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past;
wednesday lite;
superscribe.
May 29, 2010
pre-race thoughts: mt. hamilton
so i'm finally starting to get excited about racing hamilton
tomorrow. you'd think that a race that starts with a 30km climb
would be a good one for me, but the descent is probably a little
more technical than i'd like, and then the next 60km are rollers,
possibly with a head wind. fortunately, the descent is only half
the climb, so there's still a net altitude gain at the finish.
i am optimistic that i can get a good result. a lot of the riders
that placed higher than me at berkeley hills and wente are
registered, but for some (probably irrational) reason i feel like i
can do better on a longer climb than them.
whatever happens, it's probably going to be the toughest day of
racing so far this season. my overall goal is to not have fun, but
to suffer and push myself as hard as i can.
* * *
May 9, 2010
berkeley hills
Berkeley Hills Road
Race, Elite 4 (54 mi, 20.7 mph, 4,812 ft of climbing).
forboding clouds and a light rain greeted our rollout, but it
stopped by the time we made the turn onto castro ranch road. i was
relieved as i'd lost one of my arm warmers doing laundry, and was a
little underdressed. with the cold weather and occasional rain, and
alternating climbs and descents, my legs were not feeling their
best.
no notable attacks or breaks for the first two laps; i was gapped a
bit on the big descent but caught back up both laps. i'd estimate
about 25 made it to mama bear
on the last lap, but i imagine we droppd a few the final time up.
i'd been sitting at the back the whole race, but headed to the front
for that climb, then trailed off for the final descent. this was a
little more tense as people were trying to get in good position for
the final climb.
a whole athlete rider attacked, and as we began papa bear
a group of six were chasing him. i picked up a few positions, but
couldn't quite catch them, and ended up 8th, which i am more than
happy with.
next up is mt hamilton classic at the end of the month, unless i get
tricked into doing panoche as well.
* * *
May 8, 2010
berkeley hills RR preview
berkeley hills road race is tomorrow. took it easy on the training
this week: two rides, two spin classes, so i should be fairly rested
(as long as i get some sleep). decent amount of climbing and
non-technical descents so i'll hopefully be able to stick
around. maybe there will actually be some attacks/breaks this time?
hopefully i can work with some mice and see if we can make something
happen.
also it might rain?
* * *
April 26, 2010
wente RR recap
ah, wente road race!
- late start: CHECK
- short drive: CHECK
- great weather: CHECK
- decent climbing: CHECK
even with all these going for it, i wasn't really expecting anything
different from every weekend in the last month, namely getting
dropped on the first lap. one thing was different: i pre-rode the
course last weekend, and the more technical of the descents was
followed immediately by another climb, so i could probably catch
back up if i fell behind on the descent.
the course is a 15-mile loop with a
300-foot climb
(max grade ~12%) leading to the finish. the race starts at the
bottom so we did the climb four times. after the top there is a bit
more climbing before the descent, then another climb and descent
then a flat section with a small hill, and you're back to the start.
not much happened the first two laps, but the third time up the hill
people were starting to drop off. i kept my pace up, and moved up in
the pack. at the top of the hill, there was a small group (10-15
riders) starting to pull away, and i tried to bridge up.
fortunately, there's a bit more climbing after we go over the
highway, and i was able to bridge up before the descent. i got
gapped a bit on the descent, but caught up again on the next climb,
and hung on during the final descent.
the moto said we had about a 40 second gap on the chase group, but
we didn't really get an organized paceline going. that was fine by
me since i was trying to recover from the bridging and get ready for
the final climb. as we approached the climb, the chatting in the
pack quieted down, and the pace picked up a bit. i was getting
nervous wondering how it would go.
i moved up a bit going into the start of the climb, and then tried
to go as hard as i could. i think i went too hard initially, and a
few people went by, but in the final bit i just went as hard as i
could, HR holding steady at 183, then maxing out at 185 at the end,
which is equal to the highest (legit) reading i've seen.
the pack was totally splintered at this point, and we had caught
other groups, so i had no idea where my place was in the field. i
wasn't optimistic, but figured top-10 or -15. i was so relieved to
have simply finished with the main group after these last few weeks
of suffering that i had to fight back tears on the way down to the
car. embarrassing but true.
much to my surprise, i ended up
fifth! totally unexpected and totally awesome. five seconds
faster and i could have gotten third; wish i'd known.
no racing this weekend and then berkeley hills next weekend; hoping
to scout that out sunday morning.
