So Much For The Rest Day

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 10.5% BF

Got an email yesterday from my friend Joe, he wanted to ride at Jacobsburg last night and wondered if I'd join him. My plan was to rest up so I could bike to work today, at most maybe hit the gym. Didn't quite work out.

Fast crowd: Greg M was there on his old hardtail, Rich B was riding his singlespeed, I was on my Turner and Joe was on his brand-new Titus. The 'burg is easy enough to allow a pretty quick pace, but I haven't done anything like that in a while -- not since I used to train with Greg and Joe, as a matter of fact. We maintained a 10.8 mph average, 15 miles in about an hour and a half, not really far but I was spent by the high level of effort (on my part). I hit Taco Hell on the way home, scarfed down my burritos and was in bed by 9:30. I'd already semi-given-up on the bike commute, but still went through the motions of getting ready -- when the alarm went off at 5:00 AM, I gave it my final answer...

Since I reckon my weekly mileage Monday-to-Monday (and this Monday was a long holiday ride), I already have 100 miles for the week, so I'll just do the towpath tonight like I always do on Fridays, get 25 miles instead of 40.

Meantime, check out this beautiful site.

Ouroboros

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 10.5% BF

Kekulé dreams the Great Serpent holding its own tail in its mouth, the
dreaming Serpent which surrounds the World. But the meanness, the cynicism with
which this dream is to be used. The Serpent that announces, "The World is a
closed thing, cyclical, resonant, eternally-returning," is to be delivered into
a system whose only aim is to violate the Cycle. Taking and not giving back,
demanding that "productivity" and "earnings" keep on increasing with time, the
System removing from the rest of the World these vast quantities of energy to
keep its own tiny desperate fraction showing a profit: and not only most of
humanity— most of the World, animal, vegetable, and mineral, is laid waste in
the process. The System may or may not understand that it's only buying time.
And that time is an artificial resource to being with, of no value to anyone or
anything but the System, which must sooner or later crash to its death, when its
addiction to energy has become more than the rest of the World can supply,
dragging with it innocent souls all along the chain of life.

- Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

The serpent he's talking about is Ouroboros, the archetypal snake that encircles the World, devouring its tail, and the dream is the one where Kekulé, trying to figure the shapes of organic molecules, is stumped by the ring-shaped benzene, until the serpent appears to him in a dream. (If you've ever smelled gasoline, you know what benzene is.)

Anyway, rode home yesterday, but arranged via email to meet my friend Joe on the way home, do a ride with him. (Joe's a year younger than me, and we used to be pretty regular training partners at Round Valley. In 1998 he took 1st place in the Sport Senior Men class while I took 1st in Sport Vet at a race there; since then I've slowed down considerably, but he moved up to Expert and became shockingly fast: I thought I was a hero for doing the Wilderness 101 in 12:28, he did it in 9:03 this year.) He was on his road bike, but did a hard training ride the day before & would cruise along with me -- I was on the 50-pound (racks, panniers, work clothes etc) Iguana, and killing myself... We rode some very pleasant roads out near Harmony -- in other words, hilly roads -- and parted ways by the Free Bridge. I probably got about 30-35 miles in on the ride home.

Mug Club Night at Which Brew, but it was quiet there otherwise. Tonight is gym/laundry, maybe stir-fry a little of that tofu I bought before it goes bad.

Indian Summer

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 10.5% BF

Went to Cycle FunAttic last night, volunteer meeting for the upcoming Phillipsburg Criterium. Russ (the bike store owner and the guy who loaned me those wheels for the PPRAC ride) is the race promoter, so I figured I'll return the favor & help him out. Free pizza last night, free sandwich and teeshirt on race day, how could I resist?

Bicycled in to work today, awesome morning. Can't believe I almost blew it off, but that early rise is the hardest part of the whole deal.

Rocky Bastiche

Morning weigh-in: 172.5, 11.5% BF

Friday Night: Super-hot lap on the towpath, 1:25 or maybe a little less, followed by an early night at Which Brew. Another fundraiser, this time for the victims of Hurricane Katrina: whenever you bought a "Hurricane" (a popular New Orleans drink) a dollar would be donated and you'd get a commemorative glass. I almost didn't go, but at the end of my ride I ran into Mike and Carole -- normally I pass their house on my ride, this time I didn't, and there they were walking their dog down my alley; they told me about the fundraiser & said they'd be there. I got a kick out of going there, ordering a Hurricane from bartender Katrina -- her eyes rolled so hard I though they would roll right out of her head...

