Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Be pRepaired
Be pRepaired
Warning: seriously ugly picture in this report, continue at your own peril.
Initial product report: Crocs pRepairs
There is a new ugly for the harrrrdddccorreee trainerw among us, which for this humble blog is most of us, eh? I just got as a (it about time its been 2 weeks now) birthday present the last pair of Croc pRepairs at the local Sportcheck. Croc claims they:
Now I know there are readers of the fair sex who may have to take time to get their cool back, its OK, I could easily be a shin model. So get yourself a pair of pRepairs from wherever near you sells ugly shoes.
I sit here in my rockin' sox and Crocs attempting to heal my legs, which participated in a breakthrough run today. Getting a little run mojo back as AO and I did 2 of our best quality tempo runs of the season. I measure my run using an Annometer as opposed to a heart monitor or GPS watch. The Annometer is simple and accurate: you simply get it up in the morning, give it some coffee and its volume/frequency of complaining about the pace increases linearly with effort, so by the time one gets into "the Red Zone" the Annometer slows down and just starts cussin' at you.
It didn't help poor AO that 2 factors conspired against her today. First, due to my commitment to the success of http://www.yuanmei.com and its many great fish and plastic products (track #FishTime on twitter) I greatly increased the pace by developing a new running style I call "Way of the Carp", or "fish-like running". Using gill breathing rather than lung breathing you can increase your VO2 max by 15.3381%. Furthermore, rapid dorsal fin & lateral fin like hand motions greatly increase your leg speed (7.31113%).
Second, perhaps due to the sharp window to the world offered by my morning cup of Yuanmei Eel Milk, when the Annometer nearly pinned off-scale 15 min into the 2nd tempo, I channeled Lou Gossett Jr. from An Officer and a Gentleman: "Girl can you handle it" "Girl I gots you papers, just sign 'em and quit" "You just a wash-out Zero". And it was all great fun.
Just a long swim tomorrow, then a BIG(ish) day Friday, yeah!!!!!!!
PO,
boB
ps: I think we have found the secret "Easer Egg" in the design of the Shimano tri-shoe strap. Anybody besides me using 'em? We finally figured out how to keep them from rubbing on the crank.
ppss: slime tubes: put some WD-40 on the values and the slime won't make the value stick shut. Thanks for that one Paul!
pppsss: don't care what they say, I loved Thor's effort today! And Lance's.
p^4s^4: George Hincappe has a badly bruised collar bone from a fall today and has to ride the ITT with it, everyone send him some love, OK?
Warning: seriously ugly picture in this report, continue at your own peril.
Initial product report: Crocs pRepairs
There is a new ugly for the harrrrdddccorreee trainerw among us, which for this humble blog is most of us, eh? I just got as a (it about time its been 2 weeks now) birthday present the last pair of Croc pRepairs at the local Sportcheck. Croc claims they:
- Enhances recovery after athletic activity.
- Reduces peak pressure by up to 50%*.
- Reduces peak muscular effort by up to 24.6%*.
- Lower
muscle exertions can provide an improved opportunity for blood flow and
fatigue relief, creating greater recovery potential. - Promotes a natural motion of the foot.
- Anti-bacterial/anti-fungal/odor-resistant Croslite Ag™ footbeds.
- Footbed conforms creating a custom fit.
Now I know there are readers of the fair sex who may have to take time to get their cool back, its OK, I could easily be a shin model. So get yourself a pair of pRepairs from wherever near you sells ugly shoes.
I sit here in my rockin' sox and Crocs attempting to heal my legs, which participated in a breakthrough run today. Getting a little run mojo back as AO and I did 2 of our best quality tempo runs of the season. I measure my run using an Annometer as opposed to a heart monitor or GPS watch. The Annometer is simple and accurate: you simply get it up in the morning, give it some coffee and its volume/frequency of complaining about the pace increases linearly with effort, so by the time one gets into "the Red Zone" the Annometer slows down and just starts cussin' at you.
It didn't help poor AO that 2 factors conspired against her today. First, due to my commitment to the success of http://www.yuanmei.com and its many great fish and plastic products (track #FishTime on twitter) I greatly increased the pace by developing a new running style I call "Way of the Carp", or "fish-like running". Using gill breathing rather than lung breathing you can increase your VO2 max by 15.3381%. Furthermore, rapid dorsal fin & lateral fin like hand motions greatly increase your leg speed (7.31113%).
Second, perhaps due to the sharp window to the world offered by my morning cup of Yuanmei Eel Milk, when the Annometer nearly pinned off-scale 15 min into the 2nd tempo, I channeled Lou Gossett Jr. from An Officer and a Gentleman: "Girl can you handle it" "Girl I gots you papers, just sign 'em and quit" "You just a wash-out Zero". And it was all great fun.
