Thirty miles in Averaging around 16. Beautiful day... on the road again to the SuperMax!
Saturday, June 11, 2005
T-minus 5minutes and....
mornin'! It's currently 4:50 and I have a few minutes to kill before I have to pick Russell up at 5:30. Since traffic between here and there is basically non-existant at this time of day, it takes quite a bit less than 40 minutes to drag my butt down there.
Clothes for the ride set aside in a bag? Check.
Camera? Check.
Baggie full of bag balm? Check.
Helmet and shoes? Check. They're in the car.
The secret of a 100 mile ride is to think of is to think of the DISTANCE as nothing special. It's not. It's like a marathon, except less so. It's the meat and potatoes cycling long distance. So thinking of the DISTANCE as something hard is the wrong approach. Anyone, I think, who can keep pedaling can do a century. It's true that varying degrees of fitness will determine how much pain that person is in the next day, but if pressed, I think just about anyone can do one. Doing a century with FINESS and STYLE though is an entirely different thing.
The goal today is to do it as smoothly and as fastly as I can... that means getting Russell to work in a 2 person (or more) paceline for as much of the day as I can... riding in the bars or drops for as long as I can... keeping it in my 54x12 gearing for as much of the day as I can (the monster gear that I've pressed up to 40 on very slightly down terrain.)... and drinking and eating what i need so that I don't cramp up... that means keeping a banana on hand in case of potassium inbalance.
Anyway, I didn't want to make anything more of the century than it is. It's a bread and butter distance. I don't even think a double is anything more than that, though it is admittedly quite a bit harder... and if I do Denver-Aspen in August, (which I think I might do in lieu of the 5430) I'll be properly scared about that... there's 13000' of elevation gain on that! UGH.
Just for comparisons, the night before my first Ironman and I think my first century (I can't quite remember), I couldn't sleep at all. Level of freak-outedness was exponentially more before the Ironman, but when I did my first century I had never ridden more than 40 miles. Those 60 miles after mile 40 were virgin territory and it freaked me out a little. Those miles WERE hard that day because there were 30+ mph side winds that you had to lean into to stay upright, but it wasn't anything especially horrid. It could have been much worse (see the road construction on the Paul Bunyan story from a few years ago)
Tonight, I slept like a baby. No stress about this, and I think that that's where I'd love to be when I race IMFL next year. I probably won't be... just because then I'll be able to freak out about not having done the 2.4 in an ocean, but one can hope. Looks like it's 5:04 now, I should hustle out the door. I'll write more this evening!
Clothes for the ride set aside in a bag? Check.
Camera? Check.
Baggie full of bag balm? Check.
Helmet and shoes? Check. They're in the car.
The secret of a 100 mile ride is to think of is to think of the DISTANCE as nothing special. It's not. It's like a marathon, except less so. It's the meat and potatoes cycling long distance. So thinking of the DISTANCE as something hard is the wrong approach. Anyone, I think, who can keep pedaling can do a century. It's true that varying degrees of fitness will determine how much pain that person is in the next day, but if pressed, I think just about anyone can do one. Doing a century with FINESS and STYLE though is an entirely different thing.
The goal today is to do it as smoothly and as fastly as I can... that means getting Russell to work in a 2 person (or more) paceline for as much of the day as I can... riding in the bars or drops for as long as I can... keeping it in my 54x12 gearing for as much of the day as I can (the monster gear that I've pressed up to 40 on very slightly down terrain.)... and drinking and eating what i need so that I don't cramp up... that means keeping a banana on hand in case of potassium inbalance.
Anyway, I didn't want to make anything more of the century than it is. It's a bread and butter distance. I don't even think a double is anything more than that, though it is admittedly quite a bit harder... and if I do Denver-Aspen in August, (which I think I might do in lieu of the 5430) I'll be properly scared about that... there's 13000' of elevation gain on that! UGH.
Just for comparisons, the night before my first Ironman and I think my first century (I can't quite remember), I couldn't sleep at all. Level of freak-outedness was exponentially more before the Ironman, but when I did my first century I had never ridden more than 40 miles. Those 60 miles after mile 40 were virgin territory and it freaked me out a little. Those miles WERE hard that day because there were 30+ mph side winds that you had to lean into to stay upright, but it wasn't anything especially horrid. It could have been much worse (see the road construction on the Paul Bunyan story from a few years ago)
Tonight, I slept like a baby. No stress about this, and I think that that's where I'd love to be when I race IMFL next year. I probably won't be... just because then I'll be able to freak out about not having done the 2.4 in an ocean, but one can hope. Looks like it's 5:04 now, I should hustle out the door. I'll write more this evening!
