mbsbike2002

Stefanie - I was thinking about going down Thursday afternoon - taking the 35 or 44 mile ride on Friday, and the 64 on Saturday. I don't think I'll do the 41 on Sunday. The wife and I can drive around - go have lunch at my cousin's restaurant in Austin & head back for big D. B

In all actuality, I probably won't take up the nicotine habit long-term - just swiped some of the wife's gum to get a quick hit of speed (didn't really work too well anyway). TX - Have you seen this ride: 2008 Easter Hill Country Tour - Easter Weekend: March 21 - 23, 2008 It's Easter weekend, but it looks like a great ride, and kind of a warm-up for MS150 at the beginning of May. I think the wife and I will look into it (if we can find a hotel/B&B that will let us take the dog). Lemme know if you might be up for it. Also, I'll get school wrapped up this weekend. Would you be interested in meeting up for a 25ish mile ride one day next weekend? Woo hoo to all of us for hitting 300 pages... Geez-o-pete, we're a talkative bunch.... B

Mmmm.... I love nanners and peanut butter...

J - Glad to hear that Zoe isn't broken. You qualify for hard core babe status just for being - but hey, running in the rain is good for some extra credit! As for justification -- you need some sexy new, right cup-sized bras to go with the sexy, new, hard-core, running in the rain, you.... Best I can come up with on short notice... B

Thanks J. Sorry to hear that Zoe may need to be on the mend... B

Am so tired that I have made the conscious decision to become addicted to nicotine - Nicorrette is some goooooooood shit.... B

Hey peeps.... It's been an uber-busy week, so little time for biking, bycyling, sleeping, hot showers, masturbating, or just about anything other than taking care of sick doggy and studying... (and eating crappy crapola) Am uber-pissed about finals. First final, yesterday, was nothing like what had been discussed during review. It was supposed to be more qualitative (essay) and was mostly problems, instead. One of the (three) problems could only be completed with spreadsheet software on a PC. Students taking exam on campus can use laptops - students taking exams in absentia cannot. So, much bitching will be in order if the prof doesn't take inconsistent exam policy into account while grading. Other than getting tuition reimbursement from work, I don't really give a fuck right now, but someday, I will. Second final was supposed to be today, but the professor postponed it for a week due to classes being canceled a few weeks ago due to blizzard. I should be happy about it, I might give a fuck next week, but I was ready to be done with it. Dog is on the mend. The vet prescribed Xanax to help take the edge off (it was fun going to CVS to pick up a script for Grumpy. Got a few strange looks). Dogs, like some people can have an rare, but very adverse, side effect called benzodiazepine rage. She spent several hours attacking us and herself. The only thing that seemed to calm her down was throwing her in the car & driving around. I drove 180 miles Monday night to calm her ass down. About 3:00am or so, she just conked out. No more for her (leaves more for me )... I'm taking tomorrow as a vacation day. I'm exhausted. Sleeping may be for wimps, and if so, count my tired ass in. There will be biking this weekend (and likely hot showers, can't say about anything else on the list). Hopefully, not so much on the continued eating of crappy crapola, which to be honest tastes like shit anyway - it's just something to do that requires little energy. B

J - Holy Moly chica - you look wonderful! I hope that you are happy for, and proud of, the changes in your life this past year! Pup is on 2-week bed rest. Hopefully, that will be sufficient; otherwise it's surgery and 3 months bed rest. She's not happy about 3 days rest, so... HP - Glad you got to ride today. High winds suck, huh? Happy Birthday! W - LDN to Wisconsin seems like an incredible culture shock. I also spent the better part of a year in Rochester, MN, so I have some basis for comparison . That's great on the bike ride. An hour is about the top limit for time on a stationary bike for me. It gets a little boring. I did ride the trainer for about and hour and a half last night - lots of beige wall went by. I did get out and ride some of the local county roads today. Chip & Seal sucks. Maybe even more on the recumbent than the upright - can't use the legs as shock absorbers. It was nice, though to be able to ride 5-6 miles at a time without hitting a stop sign or having to deal with traffic. Was very windy here - steady at 25, gusting to 35. Head winds suck - cross winds that strong make for interesting riding - spent a few miles leaned over a little. Got in 15.45 miles - will have a goal of 20 miles per day next weekend. B

