III am so smart., III am so smart.... S - M - R - T!!!

yeah, ok.. so I don't put much stock in these things.. but I like puzzles... :D

The lost city of... Detroit . Eh?

This is pretty funny... Funny cuz it's true!

Detroit really is a sort of geographical, social, and political oddity.

The politics are a mess. City council member's seem to care more about their 15 minutes of fame than they do the City.

I'm sure Detroit isn't the only city to have experienced white flight, but ours seems to have left much longer lasting and damaging scars. Getting folks to come back down to the City after hours has been a fight. The "scene" in the D is almost completely underground. There's little in the City to bring shoppers and there money. No big retail stores like Borders or Best Buy at street level to encourage foot traffic around the city. Most of the clubs are in 'seedier' areas, or off the beatin' path (this of course adds to the cool factor, but does nothing for the more mainstream nightlife..) The new Lofts going in are a good start. Those young folks will want places to shop and hang out closer to home. Hopefully some of those amenities will follow!

Geographically, no one knows where to put Detroit. It's kind of an industrial wasteland. No longer the sole hub of the Auto Industry, it's a city without an Identity (thank god we lost Murder Capital)..

Growing up in the City, I've got a lot of affection for Detroit. I hope some day it returns to glory as one of this countries metropolitan cultural centers. But Lord knows it has got a long way to go.

All that cryin' for nothin'

I just returned from the 1st annual Climb Detroit. 70 flights up the Detroit Marriott (center tower of the Renaissance Center).

Let me just first say I almost didn't make it. Man were the roads bad on I-75. Snow, slush, and ice. A couple times I almost put my little fwd GTi into the wall. At least it got my HR up prior to the race!!

My start time was 9:15am.. Things were pretty chaotic at the RenCen, with people seemingly going off whenever they chose. I ran a few laps around the tower and headed back toward the stairwell starting area to stretch.. It turned out there really was someone coordinating starts, and my teammate Ed and I started right about at our 9:15 time.

There were folks there from all over the athletic map. Lots of runners, some cyclists, generally fit folks, and then the not so fit. Most were wearing some workout gear and were generally fit, but there were a number of folks in jeans an t-shirts, and some sportin' some healthy guts...

My plan was to start running one step at a time and see how it goes from there. I had no time goals at all, but figured it might take about 20 minutes if I had to restort to walking any length of time. So I started and immediately was running past folks who were walking from the start. I was utterly amazed, however, when I passed the first aid station on the 10th floor in just a little over a MINUTE! I had no idea the floors were so short. In fact, only one 11 step flight of stairs between floors! Shortly after the 10th floor, still running, I was passing folks stopped on various floors in the doorways huffing and puffing. At one point, I passed a father and son (jeans and tees) and the son says "man, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be." At least he was there! Far too many kids opting for the gameboy over real life.. Anyway, at about the 20th floor I looked down at my HR monitor.. It was pegged at 200bpm! I could just about feel my heart jumping out of my chest. My legs felt great but I was starting to get a little light headed, so I decided to start walking 1 step at a time until my HR came down a little. And I waited. and waited... My HR continued to hover around 197bpm... So I guess I know what I need to work on for this season... ;)

It was about this time I started to notice how dry it was in the stairwell. It could have been the burning in my throat or the two dry husks of lungs I was coughing up. I stopped around the 40th floor for water. They had water stations (and EMS) every 10 floors. I had heard earlier that you had to leave the stairwell for water, and didn't plan on needing any anyway. Thankfully there was a guy there on the landing with a few cups. Only catch was that you had to drink it there, understandable as spilled water on the stairs would have been very bad. So I downed the water and noticed my HR had dropped to the mid 180's. I took off running again, but after a couple flights had to go back to walking as my HR was pegged again.

