Another Sh*t Stain

“It was announced that the three-time Tour champion tested positive for clenbuterol in an almost-undetectable microdose of 50 picograms/millilitre, which is apparently 400 times less than the required limit of detection.”

I don’t like Contador.  Never have, never will.  He’s arrogant.  He’s rude.  He’s not a team player.  He’s what people often refer to as a douchebag.  That being said – if I were Spanish – I’d probably think a bit different.  That’s how sports figures are … you like them for whatever reason you want.  You like their style, their appearance, their bike, their attitude… or you don’t – it’s your call.  We can like or dislike… in the big picture, it doesn’t matter.

All that being said … this is a crock of stinking poo that was opened up THIS week for only ONE REASON…. to get press about cycling doping.  The whole cycling world is paying attention – the world championships are going on.  (Funny, all of these announcement happen during big events?  Landis spilled his guts during the Amgen Tour of California.  This happens during the World Championships (even know Contador has known since August).   All about the press).

It is this press that is ripping the sport apart.  Ripping the arms off of it.  Daily, we find out who is going to talk to the Grand Jury in California.  Contador MIGHT have done something wrong…. MAYBE…. or he ate a cow with mad cow disease or something.  The powers that be are saying “We need to investigate more!”  HELLO!  GO INVESTIGATE, get back to me when you know more!  Floyd can tell you it’s going to take 2 years to figure out who won this years tour!  Second place has said “He deserves a chance to defend himself!”  Why not figure it out before we launch the SCUD missiles at Pro Cycling?

THAT being said … Aren’t all of the riders PERSONALLY responsible for EVERYTHING they put in their body?  Meaning – if it was there, and it’s written that it shouldn’t be – it doesn’t matter if the cow took the dope or Alberto did?

Lots of people have lost medals for taking “Over the counter cold medicine they didn’t know contained _________”.

I’m sick of doping stories…

Hitting the wall and running away

Friday was a very bizarre day in my life.  Max woke up in the middle of the night.  He couldn’t breathe too good so I decided we should get him checked.  It’s always good when they hook him up and his oxygen level is 100% and you know its not a life threatening issue.  This started about 3:00 in the morning.  I am shocked to say, we had a diagnosis and were back in bed by 5:15 after a trip to the ER.  Wow…

I slept in a little, then it was time to get on with my day.  I took the day off to hang out with Mom, fix my bike up and go for a bike ride.  Clearly that didn’t change everything, but Sarah was sick too – and Derek had a case of the red-ass and needed to get his booty checked.  All is well, a little special sauce and he is back to normal.  Well, I started working on my bike and without going into TOO many details – I sweat too much and have an unbelievable ability to do bad things to bicycles.  My bike ride would be on my backup/spare road bike that hasn’t been looked at in 6 months.

My position was a bit off for this ride, as was my brain cell.  I rode trying to keep up with a previous ride, but just didn’t have it.  Could it be because I was up for 3 hours?  Hm…. well, it was hot and I didn’t remember this loop being THAT hard, but it was THAT hard and then some – especially after I bonked and was basically just in survival mode.  I mean, I wasn’t going to die – but picture being 10+ miles from home with no energy and your whole body hurts…. now get hungry and hot and find hills.  UGH!  It sucked, but I’m really glad I got the ride in.

That ride and my bike issues kind of ended my desire to ride much for the weekend.  I needed a rest anyway.  I didn’t ride Saturday or Sunday but had lots of fun picking apples, watching soccer, movies and football!  Good barbecue too!  Yum!

Monday rolls around and the 11 Alive Wizonator tells me its going to be cloudy and cool all day.  Not wanting to deal with rain and my spare bike, I throw together my bag for a nice lunch run.  Thanks Wizonator… it wasn’t that hot, but the shirt I brought has a HUGE patch on the back.  With the BRIGHT SUN baking the rubber logo to my skin, all I could do was think about that wonderful weather tool that is basically worthless.  Anyway … my last run was July 4th.  It was 6.2 miles in 59:55…. This one was about 3.01 miles in about 32 minutes.  Not ALL that far off the pace – and I CERTAINLY went easier yesterday.  Now – I’m remember why I like and don’t like running.  The funky nipples, the inner leg soreness … good times.  The quickness of a good work out!  That is nice.

I hope to find my cycling motivation again (I think I have already), but I also look forward to some running.  I have a good guy to run with at work.  He’s about my pace and good company.  Looking forward to cross training and having company rather than just commuting and riding the same couple of routes.  I wish I could figure out how to squeeze in some extra commuting – but you know … once the time changes, darkness will not be my friend.

