Addiction MXXVVIII
 

Speaking fatties, I got passed by a club this morning (CBS). I tried to keep up for a while, but failed miserably. I learned later from another guy that they are a very fast team, which made me feel a little less pathetic. However, at the rate they were dropping me, they must have just been warming up. I'm sure if they were not, they would have dropped me MUCH faster.

The really depressing moment was when I got passed by a guy on.....rollerblades. Seriously? Am I THAT slow? I picked it up a bit, but was never able to retake him.

Tl:dr: I'm fat and slow.

@surgeonstone, hey you used to do bariatric surgery, so maybe you have more insight than the rest of us. Why are so many people overweight these days? Is it lack of information/common sense/personal responsibility? Or is it a cruel metabolic trick? Laziness? So different for different people that you can't really generalize? One thing that I think plays a role is that in America, we expect everything to be "fair," if someone else can eat whatever they want with impunity, we expect the same for ourselves. It doesn't matter if the facts are contrary to reality. Me, I'm an "easy keeper," I can gain weight pretty easily, so I have to construct a lifestyle that burns lots of calories. Or eat less. That's just the life constraint I operate under, oh well. No sense in feeling too bad about it, when the zombie apocalypse comes and food is scarce, I'll make it through much better than those naturally skinny people, storing calories is my thing. Until the zombie apocalypse comes, however, I better find a way to manage the weight, or I won't be able to outrun the zombies. Yes, they are undead, but lean as **** and pretty quick probably. :)

Lol, those CBS guys keep trying to get me to ride with them. I tell them I'm too slow & they promise they won't drop me. Which would be way worse, knowing that you are slowing every one of them down and they are just not dropping you out of pity. They have just designed a new kit, I admired it. I think they only want me to ride with them to make the minimum order on the kit. ;)

82 miles on the SS today, after minimal riding for the past two weeks (tendonitis, evening thunderstorms, and deck building :( ). My not-a-club went around Oneida Lake for the first time. I left the house late, rode like a madman for 12 miles to the meet up, and then had to ride down the group because they left two minutes before I got there. The group fractured toward the end, and I rode much of the remainder, and then home, solo. At the end of it, my riding time was 4 hours and 5 minutes. That is 5 hour century pace. Woot.

And for nutrition, I did it on three small Gotarades and a large Payday™ candy bar. I was the anti-Heathpack today.

In-line skating is interesting. I used to do a lot of in-line skating on cement path on Santa Monica Beach. One can go really fast on skates.

In NorCal, we have a time trial course that has about 50 feet per mile of climbing and we get a lot of in-line skaters. I had a 4 man team cold cock dropped me on a climb and just pulled away on the descent. And we have a woman, who is a world champion in-line skater that I see on the course all the time. She has legs that will make a sprinter cry and can just crush efforts. I can stay ahead of her, if she is not trying too hard (guessing).

In-line skating has less aero load and weight than the bicycle for the same power production so a great skater is really fast.

In an interesting bike fit nerd story, a new girl rode with the not-a-club, and apparently she shops at my LBS, and got fit by the same guy who does my fittings. Everyone kept telling her her saddle was too high, because of her rocking hips, and that my fit guy set her up wrong. When we stopped at the mid-point, people asked my opinion, and I hadn't been watching, so I made a note to watch.

After a few miles of riding behind her, I suggested she not screw with her saddle, but instead stop bobbing her head and shoulders so much. I suggested she check out her shadow, see how much her torso moved, and compare it to other shadows. It was interesting watching her try to do it, and as she focused on it, her shoulders stayed steady, and her hips stopped rocking. She got frustrated after a few minutes, and lamented that it was too hard. I told her Rome wasn't built in a day.

And I learned it all on the BFes.

I had a similarly demoralizing episode in Prospect Park (Brooklyn) - I was chugging along at a decent pace when a paceline of rollerbladers thundered by. Until that point, I had no clue that they could move at that kind of speed.