It was about this time that I had the concurrent thoughts "Gee, this isn't so bad, it's almost over" and "Hey, that second handrail looks really good. Bet I could use it to haul my sorry carcass up these stairs for a few more flights as I seem to have lost all motor control over my legs." These are the kinds of crazy juxtaposed thoughts you begin to have when your brain becomes dangerously deprived of oxygen in a dry, dusty stair well. So I kinda blanked on the next ten flights, and then with 5 flights to go decided to kick it in running 2 at a time. Cuz, you know, it doesn't matter what corner you go off to die in as long as you look good crossing the finish line... ;)

Ok, so it wasn't that bad. But it wasn't that easy. My goal was kinda to run the whole thing. To me, walking is not a race. So next year I might actually train for this thing and try to do well. Either way, I had a blast, and will definitely do it again.

Ran into DJ before his race. He looked confident and ready to take on the stairs. Looked good after too. Turned in a good 10:19. My final time was 9:46. Max HR was 201 and Avg. was 193.

Who the hell do they think they are?!?!

The New York Times and other news sources have reported recently that the Iraqi Insurgents have been making coordinated, purposeful efforts to bring down coalition aircraft, and that these helicopters haven't just been falling out of the sky on their own. Whew, well that's a relief... But, wait... does that mean... THEY'RE SHOOTING AT US?!?! Who the F@#k do they think they are??

Please pardon me. I'm certainly not a very politically minded person, nor would I consider myself a satirist, but when I heard this the other day it just boggled my mind. I mean, aren't we at war? Isn't the point of war to try to cripple the other guy's ability to make war against you? Don't we have one of the world's greatest air forces, well renowned for their ability to stop a fight before it starts? Wouldn't you start there?

Perhaps I'm missing something. Now I'm sure not all of the downed helicopters of late have been of the Apache variety with the big ol' guns and missiles, but they were moving US troops somewhere to do something that was probly going to end up getting insurgents killed or captured, so, is it really news that they we've discovered that they're shooting at us. On purpose. With real weapons.

I'm certainly not condoning the action. I'd rather that no one was over there shooting at anyone else. I guess I shouldn't be shocked that we find it newsworthy that we've managed to turn up REAL DOCUMENTS to prove that the insurgents are targeting US aircraft. It's a hell of a lot better than finding NO PROOF WHAT-SO-EVER of the WMD's that got us into this mess in the first place (that is if you choose to believe the White House's line... We all know Little G just had to show Big G that he wears big boy pants now by finally removing Saddam from power).

So, please, if you have more insight into this than I, feel free to share. Again, I wouldn't put it past myself to have missed some glaringly obvious reason why this is news. I mean, sure, the helicopters could be just falling out of the sky on their own. But, wouldn't that be more remarkable?

Still time left...

Only 3 days left till Climb Detroit. There's still time to make your pledge here. I go up at 9:15. I really have no idea how long it's going to take to climb 70 flights.. 20 minutes?? I guess it depends on how many times I stop to puke... Bah, I'll be ok.. It won't be easy, but I plan on passing DJ by the 3/4 point (wink wink)

And now to talk about manly-man things. These freakin' ads for women's health and pregnancy are starting to weird me out (not that there's anything wrong with healthy pregnant women... I'm just not one of them).

So, it's been a full 2 weeks since I've been on the bike!!! I'm going nuts! I took a week off after my snowboarding crash. Since then I've been running/hiking/climbing to prepare (if you can call it that) for the stair climb. The weather is turning nice. Well, nice is a relative term. When it's been in the single digits for weeks, 30 degrees starts to feel like shorts and t-shirt weather. I'm lovin' it! But I'm not getting any miles in >:( And who knows if I'll even be able to walk next week... :D

Oh, and GO LEVI! Pretty crazy action in the Tour of California. Crazy pile up on stage one. Discovery is in Yellow courtesy of Levi Leipheimer. And another American in the top 5, Chris Horner. Just crazy to me, seeing Ivan Basso supporting Levi... I guess that's the world of cycling. And I'm sure things will change race to race.

