One thing that bugs me is that American cycling fans too often fool themselves into thinking that no Americans are using performance-enhancing drugs, but all the Europeans are.  While the average American pro cyclist is educated enough that there are viable career opportunities waiting when cycling ceases to be profitable, there are still a few whose attitude about their racing career is more mercenary.  This is one:

http://charles.pelkey.com/tammy.html   All I have to say is . . . yikes.

On a brighter note, here are some folks who love to ride for different reasons.  Good reasons.  And they publish a great mag that you can download for free.  Right here:

http://www.urbanvelo.org/download

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My friend Craige commented on my last blog that yes, there are other beer lovers reading my blog.  I guess that means that I need to spread the love around.  The Drake is a beer-loving superstar, but Craige and her husband Jeff are beer celebrities as well.  I’m still catching up with all that has happened in the three weeks I was traveling, so I was quite surprised to find that Jeff and Craige are having their own adventures in India right now.  Actually, I shouldn’t be surprised because they travel often, but usually to places where good beer is brewed, like Belgium or England or Cooperstown.  Beer does go really well with Indian food, especially Murg Jal Frozi, but I can’t think of a single Indian brew.  Duh, there must be some connection to India Pale Ale . . . .  I’m not crazy about super-hoppy beers, so I didn’t think about that too much until now.  At any rate, Craige’s blog is always a fascinating read:  http://craigemorsels.blogspot.com/2007/11/do-over.html

I saw a link on Craigemorsels to another blogger named Zenpedalmoment.  With a name like that she must be a cool chick.  It’s a name that hints at many interesting stories.  No profile posted yet, though.  This network of bloggers is like a social network, where every reference you make links you to other people who have the same predilections.  Hours can disappear while you explore.  It’s kind of cool.

When I sat down at my computer this morning, I looked out the window and saw a large Cooper’s hawk perched on the gazebo in our backyard.  He swooped down and terrorized the sparrows at the birdfeeder, then ran circles around the rhododendron bush where they were hiding, gnashing its beak angrily.  Then it flew back up to the gazebo, looked around, then slashed downward into the hydrangea bush.  It emerged a moment later with a beak full of feathery carnage, then flew off into the walnut tree at the back of the yard to savor its breakfast.  That was an interesting start to my day.  Because I know The Gock is going to ask, Cooper’s hawks are accipiters, not buteos.  And they’re not common in New Jersey either, so this one must have just been passing through.  I’m sure the surviving chickadees, juncos, titmice, sparrows, cardinals, doves, and woodpeckers are happy about that.

My car is still being repaired at Tibor’s, so I rode to work again today.  Cold, but dry, thankfully.  I kept it nice and easy, spinning the aches out of my legs.  I wasn’t as tired as I expected to be, but I don’t think I could have pushed the pace at all.  It was great to ride in quietly, no hurry.  The ride home was equally nice.  It drives Jen crazy that I love to commute by bike, even in the dark.  Part of the fun is pushing her buttons.  This is contrary to Stanimal’s maxim “Happy wife, happy life”, but it’s way too much fun.

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Life is like riding a bicycle, you don’t fall off unless you stop pedaling!

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I passed the 6,000 mile mark today.  This is the first time in 6 years that I have done it, that is since I came back to the bike industry.  The irony of working in a bike shop is that you never have enough time to ride when the weather is nice.  When the weather is crappy, when business is slow, you can actually post some mileage.  I’ve done half my yearly total in the last 10 weeks. 

My 2008 season began today.  After a 2 week rest and recovery period - sort of - I decided to test myself a bit.  Actually, I wanted to do an easy ride, and I wore my heart rate monitor just to make sure my HR didn’t go over 150 bpm.  That idea was out the window as soon as I turned onto Greenbrook Road, just around the corner.  The wind was jamming out of the west around 25 mph, and it was work to go 19 mph on the flats.  I decided right away that if this wasn’t going to be an easy ride, I was going to make it a quality workout.  I eased my pulse up to 185 bpm and kept it between there and 192 as much as I could, although I did max it out at 206 going up Foothill Road.  That was rough.  I hoped to have a tailwind coming back on Washington Valley, but that road somehow manages to sap the strength out of a tailwind and out of my legs.  Between Pluckemin and Watchung Circle I went fast enough to raise my average speed from 16.0 to 19.1.  I made it hurt the whole way.  Great ride, 31 miles just below my anaerobic threshhold.  That is high quality.  The only thing that could make it better is if I could have been spinning at 100 rpms the whole way, not mashing into the wind.  Great stuff.