W - Congratulations!!!! That's amazing! I noticed from your website that you were born in London. I had the pleasure of living in London for the better part of a year in the late 90s. My time there was wonderful, and I miss it dearly... B

TX - Yep, this weather is weird even for us. Did not get out on the road today. As penance, I will have to ride a little longer on the trainer than I would have on the road. Tomorrow, though, I will be out for a road ride with a goal of at least 5 miles further than I have been riding (less hilly route - 2 stop signs for each 6 mile loop. LC - There are some previous posts about selecting a bike, but in brief... I assume by your doc that you are in Houston area? if so, go to a bike store like Planetary Cycles (Planetary Cycles, Houston TX), or someplace like it. Stay away from big box retailers (walmart, costco, etc.) and from general purpose outdoor stores (REI and the like). You need to get someone who can fit the bike properly. As for seats, a properly fitted bike with the proper seat should help reduce the pain. Just remember, a bigger wedge-shaped seat isn't necessarily better - it may just spread the pain around. Wearing the proper bike clothing is also critical - there's a reason that bicyclists wear the spandex pants with the big pad inside - it does keep the seat from going places not meant for seats to go :eek:. It is my job to also recommend that you consider a recumbent - depending on your riding goals it may/may not be appropriate, but at least the seat won't likely be an issue... When you go to the bike stores, ride as many bikes as you can - one will just "fit" better, and it should at least whisper "ride me" to you. Good luck, and let us know if there are any other questions we can answer. B

JC - yuck - the only thing worse than an old IVR is an old home-brew IVR... My sympathies... I have the Polar S625X - It came with the running pod and you can get wireless cadence and speed sensors for bike (although they may/may not work on any given recumbent). So far, I love it. Wouldn't have chosen anything else. Since the bike accessories aren't so good on 'bents, I have a cateye strada which works well on cadence and has a speed sensor cable long enough to get speed/distance off of rear wheel for use in training stand. It would be nice to be able to correlate HR for any give cadence/speed, but there are enough other variables (gear, incline, wind speed & direction) that there may not be that much value in it. For the most part, I want to use it on trainer rides to control effort & on outside rides to get a better understanding on where the problems lie (for example, 15% grade, no matter how hard I try now, there's no getting up it, so there's no real shame in the walk of shame.) Over time, I can compare the HRM graph over the same course to see areas of improvement. I believe the S725X is the same, but with bike accessories vice running... I am going to get the bike mount for mine, though... B

JC - Glad to see you back amongst us again... I definitely heart my heart rate monitor. I can cook up a workout that is the exact intensity that best meets my needs. Tonight, I did an hour of riding on the trainer between in the 70%-80% HRMax range with a couple of intervals to the mid-80s... After my adventure beyond HRMax on Monday, I was able to ensure a ride in the 65% range for recovery the next day. Ugh - speaking of IVRs brings back bad memories of an IBM DirectTalk system I set up and managed in the mid-90s. Nasty, nasty stuff. BG - maybe TMI, but fun none-the-less :confused: TX - Let me know how you like the casein that you ordered. I bought some at the Vitamin Shoppe last week to help me sleep better, but I couldn't tolerate the taste of it - not sure what brand it was, but not so tasty... I turned in the most craptastic paper I have ever written for school last night. Just couldn't get into the psychological issues associated with budgeting... It is, however, done. And a C on the paper is good enough for an A in the class. Fuck it... I have one test next week and this semester is done... Took the dog to the surgeon today - not sure if we're gonna have to get her some new knees or not. Under general, the surgeon manipulated her leg, and it didn't move the way that would be expected if she needed new knees - on the other hand, most of the symptoms are consistent with a torn ACL. Food has been crappy due to stress & worry. I did get an hour+ ride on the trainer tonight & will get some roadwork in tomorrow. G'night all! B

