TDF 3

Stage 3 in a nut shell. Fabian hauls Andy butt through the Hell of the North and still gets the Yellow jersey back. That's a hugely deserved reward for being a team player. Frank Scleck hit the deck hard and is out, but Andy rode really well to get a bunch of time back from Contador. And don't forget Cadel Evans, who did his fair share of the work to help drive the winning break, instead of wheel sucking as he could have. I guess that rainbow jersey has changed his style for the better. He looked strong. What got me about today's stage was how Andy Schleck wanted everyone to know that he's a good bike handler and seemed miffed when people show surprise at how well he rode instead of just saying thanks. Maybe he really thinks he can knock out a bear with just one punch! I glad Thor got the win after yesterday's mess of a finish. He kind of deserved it.

Update 7/5/2010

Not a lot to report here these days, not now that I'm actually back to doing a real job again. Boy, a genuine paycheck is going to be weird again. But, I think I can handle it. Especially now that I will be married again. Next Sunday, July 11th, L and I will be getting hitched at Valentinis on London Road. I think it's a very cool venue for a wedding and party, since we aren't doing a big, traditional wedding, but more of a quick ceremony, dinner, and music. I let L handle all of the details and I will just enjoy the ride. It should be a great time.

The Tour is underway and its start out with a bang. Or should I say multiple crashes. My boy Fab C was visibly upset with today's stage and even gave stern orders to stop the sprint as to let everyone cruise home with the same time. I guess with a name like Spartacus, he carries some serious weight in the peloton. I didn't time bar the late arrivals and canceled all but Sylvain Chavanel's points and awarded him the yellow jersey. Thor Hushovd was pissed at that, saying it wasn't Cancellera's place to decide the bunch finishing at the same time. Chris Horner said the stage was stupid and the Tour organizers got what they deserved. Mixed emotions seemed to rule the day.

As for me, I haven't been riding a lot, what with the new job and some weird health problems of my own, along with my father, who has got Temporal Arteritis and other age related problem. I've been spending time at the hospital and now at my folks home now that he is out. Mine passed after a few days, but dad's haven't. He seems to be giving up, but that's not like him. I suppose at almost 80 years of age, it's tough to fight back. I think he will though, being of good Norwegian stock.

Dirt Spanker 2010

The 2010 Dirt Spanker at Mont Du Lac was a real mess-a muddy mess. We got there for the start of the last race and it was already over. I guess with the wet weather they must have shortened the races. A couple of guys said they quit after a lap because the couldn't shift or brake. They pretty much just stalled out due to drive train jamb. The line at the water hoses for clean-up was epic. I'm just glad I didn't race. I didn't see too many smiling faces afterward.

EPOC

Wow, This nasty saddle sore is finally going away. Until you've had one, you don't know what a pain in the ass (sic) it really is. But, that's what I get for turning a short ride into a long ride without the proper preparations. I'm going to give it a go today for a short ride in Hartley Field. I've been riding pretty much solo because I am just too slow and have been having a lot of low blood sugar episodes. Plus, I can't climb worth a dam at the present.

Ok, you may have-or may not have- noticed I haven't done much road biking this year. Frankly, it's part vanity and part that I think I'm too heavy for the road at this time. Yes, I packed on the pounds since last summer. if you want a sure-fire formula for weight gain, just try this: Eat too much, too often, at the wrong times, of the wrong foods. Add in too many social occasions that feature alcohol and rich foods. Sammy's Pizza at 11:00 p.m. is a killer. Hey, love is blind, and I guess a bit undisciplined.

Where's this tale of progress turned tragedy going. Yes, spring 2009 I was getting a divorce, riding my bikes a ton, and getting fit. Like many, I started strong in the early season, but wasn't on the right plan to sustain my fitness gains and weight loss. 30 lbs dropped like a hot rock, my average speeds in the same route shot up, everything looked rosy. Now it's looks more like Rosey O'Donnell. Why? The wrong everything. Eating, riding, recovery, all wrong.

In his book RACING WEIGHT-How to Get Lean for Peak Performance, Matt Fitzgerald spells out how elite and not so elite endurance athletes find out the what's and how's of getting to their optimum racing weight. I bought the book a couple of days ago and can't put it down. It's a gold mine of information, all backed by current cited studies and facts, no fad diet plans designed to sell books and pre-packaged meals. He also disproves some of the long standing "truths" we cyclists live by, such as high volume-low intensity will burn off excess fat the quickest, high protein-low carb also is the ultimate diet to get lean, and my favorite, the trap I fall into, is that you can ride without much in the way of carbs on board will get your fat burning mechanism going. I just bonk, then have to suck down gels and really screw up my ride and that of those I'm with.