Friday, June 10, 2005
one last thing before bed...
In just a few hours, I'll mark my return to long distance riding. It's been over two years since I've rolled over the 100 mark on my odometer and I haven't ridden that far in Colorado at all. I'm not sure what to expect. I mean, I know what to expect because I've done the distance many times, but just not here. The elevation of the course peaks at about 8000 ft tomorrow, something I've ridden above quite a bit. But it's fairly open desert territory so that's what spooks me just a little bit. My fingers are crossed that the weather is good. I've got a good mix CD put together for the drive down and a good friend to ride the course with so with my fingers crossed, I'll be having a celebratory glass of wine sometime around 2 or 3:00 tomorrow (depending on wind and how many stops). Blogging and photos to resume tomorrow.
of Red Canyons and Century Rides...
Tomorrow will be my first century of the season, and my first century here in these highlands. As of a week ago, I've been here two years now and I'm not entirely surprised that it's taken two years to get back to the distance.
I had the opportunity to do the Elephant Rock century last weekend, but with 7000+ mostly non-riders riding and pissing off drivers on roads I ride all the time anyway, why pay for the opportunity?
In contrast, Red Canyon is in it's second year and exponentially smaller. It's also in an area that I've never actually done any riding in, the area around the Royal Gorge in Canon City. I've only even been to the area once (to go Whitewater Rafting down the Arkansas River) so it'll be pretty virgin territory.
I guess the first 12-14 miles are a 2000' elevation climb into Red Canyon, then an equal level of descending down to Pueblo through Florence and Wetmore, CO.
I still need to put a mix disc together for the 50 something mile drive out to Canon City... something to charge Russell and I up at 5 in the morning.
Oh, and the swag is pretty good, since it starts at a winery, aside from the T-shirt and the waterbottle (and rest area food) for the $30 registration fee, there's a poker chip included for your first glass of wine. Not bad at all... I think I might have to do this century more than once.
I had the opportunity to do the Elephant Rock century last weekend, but with 7000+ mostly non-riders riding and pissing off drivers on roads I ride all the time anyway, why pay for the opportunity?
In contrast, Red Canyon is in it's second year and exponentially smaller. It's also in an area that I've never actually done any riding in, the area around the Royal Gorge in Canon City. I've only even been to the area once (to go Whitewater Rafting down the Arkansas River) so it'll be pretty virgin territory.
I guess the first 12-14 miles are a 2000' elevation climb into Red Canyon, then an equal level of descending down to Pueblo through Florence and Wetmore, CO.
I still need to put a mix disc together for the 50 something mile drive out to Canon City... something to charge Russell and I up at 5 in the morning.
Oh, and the swag is pretty good, since it starts at a winery, aside from the T-shirt and the waterbottle (and rest area food) for the $30 registration fee, there's a poker chip included for your first glass of wine. Not bad at all... I think I might have to do this century more than once.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Apple and Microsoft in a game of No Limit Texas Hold-em
Ang and I were watching Rounders tonight. I never got around to seeing it when it was out a few years ago and when a friend mentioned ANOTHER COUPLE OF YEARS ago that he loved it, it went on my list of movies to buy at some point in the future. It showed up in the bins at Movie Trading Co. recently and I picked it up and threw it on the shelf.
Tonight, after a rainy, cold ride we threw it in. I didn't think it was the most amazing movie I've ever seen, but it was pretty exceptional and it was a great lead-up to some stories I picked up on after the movie... something, that if it's true and being played right, could be an utterly stupendous poker hand.
The order of events...
I check my mail and wander over to Lileks' site to get 'Tomorrows news today!' (the blessing of being able to read his Daily Bleat without having to wait until tomorrow due to time zone differences)
Lileks links to this story and then that story links to THIS story. I don't know if it's true, but if it IS, it's a pretty remarkable move.
I've been a Mac geek since high school. When I got into video production in 9th grade, I fell in love with the Amiga. I thought Macs AND PCs were awful... gimme the glorious Amiga 4000 and it's ATROCIOUS operating system any day... I remember wanting to learn aRexx scripting, but never quite getting the hang of it. At one point, someone came out with a board add in that could run a Mac inside the Amiga. I never got a chance to use it, but I couldn't understand what would make someone want to do that.
