No, better not.
I’d get in too much trouble.
nevermind, sorry
links for 2005-12-15
December 15, 2005 — timetrial-
Microsoft is paying out more of their warchest(tags: microsoft)
Mobile Register report on Chicago Area Art Project
December 5, 2005 —The Mobile Register thsi morning reports on the visit to Dauphin Island and Bayou La Batre by seventeen 7th and 8th grade students from Highland Park, Illinois. See previous story here.
BAYOU LA BATRE — Like several of her classmates at Alba Middle School, 13-year-old Adrian Overstreet is recovering from Hurricane Katrina one photograph at a time.
The eighth-grader has ridden around Bayou La Batre with her mom and big sister, taking pictures of homes turned to piles of rubble, overturned boats and people struggling to recover.
Her work will be part of a traveling art, poetry and writing exhibit that seeks to tell Hurricane Katrina’s story from the children’s point of view. Alba Middle has partnered with Elm Place Middle School in suburban Chicago on the project.
Elm Place students visited Bayou La Batre this past week to tour the damage, take photographs themselves and talk to the Alba students about their experiences. Elm Place is funding the exhibit and is raising money to fly 19 Alba students to Chicago to see the finished work on display this spring.
Singletrack + Singlespeed = Double the Fun
November 27, 2005 —
My brother hooked me up with his spare SingleSpeed yesterday for a couple of hours’ worth of singletrack riding near his house.
If you’ve never done the SS thing then I must recommend you do not pass up the chance should anyone make you the offer. It’s a whole different level of bicycling zen. You’re sure to find something about it that will keep you smiling for days. Check the photo for instance. You clicked it didn’t you? Such places are cycling heaven, quet as a cathedral. When you ride through a place like this you thank the cycling gods for making such a place and allowing you to find it and to ride it.
To be sure the day wasn’t all like this. The same trail that led us to heaven on earth also served up plenty of cooking that could only come from hell’s kitchen. I’m not sure which is worse, the terror resulting from decending or the anguish from attempting to ascend – remember, there is only one gear on the bike – a steep, twisting and turning tree-lined heavily rooted singletrack mined with fist-sized boulders hidden by fallen leaves. During the descent I feared for my life as the bike lunged left and right beneath me, or threatened to pitch me over the bars. On the ascent the challenge was maintaining forward momentum as the bike’s wheels encountered each hidden obstacle on the way up the incline.
Most of the ride was somewhere in between heaven and hell – negotiating tricky switchbacks, creek crossings, and even the occasional log barrier. There is something unique and special about doing this on a single speed bicycle. Getting to know “your” gear and how to use it to overcome obstacles, maintain the right speed, and accelerate or climb without burning yourself up is all part of the learning experience.
To some it has become a way of life. Back to the roots of what bicycling is all about, this is what they call the pinnacle of cycling.
All that zen stuff aside, it’s a hoot. Thanks bro.
Working off yesterday’s sins
November 25, 2005 — timetrial
Guilt is a great motivator. And when guilt is backed up by brimming fuel tanks great results can occur. That was the case with my workout today.
Truth be told I don’t really have all that much to feel guilty about. I did manage to show a lot quite a bit some restraint yesterday. I probably went a little overboard on the Pecan Pie, but hey it was at the end of the meal and I’d been so good… And the Pecan Pie was really good too. I’m talking out of body experience good here.
OK but this post is about my training today, not Pecan Pie, right? So maybe there was a little bit of guilt, but the real contributor had to be that Pecan Pie. My system was thirsty for carbohydrates after yesterday’s workout. It must have put those Pecan Pie carbs on the fast track to my legs because today my legs were unstoppable.
Thanksgiving’s lasting two days for me. The first day is the traditional day of thanks; and the second – that’s today – is the day I’m giving thanks for behaving well and being rewarded with great legs. Will it go a third? Not a chance. With this kind of output it will take a bit more recovery time. Tomorrow won’t be as amazing, but it’ll still be a good day.
Today’s Last Ten Shuffled up on my iPod
- Perfect – Alanis Morissette
- I’m Still Remembering – Cranberries
- Wake Up – Alanis Morissette
- Like Suicide – Soundgarden
- Say It Isn’t True – Jackson Browne
- One Night in Bankok – Falco
- Ride Across the River – Dire Straits
- You Learn – Alanis Morissette
- Real Wild Child – Christopher Otcasek
- Sweet Lady – Queen
Baby it’s Cold Outside
November 25, 2005 —
Outside of a few select areas of the country that is.
