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

libros

in an effort to stray from my repetitive entries about bikes and vacations, i have decided to contribute some intellect into today's entry. read on and enjoy my own personal book club (look out oprah)...

i am currently plowing through the plot against america by philip roth. in a unique twist of historical fact, roth combines fiction and truth in the era of hitler, charles lindbergh (famous aviator), and fdr. it revolves around the lives of a middle class jewish family in new jersey and how their lives (and the world) dramatically change when lindbergh beats roosevelt in his running for a 3rd term. factually, lindbergh was a strong anti-semite and supporter of germany during the world wars. you can probably get the idea of the direction it heads. roth does a great job in capturing the reader's attention with "what could have been" had the axis powers won world war 2 and anti-semitism spread throughout the world to the extent that it existed in germany at the time. i have about a third of the book left and am excited to see how it finishes. (note: the back of the book has dates and descriptions of factual events in history so the reader can cross-reference fictional events with those that actually happened in the late 1930s and early 1940s)

a must read for those further interested in historical fiction novels, is the devil in the white city by erik larson. one of the best books i have ever read. long and short - during the 1983 world's fair in chicago, the city struggled to pull off a fair to rival that of france's several short years earlier (insert eiffel tower). during the explosion of human traffic and business entrepreneurism, a shockingly intelligent and suave serial killer was running rampant in the city and one of the world's most brilliang architects pushed for the success of the fair with all of his being. an award winning book and an intriguing blend of genius and insane obsession.

for a lighter book about the drive of the human spirit, pick up between a rock and a hard place by aron ralston. a local pittsburgh student (carnegie mellon), he got his arm pinched between a boulder and a rock wall while hiking/climbing alone in utah. while you can debate the level of his intelligence for hiking alone and not telling anybody where he was, or even the basic human instinct to have severed his own arm to free himself(6 days later), his story is amazing. i, personally, disagree with those who categorize him as an idiot who did something (cutting his own arm off with a dull 3 inch folding knife) that anybody else would have done in the same situation. while i am not willing to put him on a pedestal for surviving a situation he could have avoided getting himself into, his story is nonetheless interesting. easy read, crazy dude, good story.

on deck after i finish tpaa, thunderstruck by erik larson and the known world by edward p. jones.

other recommended reads for different tastes:

• john adams by david mccollough
• team of rivals by doris kearns goodwin (i have yet to read)
• maverick's by matt warshaw (my cousin)

do yourself a favor, read something other than cyclingnews.com

no no drama...

modus operandi

to kick some tail this season. today was not as light as i had imagined. 10 mins spinning. 10 minutes strething. 25 mins on the treadmill. and another 15 mins of stretching. looks like i may be training through my recovery week after all. whoops.

on a completely different note, how big of an idiot is dick pound, world anti-doping agency chief? i can understand the foundation of his hatred for all things doping, but this guy needs to take a proverbial chill pill. he is flying off the handle to anyone and everyone within shouting distance. there is a line between confidence in your convictions, and being a prick by lashing out and saying whatever you damn well please. you can't be the chief of an agency in charge of protecting professional cyslists with one hand, and discredit any and all of their achievements with the other. you've gotta pick one side buddy, and it seems pretty clear that you have zero interest in the rights of professional athletes, the philosophy of innocent until proven guilty, and the successful continuance of the sport of cycling. i don't understand why everybody in the cycling world isn't calling for his head on a silver platter.

true, you need to have a guy with brass stones running a worldwide anti-doping agency. someone who isn't afraid to be vocal about cheaters in all sport.

but does he need to be such a loon canuk who slashes success in any way possible? what serious authority does he even have other than a big mouth?

here is a thought, if the frogs over at the Laboratoire National Depistage de Dopage werent so distracted with cheering on their doping king of the mountains chamion, richard virenque, they could have invested some time and money into legitimate employees, scientific controls, and scientists. that way, they could bank on the integrity of their testing in nabbing the serious doping offenders and establishing progressive testing procedures.

wouldn't it be great if it came to light that he was juicing his brains out when swimming for the mounties at the olympics in '60?

that would be fruitfully ironic.

coach, would you agree that its a little warm in here for a mock turtleneck?

yesterday was a pretty eventful afternoon and today was somewhat of a milestone as well.