Just a long swim tomorrow, then a BIG(ish) day Friday, yeah!!!!!!!
PO,
boB
ps: I think we have found the secret "Easer Egg" in the design of the Shimano tri-shoe strap. Anybody besides me using 'em? We finally figured out how to keep them from rubbing on the crank.
ppss: slime tubes: put some WD-40 on the values and the slime won't make the value stick shut. Thanks for that one Paul!
pppsss: don't care what they say, I loved Thor's effort today! And Lance's.
p^4s^4: George Hincappe has a badly bruised collar bone from a fall today and has to ride the ITT with it, everyone send him some love, OK?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Getting Sibo-nized: Part 2
Getting Sibo-nized: Part 2
Sunday Sibo came by for Round 2 of the fit session. The main goal was to change my cleats (I switching pedals) that had the proper angles to accommodate my knee angles, and more important, stay in place, part of the lessons learn from said knee issues. While at this Sibo noticed some issues with my saddle. I was using the popular Profile Tristrkye saddle, which is know for it mega-padding on the nose end, as well as a copious cutout in the middle of the saddle (e.g. your boys will love me 100 km into Ironman). The padding makes it quite comfortable, but it appeared that this saddle was too wide for me, binding my legs. Previously I had used a Fizik Arione saddle (road version). We decided it would be more comfortable and functional to change back, which we did along with all the associated twiddling to get the angle right. First ride today was quite positive.
We also nailed things on my "road" bike (OK, its really a X-bike), which I look forward to trying this weekend. Changed up the saddle (as the Arione was on the road bike) and Sibo scored again, noticing that the seatpost I was using was catching on my legs, so we swapped that out as well. I also pulled my shortie aero bars off to pass them on to Cass, he has earned them racing this year. He did his tris down on the old Skool.
So why am I telling you this? Cause on my venerable Tristrkye I had mounted the last bits of a Xlabs bottle launcher (gave up rear bottle carriers) to which I attached a pump, CO2 cartridge, and bag with tube, patches, tire irons, etc. And that's where all the stuff stayed, mounted to my Tristrkye. As I went out with AO for a pre-dawn (by a few minutes) morning ride. I should have sensed something was up, like when I had the pot all set to go (without the top on, almost a flood). Or when we rolled out of town past about 10 OPP and City police cars (traffic blitz?; more on that later). We got about 2 hr into the ride when after crossing some tracks AO noticed her rear tire was flat. Now AO has a history of not sweating the details of such things as extra tubes, she rides with a big smile and a cell phone. And why should she when she rides with one of those clueless sorts who buys a $10,000 ultra lite bike and puts 10 lb of emergency equipment on it?
Usually.
AO flatted I pulled up and she said I need: patch, pump, irons, slave labor, you wouldn't want little old me to fix that would ya' (just kidding she wouldn't give me the pleasure and in her defense she did NOT hold her hand up and demand my wheel as a neutral tire change). We both looked in horror at the back of my saddle, which was naked as a jay bird. Freak! The one time I leave the stuff home and you guessed it. Tone was in the middle of morning driving duty, but Pat kindly did sag-wagon duty. Gentleman I am, as soon as my heart rate dropped into Zone 1 I said good luck to Ann and got another 1:16 of riding (as well as peace and quiet, AO is a real chatterbox in the morning after 3.14159 oz of coffee, the other 2*3.14159 oz she has after riding).1
Oh yeah, so coming back into town more police cars, the Forensic unit, police RV, etc. Still haven't heard what is up, but sounds bad.
My God I'll be up to 10 at this rate and those 6am running intervals are going to hurt. And you are going to have to wait until tomorrow to see my "no radios" socks and Prepair's TOGETHER in color.
boB
(BTW: RT @yuwanmei: A stream cannot run uphill, nor customers from our exceptional products or services! http://bit.ly/buyfishtime #FishTime, I am angling in for a franchise for rights to ALL eel products sold in southern Ontario. Invest now, America can not resist these good things.)
Sunday Sibo came by for Round 2 of the fit session. The main goal was to change my cleats (I switching pedals) that had the proper angles to accommodate my knee angles, and more important, stay in place, part of the lessons learn from said knee issues. While at this Sibo noticed some issues with my saddle. I was using the popular Profile Tristrkye saddle, which is know for it mega-padding on the nose end, as well as a copious cutout in the middle of the saddle (e.g. your boys will love me 100 km into Ironman). The padding makes it quite comfortable, but it appeared that this saddle was too wide for me, binding my legs. Previously I had used a Fizik Arione saddle (road version). We decided it would be more comfortable and functional to change back, which we did along with all the associated twiddling to get the angle right. First ride today was quite positive.