* * *
April 26, 2010
climbing rate added
i added "climbing rate" - feet per hour - to my greasemonkey script
for strava. couldn't get prefs figured out so watts per kg will
have to wait for another night.
* * *
April 25, 2010
show calories in strava
i just wrote a greasemonkey script to add calories & calories/hr
to ride and segment views in strava. it uses this power-to-calories
formula and then adds fields to the ride view:
and for individual segments:
if you use firefox and greasemonkey you can install it here.
* * *
April 23, 2010
wente RR pregame
wente RR is
tomorrow. 50 miles and 4kft of climbing, according to the test ride
last weekend. should be great weather.
my only goal is to have fun.
* * *
April 3, 2010
copperopolis (again)
waking up at 4am on a saturday: this is why i started bicycle
racing! today i'm racing copperopolis, "the paris-roubaix
of northern california." goals for today are pretty simple: to
not spend the first two laps getting droped and chasing, and
secondly to finish.
training this week went well; tied and broke my PRs for the two
sides of hawk hill tuesday night on the S1, and went to spin class
wednesday. either skins are amazing or i didn't push myself hard
enough there.
time to go eat my rice.
* * *
April 3, 2010
copperdropolis redux
didn't spend the first lap chasing, but got dropped on the downhill
near the end of the first lap. i just wanted to get down it at all
without pressuring myself to keep up with everyone, so i guess i'm
ok with that. i could still see the pack during the 2nd lap, and
then started passing people in my field on the 3rd lap. instead of
trading pulls with them like a smart cyclist i pushed hard and
dropped them. passed eugene and then got a flat; 12 minute change
and was the 2nd last finisher in my field. about 40% of my field
didn't finish; pretty harsh day.
going to try to beat the rain and ride fairfax-bolinas in the
morning for the first time on the S1.
* * *
March 28, 2010
more like copperdropolis
since i didn't know the course, and probably overcompensating for
last week, i was taking some of the "descents" and turns a
little slower than the pack. went off the back a few times over the
first lap but managed to get back on until the second lap where i
fell off the back for good. lost about four minutes that lap, and
then pretty much gave up and rode the last lap easy.
so, didn't do as well as i'd hoped but i think i only lost one GC
place (to 16th).
looks like it's supposed to be rainy here this week so that should
be fun. headlands goodbye ride tuesday morning, park ride tuesday
night, going to try to make the last spin class on wednesday,
copperopolis road race on saturday, and then hopefully an easier
long ride on sunday.
time to sleep.
* * *
March 27, 2010
happy new year
sitting in the car getting ready to warm up for topsport stage
race. this is the first stage race for chris and i, and neither of
us are all that excited, really. got to the hotel late, and up
early, but fortunately my race isn't for another hour and a half so
i have some time to relax and warm up. that hasn't typically been
the case so far this season.
my goals this time around are to push myself as hard as i can during
the TT, and then stay with the pack for the circuit and road
races. we'll see how it goes. planning to start going to the late
wednesday night spin class starting this week, since i don't think
i'm getting in enough training during the week.
chris is heading out to the TT; we'll see how it goes.
* * *
March 27, 2010
wrap up
circuit race and TT complete. circuit race was fairly easy; nobody
pushed the whole time so just a few hard efforts to catch up after
the turnarounds; probably too hard but it wasn't bad. a few riders
went down after the first lap but otherwise it was easy and
relaxing.
nearly caught my minute man but just didn't have enough in the wind
to seal the deal. ~29:05 which would have won in cat 5, but at least
one guy got 27:something so we'll see. time to go TT bike shopping!
met my meager goals for today, so still just trying to stay with the
leaders tomorrow and we'll see how the legs feel after a few creme
eggs tonight.
* * *
March 27, 2010
good night
nice big pasta dinner and should get around 8 hours of sleep
tonight. no idea what the gc looks like, although i'm at least two
minutes down. we'll see what happens tomorrow.
* * *
June 12, 2009
ups and downs
popovych's quote
after stage 16 was great:
The last 7km they told me on the radio that Sastre was coming,
really fast, chasing me. I did not want to believe it. When he
finally passed me, I lost all my pedaling force. What a day! I
stayed in the breakaway for 240km. It was so difficult. The tactic
was good. Johan asked me to go in the breakaway and I did. And now
... we have nothing. After such a crazy day, so this is sport.
they summarize stage 16 at the start of stage
17, and you can see sastre passing popovych.
some of the nicest weather in some time in my ride up tam this
morning; took the kneewarmers off in sausalito. tam was a little
cloudy, but for once not foggy, which was nice both going up and
down. and to top it off, not a single car on the final descent along
highway 1. going to try to do fairfax-bolinas to the east peak
tomorrow before the 48-hour phiktacular this weekend, but we'll see
if the legs cooperate or not.
