Sunday, January 31, 2010

spatial geometry

Do you know what I discovered today? That 3 to 4 hours outdoors on the snow hardened trails of Palos in cold temps is less than or equal to 1 hour in the pain cave. Thank God for weekend rides! I am one with the world at the moment :)
allez...
Ray

Friday, January 29, 2010

The pain CAVE baby...

I love that phrase and have to admit to ripping it off from somebody else...   I'm refering to the basement along with the rollers that might be as old as you LOL, Windtrainer, a treadmill, and even a completely refurbished (by me) Nordic Trac. So I've added posters to the wall... Let's see there's the one of Lemond holding his son after beating the most reverent FIGNON, by 8 seconds. Moment of silence please.............................................. It's there for the symbolism of a dad who loves his kids and is also a bike racer. NOT that I forgive Lemond for beating Fignon.
I've got the prerequisite Colnago  posters with Rominger breaking the Hour record with our most holy Ernesto track side, A nice Davis Phinney Serotta ad from 1991(autographed of course) by almost the whole Coors Light 'team, I've got My Team Specialized poster (no doubt complete with Ned Overend's sig). I even have the one and only Eddy Merckx (YES with his autograph) respectfully displayed in all it's glory and given to me by my long time cycling confidante Otto from Otto'sCyclery :)
There is a Chicago marathon poster with my Boston Marathon entry for running inspiration.To top it off a nice Mark Allen(and Dave Scott) autographed poster for inspiration in all things aerobic... There's a VCR I just rehooked up for the nice collection of races from when the greatest riders of all time rode in back in the 90's. Ballerini and Musseuw dominating Paris Roubaix, and a health dose of Indurain's DOMINATION. Lastly, theres the Steve Vai fan to cool us off, and provide the rock star look if needed. You know why I have all this?? Because its the frickin' Pain CAVE BABY!, and ya gottta have something to occupy your mind when riding, running or WHATEVER for hours at a time.
ALLEZ!
Ray

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Can't sleep, clowns will eat me!

Man I don't know what is up lately, my sleep patterns are bogus. I'm not sleeping well at all. Tried a new pillow made out of some memory foam and a bit more expensive than your typical pillow, didn't work. Forget sleeping pills, the one I tried didn't work and actually made me really restless. Tried not eating within 2 hours of hitting the bed, tried exercising a bit later in the evening, NOTHING! Maybe I should try talking my lovely wife into getting one of those "space beds" that you can jump up and down on without spilling the glass of wine?  This is starting to sukc!

Friday, January 22, 2010

It's Friday I'm in love

What a coool song eh? The cure made some good ones thats for sure. Anyway it's Friday, I've been layin low the last couple days and I'm ready for the weekend. We got some good news thrown our way this week, which may or may not be the YIN to the YANG of corporate amerika, and the car MAYYY be salvagable but at more of a price than anticipated. Thank GOD for coool neighbors. My buddy wants to do the engine rebuild and that definitly kicks a$$ compared to having a car payment. All in all? WELL it;s Friday, I'm in love....
Allez
Ray

Monday, January 18, 2010

Retro riding and the loss of a car

I was kidding with my riding buddy Mike while out on the roads Sunday. I laughingly mentioned the sun would come up and the temps would rise as we rode up to our doorsteps after the ride. Guess what, Amy Freeze should be worried about her job. Sure enough temps and sun were up upon returning home :) I was hesitant to reach out to anybody for yesterdays ride, didn't want to be part of a hammer fest in January. I hooked up with someone and made sure I would keep it in check by riding a single speed frankenbike for the ride. Nothing like 3 hours on a 367 pound steel rig complete with 36 spoke heavy wheels. To top it off I had platform pedals, and rode with running shoes.I'd of been welcomed by the messengers and cursed by the snobs LOL. THAT was a quality ride, and will no doubt go a long way toward my early season build up. Merckx would be proud. Mission accomplished...
Saturday was the return to Saturday morning Yoga class. I love the class, this time with my long time personal manager (which made it even cooler) and for the first time there are more guys than just myself in the class. I've always looked at yoga class the same way I do about walking into Victoria's Secret, yes it's a chick activity, but if you can get past that, it's AWESOME! Needless to say, I easily got past it a long time ago.:)
 The bad news? Yesterday afternoon what I was very optomistic about turned into a total bust. I really thought the repair to my car would have worked out, but was told by my buddy/neighbor that looked at it, that it was pretty much a loss unless I wanted to replace the engine. So now it's official. No car for me, and were down to one car. SUCKS, but I'm willing to go without as long as possible. I don't mind walking to/from the train (1 mile each way), and noticed I've spent less money because I'm not out and about nearly as much. Anyone want to buy a 2001 Saturn with brand frickin new tires on it (Engine work needed). The one thing I am telling myself is that I'd rather have this setback then something go wrongthat really matters. I'm sure that this pitfall will balance itself out with a blessing in another part of my life....
Allez
Ray

