a shot of sunshine, please

i think that 2007 can officially be labed "the year of shitty weather". how bad has this sucked for the past 4.5 months? honestly. as someone who appears to be experiencing serious seasonal affective disorder symptoms, i am instructing the skys to part and shine a couple 70 degree days over a weekend here and there. thats all i ask.

what else has been happening you ask? well i will give you the 20 second update:

i was officially promoted to the assistant buyer in the bike department for the entire chain, which is a pretty sweet gig. we have been doing a pretty sweet job so far, getting a handle on everything and taking the department down a path we both see it heading for a successful future. he is a great 'mentor' so my transition from trainee to a.b. has been all the better.

first race of the year a few weeks ago at mingo creek. torrential rain. raced 1-2-3. stayed upright and no mechanicals. 13th out of about 35 overall. 9th out of the 3's. absolutely suffered the whole time, but am pleased that i hung in there. hoping for a better result at the next 1-2-3. apparently the washington blvd crits have already started, so maybe try some agressive racing in the A's.

popped my atlantic city and bachelor party cherries at the same time this past weekend with the groom himself, mr keller as we as jakob, adam, bk, and others. surprisingly, only wound up dropping about $175 bones on gambling while the rest went to food, beverages, and...whatever happened to all those singles i had? the wedding is this next weekend in nova and i am really excited to go with erin. no pictures in my posession, so don't bother asking.

this week started off pretty cool. i got a new pair of platinum (i kid you not) kicks. although they have a sick teal look when out in natural light...

also got a new bar and stem combo for the bike. carbon modolo curvissima and carbon/al frm stem. end result, shaved roughly 300g off my front end (.66 lbs). on top of the weight savings, the new setup is incredibly comfortable. if you ever get the chance to use smooth bend bars, i highly suggest it. i plan on never using anatomical bend bars again. potential next purchases for the bike might be black nokon housing and some chi chi racing wheels...

then to cap off my week, some college chick sideswiped me when i was driving home on thursday. of course she didn't have any of her insurance information on her, that would make too much sense. she had no idea what to even do, never having been in an accident. so i, hands shaking, instructed her on how these things typically work. and me, being an idiot, didnt call the cops. i got her plate number and phone number and stuff, and filed the claim with my insurance company hours later, but i still havent heard from her insurance company. mine has followed up and essentially got an admission of gulit from her, but i still need to hear from her insurer. long and short of the damage: scratched up entire driver side of my car, broke my front driver side light, front bumper is falling off, driver door panel strip has come off, wheel well guard is broken off, and some miscellaneous little things that have gone wront with my car since the accident. both she and i were fine as it was a low speed crash, but she acknowleged that it was her fault and she merged into me when she didnt bother to look over her shoulder before trying to change lanes into me. the pictures is pretty horrible, but i took it from inside because its raining and shitty outside. and quite frankly stephen smith, if i actually went outside to look at it, i think i would go into a fit of rage and pull a david daniel dickinson the third...

thats all i got. hopefully the next post will be closer in proximity than my last entry.

ps: good on ya stuey!!

i love lamp

and artsy/emo pictures of downtown norfolk.

this week has gone by rather quickly. it seems like the afternoons are just flying by. finish lunch, turn around and *thwap* its 4pm. im not complaining.

today was my second game in the ever-popular office raquetball tournament. i had first decided to play in the advanced league (beginner, intermediate, advanced, expert), but quickly thereafter realized that i was kidding myself. i hadnt played in many moons. and i did not want to get embarassed in a box with a glass wall by anyone and everyone who i played in a best of 3 games every week. so i lowered my standards and signed up for the intermediate level.

last week was denise from the legal dept. and she went the distance. i won the first game 15-3. the second game we went blow for blow and won 15-10 i think. i pulled a rabbit out of my ass for the last game to take her 11-8. it wasnt a very pretty performance, but much of that can be credited to denise's epic serve. putting it right in the back left corner to a dead stop. it took her a game and a half to get it going, but once she did, it was super hard to return.