We also nailed things on my "road" bike (OK, its really a X-bike), which I look forward to trying this weekend. Changed up the saddle (as the Arione was on the road bike) and Sibo scored again, noticing that the seatpost I was using was catching on my legs, so we swapped that out as well. I also pulled my shortie aero bars off to pass them on to Cass, he has earned them racing this year. He did his tris down on the old Skool.
So why am I telling you this? Cause on my venerable Tristrkye I had mounted the last bits of a Xlabs bottle launcher (gave up rear bottle carriers) to which I attached a pump, CO2 cartridge, and bag with tube, patches, tire irons, etc. And that's where all the stuff stayed, mounted to my Tristrkye. As I went out with AO for a pre-dawn (by a few minutes) morning ride. I should have sensed something was up, like when I had the pot all set to go (without the top on, almost a flood). Or when we rolled out of town past about 10 OPP and City police cars (traffic blitz?; more on that later). We got about 2 hr into the ride when after crossing some tracks AO noticed her rear tire was flat. Now AO has a history of not sweating the details of such things as extra tubes, she rides with a big smile and a cell phone. And why should she when she rides with one of those clueless sorts who buys a $10,000 ultra lite bike and puts 10 lb of emergency equipment on it?
Usually.
AO flatted I pulled up and she said I need: patch, pump, irons, slave labor, you wouldn't want little old me to fix that would ya' (just kidding she wouldn't give me the pleasure and in her defense she did NOT hold her hand up and demand my wheel as a neutral tire change). We both looked in horror at the back of my saddle, which was naked as a jay bird. Freak! The one time I leave the stuff home and you guessed it. Tone was in the middle of morning driving duty, but Pat kindly did sag-wagon duty. Gentleman I am, as soon as my heart rate dropped into Zone 1 I said good luck to Ann and got another 1:16 of riding (as well as peace and quiet, AO is a real chatterbox in the morning after 3.14159 oz of coffee, the other 2*3.14159 oz she has after riding).1
Oh yeah, so coming back into town more police cars, the Forensic unit, police RV, etc. Still haven't heard what is up, but sounds bad.
My God I'll be up to 10 at this rate and those 6am running intervals are going to hurt. And you are going to have to wait until tomorrow to see my "no radios" socks and Prepair's TOGETHER in color.
boB
(BTW: RT @yuwanmei: A stream cannot run uphill, nor customers from our exceptional products or services! http://bit.ly/buyfishtime #FishTime, I am angling in for a franchise for rights to ALL eel products sold in southern Ontario. Invest now, America can not resist these good things.)
Monday, July 20, 2009
How Can I Miss You if You Won't Go Away?
"How can I miss you if you won't go away"
Yup that famous country song that never got wrote by my long-ago office mate & friend Rod in AK. It probably had some more lyrics, but the part that was going to make him rich, the hook, was undeniable in its C&W essence.
So you've missed me, haven't you? I've missed me & you too, but I didn't really take a vacation from myself. I have been putting all my efforts into healing (see my ancient posts from way back), doing everything put sitting under a pyramid with dangling magnets (on back order, damn thing still hasn't made it here). And I am going to tempt fate and call myself "healed", or at least healed enough to know I can take some down time and get to the line at IMC without having to buy a size larger wetsuit. Here's a graph of the last couple weeks.
So I'm getting there, have a couple long rides and runs under my belt and my swimming, after a several week slump, is on the rebound. My bike ain't too bad (I mean it could get worse? How?) and I'm loving the Q-rings, will be definitely putting them on my road bike as well. Got cocky and rode my fixie back and forth to campus 2x today, damn I missed riding that bike more than everything during my "set back" as Coach Sheri calls it. Will do a post on that machine soon, she's a beauty. Can't sugar coat it though: my running sucks and I hope I get the flab down and some leg speed back. I've (or more accurately my knee's agent and road manager, AO has) held back from racing, so we will see what is what on August 1 at the Steelhead 70.3 in Benton Harbor, MI.
I have a REAL hard time writing at all, before email it was hell to get a line in the mail from me, as I hate actual writing (e.g. penmanship) and would consider taking up typing as a competitive sport if there was a club in my area (and it allowed Italian/Irish, you know how these snooty clubs are). So typing helps. Digression: when I was in Grade 5 they made me go to this special room in the grade school where I had to practice cursive writing with this brace that held my hand in this awkward position so I wouldn't, as lefties are prone to do, smudge things. It was the system that made me the burden to society (and Pat) I am today.