Saturday: Selfish day, drycleaning, coffee shop, gym etc. I was thinking of doing a road ride before lifting, but my legs were toast so I ran instead. Felt good, decent workout. Night was back to WB to catch the Insidious Rays, though it was another early night, rest up for the big ride.

Sunday: The big ride -- Doug & Lori, Eric, Brian and myself, all the way up to R.B. Winter State Park to ride Cowbell Hollow. Scha-wee-eeet! Pictures soon. Got a call from Doug when I got home: they were going to dinner at Porters w/ Eric & Kris, did I want to go? Quick shower and I get another phone call: they're at Porter's and the kitchen closed early. Another phone call: 1818 Tavern was closed, ditto Pearly Baker's... I suggested Shruty's Pub as a last resort (not quite "dinner evening out," more like "NASCAR on the big screen, Coors and bar food"), got the message to Brian who'd already gone to Porter's, and met them all at Shruty's. Pretty nice, good salvage to the evening, and of course I could walk there...

Monday: I got up around 10:00, hopped on the bike by 11:30 and rode downtown for some coffee & brunch, then took the towpath to Bethlehem and rode the Salisbury trails. Got home about 5:00, showered, then went out to see "The Constant Gardener" w/ Joe & Cindy and Brian. Very good movie, I expect at least some kind of Oscar nod, but it's definitely not "feel-good hit" material.

The Mandate Of Heaven

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 7.5% BF

Rode Jacobsburg last night on the singlespeed, had the place pretty much to myself though Lee rode in on his motorcycle to say hi. He'd taken the day off & did a bike ride earlier in the afternoon -- the bum! Saw a few Blue Mtn Ski Club riders out there, but the parking lot was almost empty (rather than the usual filled-to-capacity Thursday scene), and none of the usual crew was there.

After that was a Team in Training fundraiser at Which Brew: one of Margarita's friends/co-workers will be running a marathon in San Francisco, in memory of another co-worker who died of lymphoma. They had arranged to have some friend's band play at WB, and also to have raffles with cash and merchandise prizes. I missed the raffles, but gave a $15 donation and got a soft-pack cooler -- sweet!

Geeking Out, or, Evolution in (Virtual) Action: I took a grad-level "Computer-Aided Engineering" course in college, and one of my favorite parts was the section on nonlinear optimization and mathematical programming. I still keep my dilettante's eye on the field, and a few years ago ran into a really cool new technique called "genetic algorithms," which use data structures and mechanisms analogous to genes, mutation etc in biological systems, to allow evolutionary forces to select the optimum design. I got some killer C programs from a Navy research site, but here is a good introductory page.

Slipping is Crash's Law: The old Chinese Empire used to go through an approximately 300-year dynastic cycle (on average), ending with stagnation, revolution and the establishment of a new dynasty. The cycle was pretty much caused by the rules of inheritance, which slowly screwed up the system until it was paralyzed -- then the society rebooted, land and wealth were redistributed and the cycle started again but the Chinese explanation was that the previous dynasty lost "the mandate of heaven;" the divine universal force showing its displeasure and withdrawal of support through natural disasters etc. The number of disasters per year didn't actually rise, but what happened was that the Imperial ability (or will) to prepare for and ameliorate them had collapsed. Sound familiar?

UPDATE: forgot to post this Friday.

Moving Right Along

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 6.5% BF

Homer gets his hand stuck in the candy machine...

EMT Guy #1: We're going to have to cut your arm off.

Homer: Oh no! It'll grow back, right?

EMT Guy #1: Um, yeah.

EMT Guy #2: Mr Simpson, are you still holding on to the candy?

I see that Australian scientists have just developed a regenerative mouse. Meantime, Korea has cloned a dog and Singapore is making great strides in stem-cell research ... and here in the USA we've got Intelligent Design (I won't dignify it with a link).

Anyway, went to the gym last night, light workout. Dinner was a bit of an experiment: tuna w/ a touch each of curry, ginger & tamari, with an "early spring mix" bag of mesclin salad. Didn't quite work out, but good enough to at least finish it... I'll probably hit Jacobsburg on the Surly tonight after work.

A Small Rain

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 5% BF (say what?)