It's been a while since I've posted a pic on this blog. If you haven't already, check out Mike's Daily Pic! I've pulled out some old vintage and toy cameras and I'll be working on taking more pics on a daily basis. And I'll be working in *GASP* film!! I'm pretty sure at some point after switching to my Canon 20d I said "I'll never go back to film!", but I miss the tactile satisfaction of working with film and developer and paper. I'll probably just scan the negatives, but I'll be processing the negatives and may even fire up the ol' enlarger once in a while as well.

So here's a gratuitous pic. One of the first images I made with my 20d. This was shot at 3200 ISO in my basement with no studio lights (obviously) hence all the noise. On top of that, this is cropped down to about 1/10th of the full frame. Still pretty amazing to me.




Laters

Change is good

Ok. So if you've come back to the site a couple times in the last few days you may have noticed that my banner, masthead, or whatever you care to call it has changed. And changed again. And yet again.

I think I've settled on this for a while. I'm really just experimenting until I come up with a template where I can just plug future changes in. I think I'm there. I'm not 100% happy with the current banner, but I'm tired of changing it, so I promise I'll put some real thought into the next one and post only the final version.. ;)

On a separate note, I started an experiment a few weeks ago and it's proving quite interesting. While I know there's no way in hell I could expect to generate any serious revenue from this site, I decided I'd like to see how the whole dealio works for those people that do. So, as I'm sure you noticed, I started running ads on the site. Apparently they rank the most current information higher in terms of ads that are displayed because in my last post I alluded to my blog as a newborn, and the next thing I know all my ads are geared towards motherhood and birthing sites!! Now I know there's a way for me to filter for the sites I want to advertise, but I think that's more of on a ad by ad basis, but we'll see. Of course I'd prefer that the ads remain bike related, but we'll see I guess.

Belated

Wow... almost missed it all together.

One year ago this past Saturday this stupid blog was born. And I must admit, I feel a little irresponsible for bringing this poor little thing into this world. In the past year I've made some mistakes. I've neglected it on occasion. I've failed to give it direction. In fact, it's very conception was just meant to be used to better my racing. How very shameful...

But now it's hear, and like all struggling young bloggers, I'm doing my best to keep it alive.

So to commemorate this 1st birthday (and perhaps to better illustrate my point about it's lack of direction) I've chosen a new title and created a new banner to go with it. Originally (as I've said before) I envisioned this blog as simply a means to track my training and racing progress. But I've kind of been bitten by the blogging bug. I like the idea of having a place to expound on an event or thought that occurs during the day (perhaps this explains why days go by between posts... ) The title and description of the blog became increasingly inapt to the content, so they had to go. I like how some people change their header/marquee/masthead on a regular basis, keeping things fresh. However, given the considerable hangover from the brain wrangling I had to do to come up with this new title, I'm not sure I'm up to the challenge. And I sure don't have the time to create new graphics all the time. But, I may attempt to change it up once or twice a year, so stay tuned.

So, hope you like the slightly new look. A whole template re-do may be in order as well. And, really, I'm not quite done with the header. It needs some color. So check back often!

On decapitation in the work place.

she: "My head is spinning"

me: "better get your body spinning, then, or your head is likely to pop right off!"

Now that's racin'!!

Now, I'm not normally a big NASCAR fan... (a classic opening line... ;) )

But, Ho-lee-crap.. Did you see that race?? I'm sorry, but when the race goes into extra laps, the winner comes from 6th place in the outside lane to win by 2 hundredths of a second as the field disintegrates behind them and the 18th place car crosses the finish on its roof and on FIRE, you've got a hell of a show!

I think NASCAR is really starting to get it right. The on screen graphics help keep the uninitiated on top of what's going on, and the announcers do a great job of educating and describing to the viewers some of the subtleties and chess matches that are going on and what to pay attention to.

