Overall I’m very pleased with my riding this year, especially considering this is my return to the sport after laying off the bike for nearly a decade. My mileage total for the year stands at 3628, not counting the spring trainer miles that I didn’t record. In that total are dozens of club rides and two centuries, including my first-ever sub-six-hour 100-mile ride.
I had a few low points – early-season equipment gremlins and crashing back in September were just plain embarassing, for instance, and in general my bike-handling skills aren’t where they need to be. But I’m looking forward to even better things in 2005. At this point I plan on doing the century distance to Mt. Wachusett, repeating at the Mt. Greylock century and maybe, if the stars align and my knees hold out, the Ride for the Roses in October.
For the coming weeks I’ll grind out some miles on the trainer and sneak some weekend rides when I can. Getting out on the skis has been fun and I hope to do that some more, but I probably won’t be consistent enough to build up much skill (snow being rather unpredictable around here). Spring isn’t that far off…right?
Monthly Archives: December 2004
Indoor trainer session
Had one more trainer session today and drew a little inspiration from Pro– Jamie Paolinetti’s documentary on the 2004 USPRO road championship – which I slid into the DVD player. I was still a little sore from skiing on Tuesday, and my heart rate was a little high for the effort I was putting out (doubtless related to the scratchy throat I’m carrying), but overall I felt pretty good. Of course, I’ve been off the bike for a week so I’m about as well-rested as I get.
Workout:
0:00 – 12:00 Spinup 60 – 120 RPM in 39×19
12:01 – 15:00 Recovery 60 RPM 39×19
15:00 – 19:00 Left ILT 55-60 RPM 53×19
19:01 – 20:00 Recovery
20:01 – 24:00 Right ILT 55-60 RPM 53×19
24:01 – 25:00 Recovery
25:01 – 28:00 Left ILT 50-55 RPM 53×17
28:00 – 29:00 Recovery
29:01 – 33:00 Right ILT 50-55 RPM 53×17
33:01 – 37:00 80-85 RPM 53×19
37:01 – 38:00 Recovery
38:01 – 42:00 80-85 RPM 53×19
42:01 – 44:00 Recovery
44:23 – 45:44 80-85 RPM 53×19 – didn’t have the gas to do another 4min TT
45:44 – 52:59 85-90 RPM 39×17
53:00 – 60:00 cooldown
I started the 4min TTs at ~150 BPM (approx 75% of max) and ended above 180 bpm (90% max) so I was working pretty hard.
Equipment: bottom bracket is still clicking so that’s probably headed for replacement soon.
For Love or Money: the Graphing Calculator story
Ron Avitzur of Pacific Tech has posted the story of how PT’s Graphing Calculator application came to be part of the Mac standard software distribution. The idea of an inventor so seized by an idea that he realizes through sheer force of will is a fairly common one, but this is the first time that I’ve heard of someone sneaking into the company that let him go to make it happen.
Vectored from comp.risks, though Slashdot evidently covered the story last week.
Blog spam with a sense of humor
Here’s a spam message I recently cleaned from another blog entry:
Help stop evil word of mouth marketers like BzzAgent.com by supporting the Blog Publishers Association founded by legendary blogger Jason Calacanis
Obviously somebody’s trying to discredit Jason Calacanis… the Google search results for blogethics show some of the commentary. Whatever. Just stop spamming my blog, OK?
How could they miss “Right Rev?”
Those of us who have done web registration forms know that the name always presents a challenge…especially the honorific. Take a look at British Airways’ solution.
Vectored from The Daily WTF?