Watching the current situation down in New Orleans, it kind reminds me of Pynchon's story "The Small Rain." Plenty of stuff going on but the premise, based on a true story (told to him by a friend who was in the Army when he was in the Navy), is that a hurricane wipes out the Louisiana town of Creole, and the army flies in as part of the disaster relief. The interaction of soldier "Lardass" Levine with the disaster, and with the disaster relief, is what drives Pynchon's version, which can be found on Slow Learner. This time, the disaster is a little bigger -- a large US city has essentially been destroyed -- but I think the same grinding human tragedy and class-based callousness will be played out. (Others have noted the same thing here, and here, and here, and here...)

Meantime, what you can do to help: Donate to the Red Cross.

My Allamuchy Photos

Some Selected Chain Gang Racers
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

My photos are up! All the good ones anyway, which aren't all that many but you can see them here. Enjoy!

Still No Photos, But You Can Call Me

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 10% BF

Unpacking (found my phone), laundry & other chores, no chance to put my photos up, but you can see the official Allamuchy results here, and check out official photos here. Enjoy!

Next up, the Vermont 50-Miler (at the end of September).

UPDATE: If the photo link doesn't work for you , try navigating to the Allamuchy photos via ImageExtreme.

Back From Allamuchy

Morning weigh-in: 178#, 10% BF

Wow, another Allamuchy come and gone... Very good course, probably the best ever, great campsite and some serious, fun racing, marred only by ...rain. Tough weekend of camping and riding because of it, but it was still a good time -- better than the one being had in New Orleans right now. Everything I brought is slightly damp... I've still got a ton of unpacking, cleaning & maintenance to do tonight, but should be able to get my pics online.

Some selected results: I believe we (Spaceballs) took 5th of 17 in the 4-Man Masters division, with 16 laps; not sure how many laps but Flaming Balls (not Exploding Balls, sorry) took 2nd in their 4-Man division, Men's Solo's Napoleon Dynamite and Team Slo-Mo both got in 5 laps, and Hot Double-Team Action -- the announcer refused to say their name correctly -- and surprise solo contender Karen W both took 1st place, in the Tandem class & Solo Women respectively. Nice job everybody!

Vay-cay-cay-cay...

No morning weigh-in. I'm home from work, on a mini-vacation. Out the door in a few minutes for Allamuchy. I'll be back Monday; expect pictures.

Final Countdown

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 12.5% BF

Got the bikes ready last night, bringing the Turner (to race) and the Surly (to cannibalize, and also maybe to race). I also packed up my tools and did the food shopping for the weekend; tonight I'll finish the laundry, pack the car etc, maybe get my Which Brew fix.

Teams at the Chain Gang Disco Aliens Camp

Space Balls: Me, Eric, Rich B, and his bud from Mack Trucks,
Hot Double-Team Action: Doug & Lori on the tandem,
Napoleon Dynamite: John C racing solo,
So-Slo: Brian racing solo, and
Exploding Balls: Scott S, Bob, Greg & Joe C make up the other 4-man team.

Hurricane Weather: Katrina and the Waves

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 10% BF

Getting ready for the maelstrom of Allamuchy, weather should be good throughout the weekend... tropical storm is heading for landfall somewhere down south; when it hits land they'll probably name it Katrina... had dinner at Which Brew last night, caesar salad & a bowl of chili, Brooklyn Lager & a Weyerbacher Autumn Fest, and Katrina was the waitress...

Rode the road last night, did the "1-hour loop" from the gym, did it in 50 minutes and felt pretty good. Legs suddenly seem very happy to spin up the hills, fitness was good but my high-intensity endurance is still not 100%, blew up on some of the climbs. I should peak by January... I followed the ride with a light workout in the gym, then as I said, I had dinner at WB. Nothing excessive, I expect that the jump in weight was from the multiple midnight bowls of GOLEAN Crunch! (or as I call it, "crack in a cereal bowl") that I scarfed down.

Shopping tonight, packing tomorrow, taking Friday off to show up early for the race.

When Is A Cigar Just A Cigar?

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 10.5% BF

No ride or exercise last night, played with computer instead.

A few guys at work have recently gotten into that antique/restored auto thing, which seemed to fit a pattern I noticed a while ago, but now I'm not so sure what the pattern is...

