Cezanne's B-day and Thanksgiving

This past Sunday was Cezanne's birthday, but I can't say how old she is...

We went to "Siroc" for dinner and had some great food. I highly recommend it. It was really good, but not too expensive, I think around $80 for both, including one drink and a split dessert.

I ordered a "Gimlet" which is basically vodka (or gin) and lime juice with a little mint. When I got it, it tasted like straight vodka, with a hint of mint. After sipping on it for a bit I told the waitress I was a light-weight and asked for some more lime juice.

Cezanne loves to be "cozy" as she says, so last Saturday I got her some Ugg slippers and she loves them. Good thing she made it easy by suggesting slippers.

My brother Jason is in Djibouti in Africa, so we made a sign for him for our Thanksgiving Day photo. Not a bad photo given that we used the timer on the camera.

Here is a shot of the gang without the sign. We had a great time and had great food.

I ran 8.6 miles on Friday and did an easy (but wound up being painful) 36 mile ride on Sunday. My legs are thrashed from the run, especially my hip flexors and nagging left hamstring. I'm not sure what I did to it. I might go out and try to do an easy 25 miles on the bike today. Last night my throat started hurting...looks like the beginnings of a cold.

Pretty boring post, but I had to throw something up here, since it's been a while.

Luv Cycles t-shirts

My High School friend Mike started a cycling clothing and info company: luvcycles.com

I wanted to get the kelly green shirt with yellow heart, but my brother already got that one, so I opted for the gray. The material is perfect.

I went for an 8.7 mile run today, really slowly, and wound up at a 9:02 minute mile pace. That's the farthest I can ever remember running. It was raining (hence no bike ride) and about 50 degrees, but it was actually pretty nice. My heart/lungs felt great (since I was going so slow), but the upper quads (I guess the hip flexors) were the only things bothering me.

I've been doing a 4 mile run twice a week just trying to slowly build up and get some miles in my legs and previously did a max of a 6 mile run. This is all in preparation for the half-ironman in June. I know my cycling schedule/racing next year is going to be hurting because of the running...and eventually the swimming.

Here is the slow run info: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17722486

Some sad DC sightings

Last night on my run on Wisconsin Ave NW through Tenleytown and Frienship Heights I saw a guy dragging a cardboard box from the corner of a building. About 10 strides later I saw the make shift home he was making out of carboard boxes.

This morning I didn't ride outside, but I got on the indoor trainer for an hour. As I was stopped at the red light waiting to turn onto Wisconsin Ave a homeless guy (seemed homeless as best I could tell) walked joyfully in front my car through the crosswalk. He looked at me and I smiled. He started loudly, but nicely shouting something and pointing at the left side of my car. I thought he was trying to tell me my headlight was out or something, but then I began to understand what he was saying. He was saying, "Military stickers!" "Military stickers!" and pointing at the DoD stickers on my car which help me gain access to military bases.

After he said it about 3 times he turned square to the car and saluted. I saluted back (I don't wear a uniform for my current assignment) and he continued crossing. I instantly became keenly aware of my wallet sitting in the back right pocket of my pants. I usually never have cash, but I did this time. By the time the thought passed through my mind he was happily on his way and I was able to see the back of the jacket he was wearing.

The jacket had a huge Marine Corps emblem and said "Marine Corps" on it. As he finished crossing the street I saw him move off to right edge of the sidewalk towards the newspaper receptacles, thinking he might be grabbing one of the free papers. A few seconds later a cyclist passed and after letting him pass, the guy again went on his way.

Last night and this morning has caused me to take some pause to be thankful for what I have. I know it will only last a few hours and the grind and the day's events will soon wash the memory and life will seem difficult again.

I don't pretend to know much about it, but I know homelessness is not an easy condition to deal with. There is no easy solution, there is not necessarily an amount of money you can throw at it to eradicate it. What is even more sad is that a large portion of the homeless population are veterans. I'm sure a large portion are Vietnam vets who never got the care and support they needed when they returned home. PTSD is probably also a major factor and although it is a known and the military is using the latest treatment available, there are probably some that still believe it carries a stigma and don't seek treatment and then there are probably those medical providers who also overlook it.

On a side note, for fiscal year 2010 the Department of Veterans Affairs was appropriated (by the House of Representatives, waiting on the Senate) a full $3.2 billion for homeless veterans program, $949 million MORE than they were given in 2009. One of their major programs is Project CHALENG (Community Homelessness Assessment, Local Education and Networking Groups), which was launched in 1994. This program partners the VA with local community-based programs for a more wholistic approach to homelessness. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, “the most effective programs for homeless and at-risk veterans are community-based, nonprofit, ‘veterans helping veterans’ groups.”

I digress.

The Work Goes On

There is a loud clatter of keyboards banging, interrupted occassionally by somewhat frantic and animated calls from the boss requesting more and more information (one of the topics to be revealed later).

The guy next to me has already professed that he want to break something today. He has done some yelling and banging, during some calls (on mute) and immediately following those calls.

Really a quite typical day for the office, but today is extra special. We're all Federal employees and today is a Federal Holiday. Granted it's "just" Columbus Day, but nevertheless illustrates a commonality across all Federal holidays...they are NOT holidays in this office.

I would be willing to bet a lot of money that of the 534 "other" offices, we are the only one that is fully abuzz as if it was a regular work day, with the FULL staff here. Sure some of the other offices probably have staff in as needed or maybe working from home, but nothing like this.