Got some excitement coming on Thursday – which should bring mad motivation!

Tomorrow is World Car Free Day!

That’s right – September 22nd is World Car Free Day!  I want YOU to PARTICIPATE!

Yes – I do – but I’m a realist and understand that we live in a culture where our lives are organized, formed and driven by the automobile.  Tomorrow is your chance to think about it.  To open your eyes in your life and say “How can I use my car less!”  I am sure there are some tree hugging hippies that want us all to abandon our cars and go back to how it was in the early 1800′s.  Well, that aint gonna happen tomorrow, I can promise you that – so I’m personally throwing out the challenge to anybody who HAPPENS upon my blog to do everything in your power to do at least one thing you would normally do WITH your car – without your car!

Examples might include – but are not limited to:

• Riding your bike to work
• Walking to the gym
• Walking to the grocery store
• Carpooling
• Riding the bus
• Skateboarding

Think – where can I change MY life to use even 1/2 a gallon less gas?

I will NOT be car free tomorrow – but I will use my car less.  I’ve already made arrangements for Sarah to get the kids after work.  I will drive to drop Derek off then go back to my house.  His camp is not at a good location to ride – which I am regretful about.  I will then ride my bicycle to work – and ride home after work.  Not car – free – not all that much different than any other day I commute by bike, but I’ve been working for almost 30 weeks on this!

Maybe you can get a ride with your spouse, your neighbor, your friend?  Maybe you could work from home?  Maybe you could use public transportation?

This is a very fine earth!  We need to try to keep it that way!  http://www.endofworld.net shows you what happens if we don’t take care of our business!  (PS.  That is rated R for language, violence and oddity – watch at your own risk)  World Car Free day is Rated G – Everybody is welcome to play!

Coincidence

Back in the day, when I was going to Alcoholics Anonymous, we had a saying – “A coincidence is a miracle God chose not to take credit for.”  One day at a time, for almost 23 years, I’ve remained clean and sober.  That little saying is something that has stuck with me ever since.

Last night, we piled into the Matrix and headed up to South Carolina for dinner.  Dad was in town, we had a few minutes, why not.  We had a great dinner.  Great time.  Good to see Dad for sure!

As we were leaving, I realized I had a missed call. It was Mom.  I called her back really quick and we talked for maybe 3 minutes.  Off we went.  We got about 20 miles into the trip and all of the sudden the traffic was coming to an abrupt halt.  As we sorted out the traffic, we passed a car.  It looked bad.

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/sep/19/police-seek-driver-who-left-after-fatal-i-85-accid/

You can call it what you want.  I’m calling this one  miracle and giving full credit.  If we left 2-3 minutes earlier – we might have been there when the trailer fell off.  It was a brutal accident scene.  I now realize there was a woman comforting the two children in the back of the mini-van where their parents were dead in the front seat.  Ugly.

Be careful out there – it’s dangerous!

The Biggest Loser and American Obesity

This is a subject that has been stuck in my brain for a while.  It’s going to piss off a few of my friends, it’s going to even surprise a few people that I feel this way – but hey, that’s what the internet is for, right?

Ryan - BL1 - Before

I remember the excitement when NBC launched “The Biggest Loser”.  The first cast was a bunch of people that were fat.  Probably all obese, but they were definitely fat.  You can read all about it on Wikipedia if you would like, but the heaviest person was 436 pounds.  Second to him was the the guy that ultimately won the competition at 33o pounds.  Heck, one person only weighed in at 167 pounds. We were all amazed at how great this pack of fatties did.  We were inspired, we dieted, we worked out, we ate right and got back to the TV every week to see who was going to win the next challenge.  The workouts were hard – not doubt.  The challenges were incredible… (I honestly don’t remember any of them in particular) and voting people off just about ripped your heart out!  For Ryan, this 330 pound dude – it worked great!

Ryan - BL1 Winner

All indications are that Ryan has kept the weight off and is doing good. Now – scroll forward 9 seasons.

Looking at the information that has been released and/or leaked to Wikipedia,  the average weight of the men is 392 pounds.  The average weight of the women is 273 pounds.  Is this a TRUE reflection of the American population?  (I ask – I don’t know).  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 34% of American’s over twenty years old are Obese.  In this casting of the Biggest Loser – all but TWO of the contestants are Obese Class III (greater than 40 BMI).