But the other thing that has helped get me going is getting in the Twitter loop. Unlike Fbook, which frankly I don't enjoy, I find Twitter a hoot. I originally peed all over the idea of ų-blogging but after actually blogging for awhile I started to grasp it. And unlike the staid Fbook, Twitter is completely unstable and volatile, we're talking Morey Amsterdam on steroids. I mean as I write this the most wonderful news source The Onion is claiming it has been sold to a Chinese fish parts consortium who are now using it for propaganda and fish part ads (for instance the current op-ed pieces are "Know Any Good State Secrets" and "American Children Like Me Are Lazy and Insolent and Must Try Harder" (hey, come to think of it there were 2 Chinese girls in my lane today and they were taking notes)). And the passion of my year, the Tour de France is fantastic with all the updates and insights (many from the riders themselves).
Try it gentle reader and if is too much at first let me know and I can walk you through the model, which is a bit unusual for non-computer types at first. And of course, don't forget to check out http://twitter.com/bobsica. You can even see what I ate before swimming today, the joke being I saw that Lance Armstrong had almost an identical meal before a stage last week, and he posted a similar picture.
Tomorrow I hope to write about the awesome fit session II with Sibo yesterday, we did some more tweaking on my bike position and even a saddle change, I'm planning to give it a hard test ride with AO in the pre-dawn wasteland she calls mid-day.
Fact: I got back to writing quicker than NASA got back to the Moon (BTW Google Earth now has Google Moon integrated, way cool; if you don't have Google Earth why Santa Claus, why?).
PO,
boB
Yup that famous country song that never got wrote by my long-ago office mate & friend Rod in AK. It probably had some more lyrics, but the part that was going to make him rich, the hook, was undeniable in its C&W essence.
So you've missed me, haven't you? I've missed me & you too, but I didn't really take a vacation from myself. I have been putting all my efforts into healing (see my ancient posts from way back), doing everything put sitting under a pyramid with dangling magnets (on back order, damn thing still hasn't made it here). And I am going to tempt fate and call myself "healed", or at least healed enough to know I can take some down time and get to the line at IMC without having to buy a size larger wetsuit. Here's a graph of the last couple weeks.
So I'm getting there, have a couple long rides and runs under my belt and my swimming, after a several week slump, is on the rebound. My bike ain't too bad (I mean it could get worse? How?) and I'm loving the Q-rings, will be definitely putting them on my road bike as well. Got cocky and rode my fixie back and forth to campus 2x today, damn I missed riding that bike more than everything during my "set back" as Coach Sheri calls it. Will do a post on that machine soon, she's a beauty. Can't sugar coat it though: my running sucks and I hope I get the flab down and some leg speed back. I've (or more accurately my knee's agent and road manager, AO has) held back from racing, so we will see what is what on August 1 at the Steelhead 70.3 in Benton Harbor, MI.
I have a REAL hard time writing at all, before email it was hell to get a line in the mail from me, as I hate actual writing (e.g. penmanship) and would consider taking up typing as a competitive sport if there was a club in my area (and it allowed Italian/Irish, you know how these snooty clubs are). So typing helps. Digression: when I was in Grade 5 they made me go to this special room in the grade school where I had to practice cursive writing with this brace that held my hand in this awkward position so I wouldn't, as lefties are prone to do, smudge things. It was the system that made me the burden to society (and Pat) I am today.
But the other thing that has helped get me going is getting in the Twitter loop. Unlike Fbook, which frankly I don't enjoy, I find Twitter a hoot. I originally peed all over the idea of ų-blogging but after actually blogging for awhile I started to grasp it. And unlike the staid Fbook, Twitter is completely unstable and volatile, we're talking Morey Amsterdam on steroids. I mean as I write this the most wonderful news source The Onion is claiming it has been sold to a Chinese fish parts consortium who are now using it for propaganda and fish part ads (for instance the current op-ed pieces are "Know Any Good State Secrets" and "American Children Like Me Are Lazy and Insolent and Must Try Harder" (hey, come to think of it there were 2 Chinese girls in my lane today and they were taking notes)). And the passion of my year, the Tour de France is fantastic with all the updates and insights (many from the riders themselves).
Try it gentle reader and if is too much at first let me know and I can walk you through the model, which is a bit unusual for non-computer types at first. And of course, don't forget to check out http://twitter.com/bobsica. You can even see what I ate before swimming today, the joke being I saw that Lance Armstrong had almost an identical meal before a stage last week, and he posted a similar picture.
Tomorrow I hope to write about the awesome fit session II with Sibo yesterday, we did some more tweaking on my bike position and even a saddle change, I'm planning to give it a hard test ride with AO in the pre-dawn wasteland she calls mid-day.
Fact: I got back to writing quicker than NASA got back to the Moon (BTW Google Earth now has Google Moon integrated, way cool; if you don't have Google Earth why Santa Claus, why?).
PO,
boB
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