The only respite today offers is that the 7am-9pm that I've been working lately will not happen today, the hours are more loose, but the tension while we're here is not.

I'm not sure why it surprises me anymore. There is a pension towards the opposite of what a holiday should be. It consists of the "holiday check" or the "holiday get them" or the "just because it's a holiday" mentality which causes a flurry of phone calls and emails to ensure the staff is at work. This pension towards creating work and placing more emphasis on the holidays reminds me of when I was young and it was inevitable that the worst arguments between my parents would occur on the Holidays.

So, as it goes, it was inevitable that there would be extra work today, as there was around July 4th, as there will be on Veteran's day.

However, it's difficult to complain when thinking about those on deployment and those service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Almost forgot to mention the important information we were all rushing around to get so that we could craft a press release: info on Christopher Columbus of course!

Early Early Morning Ride

I got out the door around 4:55am this morning. Ugh.

Something had to give...and it wound up being my Wednesday mornings. I'm having a blast riding 45-50 milers on Sunday, but my cycling fitness is steadily declining, in part from my lack of riding and in part because of my starting to run during the week.

I figure if I can get up early Tuesday and Thursday for a run, then I can get up early Wednesday for a ride. I don't like the cycle of: get up before 5am, run or bike, go to work, work twelve and a half hours, go home, eat dinner, go to bed and repeat tomorrow. But, what else can I do? It's going to get worse when Congress is back in session and I won't be able to leave work at 7:30pm...with my departure guaranteed to usually be between 8-9pm.

Getting up early today was helped because Cezanne had to get up at 4:30am today for work. I set everything up for the ride last night, including driving home along the streets where I was going to ride and confirming that Tilden St. NW (where I wanted to do some short/steep hill repeats) was well lit. Tilden St. comes out of Rock Creek Park and has a bike lane plus another 8-10 feet between the bike lane and curb, so it makes riding a little safer and easy to move out of the bike lane, closer to the curb when I hear a car coming from behind.

I only rode a little less than 11 miles this morning in the hour that I was out there...I know, that is a horribly slow ride, but it was early and I got in over 2,000 feet of climbing in that 11 miles.

The above pic is my view climbing up Tilden at around 5:15am this morning. It's a little blurry because it was taken with the iPhone, it was basically at night, and most importantly, I was blazing fast up the hill at around 7 mph... The pic does do a good job at showing the amount of room to bike and the level of street lighting.

Here is the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12408648

Click on the "elevation" tab, it's pretty funny to look at, perfect sawtooths. I climbed the short hill 11 times.

This is Mr. Bono in the back seat of the Prius on our way to Annapolis last Saturday to have dinner with my Mom for her birthday. The bed sheet we put on the back seat was falling down a bit. He's a handsome devil.

Last Sunday I did a group ride that started out with 6 and ended up with 4, not because they were dropped, but they had other things to get back to. I wound up going with Sig, Chris Chapel and Brian Laubscher, 3 really good dudes (on and off the bike). It was a ton of fun, but I don't know how long I can keep up the facade that I can keep riding with these guys with my current riding amount. If it were this past February through April, it wouldn't be much of a problem and while I would still be the weakest of the 4, I would be a lot stronger than I am right now. I just don't want to be "that guy" that can't pull (literally) my weight in trading pulls throughout the ride.

I wound up averaging just under 20 mph for the ride, which I think would have been around 20 mph if I had any legs on Anglers hill or at the lead-in to the final sprint of the ride.

Here is the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/12198575

Here is Siggy's blog about his sweet new wheels and the Sunday ride: http://sigberto.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-secret-weapon.html

He's got a photo of the group coming down Clara Barton Parkway. You can just make out my bright yellow shoes at the bottom of the photo.

Cezanne is right, I need an editor

I wrote that last blog a little fast, and with that, the mistakes came.

Cezanne said I need an editor and she's right. I guess slowing down and re-reading the post before I publish could also work too.

My saddle broke on the left side, not the right. My bib shorts were snagging obviously on the left, not the right. Correction made.

I also think I wasn't making sense when I was talking about someone at the Bicycle Pro Shop telling me that Specialized Saddles eventually break. I think instead of writing "someone at," I wrote "some of" the Bicycle Pro Shop...

Above pic is of my older bro Jason and his twins on their trip to D.C. He was back from Djibouti, Africa for a short trip. Can't wait for him to get back for good! Cezanne was there too and went to the museums with them. Yup, she's the best! Unfortunately I couldn't go because of work. I just took the metro down a stop to meet them, hung out for 10 minutes, then went back to work.

My Specialized Toupe broke

I was wondering why my bib shorts have been snagging on the right side the last few weeks. This is why. I noticed today that my fat butt has weakened the plastic on the right side of my specialized toupe saddle.


I liked this saddle. I've had it for a while, but favored my semi-custom cedesius saddle until the Jeff Cup crash bent the titanium rails on that saddle. It's interesting because some of the Bicycle Pro Shop in Georgetown said that the specialized toupe would eventually fail, it's just what it does. It did!

This saddle hasn't been in any crashes and I'm not too fat...

What to do now. A year or two ago I did Competitive Cyclist's saddle demo program, so I'll look back at that blog post to see which one was my favorite. I think it was the Selle Italia SLR Gel Flow. I'm also going to try to bend back the cedesius, but not sure if the carbon is compromised by the Jeff Cup crash. I do like the specialized toupe, so maybe I'll look into getting another one, but a white one instead of black.