Back when microbrews became big, and even more so when the cigar craze came along, I kind of assumed that the driving force was a bit of backlash to the growing awareness of health risks, like "I know that drinking/smoking are bad for me, so I'll cut down my quantity, but switch to microbrews/cigars and savor the quality." The restored cars might follow the same pattern, what with gasoline prices and all, but I wonder if the trend, and in fact all three trends (plus that poker craze) aren't just symptoms of anxious masculinity -- well maybe not the microbrew, that's a metro thing after all...

Steve Gilliard has an interesting take here on when the cult of manhood collapsed in Nazi Germany.

Meantime, yesterday's post was going to be about something else, but after yakking about the weekend I didn't feel like following through, only the title survived: "No Gods, No Masters" was the motto of Margaret Sanger's magazine The Woman Rebel from her early radical days, and it was a sad tip of the hat to the women of Iraq.

No Gods, No Masters

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13.5% BF

Looks like I came throught the weekend intact, weight-wise...

The weekend:

Friday night I blew off the towpath ride (looked like rain), blew off pretty much everything else as well, to just kick back & do laundry. Stopped in at Which Brew for a bit while the clothes visited the dryer, but it was a fairly early night -- I ran into Arnie L there, made plans to meet him for a morning bike ride.

Saturday I got up early, got a quick breakfast at Coffee Works, then met Arnie at the gym in Phillipsburg. I've known him for years, talked bikes many times but we never rode together until this. Older guy, just became a grandfather but he's a solid rider. We rode out behind Baker Chemical, came up Marble Hill Rd to Route 519 & took that to Foul Rift Road, then returned to P'burg via the river roads (like, past where the S.S. Diane used to be). Almost two hours of riding, first time on the road bike since the Perimeter Ride, and it felt good. After that was a gym workout.

Saturday Night was also quiet, also with a rather perfunctory visit to WB, where I hung a while with T and Ed.

Sunday was a "stop and smell the roses" ride with Brian up on Broad Mountain in Jim Thorpe, trails neither of us have done in a while -- PA Game Committee, access issues, yadda yadda. Moderate pace with plenty of breaks, including stops at the overlooks. Good to see the old place again, hasn't changed all that much. Lunch on the way home, then the rest of the day was naptime...

An Evening Out

Morning weigh-in: 173.5#, 13.5% BF

Rode Jacobsburg on the singlespeed, say 6:00 to 8:30, which was actualy close to full dark -- goodbye summer! -- trying out my lights. Again, the handlebar battery died after about a half hour, it's only holding a quarter charge. I have another battery for the bar light, but would have preferred two. I'll try cycling the battery a few more times, charge/discharge, see if I can wake it up.

Rode with Joe (on his new Turner 5-Spot) & Cindy with their dog Tally, also Rich B on his Surly; Rich and I were the only ones w/ lights. Scott S was up there as well as the whole Lance/Marv crew, Terry M, and also Doug & Lori, big crowd really. That was just us: there were other groups there like Blue Mtn Ski Club etc; the parking lot was almost completely full.

Dinner was Which Brew: Tuscan bean soup & hot wings, a Troegenator & a Small Craft Warning, eaten/drank to the tunes of the Skulldiggers, which seems to be morphing into a Deadhead band... Good times, good times. Good conversations inside, w/ the usual crew, but also saw Hans w/ Heath & Margarita outside, as well as Stu & Kathy, all leaving as I got there.

Sketches From A Life

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 9.5% BF

Today's featured Wikipedia article is a good one: George F. Kennan. Interesting guy; somewhere in my parents' house is his book of diary excerpts, Sketches From A Life, that I got my dad for his birthday once.

No ride last night: I blew off exercise in favor of getting my act together before the VMB emergency meeting -- looks like Bear Creek will be hosting the final MASS race this season rather than Spring Mountain, and Valley Mountain Bikers will be doing a lot of the work to get it done...

Riding tonight, SS'ing at the 'burg. I'm going to start at 6:00 (the usual time), but ride into darkness, test out my lights/batteries. I may travel into Emmaus afterward to see Dave J's band play at South Mtn Cycles & Coffee, but that's a long way & it may be over by the time I'd get there, so we'll see.

Salisbury After Dark!

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 7.5% BF

Rode last night, but felt very tired and my average speed was way down -- probably fallout from Monday's nutritional follies, and maybe some lingering effects from whateveer sinus thing is going on. I also had the full complement of lights/batteries with me, since I wanted to start getting ready for Allamuchy, and that could have -- rather, it did weigh me down...