* * *
June 11, 2009
don't look back
finally got around to finishing up stage
16 of the giro. completely heartbreaking when popovych looks
back to see how far behind sastre is just as sastre is overtaking
him; popovych can only shake his head... which he does again when
finally reaching the finish line.
as for myself, i didn't manage to get a ride in today, but hope to
do the east peak tomorrow. toshok took me out to fairfax on tuesday,
and i think i'm still recovering. still no word on when i'll get my
replacement bike...
a year ago today i rode all the metro
lines and at at le train bleu. today i rode caltrain and ate
at papalote.
* * *
June 9, 2009
for shame
while i am a little enheartened to finally see some coverage of the
two american journalists imprisoned in north korea, i was a little
disappointed to hear how flippantly unprofessional sec. clinton was
when when
referring to them:
HILLARY CLINTON, Secretary of State: We think the imprisonment,
trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be viewed as a
humanitarian matter.
it seems so out of place to use their first names in this context,
considering they've been in custody in dprk for nearly three months.
* * *
May 30, 2009
a break in the clouds
today is the (observed) anniversary of my departure from boston. it seems like so long ago,
yet i can remember going up and down all of those stairs so many
times as if it were just last week, blah blah blah.
i would not say, a year later, that leaving either boston or novell
were overall bad decisions. certainly not the worst i've
made before, or since. probably writing this entry was a worse
decision than either of them.
the dears show last weekend was pretty amazing. they've definitely
improved as a band since their last tour in november, and managed to
get through their whole set without the power going out once. i
don't think they played anything from the EPs or hollywood, but they
started the encore with we
can have it, and, well, they could have only played that song
and i would have been happy.
but now i'm sad because they're gone, and although in the next month
i'm going to see HF, ARS, and wilco, i do not love
those bands like i love the dears.
tomorrow i will have pancakes.
* * *
May 10, 2009
you don't say
apparently stanford did some study and found that, given an acre of
switchgrass, it's 80% more efficient to use it for electricty
rather than ethanol.
related: nothing like gamespot forums for dating
advice.
* * *
May 7, 2009
the system works
i got another bill from the doctor while i was away: FINAL NOTICE,
collection agency, blah blah. seemed weird, since i had sent in a
thing months ago. maybe they could't read my handwriting?
who knows.
anyway, they're just next door, so i stopped by after my commute,
and paid it in person.
this morning, i start cleaning of my desk, and what do i find? a
stamped, unset envelope to the doctor, with my payment information
inside.
* * *
April 20, 2009
the splits are in
i ran the boston marathon today. it went pretty ok. i spilled a
lot of gatorade on myself throughout the morning. here are my mile
times:
- 7:33
- 7:10
- 7:08
- 7:15
- 7:23
- 7:23
- 7:24
- 7:23
- 7:18
- 7:26
- 7:27
- 7:16
- 7:12 (Wellesley)
- 7:22
- 7:27
- 7:29
- 7:41 (Newton hills begin)
- 7:44
- 7:41
- 7:49
- 7:49 (Heartbreak Hill)
- 7:37
- 8:08 (Ran too fast through BC)
- 8:06
- 8:07
- 8:00
total: 3:18:08.
i passed tons of people on heartbreak, and running through audubon
circle was fun. looking forward to cycling season!
* * *
March 24, 2009
acceptable
was the last time i went to the track really seven weeks ago? anyway, since boston's in four
weeks, i figure i should get back with the training, injuries or no
injuries. i decided to slum it and go back to
the "intermediate"
training program, so today was only six 800s
(vs. twelve).
- 2:55
- 2:55
- 2:55
- 3:01
- 3:00
- 3:00
if sunday's long run goes well, i'll feel pretty comfortable that i
could do a 3:30, which is good enough, given the past month.
going to ride tam with toshok in two hours; wonder if any pizza
places deliver this early...
* * *
March 24, 2009
burned by bernanke
he wasn't pulling punches today:
REP. DON MANZULLO: Half the people have lost half their
retirement or most have lost half of their retirement, and not one
of you three can give me a "yes" on that answer or
"no."
BEN BERNANKE: Because it's a poorly posed question.
so stunned i can't even think of a witty post-quip.
* * *
March 16, 2009
a break in the void
i've started reading my third
christopher alexander novel, a new theory of
urban design, and thought this passage did a nice job of
describingg why enterprise
software is boring, and start ups are awesome:
...the most fundamental question of all: What is it? What is
going to be there?