Great group ride today with NCVC. I think I burned the one match I have the days on Anglers hill. It was tough with my heart rate around 184-186 on the way up, but I was hanging kind of close to the front, but definitely couldn't hang with the first 3-4 guys crushing it.

Here is the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11770464

Recovery? Do these work?

I've found myself in this weird routine of running once or twice during the week and riding once or twice on the weekend. The running is more of a pounding on my legs than I remember and biking once a week for 50 miles is well, interesting. I think one ride, relatively tough/long, once a week does little to retain your fitness and a lot to keep you fatigued. It's this mix of...I used to ride over 150-200 miles/week, so sure I can ride 50 miles, but I'm only doing it once a week, so my legs are kind of fried afterward from getting their weekly shock to the system.

With my legs being sore after the runs and my looking to next year where I'm going to some how be a competitive bike racer while training for a half-ironman (don't see how that is going to happen, I mean the being competitive at bike racing when I'm also swimming and running), I explored the option of getting some recovery tights. Cezanne kind of laughed and said she could get me some cheap hospital ones that would probably be better than anything I bought. Maybe she could have, but you know how it goes for cyclist, nothing that is cheap is good???

So last night they came in the mail. I had heard that it would take about 10 minutes the first time to get the recovery tights on. It took me 9 minutes, but I wasn't rushing. Since they have graduated compression, getting them on around your feet/ankles is the hardest part. I was a little hesitant because I didn't want to rip them, but they held up.

So, I was strutting around the house last night in these tights with Cezanne laughing at me (just a little bit). I decided to wear them to bed, just to see if I could sleep in them. I was up at 3am and restless which is not out of the ordinary for me, but my left foot was in pain. The material was really digging into the soft tissue on the outside of my left foot towards the heel. I got out of bed and it was painful to walk. I think this is the opposite of the desired outcome! The rest of my legs felt good though. I still have some tenderness in that area, so I have to figure out what happened and why the material was pinching down so hard. This was something I really wasn't interested in investigating at 3am, I just wanted to take them off.

I did a great group ride last Sunday, led by my teammates Siggy and Nate H. We had about 8-10 folks, which is a good size. It was fun and felt good, but I was definitely hurting on some of the hills and later portions. Here is the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11308512

Similar ride this Sunday, looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak in an early Saturday morning ride too before heading to work.

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go

My long bike rides have been taking place on Sunday. This is part function that Sunday is the only day I don't work and although I only work from about 10-3pm on Saturdays I wind up pretty drained (probably the accumulation of fatigue from the week) from the 13-14 hour work days Monday through Friday.

Last Saturday was no different and I was looking forward to Sunday since the Sunday before that I was able to get in a 47 mile ride. Rain was in the forecast for the afternoon, so I got ready to leave around 9:30am. As I got outside, it started pouring rain. I turned back around and put my feet up on the couch.

I checked the weather and the thunderstorms looked like they would be around for a while and more were forecasted for later in the day, so I knew it was going to be a day inside on the trainer. With this in mind, I was no rush to hop on the trainer, so like any normal cyclist, I laid around the house in my cycling spandex. The only thing worse would be to lay around in just the bib shorts with no jersey. It's scientifically proven that that outfit combo is the least attractive of any ever worn.

Poor bike, all ready to go and all you'll see is the trainer. I do think it's time for at least a new rear tire. The Sunday when I did the 47 mile ride some of the roads were a little wet and when I got out of the saddle on some of the climbs, the tire would lose traction and slip with each pedal stroke.

I'm not really doing any sort of specific training now on the bike, just trying to maintain a little bit of cycling fitness. I have been running during the week. I did my first 5 mile run in a really long time last Tuesday. I take my bike computer with me so I can get the mileage, heart rate and pace data. The Garmin 705 is chunky to carry, but it's not too bad. The run is here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/10487293. It was a pretty slow run, but all of mine are. I'm just trying to get my legs used to it again. This Tuesday I signed up to do a Half-Ironman next June... My younger brother Jon did it this year and he convinced me to sign up. Should be interesting.

My right achilles tendon has been overly sore after that 5 mile run, so this morning I found a running route that is less hilly and hopefully I can train my legs on it as I'm starting out. The route I was running took me along Massachusetts Ave, which goes by the Vice President's House and the way back up is a constant 4-6% gradient, which wasn't working well with my achilles tendon I guess.

I'm hoping to get a ride in this weekend before work on Saturday and then a long one on Sunday. We'll see.

Finally went for a long ride

I'm working 6 days a week now, 13-14 hours per day Monday-Friday and only about 5 hours on Saturday. I've been trying to ride both Saturday and Sunday and run twice during the week, but sometimes I don't get in both rides on the weekend. I was tired from the week I guess when I got home on Saturday, after work and a haircut (had to get it cut before my promotion ceremony next week) I didn't have a ride in me.

Cezanne and I watched the last hour and a half of the Mont Ventoux stage in the Tour de France (yeah, she's the best) and then watched a movie.

Today I was able to get in a 47 mile ride out to Berryville Rd before my Mom drove out and visited from Annapolis. I felt alright, but kept the pace pretty easy the whole time so I would be certain it wouldn't be painful to finish the ride given I haven't ridden much lately and when I do it's usually between 20-30 miles. The only thing is that I was a little dehydrated by the end and should have stopped half-way through to refill my water bottles.