Hey J - not trying to wiz on your Wheaties... Business is business, the larger they get the more temptation there is for them to do craptastic things. I think there's something about WFM - I guess that I want them to follow the same organic, good for the earth approach in their corporate life. Once upon a time, they were more like that - they've grown big, and it may only work on a small scale. B

I'd love to work for Whole Foods, too. I think that they treat their employees very, very well. But, their politics in general suck just as much as any other company - they're just very good at wrapping them up into a nice comfy organic wool sweater... I'm shocked and amazed that they didn't get spanked bad after the CEO was posting under a fake name bashing Wild Oats while at the same time trying to buy them out. If the FTC had any balls at all, they would have not have allowed that merger to proceed. There are some other things that they have done that are downright despicable, hiding behind an "earth friendly" banner. For example, a few years ago, they were selling "green energy credits", which in fact did nothing more than adding 100% of the purchase cost to their bottom line. On quick glance, it seemed like the cards were to buy green energy offsets for the store, or carbon offset credits, or something. In fact, though, you paid for the card, and nothing happened on the back end - like a gift card to nowhere. Another bitch I have is that while their organic fruit is good, they buy B or C grade non-organic produce, to make it appear that the organic is better then it may really be (and they overcharge out the ass for conventional produce). The real problem with WFM is that they grew mostly through buying local organic grocery chains, and nationalizing/commercializing the whole organic market & destroying some of the local organic economies that relied on the local chains. When I lived in Boston, WFM bought out Bread & Circus, and the quality of goods went down over time. Having said all of that, I can only stand the taste of the organic meats from there - regular meat at the regular market tastes of crap... If you should ever find yourself in Austin, TX - head to the flagship store - it's two stories and covers a city block... Rant off... B

Almost as good as orgasmic heaven....

TX - Yep, the hockey pucks have about 2 servings of Jif in them - I ran across them at Target last week. Sounds perfect to me. That sucks on the Ambien adventure. It's never bothered me, but my dad has had some weird experiences with it. It sucks to have eaten an entire pint of Blue Bell. It sucks far, far, far more not to have remembered it. When I lived in Dublin, there was a restaurant on Stephens Green that had Blue Bell Homemade vanilla flown in daily. The Irishters never could understand why I always wanted to go there until they tasted the ice cream. Also, there is (at least used to be) BB Homemade vanilla at all of the Outback Steakhouses. The guy who owned them (and Fridays) lived in Hurst (he owned Dalt's where Italiannies is now as well). In the it's a small world department to which we belong. His daughter and my wife were best friends when they moved to the Boston suburbs in the mid-90s... B

There are several variants of Jif - the one we get at Costco (since thrown in the trash) didn't have corn syrup - just sugar. I love the stuff, it goes down too easily, and next thing ya know, I've had 3,000 calories of PB, without PBing... I did find some Jif "hockey pucks" that have 400 calories of peanut butter in them. I'm going to get them for longer bike rides. Almost the perfect ratio of fat, protein, and carbs. At the end of the ride, I'll throw away whatever is left in the puck, so there won't be an open container of PB around... B

J - It kinda sucks not being able to eat. The weightloss is great, but... I do make sure to get enough calories in a day and to get enough exercise - don't want my metabolism to end up fubar. Once I get to (or near) goal, I would like to get a complete unfill, so that I can learn how to eat the proper amount of food. The Hungarian-theme dinner sounds great for the bike chicas. It's strange - even before LB, real, raw sugar didn't affect me nearly as much as HFCS or even white table sugar. I think the processing we do to foods really messes up how our bodies use and store them. B