I know a few things here.  There are a lot of people like me.  Obese Class I (30 – 34.9 BMI).  (Yes, I’m obese based on all medical charts, tables and indicators.  Probably one of the healthiest obese people around, but I am obese).  Does NBC want to help people overcome obesity or make money?  I’m going to say both – but the focus is clearly on the second.  NOBODY is going to get excited to see 10 guys like me, needing to lose 30-40 pounds chipping away at their weight total.  I am 110% sure, if I were to get on the Biggest Loser – I could *EASILY* lose 15 pounds the first week.  (I can also tell you I would go in there so full of food and water, I would probably explode!).  The following week, I would pay the price, but I could blow some things up.  That’s where the excitement, the drama, the fun ends… then it’s back to reality.  NBC has taken no risk by selecting 20 people with a BMI over 40.  If you take any group of people, take them away from McDonalds and only give them Jenni-O turkey for a week – they are going to lose weight.  Now – have some militant bitch and her smiley buddy yell at them and give them hugs, they will probably lose more.  Do that for 17 weeks – they will lose more and more… they might even get down to Class I obesity.  But what’s next?

I just feel that the show has become, much like Christmas, way too commercial.  I’ll probably watch it.  I’ll probably follow Jillian, Bob and Ali on twitter, as well as other Biggest Loser Contestants – but  I’m starting to get REALLY jaded on the show.  If you want to have REALITY TV, let’s have REALITY.  Realistically, fat people don’t gather on a ranch with a state of the art gym.  Realistically, fat people with kids, jobs and everything else aren’t given $250,000 for losing weight.  Realistically only 40 people a year are given a chance to go onto “The Ranch”.  Realistically there are 7.8 million other American’s that could use some help too.  Realistically – if you have immunity in a contest, you DO drink a gallon of water to put on eight pounds… especially if somebody is going to give you $250,000 for saving your life.  I think – if they wanted to help more – NBC would come up with some more real life situations and help us to learn to eat healthier in public, not in Hollywood… but that’s not good TV.

Wow – I’ve almost talked myself out of watching…

Augtember comes to a close

Today – very unceremoniously ends my creation – “Augtember”.  It’s a month long (30 day period) from August 16th until September 15th.  With August having early month issues – I got a late start.  Once I started riding, I managed to pool together over 400 miles on the month!  I was sad that I couldn’t shift the months and pool a strong early September – so I pooled the months and made my own.  Augtember!

Here are your geeky statistics:

• 739.74 miles ridden
• 8 days not ridden
• 24.7 mile per day average
• 33.62 average miles per riding day

I’m excited about that.  I just need to keep it going through September and October.  Maybe not quite that much, but keep it up!  I have some new cables to put on Wilson’s brother – so he will be happy.  A little tune up, a little clean up and we will be ready to ride until the time changes and I have to spend some time on my own two feet!  With 2501 miles ridden this year, and over 20% of them in the last 30 days – it’s no wonder my butt is sore!

To my cycling friends – why don’t you commute by bike?

Yesterday, while riding home from work, I had another one of my Jerry McGuire moments.  I have been commenting, pushing, prodding and trying to inspire people to do things like walk to school, walk to the bus stop, do more active things… but I look around at my cycling friends and not that many of them ride to work.  I know some do – and I think that’s cool.  There is something REALLY cool about using your bike for what it was originally designed for (transportation).

So – you know my thoughts on this, you know I think we should all use some form of alternative transportation at least once a week – if you are one of my many cycling oriented friends… Why don’t you ride your bike to work?  I created a little twitter poll to shed some light on this!  There’s an “Other” option that will let you enter your own reason.  I don’t know who posts – so you can write whatever.  You could also comment on my blog and/or facebook!

I’m not right

Yesterday was an unusual day.  It’s not what I did, it is what I didn’t do.  For the first time since mid August, I didn’t ride a bicycle two says in a row.  Some of you are thinking “so?”  I probably should be – but I’m sitting here feeling insecure and like missing 1 day of riding is going to cause me to gain back 27 pounds and not be able to go fast and hate life and blah blah blah blah….  I get this way when I get on a ‘roll’.  In the middle of January, it doesn’t bother me, but once I get going and start riding a lot – I get this mental idea that I have to ride more and more and more!