I took the above pics out on Berryville Rd. It's beautiful out there. The below pic is of my "arm coolers." It was 85 degrees today and is late July in Washington D.C. so it wasn't a cool day. I mainly use these for sun protection, they are SPF 30 and allegedly they are supposed to keep you cooler than your own skin, but that's up for debate.



Here is the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9842836

New Rock Creek Park Loop World Record

Or so I thought...

It's not exactly a "World" record, or a National record, or State or City or Neighborhood or Street or Apartment building record. It's my own personal record time on a loop I like in Rock Creek Park (RCP), and I thought I set my new record last Sunday.

This year has been interesting, from what I think was really good cycling form and being part of a cycling team and riding with some great people to falling off the face of the cycling earth.

Although I've identified the testosterone problem, my temporary assignment to Capitol Hill has relegated all of my riding to just the weekend and given that sometimes we have other things to do on the weekends, sometimes no cycling at all. I'm ashamed to admit (to fellow cyclists) that I've actually started running during the week because it's the only way to get a cardio workout in given the 7am to 8or9pm work schedule (which means I'm not home or able to work out from about 6:30am to about 8:30pm on average). I've not only started running because it is more convenient than cycling, but my younger bro has challenged me to do a half-ironman triathlon next year. If it weren't for the swimming and running it would be right up my alley. Nevertheless, it's a good challenge.

Back to my attempt at the "World" (Chris) Record. I used to usually only ride in RCP during the week because I would typically ride around rush hour and the area I bike in RCP is pretty light on traffic. I've found that it's too convenient to pass up on the weekends and again, you just don't have to deal with many cars. The loop starts at the bottom of the hill near the intersection of Broad Branch Rd NW and Ridge Rd NW. From Ridge Rd you go right onto Ross Dr NW and then at the stop sign make a right then another right onto Beach Dr NW. On the weekend, Beach Dr NW is blocked coming onto Broad Branch Rd NW, so you have to take the little paved path back to the start.

This weekend I decided to give the loop a hard go, even though my legs didn't feel all that great and I had been biking once, twice or no times over the preceeding weekends and running during the week. I turned in a 10:33. I was surprised. I thought I had beat my old record of 10:45, which I would have if that had been my record. Looking back at my data, my record was 10:29 back in early April. Ugh! Well, still surprising I came that close after my lack of riding for the past few months. I did another loop in 10:37 which I was happy with too. During the 10:33 lap my heart rate averaged 172 bpm and topped out at 180 bpm. I didn't wear a heart rate monitor on the ride I did a 10:29, but in March I rode a 10:54 with an average heart rate of 158 bpm. That's kind of interesting.

So, I had a good ride and it made me miss riding.

Here is the ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9178619

New Giro Helmets at the TdF

Giro debuted some new helmets in Stage 7 of the Tour de France. Not cool. The actually look goofy and old school. Is it a joke? Maybe they have some other advantage. Weight? Cooling airflow? Incredibly strong?

I think Lance figured they looked goofy and switched back to his Giro Ionos model for Stage 8. How's that for an endorsement? The Ionos is a sweet helmet.

Here is Lance and Levi on Stage 8, Lance switched back to the Ionos, Levi with the new model:

http://tour-de-france.velonews.com/photo/94947

Here is Astana with the new helmets on Stage 7, including Lance. Garmin was also in the new helmets.

http://velonews.com/photo/94888

And here is a single shot of Alberto in the new helmet:

http://velonews.com/photo/94876

And no, I haven't designed anything better, just my opinion that the Ionos is a better looking helmet, that's it.

My New Office/Jersey and pics of the lab report

Above pic is part of my view from my new work desk. The best view are the pics of Cezanne and I. I have to put up a couple of cycling pics too. Nothing like some good pics of guys in tight spandex.

I don't know why I look surprised in this pic, I took it. You get a good shot of my receding hairline and impeccable sense of style. Actually, the style part is shown below.

I have some of my titanium dioxide sunscreen on my lips in the above pic. It turns everything it touches a pale pinkish/white. I guess I have to accept that rather than my skin itching for a week when I use "regular" sunscreen.

I got this Assos jersey last week, half price from Competitive Cyclist. It's Assos' bottom of the line jersey, but still retails for $170. I have a few Assos items and love them all. This medium jersey is a perfect fit. The material is a little thin, so you can easily see the bib straps, but I'll take it. My goal at some point is to purchase the Assos top of the line bib shorts...but I'll wait until the winter sale (hopefully there is one) since they retail for $360.

Below is part of the blood work I got done showing the low testosterone level (noted by the "L" next to the number) and the normal range for males. I hope I'm still a male! I think I said this in my last post, but the range is so wide because testosterone decreases as men age and maybe there's a lot of variability in the population. Right now, 151 is about 25% of the testosterone level I should have.

Also, just so my fellow cyclists didn't think I was pulling their chain about my hematocrit level, I posted that pic below. What is interesting, besides the high value, is that the range they have goes to 52%, when the World Anti-Doping Agency (or maybe it's the UCI), sets a 50% limit for cyclists (or maybe every athlete).

Like I said in my previous post, I've seen my values before around 42 and 47. Hematocrit is apparently affected by a ton of factors...genetics, altitude, training fatigue... The one explanation I have is that my blood was drawn a week or 2 after coming back from a week long vacation in Utah at Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Maybe the little bit of altitude training cause a small jump when I got back down to sea level. I honestly have no idea if that's how it's supposed to work, I'm totally guessing. Even so, I don't think Zion and Bryce are located at a very high elevation.

Additional pics of the jersey below.