Looking at a chart like this it’s easy to explain why fully one-third of the US population lives within 50 miles of the coast. As if we need a good explanation for why snowbirds migrate south in the winter!
The Treadmill Bike
November 24, 2005 — timetrial
Awesome new product – this baby’s bound to revolutionize the fitness industry. This will be bigger than the X-box 360, and it’s guaranteed not to blue-screen. Get in line boys and girls. This one’s going to be hot.
From the Treadmill Bike web site:
Have you ever wished you could get a quality treadmill workout without paying expensive gym prices? Look no further than the Treadmill Bike by the Bicycle Forest. The Treadmill Bike offers the same fat burning benefits of a conventional treadmill without the membership fees!
Treadmill bikeStill not convinced that the Treadmill Bike is right for you? Consider these key benefits:
- When the weather’s nice, the last place you want to be is cooped up in some stuffy gym. Imagine running through evergreen forests or strolling down country roads. All of this is possible thanks to the rugged design and all terrain tires on the revolutionary Treadmill Bike.
- The Treadmill Bike’s hard wearing belt offers a sure grip while protecting your feet from dirt and other contaminants commonly found on the earth’s surface.
- Because the Treadmill Bike is also a mode of transportation, use it instead of your car for everyday tasks such as shopping, and traveling to school or your place of work.
- Thinking of taking the Treadmill Bike to the grocery store? Be sure to stock up on ice cream while you’re there. You will have earned it.
- Treadmill Biking is fun for the whole family. The variable resistance feature* means that treadmill bikers of different abilities can workout together and no one will get left behind.
- Today’s urban landscape is increasingly dominated by large SUV’s and multilane roadways. The Treadmill Bike’s elevated running platform means you’ll be seen over the hood of even the most heinously overbuilt motor vehicle.
- Take it off some sweet jumps!
Sike!
Intuitive eating: the anti-dieting diet
November 23, 2005 — timetrial
Think we can learn to trust our weight control to intuition? This research seems to say we can. I’d like to think it’s true. Wouldn’t it be grand if we could somehow get in better touch with our intuition and understand when it’s time to push away from the table?
Intuitive eating: the anti-dieting diet
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Stop dieting. Become an “intuitive eater.” It’s a better way to maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of heart disease, research suggests.
Intuitive eaters don’t diet — they recognize and respond to internal hunger and fullness cues to regulate food intake, explains Dr. Steven R. Hawks of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who adopted intuitive eating habits several years ago and lost 50 pounds in the process.
“The basic premise of intuitive eating is, rather than manipulate what we eat in terms of prescribed diets — how many calories a food has, how many grams of fat, specific food combinations or anything like that — we should take internal cues, try to recognize what our body wants and then regulate how much we eat based on hunger and satiety,” he said in a university statement.
In a pilot study, Hawks and colleagues studied the relationship between intuitive eating and several health indicators among a group of female college students. They identified 15 women who were intuitive eaters and 17 women who were not intuitive eaters and ran a battery of tests to see how healthy they were.
Overall, women who scored high on the Intuitive Eating Scale were healthier than were those who scored low on the scale. High intuitive eaters had a significantly lower body mass index than did low intuitive eaters and had lower levels of harmful triglycerides and higher levels of “good” HDL cholesterol and, therefore, a better cardiovascular risk profile.
Read more
How it looks to be shelled
November 22, 2005 — timetrial
You know the feeling. You’ve put in a tough week repeatedly putting yourself to the test. Day after day you push yourself to work harder and do more. Each successive day’s workout gets harder than the day before. You have your moments of brilliance; but you know you’re not really coming all the way back each day. You’re digging a deeper hole each day than you’re capable of eating and sleeping your way out of by the next training session.
I enjoy training blocks like this because I enjoy pushing myself to and finding my limits. I also get a real kick out of watching those limits increase as the season progresses.
Today I reached the end of just such a series of workouts. Today’s training session ended with that distinct feeling of being shelled. See that circled area at the end? That’s where I truly wanted to get my power back up to the previous level – I had intended to last 40 minutes – but I couldn’t. As hard as I tried I could not generate the watts I’d been able to make just 5 minutes before.
That’s cracking. That’s what it looks like to want to hang on the back so bad you can taste it, but watching helplessly as the gap grows and grows.
Amazing Christmas Lights
November 21, 2005 — timetrialUnbelievable. Even if it isn’t true – some think it’s a bunch (a big bunch) of independent frames combined in varying sequences and set to music – this is awesome.