this week was mark from IT. my form came around and the match was over in 2 sets. 15-8. 15-1. it was a nice confidence boost. bear in mind, before my game with denise, i hadn't picked up a racket in about 7 months. and i didnt play between her and mark. i am thinking that i will just continue playing on game day only. that way i can keep riding and not worry about the games. however, if i start playing like super garbage, i am going to need to practice more often. i have too much pride to not make it into the playoffs in office raquetball.

looks like i am going to do some time trialing with kris down at the oval on saturday morning. he wants to test out his new pinarello, and i might as well get some intense efforts in before racing. then we are heading to north park, via his car, for a 2-3 hr ride. upon completing our ride, i will cruise the 15-20 miles home back to shadyside. should make for a big mileage and time day. hopefully it will go better than past rides to/from north park! lets hear it for bonking!

quick cycling weight-loss tip: go for 1 or 2 long rides over the weekend. you can do intervals and stuff if you choose, but the pace doesnt need to be super intense. im talking 3-4 hours min. then get your grub piece on. over the course of the ensuing week ride the stationary bike or trainer daily, moderate/recovery efforts. bring down your meal portions, consuming mainly fruits, veggies, beans/lentils, and soup. make sure you hydrate yourself adequately as well (note: do not attempt this if your name begins with an A and ends with an LIEN).

dig the new buzz cut homeboy

peace be da journey

so much for escaping to a warmer climate next weekend. looks like good 'ol jmu is going to peak at a brisk 40F on saturday/sunday. oh well, at least it will be warmer than 10F with wind chill like its been up here for the past couple weekends in a row (which, by the way, has made me very upset at my decision to not purchase a new stationary trainer yet).

regardless, i have a fit session with les scheduled on friday morning and am thinking of scheduling an ear lowering at a nice little place down there as well. pull the "you still give student discounts, right?" and whip out the jac-card. workin the system baby.

sorry er, but im still bringin the viner. need to have a backup plan in case one of the days turns nice. but i promise it will be a shorter ride with the dudes. probably not more than 3 hrs. unless the gauntlet is thrown, at which point i will put my tail between my legs and crawl home.

single speed/fixie reverse courtesy of jc superstar

finished reading thunderstruck today. phenomenal book. stava review = bbbbb. also had finished plot against america a couple weeks ago. while interesting, it was sort of boring. stava review = bbb. also started up on last town on earth today and it is off to a great start. also proving to be a fairly quick read.

jasper getting mega lift up by isat

if you feel like you are pretty good at what you do and enjoy doing it, check out the puehse twins. these lil shredders were born in 1997. wish i was this good at anything when i was 10. shit, i wish i was that good at anything now.

so begins another week of work. pc loadletter? wtf?

tt

a pretty worthless result today. since my workouts are relegated to stationary bikes at work (due to it being below zero for the past 2 weeks) I decided to hop on the bike with numbers today, as opposed to my usual seatpost-saddle-bar height-combo bike.

so i get on this recumbent piece, and after warming up for 5 minutes i decided to give it some gas and do a 30 min tt. you know, see how much strength i have accumulated from my 3000+ mile base period over the past several months. i quickly came to realize a few stark factoids

1. my ability to maintain a tt effort with serious power is non-existant
2. while i have been significantly improving my pedal technique with high cadence and powering through the entire pedal stroke, that means nothing when you are pedaling from a recumbent position (it hurts a ton more)
3. the recumbent bike i was on can't calculate accurate power/speed for shit. according to it, i am strong enough to average 24mph for 30 mins at its near-highest level. thats only 4 mph faster than a co-worker who is in significantly worse shape than me.

i felt like my hr was at a decently high level and that i definitely remained outside of my comfort zone. my cadence was anywhere between 85-105rpm. so i dont really understand why i wouldn't have averaged closer to 27mph+ at least? i blame the machine. isn't it supposed to equate to riding a flat road with no wind? i guess part of it may be due to the fact that my 5 minute warmup was included in my total 30min tt. sigh.

i think that the bike and i may need to have a rematch tomorrow at lunchtime. its on like donkey kong!

i am super excited to get down to the ever-wonderful town of harrisonburg, va the weekend after this. a toasty forecast of 40degrees is certainly lifting my spirits (keep in mind that we have been between -15 and 5degrees here in pittsburgh for the past 2 weeks). im not gonna lie, i am probably going to bring my rainbows and work on my thong tan. yeah, i know what you were thinking. perv.

speaking of rainbows, i am making a solemn vow to someday move back to san clemente where we would visit gobby and check out the tide pools of del mar and have mom point out landmarks of her childhood. in my opinion, it really doesn't get much better than that.