after ordering team uniforms yesterday over at fred's house on saturday, i went out on a ride in the cold and rain with marshal (junior phenom) and kris (190 lbs of diesel engine). both were dressed accordingly for a 40degree weather ride in the wet (full finger gloves, booties, tights, jerseys, arm warmers, rain jackets, and wind jackets) and i, of course, was dressed like a euro-trash cat 6 straight from the hills of toscana. smartwool socks, knee warmers, sleeveless base layer, ss jersey, arm warmers, and cap (helmet was unintentionally forgotten, i swear). surprisingly, i warmed up just fine after about 10 minutes. in the end, we braved the elements for about 2 hours. marshal was like a gd cricket and could accelerate like nobody's business up the climbs (it didnt hurt that he weighs 130 lbs). kris was a little sore from his 45 mins tempo that morning. i was rather sore from my 3 mile run on friday. after about 45 mins, i started to feel pretty good and got to work on the front. it was an awesome rush, one of those feelings like you have a v12 engine in your legs. it was super easy to find the perfect cadence to match a brisk speed. by the end of the ride we were all toast.

last night i had decided to ride from my apartment in shadyside to north park (approx 1.5-2 hrs) to meet with kris, andy g, and mark for a 2-3 hr ride then ride home. it was taking longer than expected to make it to north park this morning at 150 bmp, and when andy g called my phone to ask where the hell i was, i said "im 20 mins away, ill book it there to meet you guys". for the next 20 mins i was cookin it at a steady 175-180 bpm. all told it took me a couple hours to get out there. we headed out on an epic loop of about 2 hours, at the end of which i was feeling quite knackered. i ate a pb&j sandwich, two gels, and an energy bar to prepare for my trek back to shadyside. andy showed me a dainty little loop back to etna so i could avoid heavy traffic and a couple gnarly climbs. but of course, there was nothing i could do to avoid brown's hill - think avg gradient of about 15-20% for a solid 8 minutes - with my 11-23, i was not a happy camper. but the cassette is putting some proverbial hair on the stones. after getting over that beast, it was a quick descent down squaw run rd into fox chappel, over the highland park bridge, through the zoo, and i was home. all told i did 5.5 hrs averaging somewhere between 145 and 155 bpm (i wasn't very good with stopping and starting my hrm). my best estimate is that i did somewhere between 90 and 100 miles. about 50 or 60 of which was on my own. the longest i have ridden in a single outing, EVER! i think i am just the most stoked about my general determination to get a ride like that under my own devices. if you know me, you will understand how big of a deal that is. typically it usually takes somebody else sticking to their guns and instigating a ride like that for me to participate. for me to ride like that, and ride as consistently as i have been for the past few months, is awesome and a staunch reminder of my goals for the upcoming season.

this is looking to be a recovery week. especially since i doubled my weekly mileage in one day today. lots of easy and spinning and stretching/pilates in the next couple days. let the leg repair begin.

remember kids...

foosbah

back to blogging. i have no idea why this wasn't letting me post stuff from before, so i gave up on it. who would have thought that taunting your computer with lude insults actually works - and i am back to writing.

took an 8 day trip down to norfolk for christmas and the week ensuing, then i drove up to philly on friday for new years with erin. we spontaneously went out to manayunk around 8:30pm new years eve, no traffic, no cover, $2 drink specials. best new years to date if you ask me. earlier that day we went out for the greasiest and most delicious cheese steak, the original pat's cheese steak. it was such a refreshing feeling to spend time with my family and erin, a nice respite from the rat race in my cube.

after maxing out for the past month at 7 hours of riding a week (its challenging when you wake up to go to work at 6:30am and get back from work at 6pm), it was fantastic to get 15 hours in the week i was home. and the days are finally starting to get longer, which means that soon i will be able to ride outside after work. woohoo! in the meantime, i will dilligently continue with my rediculously high cadence drills on the stationary bike at the gym after work. at least, during the week. this weekend i am stoked to go on a group ride with my Net App-Viner presented by Kinetic-Koffee Cycling Team buddies. mostly made up of strong cat 3s (for now), we are all hoping to make some huge strides this spring and summer. the goal is to get cat 2 by the end of the year. the means to that end will involve lots of races, lots of training, and some serious placings. a little teamwork, a little luck, and a lotta courage are all i need.

a few races in lancaster, a few rockin rr's in pittsburgh, ohio, and va, maybe one in kentucky, and ballin a couple ms150's should get me in good shape for the tour de toona in july.

my computer isnt cooperating very well, probably because i am downloading a bunch of video podcasts for the vid ipod. i will take that as my sign to split.

using that quick goat thinking...