That's a shame about the aborted ride, Heathpack. It's great Mr. Heathpack was there to bring you a jacket, and allow another viewpoint on the weather.

"Honey, I HAD to - it's was my responsibility to watch her hips as a not-teammate. I took no pleasure in my duty - I swear that 'it's the hard-knock life' was going through my head at the time."

But did you climb a hill? Hills just chew through the calories like a termite through wood. ;)

Nice job on the rides! You Folks have been busy.

I'll tell you what, it really breaks yojur heart, the amount of suffering. I had a patient three weeks ago, 42, female and in the nursing home for f/u after a hip fracture. 4 feet 10" and 409 pounds!. Married and three kids. I talked with her, said you have probably heard this before but that it would br wrong for me not to say something and then talked for 40 minutes, telling her she will die before 50, that she wants to see her kids grow and that she can- but that major changes are needed. It's such a difficult problem, it's easy to feel superior and easy to feel disgust but in talking with her I could only feel an overwhelming sadness at her problems and losses.

Inconceivable

No hills. Mostly flat/gentle grade stuff. Very little wind as well, so that was nice.

I probably would have figured it out on my own eventually, I was just so cold & task-oriented about getting my jacket that I wasn't really thinking past that. Once I had my jacket, however, and realized that I was still utterly soaked from head-to-toe & would be descending no matter which way I went, and the deluging rain was not stopping, and the lightning was ferocious, I probably would have eventually come up with "I have a ride at hand, maybe I should just call it a day."

Funny on the drive down to see all toes cyclists riding wearing trash bags. Not aero. :)

So now next week I will have to come up with something epic. Or at least epic-ish.

Dude, you can't admit stuff like that here, it will destroy you.

Unbelievable. How is she going to walk again? I know how hard I have to work just to try and walk normally, with way less mass to support.

What, like more toes or something? Why would that require a trashbag?

Epic-ish will work, Heathpack.

A PayDay kind of ride. Unlike mine in which I was geared up with all kinds of expensive cycling stuff- Skratch, Perpetuem, Cliff Bloks, various gels (which I did not use), and @LAJ's Nutrigrain bars (since I forgot my Fig Newtons & couldn't find any individual packs), all in the context of a fully supported ride, topped off by personal SAG support. So mine was obviously a way tougher ride, lol.

Short afternoon ride, 28 miles.

My bicycle had developed a very annoying creak that seems to be coming from the BB area. Only under very high torque like standing out of the saddle. I removed the crank to ensure the crank axle was not cracked, re tightened the crank and tightened the chainring bolts. I am NOT optimistic that the problem is solved but I am too lazy to go find a hill this evening. I will find out tomorrow, inshallah.

Indeed!

I would like to reiterate that this can all be blamed squarely on the jacket.

1) if no jacket was forth coming, you would not have stopped for it.
2) Without receiving it, you would not have realized how comparatively wet and cold you were.

Jackets are evil, and sap our will to ride. They are as evil as hibiscus.

I am afraid that the last word in above posting will get the NSA on my case. Such is life.

I don't know. Many don't, you see them at wally mart zipping around in the electric chairs. I know whats coming with that line, resist the temptation guys.
Stoney's rule of nursing home residents- If they are very old- they are very thin. If they are very young, they are very fat. I'm seeing more and more of it and it is completely preventable. Think of those old photos's you see from the 19th and early twentieth century, nary a fat person to be seen no matter the age. I just ran across a photograph of an army induction center in WW 1, lines upon lines of young men as far as the eye could see, arms outstretched in exercise, everyone in the same position wearing a tea shirt and tight pants.
I swear there is more fat in one wally mart checkout line then in those several hundred men combined.

1) Don't just tighten chain ring bolts. Remove, clean cobores, grease threads and tighten.
2) Check how tight your rear skewer is. It should be similar clamping force to the front.

why is hibiscus evil?

Hopefully they had the foresight to make wider doors for them.

In the end, it does indeed all seem to boil down to the jacket. Or lack thereof.

Why, though? What is it? Surely you have thought about it.