So where does this leave an insulin-dependent diabetic as far as eating. The less carbs consumed means the less insulin I have to inject. That's a given. So how do I get more carbs stored for long rides. Take more insulin. That's a fact of diabetic life and for now I'm stuck with it. Don't cry for me, Argentina, it's not that bad. Millions do it every day and there is an upside. It's the best thing we have for glucose control and doesn't have much in the way of side effects. A diabetic athlete just has to be more vigilant and cautious with dosage. You must also carry the proper fast-acting glucose sources at all times.

So what does EPOC mean and have to do with all of this? To me as a diabetic, it means everything. Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption is the effect of keeping the inner calorie burning mechanism stocked. I have noticed this effect in the past and have commented on how my blood sugar stays in control long after my ride has stopped, and the longer I ride, the longer the effect. Fitzgerald's book explains the phenomena in that your base metabolism is boosted about 10% of the calories burned during a workout for the length of that workout afterwards. If you burned a thousand calories per hour for say four hours, then you'd burn an extra 100 calories an hour for four hours after the end of the workout. Now I know I wasn't wrong about it as others have disagreed that EPOC is a real thing. I just no know it has a scientific notation attached to it.

I'm going to start to put some of the basic principles of this book into practice and will report what happens as I go.

Willow

This is our new cat, Willow. He's a blue point Siamese we got from my brother yesterday. Our other Siamese, Pieper, doesn't quite know what to make of him yet, but she'll come around. She's been lonely since the other two left us, so it's only a matter of time until she comes around.

I put in a lot of saddle time the last couple of weeks on my mountain bike. Nice weather was the norm, so one has to take advantage of it. The last couple of days have been taken up be family stuff, but maybe today will allow me an hour or two. One thing that may slow me down is a saddle sore. I haven't had one in 30 years, but after riding Thursday, something felt irritated in the sit bone area. Ouch! is all I can say. One more excuse for being slow, I guess.

Quick Ride, Quick Post

That's the view from the top of a rocky section of the Piedmont trails here in the Duluth. There's some nice flow to this network and that's thanks to the COGGS group that designs and maintains them. If you ride in this area, it's a good chance that they are taking care of the trails you're on. Next chance I get, I will join this fine organization and contribute some time.

I finally gave up the battle over diabetes test equipment. I've been using a One Touch Ultra Smart meter since the start and didn't want to switch, as most others didn't offer alternate sight (non-finger tip) testing . But, my current insurance company, along with many others, has contracted with Bayer to supply test strips, so I dropped my Don Quixote style resistance and got the latest and greatest meter from Bayer, the Contour USB. After a call to Bayer and being satisfied that I could use it on my arm or palm instead of my finger tips, the pharmacy ordered one and I got it the next day. It's a plug-and-play unit, has no battery, charges through the USB port, downloads all test info into your computer with its own built-in software. So far, very nice to use and it's a smaller and a more portable package. It looks like a slightly larger jump drive. What they won't think of.

Weather or Not

So how's the in your neck of the woods. It's supposed to be in the 70's F here for the next 10 days. Perfect riding weather for sure, so let's all take advantage of it. I know I am. This weekend was fabulous, got some MTB rides in on the trails going into Jay Cooke State Park off of the Munger Trail. I hadn't explored them much, but I was on my MTB, so why not give them a try. It was well worth it, nice trails in a great setting.

Matt Fitzgerald wrote a book called Racing Weight aimed at endurance athletes trying to get to optimum body weight for peak performance. I read some excerpts from it and it looks like it would be nice to follow to get lean and faster. The most notable thing I gleaned from what I read was this: For every ten pounds overweight you are, you have to expend 6.5% more energy to do the same effort. This means I have to produce 65% more power than I should to climb the same hill. Scary, to say the least. Not to mention how hard it is on your body to carry that much around on a day to day basis. No wonder I'm so slow on the climbs. This is a proof that the scale doesn't lie, it's proven accurate every time I get on the bike. I ride strong all day on the flats, but once the road goes up, my time does too.

On a final note, we are two more pets down. Spencer, our seal point Siamese cat disappeared over three weeks ago. He went outside in the evening never to return. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Brooklyn the Airedale developed a nose bleed the lasted for about ten hours. We took him to the vet and discovered his blood platelet count was 150. It should be at least 80,000. They gave us some steroids to give him, and he was rechecked a week later. This time he was at a normal count of 143,000. This didn't last long. Last Thursday he was bleeding out again, so we had him put down. L had him for almost ten years and they were inseparable. So first Simon, then Spencer, and now Brooklyn. Poor Piper, Simon's mother, is very lonely now that they're all gone. We may get her a kitten to keep her company and her mind off of the others.