Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Tundra Time Trial

First results of the season are in and while they aren't quite as good as I had hoped for they aren't too bad either. I went up to Powder Springs to ride the first time trial of the year, The Boneshakers Tundra Time Trial. Last year this event only drew about 70 people and was a relatively low key event. This year, over 160 showed up with several teams, including mine, bringing big contingents. I had hoped to ride a really strong first outing and contend for the overall places (yes, I know, I would have had to beat the Cat II guys but it was possible) but it wasn't quite to be. Saturday before the race I hurt my back. This led to having to take massive quantities of ibprofen to get my back to loosen up and also it kept me from eating as much as I should have going into the ride. On top of that, I didn't do my planningright and got to the course late. This only left me with a twenty minute warm-up. Usually I do double that with a 15 minute cool down and hydration. This second problem would prove to be a bigger issue. I got up to the starthouse with about one minute before my start so I just rolled up, shook hands with the officials and had to be ready to go. When I went off I got a reasonable start but quickly realized that my cardiovascular system wasn't ready for the effort I wanted to expend. The whole way out I could only get my heartrate up to about 168 without wanting to puke. Still though I gutted it out and told myself to hang in there. I caught my one and two minute men on the way out and thought that maybe I'd do OK. I had to ease up going through the turnaround and when I sprinted out of it I had a bunch more power. I guess easing up gave my body a chance to reset for a higher level. If only ihad had time for a longer warm-up with a couple of harder intervals. On the way back I felt, getting the ticker up to 178 and having one of the better second half splits of the day. I finished the ten miles in 22:53.6 which was a pretty good time but I knew I could have done better. I managed to finish second in Cat 4, 46 seconds down on the winner. I can't help but think that with a better warm up and fewer blood thinners I would have managed a first place finish. Still though, for a first race and given the problems I have to think it was a great start to the season and gives me a lot of hope that I can contend for the State TT Championship and go to Nationals. As a fitness check, I beat my time from the previous year by nearly two minutes or 10% which is a huge improvement over one year. While some of this improvement comes from riding Slingblade instead of The Steed I can take encouragement from my state of fitness at this point compared to last year.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Time to Go

Recently I read an article by Frank DeFord at CNN/SI stating that colleges should let underclassmen who choose to enter the professional ranks and don't do so well return to their collegiate careers so that they may mature and grow further before returning to the professional ranks. While I respect Mr. DeFord very much, I have to say that the article misses the mark. It's a bit like a couple trying to decide whether to install a doggie door while the house is on fire.

The house that is big money intercollegiate athletics is on fire and there's no putting it out. From the rape scandal at UC-Boulder (a university that should be known for it's Nobel Prize winning work in physics rather than it's football program felonies) to Auburn being put on probation due to the athletically minded booster who thinks he should run the show to murder and gambling and academic fraud and a host of other issues, collegiate athletics is a huge problem in today's higher education landscape.

I'm a recently athletic person and I do truly understand the value of intercollegiate athletics. There are skills taught on the playing field that are much harder to teach in the classroom. I take a student on a bike ride and make him or her suffer they get a very clear understanding of the work required to excel. I make them suffer on a test and they just get mad. Nevertheless, the costs of such programs must be weighed against the academic benefits of the program. In professional sports the equation used to calculate these things is very different because of the entertainment variable. In colleges and universities the completely overriding consideration is the improvement of the human being and it is my belief that intercollegiate athletics, at least in the big money areas of football and basketball and, to lesser extents, baseball and hockey, has begun to impede and impair that pursuit too often.

I believe that intercollegiate sports should stay amateur but that the big sports should be banned completely. Schools should be recruiting students who might compete in a sport rather than athletes who have to be made to go to class. Big money sports should develop minor league systems like baseball and hockey have. The money's there to do so if the will is there to spend it. However, as long as universities continue to shore up the system, the system will continue and there's lots of incentive for universities to do so. Nevertheless, it's time for the football and basketball to go pro all the way and all the time. Let intercollegiate athletics focus on track and field and swimming and cycling and soccer and all the rest.