You win in the crappy cold dept... B

BG - The windchill here in Big D is 13, so we're not that far behind ya... Of course, it's supposed to be in the 70s here over the weekend . I'll be interested to hear how the veg thing goes for you guys. I think there's some value in changing diet over time. My wife did the veg thing for about 4-5 years, but started feeling a little sluggish. She started eating meat again about a year ago and has felt better. On the other hand, she felt better when she stopped eating meat, so maybe the body just needs some change. I think, in the end, the best is to eat natural, minimally processed foods. The difference in meat taste between the regular supermarket and Whole Foods is incredible. I can't eat regular meat that's not from WF anymore (of course, to be honest, I can't eat much meat right now anyway...) My poor little Grumpy boxer ripped the ligament that holds her knee together on New Year's day. She's hobbling around in excruciating pain. We go see the surgeon tomorrow - hopefully, we can get her into surgery in the next few days. At least the surgeon will give us some good narcotics for her to control the pain. :woot: B

I don't get that crap either - once people can no longer procure food on their own, why don't those who do get the food get good food? The answer, sadly, is probably why TX's mom keeps offering her brownies.... It's a level of control, and a lot of people revel in seeing others fail. Anyhoo... BG - Just never got into the camping thing - was a Boy Scout for 3 or 4 years and just hated the camping stuff. Maybe if my exposure to camping didn't involve hot (110+), dry, Texas summers at Boy Scout camps built during the great depression, I might hold it in better regard. Great job on the sugar thing. It does suck the first few days, but afterwards, I usually notice a clearer head & the scale moving in the right direction. HP - Woohoo. Only a few more weeks before the new bike comes home with you. We'll want pictures, of course! I'm very jealous that you can have pop TX - Speaking of camping, are you going to camp at TMS Saturday night of the MS150, or are you going to hotel it? How is the trainer and weight bench working out? I rode about and hour and 15 on the trainer tonight - kept heart rate below 70% HRMax. Nice recovery ride. Interestingly, I noticed that if I focused on keeping heart rate in the high 60% range, I could pedal faster than if I focused on speed while keeping heart rate low. Hope everybody had a great holiday season - back to the grind for me in the AM. Blech... B

J - Sorry to hear that all of you are sick - no fun at all. Be careful on the long drive home. BG - The PALM sounds like a great bike ride. Might be interested if the word "hotel" was substituted for "camping" and "tents" :party: HP - Patience m'dear. We'll all end up where we need to be. The weight loss of the last few weeks has been greatly enhanced by being able to get out and ride the bike. Yesterday's ride was good for 1,002 calories. I've been riding a lot in the upper 30s and lower 40s, and I don't have the proper cold weather gear. If it does get into the 50s this weekend, get out there and ride. Just wear some sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt. Are you still planning to get the road bike out by the beginning of the riding season? I did not make the ride I had scheduled for today. Yesterday's ride with it's several visits into HRmax-land wiped me out. I put the bike back on the trainer stand, put the speedplays back on, and I'll take a nice leisurely training ride tonight - enough to get the blood moving through my legs, but not a strenuous workout. I hope everyone's enjoying their day. I need to finish a paper, but I've been finding everything under the sun do to but write. I even cleaned out the refrigerator - took out all the shelves and scrubbed them up. Will be so glad when this semester is over. B

Happy New Year, indeed!!! B

Did my 10+ mile ride today. Had to do the walk of shame three times. After reviewing the HRM data though... ... it's no wonder. All of the walks of shame occurred when my heart rate was above it's predicted max of 178bpm. Tomorrow, I'm going to ride 15+, but not on this route - a few too many steepish hills. It's funny how things change. Yesterday, I left the water bottles on the back of the car and briefly thought about calling it a day. I didn't, though. I pressed on and finished. Today, I realized that I lost my take-a-look rearview mirror. For a moment, I thought that I should go back home to find it, knowing full well that I wouldn't come back out to do the ride. I decided to press on and ride the ride. I felt a little paranoid not being able to see what was behind me, but I rode. Same thing after the second walk of shame - part of my brain was saying "this is too hard, let's wrap it and call it a day." It's strange how we have these self-sabotaging thoughts, and how, over time, we respond differently to them. Bike on! B btw - the take-a-look isn't at the house, either. Good thing I didn't come looking for it :scared:

Hi D! Glad to see you with us! Although the holiday break is nice, it will be nice for everyone to get back to their routines, won't it... B