Man, I'm pooped.. Didn't really do anything today. I dug up some old vintage cameras I've got in an attempt to rehab one to use as a daily shooter for my other site. That was largely a waste of time as none of those cameras was really able to be resurrected. Anyone out there got an old Canonet QL17 they'd like to get rid of? :D

Now, about that kooky Britney Spears....

bloggers

What makes great bloggers?

I'm not exactly a follower of blogs, except for those written by my friends. But I know that some people follow the blogs of complete strangers as religiously as they would their favorite sitcom.

Is it the sense of humor? Variety of content? Consistent updating? Pictures? I guess it depends on the reader. But since I lack all of the above, I can see why I have few readers ;)

I've never fancied myself much of a writer. I pretty much feel foolish anytime I put my thoughts down on paper (so to speak). This blog was really never intended to be read by anyone but me. It was going to be a journal of how I felt after training/racing to try to better track my eating and training practices to improve my consistency on race day.

Then I got a stats tracker, you know, for fun. And now I'm wondering what I could do to increase my readership. I dunno. Is it vanity? Is it just an experiment in manipulating the world around me? It sure ain't for lack of better things to do with my time.

I think what I really need is for spring to get here so I can start riding all the time again and write about that!

Holy Crap

I have no words for what the last 5 days or so have been like. It's been busy, miserable, painfull... ok, so I lied about the no words bit.

Without getting into too much detail about work matters, lets just say that if shit rolls downhill, then someone up there just took a massive dump! I know my experience isn't unique, but some idiots went and put out a crappy document, didn't make sure that there was support available for the procedures outlined in the document, worded it as though their 3rd grader had written it, and then didn't bother to let us (you know, the ones who were gonna catch hell when the fit hit the shan) that it was even being released! So we've been playing catchup for the past 5 days. And they keep piling on.

The only respite was this weekend when I get to escape to my part time job teaching snowboarding at Pine Knob. It was a pretty good weekend. Made some decent money. Then, in the waning hours Sunday, as I was practicing my switch riding on the quarter mile run, I got a little laze and caught my heel edge. I went down HARD!! There was a moment when I was sure I'd broke something. Turns out the only serious injury was too my pride. And it made returning to work Monday no fun either. To add insult to injury (literally) half our systems went down Monday morning (again, due to a planed network change that no one bothered to inform us of) which required getting up from my desk all day. Sitting was the only thing that felt good. Getting up and down did not make me happy..

And to top it all off, I may have lost a good friend forever. I'm still a little in shock over that.

I hate February...

Can't escape it...

I'm headed for pain..

There's no denying it. February 25th is going to bring pain (see: "Well, I'm committed now") Especially if I don't do anything between now and then to prepare my body for the onslaught of stairs!

I'm having motivational issues non-the-less. I keep scheduling days to go hit the Bloomer stairs, and I keep breaking my plans for something else more "urgent"... Now it is true, I've been extremely busy of late with very legitimate tasks. Probably about the least required of these things I've been doing are my weekly rides. I really don't want to give those up either, but in the short term, I think the running and climbing is more important than base miles. Ugh... What demon possessed me to sign up for this thing? Oh, yeah... it's for a good cause...

So, if you haven't already, please make my pain and suffering mean something and take the time to head over to my "team" site at http://www.mrsnv.com/evt/e01/team.jsp?id=1270&tid=697

Only 16 days remain!

Take 2..

Well, shortly after writing my last post on monday, I discovered that I had left my helmet and light at home.. DOH! =( So no ride for me Monday night. I was really looking forward to it too!

Tonight I'm all set. Double and triple checked that I have all my gear with me. It's not going to be as cold tonight. High will be in the teens. I really did want to see how I'd hold up in sub zero temps. I'm sure the wind chill will bring it down a bit tonight.

I've been busy as sin this week around the house and with some side work. Makin' it hard to make time to blog, hence the short dry entries. I'm hoping to go to the Dirtyshow this weekend, so that should spice things up!

later.