Here's one chilling statistic one former college athlete shared with me. Of all Division IA athletes involved in a big four sport, fully 50% will eventually serve time for a felony in a penal institution. More and more often lately, those athletes are choosing to commit those crimes on college campuses where they are students. More and more often, young people who are not interested or involved in collegiate athletics are being effected and damaged (ask the students of Auburn University if being put on accreditation probation effects them). Let's remove the problem before someone decides to file the inevitable class-action lawsuit against the NCAA or the NJCAA.

Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Off to the Races

Race season starts in 5 days up on the Silver Comet Trail. While not a real important race in terms of my goals, it will be a very important fitness marker for me. Since it's a 10 mile race against the clock I'll get a sense of what I can do going full out for around 23 minutes. That will let me know if all the base miles have paid off or if I overdid it or if I didn't get into more intensity soon enough. I put in 3300 miles of base work between December and now so I'm pretty sure that I have done well more than the minimum. Following the Tundra Time Trial I'll start the first race in the Greenville Race series up in South Carolina and then the GAP season starts. I'm really happy with my fitness for the MTB races but I'm concerned about the lack of skills training I've been able to get in. With all the rain over the last several weeks, all the trails have been closed or way too sloppy to ride real aggressively on. The forecast has things clearing up over the second half of the week so maybe I can get out to Dauset and do some strong riding.

I've moved out of Base training now into my first build cycle. This is where the training gets real intense. Yesterday I went and did an hour of Hog Mountain intervals. Hog Mountain isn't really much of a mountain but it is the biggest hill in these parts and has three good climbs. I did the shortest/easiest route yesterday which consisted of the four mile loop. This loop has a good long 1.25 mile 6% climb and a short quarter mile climb on the back side of the loop that is about 8-9%. I like the loop because I get to work on short, steep attack climbing and then after some recovery time I get to do a good long climb followed by a fast, somewhat technical descent. Five loops of that and my legs felt a little crispy. I was able to get the ol' ticker to zip along at around 188 bpm which is about 95% of max for an old guy like me. After that, I cruised back home and spun out on the rollers for another hour to see if I could clean out the lactic acid. It was a good 2.5 hour ride and it was nice to finally go really hard again. On the other hand, about an hour after I got off the bike my legs felt like lead and this morning things were still a bit sore. I guess I still need to train the recovery systems some.

On a related note, Tour de France winner Marco Pantani was found dead in a hotel room a couple of days ago. Initial evidence points to suicide though it will a while before we know for sure. He was 34, three years younger than me. He had been to the pinnicle of the sport but had fallen far for a variety of reasons and had fallen into depression. For me it is a reminder that there is a lot more to life than pedaling a bike around the countryside in search of glory. While I spend a lot of time riding, there are a lot more important things than winning and while I love the road, I love coming home even more.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Thursday, February 12, 2004

Notes from the Field

Grammys

Well, were I to be realistic and well-balanced I would take this opportunity to point out that the FCC's threat of financial violence seems to have averted a continuation of the silliness that have marred the last couple of celebrity shin-digs. However, I am neither realistic or well balanced (except when going faster than 15 mph on my road bike) so I am trumpeting the overwhelming success of my "Boycott the Grammys" campaign. Out of fear of further reprisals from this writer, the Hollywood music industry but the brakes on all outrageous, publicity seeking behavior by its artist lackeys. Viewer numbers were still low for the show and Timberlake even grovelled a bit. All and all, a successful campaign. Rumors have it that I may receive a phone call from Howard "Yyeeaarrrggghhh!" Dean on how to revitalize his Presidential campaign. If you have any tidbits of advice I should offer him, comment below.

Spinblade

My new Cervelo P3 is now in my hands. From the initial tests I think that it is safe to say that it will be a bad year to be my competitor in a time trial. I was fast before. I'm at least 5-7% faster now. The downside is that I can't use the bike for recovery rides. I did that two days ago and the bike goaded me to ride faster. It begged me to fly. With a bike this beautiful, how could I say no? So much for under 70% riding. Ten days from now I'll race it in the 2nd Annual Boneshakers Tundra TIme Trial.