In today's development, this question is asked, and answered,
almost exclusively in economic terms. ...
Of course the products which are built, in answer to this
question, and after the necessary consumer surveys, are
machinelike, abstract, lifeless. They are uninteresting, not
vivid. They are incapable of exciting us, or moving us, because
they are not human in their quality.
i would love to hear his thoughts on house flipping.
* * *
February 20, 2009
impressed, exhausted
i just went and looked at the terrain view of google maps for the
chagrin valley; the hills i used to climb in cleveland during high
school. i'd say those hills were... 250' to 300' vertically at
most.
today's route had two real
hills; the first, which took about 22 minutes, was the toughest hill
i'd ever done. that record didn't last long, as the second (which
the ToC
rode on monday), around 1750' itself, took about 43 minutes. i
am not embarassed to say that i was not feeling great at the top.
according to my technologies, the total route was about 38.5 miles,
with almost 4400' feet of total climbing. these numbers should
probably be taken with a few grains of salt, but they certainly
dwarf the difficulty of any ride i've done before. i suppose that
means i'm a stronger rider than i've ever been, which is a little
surprising considering how little i've ridden in the last... ten
years.
this morning i was pretty set against getting a new bike, but man, i
probably should.
another night of sleeping well awaits!
* * *
February 19, 2009
proof
apparently b. had never really believed that i played the drums
until she saw me play rock band. in that spirit, here is some
unforgeable proof that i used to
be ok on a bike (check 32nd place). that page doesn't mention
it, but it was a 28 mile ride, which comes out to averaging a little
better than 24 mph. not bad for probably my first race in over 3
years!
if you scroll alllllllll the way to the bottom, you can see that, at
17, i was in the 21 and below age group. that seems pretty
crazy but there you have it. anyway, in that race they'd send each
age group off in its own group, and miraculously i managed to avoid
getting dropped (until the last 200m or so). so it's not like i was
near the front of this huge race, i was in the back of a small
group.
in... 1993? i won my age group (14 and under, likely) in the twin sizzler.
that was pretty awesome, too, but sadly it was before the internets
reached the ohio farmcountry.
in totally unrelated news, i am probably going to have to move soon,
since i bought some
art and don't have enough wall space for it. i am especially
excited about having art that is worth more than its frame (which i
may have mentioned before).
i really need to go to bed.
* * *
February 16, 2009
that was dumb
apparently it wasn't enough for me to run for three hours in the
rain yesterday. inspired by catching the tail end of stage
2 on the web this afternoon, i decided it would be a good idea
to go for a ride on my day off from running. toshok was in, but
unfortunately the sunshine wasn't.
it was
only sixteen miles, but it was cold, windy, and rainy,
especially on the bridge (where it may actually have been hail).
fortunately google maps doesn't show how slow we rode.
i think i will try to figure out how to get to san bruno mountain;
it's bigger than hawk hill, doesn't involve a terrifying bridge, and
is still only 10 miles away.
looking forward to repeat miles at the track tomorrow, and then
lunch. my first meeting isn't until 4!
* * *
February 13, 2009
i less than three cities
in anticipation of j
h crawford's new book, i've finally gotten around to reading
some christopher
alexander. i haven't quite figured out how to apply it to sim
city yet, but i will give him the benefit of the doubt and continue
reading, even if it does sound like a bunch of hippie hogwash.
anyway, i have been wondering what jane jacobs thinks of this guy,
and i came across this article on her works.
in goes on in much more detail than i have the attention span to
write, but skimming it might hopefully convince you to read her
economics books, not just death and life.
the one thing that confuses me is that the timeless way
refers to itself as the first in the series, yet a pattern
language was published two years earlier? whatever.
* * *
February 10, 2009
counter-retort?
there seems to be a growing fued between the daily show with jon
stewart's jon stewart and the news hour with jim lehrer's paul
solman:
JON STEWART, host, "The Daily Show": It seems to me like
the economy's so bad that this guy had to move back in with his
grandmother. "Paul Solman, are you putting the zeroes on the
coffee table again?" "No, Grandma!" "Use a
coaster!" "I'll use a coaster! I'm explaining a national
calamity!" "Bring me some juice, dear."
PAUL SOLMAN: Prune juice, presumably, Grandma's drink of choice,
though she's been dead some 46 years now.
the
rest of the report is slightly less awesome.
* * *
February 10, 2009
springtime in the city
spring totally started while i was in portland. the trees are
blooming, and i saw a bee in buena vista park with the robins and
hummingbirds.