Diagnosis: Low Testosterone

My younger brother Jon (on the right) did the Eagleman Half-Ironman Triathlon this past Sunday.  I made the trip over to Cambridge, MD to see him do the event, really cool.  They had a great set-up, it was a great day, and Jon completed his FIRST half-ironman triathlon.  That's us above after the event.

Above pic is Jonnie in the last 200 yards of the 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run adventure.

Cezanne's new Prius!  Doing our part to stimulate the economy and not stimulate the environment.

Bono is taking a nap, a pup after my own heart.

Cezanne's family: Bro Ryan, Step-Mom Sarah, Dad Dave, her and me.  This was us during her Grandma's 80th birthday weekend about an hour north of Pittsburgh.

Now, onto the subject of this post.  I have my testosterone levels checked about twice a year or more often if I feel it necessary, given how I'm feeling.  My body doesn't produce much of the stuff given my bilateral testicular cancer, so I have to supplement my body with it by rubbing gel on my shoulders and stomach every morning.  Males need testosterone to maintain normal energy levels, libido and longer term: deep voice and lean muscle amongst a bunch of other things.  Malaise or depression is also a symptom of low testosterone.

So, my level was 151 from the blood that was drawn on May 27th.  Normal range for males is 280 - 800.  Testosterone fades as you age...but right now I don't even have the testosterone of an 80 year-old man (I'm guessing).  When I look back on the past few months, I remember I had been complaining of being overly tired to my wife Cezanne.  When the Endocrinologist asked how I was feeling I said more tired than usual, but gave the excuse that I had just got back from a week long vacation of hiking, biking, etc.  When I think back to the cycling season, there was a point when my performance and desire to compete dropped off, possibly coinciding with my testosterone level.

I talked with the Doc today and I'll get my blood drawn tomorrow to verify the reading.  During my cancer treatments, they took a baseline testosterone level (before the surgery that left my body without the ability to produce the necessary levels normally).  That reading was 610.  Since being on the replacement testosterone my levels have fluctuated, but we've normally been able to keep the levels between 500-700.  It's tough though because after a while it seems like the same dose isn't providing the same level.  Maybe external factors play a part.  I don't think it's an issue with how I've recently been putting it on.  My wife says I'm the "model" patient because I put it on at basically the same time every day and never miss a dose.

Maybe the tiredness and loss of desire to compete are in my head and the reading I take tomorrow will be normal, but it would definitely help explain things a bit.  Working 13 hours a day at the new job isn't helping the tiredness either.

I also got a CBC (complete blood count) taken and on the bright side, my Hematocrit (HCT) level was 49.1.  Nice!  I'm almost illegal by anti-doping standards, which is anything over 50.  I've seen mine before at around 43 and 47.

Besides all this, things are going well.  The new job hasn't been too crazy yet, but I typically work 7am-8pm Monday through Friday.  Most permanent employees come in the office work Saturdays too and some even come in on Sundays depending on the workload.  Capitol Hill is an interesting place and it's got it's own set of strange rules and language that I'm starting to learn.

I got up at 4am one Tuesday morning, so I could ride the trainer from 4-5am before getting ready for work, but I didn't enjoy that.  Riding the trainer at the end of a 13 hour day, on a full stomach wasn't fun either.  So, my riding has been limited to the weekends which isn't too great for getting/staying in racing shape and for that matter, neither does my low testosterone level and general feeling of fatigue.

I signed up for a 3 stage/2 day race this weekend that I was really looking forward to, but I'm not going to be able to do it.  I've signed up for 2 more races this year, both in July and I hope I get to do them.  I'm kind of writing this season off and hope to be able to dedicate more time to riding next year.  It's a bummer because I think this year started with a lot of promise.

These long work hours will last until the end of December, then I hope to resume some good winter training.  But, I actually don't know where Cezanne and I will be living!  I took this temporary assignment and thought I'd be going back to the job I had before (since I was scheduled to be in that position from November 2008 to November 2011), but someone was ordered into my position.  So, I'll have to negotiate with my detailer for a new set of orders.  We are hoping we'll stay in D.C. for at least the next 2 years.

Cezanne and I just had our 2-year anniversary on June 17th.  We're going out to a nice dinner this weekend.  She's been absolutely awesome while I've been working these hours.  She's typically up helping me get out the door in the morning and then making dinner for when I get home.  She's a sweetheart and doing most everything lately!

Long blog post...but I haven't had much time to write lately.  I don't have the energy right now to go back and check for grammar errors, so oh well!

My new favorite photo angle

Yesterday I did my 2nd 13-hour day in a row. Basic working hours for me are 7am-8pm. Most difficult thing right now is learning the Congressional language and what all the different procedural measures mean.

The above pic is of me at my desk watching the TV we have in the office, which is usually on the House proceedings. There were a few votes yesterday that the Legislative staff was briefing the Congressman on.

I'm still trying to figure out when I'm going to be able to workout and ride my bike when I'm getting up at 5am and going home in time to eat a late dinner and go to bed. I haven't done anything in the way of riding or the gym this week, at all.

JW asked why I was wearing a suit to work. Those are the rules for Legislative Fellows, no uniform, civilian clothes the entire time.

I'm thinking about Toon right now and his wedding to Michelle this weekend. Cezanne and I are really bummed that we couldn't make it. If we would have kept our original plans and airline tickets, we would be in Michigan right now. We'll just have to make other plans to see them when this "deployment" is over.