2006 Dirty Dozen - 38% gradient Canton Ave. = gnarly

its the pain train!

i may have had a few drinks already, but tell me this wouldnt be awesome to have at work...

birthday

you may not be aware, or interested, but today is a special someone's birthday. who, you ask? jerry maren. what? you don't know jerry? maybe this will jog your memory...

jerry is one of the, very literally, few living cast members of the wizard of oz. he is 88 today. believe it or not, the movie was made in 1939! coincidentally enough, not a whole lot of people from that movie are still kickin around. if you have never seen it, shame on you. happy bday jmar. keep on keepin' on home boy.

i am still skittery about my race a couple nights ago. it was milan-san remo in italy (one of the longest and most prestigious one-day races in europe) and i was in a 2 man break with ale-jet petacchi. he was in those disgustingly heinous yellow-magnesium-soled dmt's.

using superb tactical prowess, i got on his wheel with about 1k to go and sat there for about 600m. mind-games you speedy iti-greaseball. at the 400m mark, i jumped. i knew it was far, but i figured the element of surprise as well as my ability to ride a wicked intense tempo rather than a sprint against petacchi would be my only chance to raise my arms in glory. so i jump and put the hammer down. i could hear his gears delaying a couple seconds while he tried to shift down.

after getting a quick gap on him, he gradually started to close. then he really started to pick up steam. turning myself inside out, i could feel him zooming up on my left side, surging towards the line. i threw my bike so hard that my shoulders felt like they were popping out of their sockets. the photo finish revealed what i had only imagined in my wildest dreams, no pun intended. ale-airbus came across the line inches behind my front wheel. what followed was the largest sense of exultation and joy that i had ever known. screaming at the top of my lungs, i pumped my fists in the air and celebrated like a true champion. i shook petacchi's hand and gave him a brief, manly, euro-trash hug, and was all smiles from then on.

then i woke up. and i realized what i was put on this earth to do....to inform the public about pointless birthdays of celebrities who nobody knows. and be a bike racer on the side.

ride lots.

ale-stava

lessons in pop culture

i guess i should be happy that the winter has been super mild. ive been able to get around with ease to and from work and wherever i want on the weekends. arguably, the worst weather that we have had in pgh has been this week. i can say with 96.37% confidence that it hasnt gotten above 30 degrees for about 4 days. blah.

with a perfectly timed visit however, grace and i have scorned zeus - by defying his urges for us to remain indoors and jaunting around town whenever we please. we already ran around a bit this morning, so this afternoon we are leaning towards relaxing and watching pigskin on the tele with onion dip snackage and fried rice dinner. if she is lucky, i may even throw in the flaming onion volcano - straight hibatchi style sucka. regardless, we are getting our grub-piece on.

in an incredibly exciting and unexpected turn of events, the idea is on the table for a potential move to toscana within the next ~3 years. using existing and future networking to establish a job in the industry, it is more realistic than one would initially believe. rent a small apartment, buy a cute little fiat, and zip around to miscellaneous parts of europe whenever i would wish. i guess now would be a good time to start learning italian? if this is indeed going to happen, expect to see some recipes along the lines of "101 different ways to cook top ramen" over the next couple years. more on that as it develops. in the meantime i will be doing lots of research online and clinging to the fact that living in italia for several years carries a shred of reality. maybe find some fly betty's over there to chill with...

enjoy the snow if you are getting any! i will be looking forward to warmer weather and the early spring classics. anybody else excited for their carpal tunnel to flare up again from repeatedly clicking refresh on cyclingnews.com's live race updates? hells yeah!

q: what happens when you watch real world vs. road rules whilst listening to madonna at the same time?

a: your brain explodes