* * *
February 9, 2009
how i spend my evenings
i have been sitting here listening to cocaine
skin on repeat for hours while my dirty dishes remain unloved in
their sink.
i don't have any meetings tomorrow so i'll do them after i get back
from the post office.
kevin says they aren't going to play cause or break
anymore. i have heard this all before, but if it's actually true
this time, it's probably ok if they start playing stuff like
c.s. and keep playing fuzz (insider-speak for late night bedroom
rock + shampoo suicide).
the sentinel had a sorta-dry non-spicy mac + cheese today, but both
the smoked trout salad and molasses
cookie that came with it were super awesome. i hope they don't have
the bockwurst sandwich again tomorrow, because i have a prior lunch
engagement to attend.
what else what else what else what else.
* * *
February 6, 2009
what i have done with my life
after some discussion tonight, i am reasonably sure i have seen the
following bands the following number of times:
- page and plant: three.
- stars: three.
- bloc party: three.
- radiohead: eight.
- broken social scene: eight.
- the jimmy swift band: twenty-six.
i am scheduled to see jsb three more times next month alone.
* * *
February 3, 2009
what it's like
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA AND
MONTEREY BAY AREA.
.DAY ONE...TUESDAY AND TUESDAY NIGHT
UNDER SUNNY SKIES TEMPERATURES WILL WARM INTO THE UPPER 60S TO
UPPER 70S.
today we released the source to the
project i've been working on, at vmware, which was started by alex.
it still does little, and is probably not for everyone; step one for
testing it out is to deploy an AD server, and it just gets more
expensive from there.
but i do love our logo so very, very much:
well done, robert!
no meetings today, and i'm taking the rest of the week off to see
broken social scene in portland and seattle, but then it's probably
back to those ten hour days...
* * *
February 3, 2009
need oxygen
still completely amazed at what i can do at the track. today's
workout was 4x1 mile:
- 5:47 (new PR)
- 5:53
- 5:58
- 5:56
i love that you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars to run. i
love that two-thousand dollar bikes are beautiful.
i guess i should go to work.
* * *
February 2, 2009
moral-market economics
the news hour on friday was great; they had shields and brooks come
on after each segment, which wasn't something i'd see them do
before. one thing that caught my ear was this
bit by david brooks:
First of all, you need social pressure. Capitalism is a great
system, but you can't have amoral capitalism. Capitalist
institutions have to be surrounded by social understandings, by a
set of norms that we all adhere to or that are enforced by shame.
it is almost as if he had just reread jane jacobs'
systems of survival. i've really been meaning to go back and
read everything but her first book, as many of them deal with
exactly the economic situation the world has found itself in lately.
sadly, only two of her books are out on kindle.
* * *
February 2, 2009
there is probably an angela's ashes joke to be made in here somewhere
i'd like to introduce you to my friends:
* * *
February 1, 2009
i was lame today and really didn't feel like running the last little
(hilly) loop of my route today, so i think i only did about 19 miles
(instead of 20). this last hill, at mile 17 or 18 or so, is meant
to be a simulation of heartbreak, although i think it's much, much
tougher:
i don't think i've taken any days off except the first two days
after the marathon, but i have tomorrow off; it is going to be weird
just going to work right after waking up. but tuesday it's back to
the track for mile repeats, so i will enjoy the rest while i can get
it.
i am looking forward to being disappointed by tomorrow's lack of
productivity.
* * *
January 30, 2009
the greatest compliment
i
just got paid
as i was parking in front of the office for my 8am meeting this
morning, some sort of delivery man walked past me and asked,
"is the economy hurting you guys?"
i sorta mumbled some sort of response, about no, not really, we are
doing ok, at least i am, but i was wondering, "how does he
know i work for VMware?" there are a lot of companies in
our building.
"oh!" i said. "i'm not a bike
messenger!" what a great start to the day.
i got tired of not having all my music at the office so i got an
iPod classic today. i think it's my 7th? how time flies.
i saw the album leaf here on wednesday night; i hadn't listened to
them much since i first got the albums whenever ago but a month or
so ago i put them on while doing dishes and it was perfect for that
moment. i have been listening to them a lot since the show. the
opening act covered everything in its right place.
i am going to sleep so much tonight.
* * *
January 29, 2009
fifty/fifty
this morning, i realized that this week, according to plan, i will
run about fifty miles and spend about fifty hours at the office. i
will not be getting required fifty hours of sleep. if only there
was an all-star team for this sort of thing.
* * *