Racer Ex 

Had the same thing happen at track nats one year in the 2k. 300m flat out till I got the restart OK. Then I got rain delayed. 2nd run missed the jersey by 1.1s. Was not happy with 2nd.

With rain and flooding it's a good idea to look at the course. Bring both bikes, shakedown the TT rig briefly then go ride the course on the road bike. Simple

sarals 

Training crit tomorrow, openers today.

I got an email from the team coach last night imploring me to come to a "scrimmage and skills clinic" with the Stanford Triathlon and Cycling Team this afternoon. Short notice, and me measure myself against a bunch of college kids? I don't think so. It did sound like fun, though!

Oh - I saw "The Revenant" last night. It was the best movie I've seen in quite a long time. Recommended, four thumbs up!

shovelhd

You would have kicked their skinny little asses.

sarals 

Yes, I would have used harsh language!

shovelhd

You should show up with that fancy carbon fiber chopper helmet with the night vision on the front. Tell them it's a taser.

YogaKat

... and use harsh language.

Looks like a good movie!

shovelhd

I would pay money for a video of that encounter.

Heathpack 

Lol on the helmet image in my mind, @sarals.

Well, I went out to Piru and did my openers on the course. Just used the TT bike, it was dry out there.

Totally glad I went. It looks like there were some pretty good mud flows across sections of the road and the county came out and scraped the road clean. Sort of. There's large segments with maybe 1/4 inch of smooth dried mud covering the entire road surface, from white line to white line. Its fine in its current dry state, but if wet, it will be dangerous for sure. You will have some short downhill sections where you come around a blind corner right onto one of those mud patches. These are not short sections of mud, its more like you'll have no traction for maybe 30-60 seconds (plenty of time to go down in a crumpled heap).

The forecast is calling for a 20-30% chance of rain over night and a 5% at the race start. But 100% humidity. So I'll go out a little early and drive the course before the race. If it looks slick, I'm going to bail.

Nice ride, though. It was good to be on the TT bike.

valygrl

Nice! Crossing my fingers for dry weather for you tomorrow.

Cleave

Please post the road conditions. Plan to be there with two teammates tomorrow. Thanks!

+1 on what cahsm54 wrote.

Before your next presentation, read Presentation Zen by Garth Reynolds.

Cleave

These days, bicycle racers with skinny little asses kick my big fat ass.

Cleave

I guess I should have read all of the posts before I posted earlier. Thanks for the report! Hope it doesn't rain tonight.

LAJ

Mixed bag today. My levels are places I've not seen before, and I'm nowhere near optimum rpm. This after weights 2 hours before. Pretty amped. We'll see how "amped" I am after the 3x30's tomorrow.

LAJ

I hope things are good for you tomorrow, @Heathpack. I know you're prepared, I just hope they take the course as seriously as you take the ride!

Heathpack 

Well, we'll see how it is tomorrow. I was out there riding today and thought to myself how annoyed Mr. H would be if I crashed and broke the bars and he had to re-do all that. Oh yeah, then I remembered to worry about breaking myself too.

@Cleave, my advice would be to arrive with sufficient time to drive the course. Filter everything I say with the caveat that I am a newby and have no judgement about stuff like this. See you tomorrow, I hope.

Oh and @chasm54 and @Cleave, in 20 years of doing such things (including 7 years of academia), how many lectures do you two imagine I've given? Ya'll are cute, though, with your advice.

Racer Ex 

Of note on Piru is a fast downhill left lined with cactus...



Hour of Zwift today. 3rd on the short KOM. Long ride tomorrow. See how I'm doing after that.

Heathpack 

Prickly pears, as high as an elephant's eye. Solid wall of 'em.

Cleave

Thanks for the feedback on the course.

Been giving presentations inside my company, to the Government, to other companies, at conferences, and at local universities since the mid-1980s. Used to use some of the rules of thumb that you mentioned and others (like 6X6, etc), but especially in the last 8 years or so, I've changed my presentation style regularly and dramatically. Check out the book and let me know what you think. Or not.

Cleave

I never notice what's on the side of the road while I'm racing. Never noticed the cacti. Did Santiago Canyon once after a big brush fire and didn't notice the burned out landscape until riding back from the finish.

Heathpack 

Its raining up here right now.

It would actually be in my interest to become a worse speaker, because these things are added to my regular workload, they happen outside of work hours, I don't get paid for doing them and there's only so many requests you can turn down before its bad for business. Can you recommend any books on becoming a bad speaker?

sarals 

I'm going to save it for the stage race!

sarals 

So am I! And if it's dry, and you race - crush some souls.

chasm54

You'd still get the invitations. Most people are so used to hearing bad speakers they think it's normal. Powerpoint has a lot to answer for.

And I apologise for appearing to patronise you, I don't like doing that.

Heathpack 

Well maybe I actually *am* a bad speaker and I just don't know it? I'm just getting carried by Powerpoint. Now you've destroyed my confidence. Thanks @chasm54.

Just teasing. I'd actually prefer to cover this particular topic with a dry erase board and three different colored markers, and an interactive approach. The size of the audience precludes that, plus they now expect the power point slides on a flash drive so they don't have to take notes. It is honestly something I've done so many times, for so many different types of audiences at so many levels. I know my subject, I know my audience, I know what they need to hear and how to explain it to them. So it really was just a little cute to get unsolicited tips on it from across the internet. But not offended in any way, there's every chance both ya'll are way better speakers than I am.

I'm sure I could polish my techniques but I have zero interest in doing any more continuing education lectures ever. Its just part of the profession- from the very beginning they drum into your head that part of the deal is: we as a profession are going to take more time training you than most veterinarians and you are therefore owe the profession. At a minimum as a specialist, you are expected to regularly put together CE lectures for GPs and I've lived up to my obligation over the years.

I've also trained hundreds vet students, interns, and residents. Organized and executed (along with a colleague) a 2 week long international Neuroscience course for veterinary neurology residents, massive undertaking with dozens of speakers. We ran the first two iterations and its still going strong, is attended by pretty much every young veterinarian in clinical training world-wide at this point. And then a five year stint on the committee which makes up, administers and then scores the board exam which all aspiring neurologists must pass, immensely time-consuming and thankless job, especially the year you rotate into the role of committee chair.

And as I mentioned, this kind of stuff is always over and above your clinical work- your workaday seeing of patients and clients. No one gives you time off clinic duty to work on your presentation. So: 1. I feel like I've done enough give-back already in my career and its ok to say no and try to keep the volunteer extra work to a bare minimum now and 2. the last thing as a consequence that I care too much about is polishing my speaking style. If I convey the information and they get what I'm saying, that's good enough for me.

Bandera

HP,

That slide explains a lot about some of my old trackie teammates.

May be Dull: Boy, and how. Not a single knock-knock joke to be heard.
Head tilts toward falling: I blame the coach, lousy bike fit.
Circling towards same side: They went in the same direction all the time.

-Bandera