Baby it's cold outside!

I should have my head examined.

I got up this morning and gathered all my riding clothes for tonight's WRCS#34. Somehow it has yet to register that temps are in the negative number BEFORE wind-chill is factored in. I was almost saved by the fact that some of my clothes were still in the washer, but it was all the lycra stuff that could be dried in a few minutes in the drier... So I'm still in.

In preparation, I finally picked up one of these. It makes me look like a ninja. Would a ninja ride a pink bike? A really fast one would.

Last night was Super Bowl XLI. Went to my buddy Mike's house to watch the game with about 40 or so other people on his 120" diag. HD Projection TV! I was generally rooting for the Bears b/c Brian Griese (Michigan Alum) is the backup QB, and because they were the underdogs. Things were looking great only 14 seconds in when the Bears ran back the opening kickoff for a TD, but the Colts won out in the end. It came down to the more solid, consistent QB'ing of Peyton Manning. But it's all good. The food and drink was good, and the company was excellent. The game was just background noise.

So, this morning I'm back at work, exhausted, after another busy weekend of snowboarding, house cleaning, and partying. Hope y'all had good weekends too!

TIVO brain.

I think I've discovered the major drawback of my beloved TIVO.


I've always had a slight tetch of the ADD. For this reason, TIVO has been a god send while trying to get scores that scroll across the bottom of the screen, or weather or traffic updates. And for sports, being able to control my own replays is awesome. Then of course the ease of recording entire series of shows, and then skipping right past the commercials... The list goes on and on.

But I'm discovering a disturbing side effect (at least as far as I can tell, I've not done any in-depth scientific testing on this or anything.) My ADD is getting WORSE. It seems I'm constantly tuning out that important detail (date, time, plot line, etc...) while listening to NPR in the morning, and I'm totally flummoxed when I realize I can't just rewind any old TV cuz I stopped paying attention for the last couple minutes! It even is starting to creep into my personal conversations!! Damn you TIVO!!

So, if I should suddenly whip out a remote and try to rewind you the next time we speek, blame TIVO.

Helluva ride!

WRCS#31 goes down as my best ride of the month. Good timing too, cuz it was also the last ride of the month.

Something's sure coming together, cuz I felt great all night. This was my inaugural ride from work to the meeting place at 13 and Crooks. And even though the ride brought me right by work where I could have easily peeled off and headed back to the car, I stuck with the ride, as the ultimate goal was to up my ride time. And it worked. 3.5 hours and about 45 miles.

And Robert made me work for it tonight. The route took us through a couple parks winding along "paths" worn in the snow. And while these weren't particularly long sections, in 42x16 (64.24 Gear Inches) with a semi slick tire in the back I had to work for every foot! As long as the group kept peddling I was more or less ok, but if I ran into a bottle neck, it was all over.

Managing my body temperature was a bit of a challenge. I wore a wind jacket as it was a bit colder tonight. But that kept my breathable clothes from breathing, and I started soaking my cloths pretty quick. Luckily I recognized that early and took the jacket off. But after stopping to meet up with the group, I started to get a chill, so the jacket had to go back on. I was pretty stable for the rest of the night as the pace was not too harsh except for the sections mentioned above.

But best of all was the fact that I never once felt bonkish! I had my usual cereal breakfast, a mid morning banana, a roast beef sandwich for lunch, and then a turkey sandwich about an hour before the ride. I also had about 1 tbsp. of Hammer Gel about an hour before as well. I had another tbsp. after an hour and again after 2 hours. I'm pretty sure it was the 500 calories in the sandwich that set me up for the good ride. While that might not fly in a race (solid food so close to start time) it seems just right for long base mile rides!

So I hit my goal of 200 miles for the month of January. Not very impressive I know, but that's 150 more miles than I did last January. It's also about 12 more hours on the bike than I did last January. So I'm happy.

Check out this pic of my beard after the ride....