For the past 30 or so days, I’ve ridden a lot.  It’s been fun – I’ve got a ton of miles in during the period I am calling “Augtember”  Since I really didn’t ride the first half of August, I’m bonding those two months together to create a 30 day period that hence forth and furthermore, I will affectionately call “Augtember”.  During that period, I’ve ridden 31 times with a mileage total over 700 miles.  I’ve ridden in blistering heat and today, I rode in knee warmers and long sleeves.  The full month of Augtember is over on September 15th.  I’ll probably finish off someplace in the realm of 750 miles.  Some would say “Wow, that’s awesome” but stupid brain thinks “You didn’t ride yesterday – you sucks”.  It’s that mentality that at times will get me to go “Screw it, I missed two days – why bother today” which leads to three, four, six and beyond.

This is another one of those boring looks into how my warped brain works.  The thing is, when I confess this oddity and see it written down on paper and come up with good thought like “You took two rest days.  You were a little crunchy the first few miles of today’s ride, but you will feel better on the way home.”  (A generally normal, well balanced look at reality – if I do say so myself.)

The current plan is to continue my commuting quest until I run out of light.  I don’t know that I will try to force a round peg into a square hole with lights and stuff.  I may shift gears and work on a little running and riding during the day – keep up a weekend ride and stuff.  We will see.

The hardest thing for me, sometimes, is to just sit up and ride my bike.  Stop racing my computer or trying to average a certain speed.  I think I need to get the fixie set up and ride it for a while.  All these gears are starting to mess with my brain cell!

Meet my friend, Spongebob Squarepants

My Friend

Alright, you have to admit, you love that crazy little yellow fellow that lives in a pineapple under a tree?  Absorbent and yellow and porous is he! You have to love him!

My post and this picture have almost nothing to do with Spongebob – more to do with my Spongebob dog tag.  What does a 42 year old man do with a dog tag, you might ask?  Well – the list is a little deeper than just wear it.  If you are even an occasional reader of my blog, you will know that I ride a bicycle a lot.  I ride on the road, trails and basically any place I can navigate on 23mm wide tires without getting stuck.  That – often – puts me in places where not everybody knows my name and/or my wife’s phone number.   I know – you guys all thought that my appearance on the Commuter Dude had me nearly as famous as Ashton, Demi and Kelli Pickler… the simple fact of the matter is that I am just an ordinary average guy with a blog and an addiction to twitter.  God forbid, if something ever happened to me and I were unable to tell somebody who I was and/or who cares about me – I want my family to be reachable.  Spongebob has contact information on the back.

Now – all you guys that have been watching LeTour know that Levi wears a RoadID.  Awesome.  Levi makes more money than I do and gets them free.  These $30 wrist/ankle bands are showing up all over the cycling circuit.  I think that’s great.  People SHOULD have contact info readily available.  That being said – I got Spongebob at Walmart for $7.  The stylized chain cost an additional $2.  I sweat like a water fountain and the chain has not had any issues.  Spongebob’s paint is coming off the back and it may be time to ‘freshen him up’ but for under $10 you have the knowledge you are protected.

Keep them simple – your full name, a couple phone numbers and maybe allergies if you have them.

That’s my tip of the day.   I hope you liked it.  I’m going to go see if they fixed the toilet I broke the other day and then ride home in a while!  I do love a good bike ride!

W2SW & The Busted Bowl

Today, Derek and I headed out at 6:55 and were most victorious in our quest to keep walk to school Wednesday alive!  Much fun.  It was a bit steamy – I learned that I need to change shirts when I get home – I was a bit to the side of moist.

I was glad I did that … a few hours later.  It’s actually currently the highlight of my day.

As with any other morning, I have a bit of a movement about 10:00.  Today was no different.  I scurried off the the men’s room only to find both stalls were taken.  Time to head upstairs – no biggie – good for me right?  I go upstairs and do what I gotta do.  I’m not a reader, I’m not a long sitter…. Pretty much get in, get done, get out.  Well… about 1/2 way through the “get done” part, all of the sudden the toilet DROPS!  One would think I would have pooped myself at this point, but NO!  Quite the contrary – it scared it away!  DONE!  I mean, I’m sitting on a broken bowl!  What do you do?  Well – I finished up and got out off the thing has quickly as possible.  Thankfully nothing broke, but there was about a 3/4″ gap between the bowl and the wall!  Use your Pythagorean Theorem on that and you will find out the front of that bowl dropped about 2.4 miles (or so it felt).

Much like the day I got the “Fat People” catalog with bathroom scales that weigh 500-1000 pounds, I kinda feel fat right now.  Maybe I can start to spin it the OTHER way.  Had I not lost weight, I would have ripped it all the way off!