When I got back, I wolfed down a turkey wrap, made some phone calls, then showered.  I had to ride over to Westfield to meet Jen so we could go out with Maria.  Since I was riding only one way, I rode the Tommaso.  I still have it set up in the same position I once raced it, so it’s long and low, perfect for sprinting but not so great for easy spinning in jeans and t-shirt with a backpack. The wind was behind me the whole way, so without much effort I kept the average speed for the day way high.  I ran into OJ walking along Third Street and stopped to chat for a bit. 

I met Jen at Rock’n Joes for coffee, and then we headed to the Westfield Running Company.  Ro set me up with some new shoes - Nike Air Vomeros.  Cushy stuff, and a good fit.  Big improvement from the first generation Vomeros I tried a couple years ago.  I have only run twice since my trip ended, and each time I felt pretty beaten up.  New shoes were desperately needed.  Some cushioned trainers should help.  I can’t wait to try these out. Congrats to Ro for winning his Thanksgiving Day race down on the boardwalk.  You rock!

Next we met Maria at Cool Vines for the Tuesday wine tasting.  Birk and André served some nice samplings, and we hung out and explored the place.  Great inventory.  Not just wine, but some excellent saké, craft beers, single-malt scotches, small-batch bourbons, and other good stuff.  Any place that sells Ommegang Three Philosophers Belgian-style trippel has the right idea.  http://www.coolvines.com/default.html  (The Drake is smiling as he reads this.)

After sampling some wines, we were no longer in the mood for sushi and saké, so we headed next door to Theresa’s for some Italian.  Mark Cencits, Cool Vines’ owner, came over and joined us.  Great dinner, as always - I love that place.  Gemelli pasta with sweet fennel sausage is the perfect way to end a day.  Nice evening, and it was great to hang with Maria for a while, and to get to know Mark a bit.  We have all been crazy busy lately, so it was nice to downshift and dine together.  Going to Theresa’s always makes us miss living in downtown Westfield.  Our old apartment was right across the street, right in the epicenter of town.  We miss it, but we do love living in North Plainfield too. 

I’ve been dreaming about riding every night.  I can’t seem to stop it.  I dreamed about climbing hills last night.  Here’s a good one to inspire you:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48028479@N00/1313946806/in/set-72157600076235937/

Ciao for now.

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Foul, crappy weather today.  I managed to get my car to start just once yesterday, so I drove it directly to Tibor’s VW Service to have it fixed, then rode my bike home.  So today I had to ride to and from work in the rain.  Luckily, I found where Jen had hidden - she calls it organizing - my Marmot Precip pants.  Good gear makes all the difference.  Marmot’s Precip gear is terrific, far better than Gore-Tex.  I arrived at work dry and comfy, in spite of the saturating cold rain.  I decided to try out a pair of Pearl Izumi’s Zephyr shell gloves, which I LOVE.  With a pair of thin liners underneath, my hands were warm and dry.  On my way home tonight, I wore them without liners, as it was a bit warmer, and my digits were still comfy.  Great stuff.  CR rode the first couple of miles with me, jamming along on his crappy old Trek 3700, plowing through piles of wet leaves and skidding around in the dark.  He’s a total freakin’ nutjob, but it was cool having some company for a while.

The latest word from Europe is that Astana will be the next superteam.  With Discovery leaving the sport of cycling behind, all the riders and staff of the strongest, most dominant team of the last decade have been job hunting.  With most of their best riders suspended for drug violations, Astana has a few vacancies.  So it seems that Astana 2008 will look a lot like Discovery 2007, but with some added firepower in Andreas Kloden.  Leipheimer, Contador, Kloden are all grand tour contenders, and they’ll be assisted by the best domestiques in the sport:  Vladimir Gusev, Chechu Rubiera, Chris Horner, Thomas Vaitkus, Jani Brankovic, Sergio Paulinho, and Benjamin Noval.  Discovery managers Johan Bruyneel, Sean Yates, and Viatcheslav Ekimov have also made lateral moves to top positions at Astana.  CSC and T-Mobile don’t stand a chance!  The only question that remains . . . will Trek be the new bike sponsor now that BMC has fled? 

News from the Drake!  He actually has a car now!  Laura bought another Volvo and handed down her old one to him.  Must be love.  Look for the Drake to emerge again on Wednesday night rides.  Can’t wait.  Although he’s in a bit of bind.  Seems that his indoor cycling entertainment is limited to VHS, and all he has on VHS is hand-me-down porn from a former roommate.  This could be problematic.

Here’s a great shot of Pittsburgh’s Dirty Dozen hillclimb challenge last weekend:

Shouldn’t he be smiling? 

