pennsylvania asphalt. Nice.

Not sure if I'll go to the Pgh. Pro in Squirrel Hill though. Truth be told, it's a bitch to get to from my house, so I might just stop down Dirty Harry's over the weekend and avoid the nightmare that is driving and parking in the Squirrel HIll area of Pittsburgh. Wifey always likes to bring up the time (also known as pointing out I was a dick) a few years ago in my higher strung days, when I called a guy a "Lexus driving mother f*cker" when he tried to pass me while I waited for the car in front of me to turn across traffic. I like to think with the miracles of modern chemistry I would not do that again, but maybe it's best I just go to DH's.

LUST ALERT!

I did see a couple cool things in the shop today. One was the manager's Titus Exogrid Ti Racer X 29er. I don't really buy into the Exogrid thing, or FS that much anymore, but I do dig Ti, but WAY more than that, I was digging the Mavic Wheels and Fox 29er Fork. Mmmmm. That's some lust. Put either of those things on my Mamasita or Dos Niner and you would turn the ride sweetness level to 11+.

Time to try to get some sleep and hope I get some mojo back for tomorrow.

Later.

Summer Babe (Slack Winter Trainer Version)

Back to the basement tonight for the trainer and weights. Everything is pretty routine this time of year. Not sure why I really bother mentioning WHAT I do. It's more just a habit since this is sort of my "journal". I'm not trying to get all Ron Burgundy on you...

"Ohh, it's the deep burn. Oh, it's so deep.
Oh, I can barely lift my right arm 'cause I did so many.
I don't know if you heard me counting. I did over a thousand"

I just like to mention this every-so-often, so anyone new to the site doesn't start thinking "why the f*ck does this non pro perennial upper mid packer try to talk shit about his lame workouts?" Anyway as long as we're clear and you know the deal, then we're all good. Now back to the post...

I've been having this debate about my leg workouts- Dumbbell squats or dumbbell step ups? Well tonight I made my decision- Neither. Gonna stick with the on the bike stuff for my legs in the form of long, big gear, low RPM, 10 minute, nut dropper intervals. I don't trust my squat form, and I had to do so many freaking weighted step-ups to feel anything I started getting bored. So I figured I'd stick with I know works for my legs- the bike.

iPodious® is going to Tom's tomorrow to go under the knife. Thankfully I was able to borrow the Shufflelottapuss® from Wifey to get my music fix for the workout. Tonight was a sweet live Pavement show from 1994. Damn I think Summer Babe could be one of my top 5 songs of all time. I kid you not!

I plan on trying to get my iPod fixed, but after this I'm DONE with the hard drive iPods. Next one will be a flash drive Nano for sure. They can take a lot more punishment and I think the daily use I put my iPod through is just too much for the hard drives to take. That or I just have really bad luck. But this is my 3rd iPod melt down, but the first not under warranty. Frig.

The '08 season is starting to take shape with most of the first few months schedule mapped out and support getting firmed up, with a couple other things still out there. By the end of January things should be a go.

Speaking of support... if you're looking for a Salsa Mamasita, Bikeman.com has 2007 models on sale for $699 (almost $200 off MSRP). I hate be such a freaking whore, but I REALLY dig this frame, a lot, so why not preach the word and whore on?

Time to try to get some shut eye and go back to those Gold Soundz (it has a nice ring when you laugh)

Later.

Week Complete

As borderline suck as my work week was, my weekend was pretty damn not bad. Sure my iPod ate the hairy one, and from 5:25 p.m. Friday until 11:00 a.m. today I only left the house to take the garbage out. I still somehow managed to have a good one.

Last evening I cooked up some Mexican and had a couple beverages with Wifey. After B-Man went to bed we enjoyed a couple of episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Damn I love that show. And I only occasionaly find it mildly disturbing seeing how close Larry David's f*cked mind is to my own. Issues.

This a.m. I did an hour spin in recovery mode. Nothing hard, just some steady spinning to keep the legs loose and burn a couple calories.

I've been trying to come up with reasons why I seem to not mind the trainer as much as many people do. This is some of what I came up with: 1) I like to "think". Well, maybe not LIKE to think, but I DO think about stuff. A LOT! Being on the trainer gives me time to think over plans, goals, life, etc. I can do this on the trainer in a way that you really can't do in other situations. You can't zone out on the road or trail. You can't stare off in to space at work or with people around or folks will think you're a freak. The trainer gives me one to two hours to do it without interruption.

2) I like music. Being on the trainer gives me time to listen to the thousands of songs I have. Enjoy the mixes I've made and give new CDs the "good listen" that life with a 3+ year old and short work commute do not. By the way, I've had few folks ask me if I'll be making and linking up some of the trainer mixes like I did last year over on the Sounds Of Soilage. The answerer is no. Or at least MOST LIKELY no. With B-Man another year older and me already taking time to ride, train and blog I just don't have the time. I'll throw some bones out every-so-often on this blog, offering some songs that I've obtained via FM/TV Broadcasts and bootlegs, but for the most part I can't see any new mixes coming soon unless I get sick or something and have some extra time on my ass. I will say I did enjoy Mix No. 14 from last year for most of today's spin. I re-uploaded it if you care to listen.

3) Combine one and 2 and you get #3. Time to meditate. Focus on life, and think of what I've been given, and what I need to work on to make life better for myself and my family.

4) Riding the trainer is the off season. As much as I absolutely LOVE riding, trainer season is the time to let the body recover, start building on last year fitness and go into the next year chomping at the bit. I HATE the snow, cold, rain and slush of winter, but I have to look at it as nature's way of telling me to recover and build.

It's also nice to get reacquainted with Wifey and B-Man. There's something to be said for spinning along on my bike, hearing the rumble of B-Man playing in the room above me. I just smile and think about what he's up to and know when I got up stairs he'll say "how was your ride? You're all wet and sweaty!" and I'll say "yep I was down stairs riding my bike and going nowhere!". He never seems to "GET" why I would choose to do something so silly, but someday he will.

Well time to start winding down and get ready for another week slinging art.

Later.