Anyway, the plan was to ride the towpath out to Sals, do my "short loop" there and head back, Sals & return legs being in the dark. I left around 6:45, crossed the Lehigh at 7:49. As soon as I got into the woods I ran into a group of three riders, two dad-types and a boy, fixing a derailleur. They were OK, done w/ repair by the time I got there, but I stopped & said hi, then turned on the lights. When I left, they said their friends were up ahead, and could I let them know the situation? No problemo, and I was on my way.

I ran into two more guys out there, but they weren't the ones... then ran into another dad & two kids, boy & girl down by the pavillion -- not quite dark yet, though my lights were on... the guy commented on my specific brand/model headlamp, so they weren't clueless... rode the trail down to the Spanky, but only rode partway up when I felt too tired, it was too dark & slippery, and I just wimped out, turned around... ran into the first group of riders again, now with their lights on...

On the way out I surprised some local semi-hoods walking the RR tracks:

Hood 1: Hey what's that?
Hood 2: Oh, just one of those bicycle guys.

Was out of there by 8:30, so it couldn't have been too dark, but it was a strange world for a while...

I went up and I told them I was new downtown,
And I didn't know the proper spots to hang around.
Well they were awfully cool, those guys they answered me true,
They said "Just stick with us man, we'll show you what to do!"

They took me to a rock club where the girls were the most,
And we imported all our beers from the midwest coast.
I never knew I was a young fresh fella etc.

- The Young Fresh Fellas, "Young Fresh Fellas Theme" (near as I can remember it)

Dinner was at Which Brew: tomato & mozzerrella salad, garlic pizza, two Troegenators. Quiet night unfortunately, none of the usual Tuesday night crowd, though there were some college-age kids, mixed group from all over the world (Australia, Europe, various USA etc). They'd all just finished working as camp counselors in Maine, ended up in Easton somehow before heading their separate ways. Nice bunch of kids, wanted to know the cool places to hang out while they were here, I was glad to oblige. Also had a pleasant & interesting conversation with the owner of the Stockertown beer distributorship.

Situation Almost Normal

Morning weigh-in: 172#, 13.5 % BF

Well, it took a week, but things are settling in pretty well after the Cancer Ride. Rode last night on the towpath, will probably do towpath-plus-Sals tonight -- longer ride, bringing lights, getting ready for Allamuchy. Hand is starting to feel better.

I may be coming down with a cold though: been very sneezy the last two days, suddenly lotsa "evidence" of sinus infection today. I was pretty tired last night, went to bed at 9:30 w/ out dinner.

Like I said, ride tonight, and then laundry.

Rodale and Horseflesh

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 12.5% BF

Friday night was Which Brew -- "Greek Night" as Margarita (aka "Mrs. Kneller" these days) did guest-chef duties. They also had a bellydancer, same one as for last year's Greek Night. Woman I was sitting next to, turns out she was once a stripper/pornstar (now a grandmother), starts whacking me on the arm: "Give her a dollar! C'mon Don, what are you, cheap?" Well, the bellydancer had a few dollars already so I figure "when in Rome, do like the Romans do" & slipped one under her bra strap, though I'm pretty sure that's not how they do it at the Aladdin... Interesting conversation with the stripper about her life (me: "Wow... Naked? Really?"), then in comes Tom, dude who's my age but only now getting into triathlons & adventure racing -- I sometimes characterize him as "hungry." Different kind of "flesh as horseflesh" conversation, as we talked about competition, training, etc.

Saturday I spent trying to hide from the heat, then went straight down to the furnace -- aka MusikFest -- to check out the scene. Seemed a little dead, but crowds grew as the evening progressed. I got my souvenir beer mug, some beer, a little dinner, and George Clinton / Parliament tickets, then met Doug & Lori for the the show, which rocked in a major way. The band seemed a little disappointed in the lackluster crowd participation though, and it was funny the way George Clinton actually reminded me a little of Gerry Garcia.

Sunday afternoon I went to Dave & Selene's new house for a post-PPRAC BBQ. Me, Brian, Dave, and a dude named Dale did a quick (& very hot) ride up at South Mountain, then it was back for the cookout and a little swimming-pool action. Funny hanging out with so many Rodale and ex-Rodale people, ordinary people really but super-super-fit, but fitness is their job after all.