Once I got to high school, I got plugged into the photography and print teacher's little world. He ran a printing company inside the school's print shop/classroom with student employees... and I got sucked into being a designer. Macs suddenly had quite a bit of cache as I was exposed to Illustrator 4 and Photoshop 2.0 (man I feel old) Since then, I've been a fairly major Mac geek.
With being a mac geek comes the rest of the kool-aid. The Power PC and it's RISC kicks Pentium CISC and must be the greatest chip in the world! SCSI is WAAAAY better than ATA! Floppy drives are of the devil! (well that one was actually true). The teenage me would have been apoplectic at the thought of Apple switching to Intel chips. But when I watched the keynote (another one of those true Mac Geek things to do) it didn't seem quite so bad.
Reading these stories tonight, I wonder if there isn't something more afoot. The thing about all of this is that it makes quite a bit more sense than all of these stories about Apple being swallowed by Disney or Sony. Intel hates Microsoft... Microsoft isn't super fond of Intel and decides to give the next XBox chip to IBM along with Sony and Nintendo. Apple needs faster chips, Intel sees a window and approaches Apple about a partnership (or even as some of these articles speculate, a merger... an 'offer they can't refuse')
at the same time, Apple still rather annoyed with Microsoft (even if they wouldn't admit it) let's the poison pill leak onto the internet. This doesn't bring down Microsoft by any means, but it could be the first little nibble as Google starts nibbling away in another corner of the internet.
I don't know where any of this is going, but between seeing Rounders tonight and watching this story unfold here, it's quite the night for Poker.
more in the morning.
Tonight, after a rainy, cold ride we threw it in. I didn't think it was the most amazing movie I've ever seen, but it was pretty exceptional and it was a great lead-up to some stories I picked up on after the movie... something, that if it's true and being played right, could be an utterly stupendous poker hand.
The order of events...
I check my mail and wander over to Lileks' site to get 'Tomorrows news today!' (the blessing of being able to read his Daily Bleat without having to wait until tomorrow due to time zone differences)
Lileks links to this story and then that story links to THIS story. I don't know if it's true, but if it IS, it's a pretty remarkable move.
I've been a Mac geek since high school. When I got into video production in 9th grade, I fell in love with the Amiga. I thought Macs AND PCs were awful... gimme the glorious Amiga 4000 and it's ATROCIOUS operating system any day... I remember wanting to learn aRexx scripting, but never quite getting the hang of it. At one point, someone came out with a board add in that could run a Mac inside the Amiga. I never got a chance to use it, but I couldn't understand what would make someone want to do that.
Once I got to high school, I got plugged into the photography and print teacher's little world. He ran a printing company inside the school's print shop/classroom with student employees... and I got sucked into being a designer. Macs suddenly had quite a bit of cache as I was exposed to Illustrator 4 and Photoshop 2.0 (man I feel old) Since then, I've been a fairly major Mac geek.
With being a mac geek comes the rest of the kool-aid. The Power PC and it's RISC kicks Pentium CISC and must be the greatest chip in the world! SCSI is WAAAAY better than ATA! Floppy drives are of the devil! (well that one was actually true). The teenage me would have been apoplectic at the thought of Apple switching to Intel chips. But when I watched the keynote (another one of those true Mac Geek things to do) it didn't seem quite so bad.
Reading these stories tonight, I wonder if there isn't something more afoot. The thing about all of this is that it makes quite a bit more sense than all of these stories about Apple being swallowed by Disney or Sony. Intel hates Microsoft... Microsoft isn't super fond of Intel and decides to give the next XBox chip to IBM along with Sony and Nintendo. Apple needs faster chips, Intel sees a window and approaches Apple about a partnership (or even as some of these articles speculate, a merger... an 'offer they can't refuse')
at the same time, Apple still rather annoyed with Microsoft (even if they wouldn't admit it) let's the poison pill leak onto the internet. This doesn't bring down Microsoft by any means, but it could be the first little nibble as Google starts nibbling away in another corner of the internet.
I don't know where any of this is going, but between seeing Rounders tonight and watching this story unfold here, it's quite the night for Poker.
more in the morning.
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