Cuidado

Lots of ice out there today. I'm favoring very sparsely traveled roads or those with very wide shoulders. Riding in the middle of the road really pisses people off and I'm tired of getting into foolish road rage matches with crazy ass people. This stuff should go away tomorrow - which will be a full fender day in a group. I'll admit that I was uncomfortable with some of the road conditions. RT. 152 wasn't bad, Henderson bridge sidewalk was awful & unrideable, Pawtucket was awful - not just icy but wet as well, Woodward and Pine were OK but still somewhat hazardous. Lets hope is gets warm and rains - although since I'm in grad school half time I could use a crippling snowstorm and have some time to catch up and the stuff I got to do. I got some good DVDs to watch with my trainer - including Paris-Nice 2007.
This ride was the first time I played an audiobook. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. It is quite thought provoking. I got through Outliers by Gladwell on the trainer and in the house. I think audiobooks are something that I suggest everyone try at least once. Now I can at least be somewhat intellectually productive during my rides instead of thinking about nothing important - like food, racing, what I'm going to do, my bills, and assorted other stuff. Emphasis on somewhat in the preceding sentence.
For the record I did wake up at 6:20 AM with the intention of going to the Arc-en-Ciel ride. I did indeed motivate and get dressed for this ride before coughing up green/yellow shit. I'm not ill with fatigue/fever just having some chest symptoms so its EZ stuff until this goes away. So in lieu of this ride I did my own. In other riding related stuff I now own a wicked piece-of-shit mountain bike converted to a single speed. I love it - the simplicity, leaving it outside and not caring, and riding to everything around. Its good for a few miles - yeah its slow and heavy but it gets me to the store, to work, to Thayer St., downtown and a few points further.

Not the way to start the day

Andy Warhol said that everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.

Just to self promote - I put the Providence city council meetings up on public access - 11:30 Saturday mornings. I didn't put myself in the credits so I'll credit myself here. Either channel 13 or 14. I sneak my photography into the credits, which is the only way that I'll get anything of mine published. We've got a long ways to go w/ this project but its coming along.

Sore throat still around...someone at work had it last week but said that he beat it. No training today either - I got home late and was extra hungry. I'm going into a wrestling style cut weight approach to get my weight down to where it should be (175lbs) as opposed to where it is....yeah - way the hell over that. I've cut out beer to 1 day a week, cut down gorging myself with food, tried to exercise more etc... The weather just needs to get better. I really hope to get some good riding in this weekend - anything over an hour and half but I'm actually concerned the roads are not going to be conducive. If the roads suck around here I'm driving down to the Cape or to South County in hopes of better stuff out there.

$timulu$

Stimulus package #2 just passed round one in the House...the more difficult round is in the Senate next week. Lets hope they have a lot of money in there for bridges, roads, commuter rail and bikepaths. Not that the Republicans actually believe that building things actually creates jobs or anything...since they seem to oppose this provision of the package. Truth be told - I would rather have programs around that put people to work instead of doling out money to banks.

I want to buy stock in the company that produces the paper the Treasury uses to print the money. 830 billion is a lot of money.

On the social criticism front I had the discrete pleasure tonight to hear a grown man - probably in his early 30's had a conversation with a woman he was courting. He was in the supermarket on a cell phone. Yes, the phone was on the speaker setting. It was classic - I think I caught at least five usages of Mother F$%@#r, some choice racial epithets applying to mulitple ethnic groups, and a very interesting description about what they planned to do when they met.

On the health front the sore throat has arrived...will it progress? Head, chest, both or neither? Vitamins and sleep are prescribed. Unfortunately once the throat starts up it usually goes badly. Will this be different? Should I pray to the immune system gods? We will see...
Oh yeah...I suck at losing weight. New weight milestone hit tonight - believe me its not where I want to be. Some of it is okay but most of it needs to go - I think it will once I get into a more predictable riding routine.

Dedication

As part of my civic duty as an American, I would like to recognize all of the individuals in the city of Providence who do not shovel the sidewalks in front of their properties.

• A very special shout-out to absentee landlords.
  
• Another special shout-out to the snowbound tenants and landlords whose properties/apartments are on Thayer St., Brook St. and Hope St. Thank you folks for not shoveling! I burn so many more calories breaking trail or by walking around your poorly maintained property. Thanks!!
  

So just a few pointers:

1. If you are a student...maybe at Brown or RISD and it snows maybe you could go outside when you wake up at noon and do some plebian work (as if!) like shoveling the snow in front of your home - if you consider your domicile a home.
   
2. If you live in an apartment complex and your children play outside...all year...all day/night maybe you can arrange a way for them to help out clear the snow from your residence's walks and driveways. Notice I stated apartment complex which may or not be section 8 as opposed to the projects which are city maintained and are the first places plowed out.
3. If you operate a snowplow and think it is funny to make huge walls of snow on the sidewalk you need to get a life.
   

Sunday

Well this weekend is now over. I was back in Lincoln Woods today - I did a one hour cross country ski. That was it. A crappy one hour icy MTB yesterday and a decent but short one hour ski today. Kinda pissed about this but I'm not doing anything tonight - I'll save the trainer for the week and probably next weekend. Besides, I just ate a steak with gross french fries leftover from our dinner at Greggs last night. I'm not running anymore because my knees feel as if they going to explode for the next two days after I go. Has anyone seen the forecast... shit - I'm really liking the low of 1F on Thursday. I hope it goes below zero, I don't know why but I just want it too. Someone's gonna try and ride on the coldest day of the year - just to do it. I know this already because it is something I would try to do. Someone indeed tried to ride in Lincoln Woods today - I saw a really messed up set of tracks in the woods. The tracks didn't get far - it must have been awful. Anyway I've got some ideas for winter training including riding the Lincoln Woods loop at night w/ lights and some nighttime bikepath stuff. Anyway I'm kinda psyched to do some cross country. Pretty psyched to race bikes too - right now its about all I've got going on apart from work. It feels great to get my motivation back. Being 15 lbs overweight doesn't hurt either - ok I'm about 10 over right now.

The Trainer

I've been on the trainer this week. I will be on it in the foreseeable future as it is supposed to snow this weekend. Actually, riding it is very convenient and time is going to be really crunched for me until June so I'll probably get 2 rides during the week on it even during the good weather. Not really thrilled about this but that is what I'm going to have to do. So far I've watched Paris Nice 07 (stage 2), Amstel Gold '08 (Eurosport...Italian), Het Volk 2008, and Paris - Roubaix ('06). Tomorrow I'm watching Ghent Wevelgem (2 hours) if it is extra cold (<25F). I still might go in the cold anyway but I'll have to see what the weather is like. Riding in the freezing cold sucks - I don't mind upper 20s but a three hour ride in the teens sucks real bad. I put my hands on my hips the other day and noticed that something was there that wasn't there before...hmmm? I'm not kidding at all either. What could it be? Yes, it was an extra 15 lbs I am in the process of removing. Really, I could grab at this shit. My involuntary diet the other day has helped me with this process. Figure food poisoning is good for about five pounds of loss.
Anyway I did a great XC ski last week in the Blue Hills - it was great. Some fun downhills and little climbs. The Blue Hills is the best area I've been to around here for XC skiing - people don't screw up the tracks when you get far in. I'm going up there Sunday - so if you have some XC skis and want to go skiing let me know.
I'm about ready to get into some weekend rides...aerobically paced ones but group rides nonetheless.