Friday, January 15, 2010

Snow? what snow?

Funny, when we flew back into town earlier this week and I saw the snow the first thing I thought of was X-Country Skiing this weekend. Little did I know we would finally get a well deserver warm up as the week progressed. So now it looks like skiing is out, and forget mountain biking in mud soup... BUT I think it may be a good weekend to get some good base miles in on the road. With temps in the upper 30s it would be an unforgivable aerobic sin to NOT be out there. The only question is do I reach out to others who no doubt have the same idea and risk getting involved in the almost certain hammer fest? Or do I play it smart and ride along woith my heart rate where it SHOULD be at this time of year?? We'll see.
Allez!
Ray

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Nailed 2 the Road

Not that this should come as a surprise, more along the lines of a reminder. I'm Euro trash. I have Roadie blood. Always have, always will. I was reminded of that Monday night while I was trying to organize posters into frames for hanging down stairs in the Aerobic Dungeon. Now granted I love the trails and am going to get back into racing this year by spending my racing hours in the dirt. I grew up living on a BMX bike with Stu Thomson, RL Osborn, Harry Leary, Bob Haro, Mike Buff, Perry Kramer etc. I still think BMX is unbelievably cool! But there is magic in the road... While I was organizing the posters I was somewhat unconciously drawn to the Rominger, Indurain, Phinney, Boardman, Merckx and even young Armstrong posters much more so than even the autographed Overend, Wiens and Balantyne posters. It reminded me that although I do love the dirt, and really look forward to racing off road on what will be a new full suspension bike in the spring, I'm NAILED 2 the ROAD, and always will be....
Allez!
Ray

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

I'm dyin here...

Today is the first day back from a week away from "the W word". I'm inclined to think that corporate america WILL be the death of me. My head is spinning, and I'm completely overwhelmed at the moment. I guess that's the YANG to a nice vacations YING... As far as the good news? I joined XXX Athletico recently, and am looking forward to racing with their dirtbags :)

Monday, January 4, 2010

Like a deer in frickin' headlights at the superstore healthclub...

I received a flyer from a local healthclub yesterday. The flyer included a coupon for a free fitness assesment test. Now we all can assume the reason the free services are offered is to get you in the door and try and get you to join their club. No problem... I stopped in to ask about the test proceedures, how they obtain their results, if the testing can provide current AT and VO2 max, slow/fast twitch muscle percentages, body fat analysis, etc. Every time I began asking about their methods, the "fitness expert" would stare at me with a blank look and immediately call for assistance from a coworker. It's like they were stunned when I began talking to them about topics that a licensed professional SHOULD know about. I wasn't asking for me rather I want my mrs. to get the testing so I have a baseline to compare future tests against to chart her performance gains thru the upcoming year. If anything, the experience reminded me that I know a decent amount about fitness training moreso than a lot of trainers who do this for a living, and it also inspired me to reconsider picking up my PT training literature and get certified for no other reason than to get legitimate in a field I am already knowledgable in. Based on that experience and how I am, I could be a very good Personal Trainer that would help you reach and exceed fitness levels and performance goals,  not just a lacky in a gym uniform earning a paycheck "acting" as a fitness professional with as much scientific or even certifiable knowledge of sport physiology as your buddy who considers himself an athlete because he was a star in school football 20 years ago LOL At any rate the superstores are more geared oward 50 bazillion square feet of exercise equipment than they are at providing quality athletic services(or tests) to those who need more...