On lance and other idiots

This is a snip of an exchange between me and an idiot on one of the discussion groups I belong to. It was in a thread discussing the tactics of the hard-right christian fundamentalists in this election cycle. The other participant - 'chris' - is one of those fundies.

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On Sep 15, 8:34 pm, zencycle wrote:

> On Sep 13, 4:10 pm, Chris wrote:
> Zen, w/all due respect you're a brain washed Boston liberal

followed with:

> And I'll complete the statement that I would never, EVER vote for a
> Muslim of any sort.

Right, and _i'm_ the brainwashed one.....

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The delusion is complete. Or is it? We were treated last week to another display of ego maniacal bravado, lance coming out of retirement.

Now, I have to say I'm a lance fan, and always have been.
I was quite disappointed when he retired. I thought, 'ok, so now take your shots at the giro and vuelta for a few years, or at least concentrate on the spring classics and maybe the world championships'. But, he decided it was time, and I accepted it. but now, he wants to come back and race the tour. Why? what is there to prove? I still think it would be in the better interest of cycling to concentrate on a more diverse palmares portfolio.

There's some sort of psychosis going on here. I don't understand it, it could be a simple case of egomania, though it seems more complicated than that. Maybe he just needs to get laid, though it's pretty obvious he doesn't handle intimate relationships too well.

The character 'chris' from the discussion group has made some pretty audacious comments. He has stated unapologeticly that if we allow gay marriage in this country, it will lead to our nation becoming a muslim caliphate - his exact words were 'will lead to sharia law'. He's convinced that his version of christianity is the only true version, and that makes him uniquely qualified to determine who else is a true christian, or not.

I'm not sure what lance is convinced of, but I know he's not convinced the world has had enough of him. I think we have, and I think, unless he comes back on the same form he went out on, it will be merely a side show to the already damaged image of cycling around the world. Contador has shown - between the giro and vuelta this year - that he's ready to be the new boss of the peloton. Lance coming back is merely an arrogant slap to his success.

It's a weird vague link in my twisted mind between the two, and it comes down to arrogance and ego. Unchecked, it's never a good thing. Lance, I feel, will not help the image and direction of cycling, and could even damage it. Chris, I _know_ will not help the image and direction of this country, and will end up damaging it. The only real difference is that there are alot of chris' out there, and only one lance. Lance may actually damage the sport (worst case), but he won't destroy it. Ten million christian zealots, convinced that this country should be ruled under the laws of the their bible, could certainly destroy us.

On a different note, I signed up for the Bob Beal Stage race a couple of weeks ago. since I was injured in february, I hadn't even bothered to buy my license to that point. so I bought my license specifically for that race. It was summarily canceled because the promoter was wary of the turn out and didn't want to incur a loss.

So instead of racing, I fucked around a bit, and drank more than I should have.

There are other races coming up, the protsmouth crit....jamestown...I'd love to try cyclocross but I'm just not confident of the achilles tear handling the dismounts and running.

I'll be running some...lightly....per doctors orders.

Long weekend MTB excursions seem to be in my future.

As the road racing season closes, and the election season goes super nova, here's what I hope:

I hope Lance realizes he cannot compete at the level he was hoping, and quietly goes away.

I hope America realizes that christian fundamentalism is just as bad as muslim fundamentalism and sends 'god-n-guns palin' packing.

I hope I can actually run a 5 mile race by the end of the year.

Hmmm....it _is_ all about me.......

I bought the Polar Power Meter a few weeks ago. Hey, why not...Since I already have the Polar 720i. I checked into several user forums, and the only complaints were regarding set up, with a couple over mechanical reliability.


Set-up: There were two issues, one that I was aware of ahead of time and one that was a surprise.

1) setting up the chain sensor requires a ruler and removal of the chain. This was the setup issue I knew of. The chain tension sensor uses a magnet attached to a strain gauge. It senses the defection of the chain under pedal induction (this is why you need to weigh the chain). It then uses that defection data, with cadence, chain speed (a separate sensor), road speed, and rider weight to come up with a power value. You need the ruler to ensure the distance of the chain to the sensor - which sits on the drive side stay - stays within distance limits across the gear range, or the magnetic strain gauge will not react to the chain deflection properly. You get spacers to accomplish this.

2) What I didn't prepare for was the lower jockey wheel bolt length. The system measures chain speed through a sensor attached to the lower jockey wheel, so they provide a special bolt that is unfortunately a little too short and will only grab about 1 thread. With a little judicious use of a dremel tool, I was able to shave about 100 mils off of the shoulder of the bolt so I got it to come though just shy of flush with the back of the cage.

It worked right away. So far the only problem I've had is that the wrist unit needs to be completely, perfectly, and firmly seated on the mount. I'm thinking this is the source of alot of the 'intermittent' complaints I've read about.

Since there wasn't any real calibration of the system, I decided to do a little test. Last night, I went out on a flat straight stretch of road with a small downhill run-in. Using the hill, I got the bike up to 30 mph and held it for the length of the stretch of road (slightly under 1/3 mile). The test took about 40 seconds, which translated to 8 samples on the polar.