First 12+ hour day at the new job

That's me on the Metro on the way home today.  First day with the Congressman in the office tomorrow.  Not a good day to be late...but, I have to pick up my parking pass and that office doesn't open up until 7:30am.

The rest of June is supposed to be really busy, July too.

Luck

Found this yesterday on a walk with Cezanne and our dog Bono.

I'm off for a week vacation with high school buds, RVing, Camping, and hiking in Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.

Happy Birthday to me

It would be nice if my birthday gift every year was to ride with a pro cyclist. Better yet would be an annual ride with Lance. I haven't posted this picture on my blog yet, but I know I've circulated it.

Thanks to Bob Cullinan from www.cycleto.com for the pic from the 2008 San Jose LiveStrong Ride. I'll have to post this picture once or twice a year to remind myself of this incredible experience.

Yesterday was my birthday, but Cezanne and I are celebrating it tonight. Having her as my wife is gift enough, but she decided to renew my "Bicycling" subscription as well as get me a massage for this Saturday. It's been a long time.

It was supposed to be sunny all afternoon yesterday. Turned out it wasn't. I still made it out for a ride in Rock Creek Park. It was decent. The rain stopped, so I just had to deal with the spray coming of the tires.

The deer were out in full force yesterday. There were packs of them all over. I stopped less than 10 feet from one and it just sat there staring at me. I thought for a minute it was either going to run away or come after me... I snapped the above pic, but it doesn't do it justice. By the time I pulled up my vest, got into my pocket, took my phone out of the plastic sandwich bag...the deer had made it's way across the street.

The Manayunk Wall. Cezanne used to live in Manayunk and is familiar with the "wall" as they call it. I think it's part of the Philly week races and the cyclists do the wall several times. Last time we were in Philly she saw this cool piece of art and she decided to get it (while I was driving from the Ephrata RR to Philly).

JW previously posted a video link to a guy doing a one-handed wheelie up the Manayunk wall:

http://jwbender.blogspot.com/2009/04/you-wish-you-were-this-cool-i-wish-i.html

Jeff Cup to Bunny Hop: Good to Awful

So the bike racing season goes for me: Good to Awful.

I don't know what I'm doing. I've gone from being in the top 6 or 7 heading into the last 50 feet of Jeff Cup (before 2 guys crashed a few feet in front of me and ended my top 10 finish) to getting dropped and lapped at Bunny Hop, a self proclaimed "good crit for beginners." Pathetic really.

I'm actually chuckling to myself right now (and shaking my head). Things have been off since last Thursday, starting with tired legs, but I was still able to post respectable top third finishes in the Tour de Ephrata RR and TT (not so much in the crit).

Maybe crits aren't my thing, but still, I usually have no problem hanging in and giving it a go even. It was raining pretty heavily today and I can honestly say that I cornered like I was 8 and it was my 5th ride on a bike. I consistently lost ground at every turn and it eventually became a TT on every straight-away to try and catch up to the main group. In the end it wasn't doable.

I didn't use my bike computer for the race. I'm sure it would have been fine, but I didn't want to chance getting any water into the Garmin 705 head unit with the heavy rain. Maybe in retrospect I just wasn't too excited for this race and that manifested itself in more ways than not using my computer.

I wasn't too upset at the end and managed a smile for Cezanne. She, of course, was being a really supportive wife and out there in the rain cheering me on...and watching me drift further and further back. She also put up with my slight grumpiness on the drive over to the crit. This has been the closest race to our place, but leave it to downtown DC to always have stuff closed off! We had to detour, u-turn, backtrack because the police had shut down what seemed like random streets.

So, I'm not sure where this leaves me and racing. I'm scheduled to race next Saturday (May 9) at the Fort Ritchie Criterium. After that I leave for a week long trip to go RVing, camping and hiking with my best highschool buds out in Zion National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. I'm out of town Memorial Day weekend as well as the weekend of June 6/7 (Toon's wedding!!!), so it's possible that after the race on May 9, I might not race until the Tour of Washington County on June 20-21, which is a stage race like Ephrata.

The possibility exists to do a the Fulton Road Race in Lancaster County, PA on May 30, but not sure about that weekend yet.

So I'm thinking I should try to bury myself with a tough week of training this week (if I can muster it) and not worry about a result in the Fort Ritchie Crit and then use this next week's trip as a rest week and start things from there.

Including the 2 crits I did in San Diego last year, the 3 Tradezone practice races at the beginning of this year, today was my 10th mass start, so I could put in for my upgrade to Cat 4. I'm still undecided if I'll put it in soon or after the last race of the season and then just start fresh as a Cat 4 next year.


On Saturday Cezanne and I visited 2 Embassies in DC as part of the Passport to DC event. The 2 closest Embassies to our place were Iraq and Nepal, so we decided to walk to both. The line to get into the Iraqi Embassy was so long we went to Nepal first. Above is my gorgeous wife outside of the Nepal Embassy.


We learned that Nepal is bordered by India on 3 sides and China on the other. They served some curried potatoes with some sort of dry rice cereal. It was good!


We worked our way back around to the Iraq Embassy and the line was about half the size. Above pic is of the line.


Yup, this is the Embassy. We went through a metal detector and on in. They had some old artifacts and a brochure with the history of Iraq and a ton of photos of the Iraqi troops working with US troops.


Out back they did a little Iraqi dancing and they had Iraqi food. The dancing and food was surprisingly like Greek dancing and food.

On the way home we walked a different way than we had ever been and approached the National Cathedral from a different angle.