Garage Band

Wow, what a piece of software. This is the iPod of making music. Apple got it right again. I can't play anything more complicated than a stereo and I'm having a blast with this program just making little ditties out of loops. I already want more. More loops, more time, a USB keyboard, a faster, more powerful Mac (my iBook is a little long in the tooth), the works. If the iTunes music store is like crack, this program is musical crank. It's all totally inspiring. If you're a musician, you have to have this software. If you're a musician without a Mac you need to get a Mac and this software. Don't be bashful with the spendage either, you will really want to splurge. Definitely max out the processing power and the memory. Get yourself a USB or Midi keyboard and make lots and lots of really good music. Who needs expensive recording studios and all the rest? Get this stuff, polish your chops, get a web site and show off your skills. This may be the best thing to ever happen to music...at least until Apple thinks up some other unbelievably cool app. This is even cooler than iMovie/Final Cut Express for digitial movie making.

The Physicist   Link Me    |

Monday, February 02, 2004

Lights Out

For those who are unaware of the actions of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake at the end of last night's Super Bowl halftime show, you will likely need to update yourselves on the topic before the material in theis blog makes sense. For the rest of you, read on.

In a previous entry into this web log I noted what I veiwed as a trend in popular media culture to grab the spotlight in any way possible to continue one's fame and notoriety. I mentioned the idea as put forth in the film Chicago and displayed by Michael Jackson in his now infamous interviews. Following that blog was "the kiss" at the MTV Music Awards between Madonna and Brittney Spears. This was an obvious and somewhat offensive attempt to grab the spotlight by an old veteran of the tactic and her alcolyte. What happened last night was the next step in the progression. What Timberlake and Janet Jackson did was inexcusable in my mind but totally consistent with the idea of grabbing the media spotlight in any way possible.

Both "artists", MTV, CBS, Viacom and the NFL deny something or oanother about the incident. The artists claim that the action was uninentional or a wardrobe malfunction. Yet, Timberlake was singing "I'm going to get you naked before this song is over." If there was an equipment malfunction I expect that it was that only one breast was exposed and not her entire torso. MTV (who produced the halftime show and, obviously, the MTV Music Awards) claims to not have known that the incident was going to take place (thereby implicating the artists' intnetional action) but earlier promised "shocking moments" during the show. CBS says that it had no idea what fellow Viacom company MTV was going to do (again implicating the "lower" party) but Matt Drudge reports that a highly placed source inside the network claims that the network's executives green lighted the entire deal days before the actual event. As for the NFL, it claims shock and disgust and says MTV will not produce another halftime show (my question is, given what they've produced in the past, was this any huge surprise? Maybe the NFL will get "Girls Gone Wild" to produce their next show). With the exception of the NFL, each level up on the food chain blames the action on the critters below it.

So, what to do? Hand-wringing isn't going to do much. The FCC is going to investigate but I doubt they'll get too far. If they do I hope they fine CBS $1 for every viewer subjected to the show nationwide. That'll get "TV's Most Watched Network" in proportion to their sin. However, it won't stop the artists from seeking publicity. An indecent exposure charge from the City of Houston on Timberlake and Jackson would be nice too, though a little fine and some possible jail time won't do much to curb the publicity seekers. Besides, the whole thing stinks to me of hoping someone else will do the work for me and those who agree with me. The obvious solution is to hit the offenders financially. Don't buy records from Jackson, Timberlake, their record companies, etc and don't tune into MTV. This, however, won't send a signal in an immediate enough way in my mind. So, I'm calling for a boycott of the Grammy Awards ceremony on CBS. All of the big spotlight seekers will be there, Brittney, Madonna, Christina, etc. Let's tune them out and turn off the spotlight. I'm asking everyone who reads this not only to boycott the Grammy Awards but also urge others to do the same from their blogs and websites.

This isn't about issues of Christian morality, though I have pretty strong feelings about that too. This is about being manipulated. It's about a huge media conglomerate believing that the people of this world will buy that a woman's main value is in her actions as a sexual object. Several female artists are complaining that they are being pressured to conform to a much more strongly sexual image than they'd like. While one might say that they should be able to stand up for themselves, it's a lot easier for us all to stand together against the male neandertals who run Viacom/CBS/MTV. Let's stand up and tell them that we won't be manipulated into thinking that sex is all that's important. Turn off the spotlight!

The Physicist   Link Me    |