I averaged 29.96 mph and 427 watts. Then, I went to the on-line bicycle power calculator, punched in all the data, and came up with a theorhetical requirement of 432 watts.

Granted, the numbers in the calculator are assumptions, but if you look at the actual co-efficients, the differences in the margin of error are not that great.

Another feature of the power sensor is pedaling analysis. It shows a right-left balance and what they call a 'pedaling index', which is "the ratio between the minimum and maximum forces of a single pedaling cycle". The polar website says 30% is 'very good', the higher the better. Over the several rides I had the new unit, I'm getting about 25% on average, since over 30% is 'very good, does that mean under 30% is _not_ very good?

I hope not to become a slave to the power meter, but I wouldn't mind becoming a slave to this:

A first attempt at commuting - pansy assed training report

Kudos to Solo for doing an intense weekend. I'm currently living my racing life vicariously through him and guys like Duano (sorry, no hyperlink there, Duano is conspicuously non-net savvy).

So I rode in today. It was a pretty easy ride from an intensity perspective, and even took a slight detour to take out the one appreciable hill. The point of course, being to not stress the achilles tendon any more than I have to. I averaged 18.7, mostly because I sat and spun up what little hills I had. Average HR of 162 - just over 80% max, trip time of 33 minutes.

Of course, today being the first commute, I was bound to forget something.

shoes.

I'm pretty good at improv though. So I cut a couple of insoles out of antistatic foam, stuffed them in my booties, and voila! I have tre chic cycling casual footwear.

I kept my air cast on all weekend, I figured I should err on the side of caution after the way my heel felt after thursdays' light workout. It may have worked, I'm not in any discomfort right now,

This is really frustrating. I had planned to have well over 1000 miles by now, been commuting for the past month, and working in the Tuesday Night Fights (BOB ride), races, and long hilly rides on the weekends. As of right now I can't get an hour in without having to rehab. One of my early season goals was to run the Wild Rover series of running races. I had planned on riding to the races, running them, then riding home. As it turned out I preregd. and didn't run any of them, and was in the cast for the entire series.

Just to keep myself goal oriented, I'm coming up with a new metric: speed over heart rate. The larger the number, the more fit I am. I don't have a power meter, and I'm not getting one anytime soon. I figure, since I'm probably not going to be able to do much of anything besides my stupid little commutes any time soon, a solid number that directly relates to my level of fitness might be a good point. Since the route will remain the same, the only factor will be wind. So the bigger the number, the better the performance.

This morning: 18.7/162 = .115

Compare that with a few typical morning rides from late last season. On october 4 '06 I did 20.2/154 = .131, on sept 26 '06 I did 20.9/159 = 131.

My goal will be a .125, or 20/160. I'll throw out days that I catch a truck draft.

Back to it/The Hardware - Old Faithful

OK, I realize, this is supposed to be a blog about cycling. In fortunately, in light of my recent injury, There hasn't been a whole helluva lot of that going on.

Last sunday, I tried sitting on the mag trainer for a while, easy gear, cadence ~80. I managed 45 minutes with no pain or discomfort. I went up to take a shower, and felt a slight burning sensation in my heel, and the swelling started soon after. I thought "great, I just set myself back a few weeks"

I went to the Dr on tuesday and got an 'all is going well' assessment. I'm out of the boot now, Her interpretation of the previous mag trainer workout was just that I over did it. Prescription: Short duration ~(20 min) low impact workouts and stretching. She suggested speed walking. She suggested, on a weekly basis upping the time by ten minutes. When I can get in an hour workout with no pain or swelling the next day, I can consider going back to a regular training schedule.

Which brings me to the first in another categories of blog entries: Bikes - The Hardware. I have currently nine (9) fully assembled and ridable bikes.

This entry features my favorite road bike - Old Faithful

This is a Merlin Road frame, Circa 1991. I have probably 50,000 miles on the frame. Currently, I use it as my commuter/weekday trainer.

Components:
wheels - Rolf Vector Comp
fork - Easton EC90 bars - Easton EC70 Stem - Easton EC70
post - Easton EC90 saddle - flite Ti
shifters - Campy Veloce Ergopower 9sp derailleurs - Campy Chorus Cassette - Sram 11-21
brakes - Campy Athena Crankset - Profile Designs Carbon 53/42

A few years ago I had it painted by Ted Wojcieck. It's held up OK, especially considering how well it's beat upon, and the fact that Titanium doesn't take paint very well. I love this bike. After riding something else, it always feels like I've come home. I can't say enough about the wheels, They've been commuter/trainers for about 8 years, and have a good 40,000 miles on them. The bearings are silky smooth (should be after all those miles) and I've never had to replace a spoke. Let me say, I don't exactly baby this thing. Yes, that's a fender. Since I commute on it, I ride alot when it's wet. I was amazed at how much better it is riding when you don't have water spraying up on your crotch.

This bike was one of my most satisfying purchases. This is one of the bikes I want to be buried with. Its ride is true and predictable, and exceptionally comfortable. It's one of the Tom Kellogg designed frames. I don't race it, really just because it doesn't have that out-of-the-saddle snap that you need for a good racing bike. Perhaps as I get older and _my_ snap ceases to be anything of interest I'll start racing on it again.