More Ephrata pics...and "I got dropped"

Found some more photos from the Tour de Ephrata. The links are to the website, the photographer doesn't allow downloading.

TT

http://mlkimages.smugmug.com/gallery/7892276_jdpFp#521856145_3CaMn

http://mlkimages.smugmug.com/gallery/7892276_jdpFp#521851311_Nq3J7

Road Race

http://mlkimages.smugmug.com/gallery/7892264_jqmLT#520933573_hgHrA

http://mlkimages.smugmug.com/gallery/7892264_jqmLT#520996584_4tB7e


I also got my picture posted on the "you got dropped" blog. It's a blog where the owner puts photos of riders who got dropped in racing from the previous weekend. I thought it would be funny if I sent in my own photo, so I did.

http://yougotdropped.blogspot.com/2009/04/back-to-action-or-back-to-non-action.html

My legs are starting to feel a little more recovered. It was weird how dead they felt this week and going into the Tour de Ephrata race. This week's training has been real easy, on purpose. I did easy spins on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, then did a little bit more of an effort today, but nothing tough.

I was riding in Rock Creek Park today and saw my teammate David Kirkpatrick. He banged a u-turn and we wound up riding a few laps together. It was a good time and nice to have someone to talk to. My cornering was sucking (it was a bit wet and I was being a wimp), but I got some good advice from Dave.

Tomorrow I'll just do an easy 30-45 minute spin to loosen the legs up before the crit on Sunday.

Tour de Ephrata 2009 Cat 4/5 Full Report

Thanks to Jim Wilson for this photo above (and the last photo in this posting). Not only does he provide great images at http://images.jameswilson.com/ but he also has a blog with a great write-up of the scene around the weekend, especially the area of the road race: http://blog.jamesrwilson.com/

All the links to each Garmin race file are at the end of this posting. They show the actual course ridden on a google map, elevation, heart rate, speed, and lap data. Now to the post.

Plan much? That is what I should be asking myself right now.

Logistically, this weekend was a disaster. I feel bad for Cezanne because I was pretty darn grumpy on Sunday night unpacking all my race stuff and putting my cycling gear away.

I don’t ever want to get up at 4:30am on a Saturday and 4:40am on a Sunday and put my body through 3 bike races.

I did the Tour de Ephrata Category 4/5 Stage Race this weekend.

This was my first foray into competing in more than one race on a weekend. I was nervous going in about how my legs would feel on the 2nd and 3rd stage, but tried not to think about it too much. My results are in my post below, but I’ll recap: Road Race – 19th, TT – 18th, Crit – 40th. That equates to 28th overall on points.

Last week on Tuesday I had one of the best interval workouts I’ve ever had (on the trainer). It was really hard, but I felt strong. I think I spun the legs easy for 30-45 minutes on Wednesday then set out on Thursday to do an hour and a half medium effort ride. My legs were completely flat. I tooled around somewhere between a recovery ride and a medium effort ride. My legs felt like they had no snap and that feeling wasn’t encouraging for the weekend.

Cezanne left for Philly (visiting old nursing school friends) on Friday afternoon and after I got home from work I headed from DC to Annapolis to my Mom’s to drop of our dog, Bono, have dinner and sleep on the pull-out sofa.

I woke up at 4:30am on Saturday and got out of the house around 5:40-5:50am. My Mom was nice enough to get up with me and help with breakfast. I got to Lititz, PA (seriously, funny name, French I think…), the site of the Road Race, around 7:50am. I proceeded to wait in the line to pick up our race numbers (photo above) from 7:55-8:35am. Man, that was rough. So after I got all my gear on and headed out for a 5-10 minute warm-up and rode the last kilometer of the course. Our 9:02am start time was delayed (probably to allow for the long lines), so we all sat around at the start line for a bit.

We got underway and the pace was relatively easy at first. I was somewhere towards the back, as I usually am (I know, I know, it’s not the place to be). The pace picked up and I could really feel it in my legs. I was already fighting. The first incident was on the steepest and longest climb of the course. You can see it on the elevation tab of the Garmin race file. Somebody dropped their chain and took about 3-5 people with them.

I was able to go around and the mad chase to get back on ensued. I worked with Grayson (can’t remember the last name) from Bike Rack to get back on, but it wasn’t easy. Looking at the heart rate tab I see that I hit 192 bpm on that chase (it’s the biggest blip on the chart). I usually only approach that in a full on, worked-up, sprint. That’s a new high for me.

I eventually latched back on, but honestly, the rest of the race I was teetering on the verge of being dropped. The course was actually really nice in a beautiful area. There were a ton of turns for a road race and a decent amount of rollers. Wound up being just over 700 feet of climbing per 13-mile lap. Nothing too crazy, but not pancake flat. The only criticism I have is that about half of the turns had gravel on them. That’s just not fun, they should have swept them. Other than that and the long lines to pick up numbers, it was a really nice setup, complete with regular restrooms and timely results reporting. I guess it was timely, this is the only race where I’ve ever checked the results at the venue!

Above photo credited to Linc Brookes: http://linc.zenfolio.com/ Like Jim Wilson, a father of some of our Juniors. We're all lucky to have so many quality photographers at these events!

As the race went on, my plan developed into staying with the lead group if I could, then wait for people to fade in the run-in to the finish line and gain just a few spots that way. Things were going as planned until I was caught behind another crash of 3 guys at the 1k to go sign. At that point there was no getting back on the train, so I rolled into the finish in 19th spot. That is a better result than my legs felt.