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Check out the Westfield Leader this week: 

http://www.goleader.com/07nov22/07nov22.pdf

Scroll down to page 18.

Paul sent me this nugget.  We’ve always heard that our favorite hill, Fiddler’s Elbow Road, was the steepest paved road in America at 34% grade.  Here are a couple that beat it out, but Fiddler’s is still several times longer than these.  I think the average grade of Fiddler’s Elbow is 24%, but the 300-yard section near the top hits 34%. 

http://deputy-dog.com/2007/09/18/the-steepest-streets-in-the-world/

Makes you want to go for a spin, right?

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Yeah, Tuesday was lousy.  Jen got home from school and began eating everything in sight.  Then she went to sleep on the sofa for an hour.  When she woke up, she complained for an hour about how fat she is, and she blamed me for letting her eat all that crap.  We finally dragged ourselves outside and went for a chilly, damp 3.5 mile run at a snail’s pace.  Not much, but it recharged us.  Sometimes it doesn’t take much to turn a bad day around.

The weather finally broke, and I experienced an almost dry day.  The mist was so thick both during my morning commute and on my ride home that I still ended up damp, but not saturated and cold.  Actually, I felt pretty good.  My new favorite cycling gear is my Pearl Izumi Gavia Vector Jersey that Angelo gave me for my trip.  It’s a stretchable, windproof, lightweight, breathable full zip long-sleeve jersey that has a water resistant outer shell, so in a light rain water beads on it, yet it still breathes well when I’m riding hard.  Good stuff.  I also love the Pro 3D Knickers from Pearl, the Cyclone toe covers, the Winter Tour Socks, the training hat, and the Gavia gloves.  All great pieces of gear.  I wish I’d had the foresight to carry that stuff with me across the deep south, as it would have been nice to have during those first cold days of my cross country trip.  Oh well.

I finally managed to get my car started.  Sam had suggested that I check for corrosion where the battery is grounded to the car’s frame, and sure enough, after cleaning the contact, I was able to start the car right up.  Once.  And then it refused to start again.  Later this evening, I managed to start it 3 times in a row, so maybe my luck is getting better! 

Tomorrow is Black Friday.  Hopefully none of you will be at the mall at 5 a.m., but if that’s your plan you should get your ass to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Entropy:  the tendency of matter to move toward disorder.  Since I have been home, I have managed to break both garage door openers, my floor pump, the 3-way switch in our living room lamp, my car’s starter died, the transmission in Jen’s GTI is kaput, our Brita water filter stopped working, and multiple light bulbs have gone out.  I should leave this computer alone, as it might be next!

Brownian motion:  the tendency of gases to move from an area of high density to areas of lower density.  When you’re riding hard, wearing a rain jacket, the moisture vapor your sweat glands produce is supposed to move through that Gore-Tex membrane.  However, when the air outside your jacket is extremely dense and humid and wet, Brownian motion stops working and you just get wet inside your jacket.  Which is no fun when it is only 32 degrees out, snowing huge sloppy flakes, and you’re riding underinflated narrow racing tires on a messy road slick with wet leaves, into a gusting wind.  I got to work yesterday so cold that I could barely make my fingers unlock the shop door.  Miserable weather. 

Today is more of the same, and I’m not feeling very motivated to go out and ride.  Not going to happen today.  Besides, I have too many things to try to fix. 

Make sure to grab a copy of the Westfield Leader tomorrow.  There should be another story about my cross-country ride coming out. 

Smile and hope for sunshine!

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That is the sound my shoes make when they are filled with water.  Today was a miserable day to ride to work, with gusty cold wind, torrential rain, and cold temperatures.  I still haven’t had time to go get a new battery for my car, so I’m putting in some bike miles instead.  I enjoy it, especially the ride home, as it gives me a chance to loosen up my legs after standing all day.  I’m thinking about going a la Drake and seeing how long I can live without a car altogether.  Paul hasn’t had a car for at least 4 years now, and he has survived just fine.  With the parking situation at work being particular heinous right now, riding my bike is looking more and more attractive.  I need to find my gore-tex pants, though!  I left a huge puddle on the floor of Rock’n Joes this morning when I trudged in to get a cup of coffee.

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I think that standing for 9 hours a day is tougher than pedaling 120 miles.  My first day back at work certainly felt that way.  Fortunately, I had a nice spin home to loosen my legs.  My car’s battery died while I was gone, and I haven’t had time to fix it yet, so I’ll be commuting by bike until this weekend.  Which is the best way, anyhow, right?

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