After that I cooled down, waved to an Amish boy outside his house and briefly chatted with an Amish guy (probably mid 20s) who had his scooter (non-motorized of course) out and was watching the races. As a side note, we actually passed a horse and buggy during the Road Race, it was kind of cool. I saw a few more on the way to Philly that afternoon (photo taken below as I was driving up on one). Above photo is of another race at the start/finish. I chilled for a bit after the RR and ate a couple of hotdogs as I watched the other races.


A note about the centerline rule: The motorcycle official patrolling behind the main group was really getting on people about the centerline rule. I’m not sure if he booted anybody for it, but if someone stayed out there for more than 2-3 seconds, he would call them out and bring them to the back of the pack where they would have to “start over” in their quest to get to the front. I have to say that I don’t disagree with this. I know it’s a pain and there isn’t much room to maneuver and get ahead, but he also doesn’t want someone getting killed by an oncoming car.

I hung out with Cezanne once I got to Philadelphia. We went to 3 different spots (a restaurant and 2 houses) and eventually got to bed around 10:30pm. I woke up wide awake at 3:08am. I fell asleep again at some point…probably just as my 4:40am alarm went off. I forget when Cezanne and I left Philly, but we had a 70-mile drive ahead of us to get to the Time Trial start.




I’m glad we drove separately at that point because I was getting a little nervous/frustrated because my gas light was on for the last 10 miles of the trip and we were getting there after 7am, for a 7:22am start time. Can’t remember when we got there, but I just remember it was after 7 and hectic getting ready. I rolled up to the start house around 7:17am, with just the minute and a half warm-up from the bike over to the start house (photo above, white tent in the distance).




I used my road bike (don’t have a TT bike), but I put on clip-on aero bars and a TT friendly seat. In retrospect, I wouldn’t have used the clip-on aero bars and then wouldn’t need the aero seat. They probably added an extra pound and my knees hit the elbow pads when I was climbing out of the saddle, which I did a lot of in the 2nd half of the TT. My left leg tends to get numb and not produce much power if I’m in a leaned over or aero position for a while (protruding disk in my lower back), so it's sort of a welcome change to get out of that position.

My plan for the TT was to keep my heart rate around 168-170 bpm. No real reason other than I thought that is what I could probably hold for it and that has been about my race average this year. I kept it pretty close to that on the first half (the flat and rolling section) and then the last uphill half I was closer to averaging 175 I think. That last half is tough, especially the last third! The first big hill is really steep (photo above, credit to Linc Brookes). I was in my lowest gear 39-25 and was out of the saddle. After that, you get a quick break and think the pain is over, then road heads uphill again. The next section isn’t as steep (I thought), but it didn’t matter, the first steep section softened you up enough to make it feel like the first section all over again.

Linc Brookes was taking photos on that steep first section. You can see my 30 second man behind me in the pic above. I caught him about mile 4-5 out of 8 I think.

There is a short flat part before the finish line. I forgot to stop my computer until about a minute after I finished, not a big deal. I turned in a time of 28’10” which was good enough for 18th. I’m not sure if I could have done better if I would have had a solid warm-up. My average heart rate wound up being exactly 170 bpm.

Above pic is of my cool down...sweet tan lines. Also, I don't have 2 sets of our team kit yet, so I hand washed the kit on Saturday night in the bathroom sink and at the time of the TT it was sitting in the car drying, so I could wear it in the crit. For the TT I wore last year's jersey (a hand-me down) and Garmin shorts.

Cezanne took the above photo. It's of the area near the TT.

Above photo is one Cezanne took of the TT parking lot.

On to the Crit!!! I was not super excited about the Crit. The lack of sleep and the sluggish legs were all coming to a head. I decided to stick it out and finish the stage race (barring any serious crash or getting yanked).

Guess what? I actually got in a decent warm-up for the Crit! After Cezanne and I had some food, I hopped on the trainer for about 25 minutes. So, I got my worst result in the one race I got to warm-up for! It wasn’t that, I just think it was the cumulative effect of the past 2 stages, my sluggish legs going into the weekend and my extremely poor position at the back of the group during the Crit.

The Crit course was actually pretty nice. It was wide except for turn 2, which was the only turn which was a little bit tricky. There was a nice downhill to an uphill before the turn, then a little more of an uphill crest after the turn. This was the first race of the season where I got dropped from the lead group for lack of fitness. I know my positioning had a lot to do with it, but that’s how I usually ride, so that kind of cancels itself out.

Above photo credited to Jim Wilson. Thank you again! The photo shows the stragglers and dropped riders.

I think about half-way through is when I popped. On the heart rate tab of that file you can see the difference in the first and 2nd half of the crit. We eventually established a group of about 10-15 (I think) dropped riders. I was spent and I did zero work to keep us from getting lapped, so I did absolutely nothing to try to gain any spots when we came to the finish line. Wound up 40th out of 43. Not good.

Over the course of the Tour de Ephrata, there was some attrition, probably a little bit due to crashes and a little bit from people not wanting to continue. Our 4/5 field went from 59 in the Road Race, to 49 in the TT, to 43 in the Crit.

Garmin race files below, complete with maps of the stages. The Road Race and Crit have laps, so you can click the "splits" button in the upper right of the page to see that data. Halfway down on the page are the tabs for the heart rate, elevation and speed data. Most interesting is probably the elevation data for the TT.

Road Race: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/4340573

Time Trial: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/4340564

Crit: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/4340552