Kissena Velodrome... World Cycling

I was happy and surprised to see a picture (with me in it) on the homepage of worldcycling.com. It was submitted as the photo of the day. I'm the biker in 5th position, green jersey. This photo is the same day of the snowball race that I wrote about earlier.



The kissena club liked the picture since this photo is taken at the kissena velodrome, and they posted it on the kissena.info website. I guess they would have liked it more if I was wearing a Kissena jersey... I'll buy one for next year.

Learned inspiration

I read an interesting article today. It explains that humans love to learn. The article says that neuroscientists at USC and NYU found out that trying something new: such as exploring a ride we've never done before -- causes our brain to release endorphins that make us feel good. And new information that triggers the most memories also produces the most pleasure.

In college I did a summer psychology internship with a professor who wrote a book about his theory of 'learned helplessness'. That's the reason for my topic, 'learned inspiration'.

Biking home from my job on 59th and lexington today I decided to take the long route in spite of the fact that I've been trying to take it easy lately. I hopped on the bike and rode through central park up to 72nd street, then down to 55th street, over to the west side bike path, and all the way around to battery park then north again to get to home sweet home on the good old lower east side. It was foggy and humid but not quite wet out, about 58 degrees.

This relatively short 45 minute bike ride brought on a wealth of learning and new experiences. On the west side bike path, I saw two guys on segway scooters with puffy balloon tires. Since I'd never seen the X2 I must have been staring... when oops! I bike off a curb and I'm riding with traffic on the west side highway instead of on the bike path. No choice but to keep going until I get back on the path (about 300 yards). Keep riding, keep looking over the water to the New Jersey skyline it's really quite beautiful in this weather. Off in the distance, I can make out the Asbury Park Ferris Wheel. Then later, as I'm detouring through Battery Park I head towards a ramp to avoid some steps... but I don't quite make it and the bike HOPS off the ramp. One foot comes off a pedal and I'm wobbling along holding my balance with just one foot on one pedal. Thank heavens for the brooks sprung saddle I'm riding!

That makes three totally new experiences, 1) the guys on the segways, 2) riding off a curb into traffic, and 3) meandering through battery park detours in an unfamiliar maze of paths. Not to mention the amazing views I have of the manhattan bridge as I head up the east side bike path.

Then a fourth new thing happens. I'm biking on Delancey street under the Williamsburg bridge. I already know about the shared use street markings... and I am mildly amused by the fact that I'm riding over these things... until I make a left on the arcane and little Lewis Street where am completely surprised to find markings on Lewis Street too.

This is great I think to myself, if I keep riding all over the city eventually street markings and bicycling-good-karma will appear everywhere I ride, Woo hoo!

Finally a quote from circleAcycles, "There's lots of gear and lots of money to be spent, but the only thing you need is to ride. Ride places other people drive; ride places you used to drive. Ride."

delicious wists

Wists is the social shopping network. Nice, when it works.

What is it with eBay these days?

Here they are trying to emulate Woot. Ebay created a section called 'today's big deals'. A great idea for sellers... but look at the implementation for buyers.

What?... No RSS feed? I guess I am supposed to check this page every day. As a consumate online shopaholic, I'd really prefer a live bookmark - like the ones I have for newegg and woot. You know, the orange 'live bookmark' link that appears on pages like this:
and lets me view the feed like this:

Success has many fathers, failure has just one.

2006 Season is Over

Should have followed my own advice and excercised greater caution.

Fell off the bike on Monday night and broke my clavicle. I also damaged my new Giro helmet, and am thankful for that piece of styrofoam protecting my noggin.

Today as the orthopaedist was explaining things to me, I fainted. Funny since I was fine for days - with the pain and everything else. I guess I just couldn't swallow her explaining everything to me while looking at the x-rays.

Her and an assistant had to lift me onto an exam table, propping my legs up with pillows, and the assistant applied cold compresses until I regained my senses a few minutes later. Fainting is not fun.

Stronger legs and caution advised

I'm getting stronger or the others are getting weaker. Races seem easier.

Bad news #1.
I raced at the velodrome on 8/9, and would have gotten points in the snowball... but... I was DQ'd!

Reason was for passing in the sprinters lane on the inside on the next-to-last lap. I didn't argue. I had the sprinter's lane from turn 4 (when no one was in it...) I accelerated hard out of the turn, and as two riders started coming down into sprinter's lane I had to squeeze down below the line as I was passing them. The only way to avoid the uncomfortable squeeze would have been to lock up my rear wheel. What made this whole thing silly was I ended up riding onto the grass just before turn 1 rather than risk taking everyone out. I got back on track after everyone passed me and finished a wheel behind the 4th place finisher. Oh well.

Bad news #2.
...racing on Saturday morning in prospect park someone on a green Mendocino crashed in front of me and we both went down hard. It sucked. We were going about 30-35mph, at the bottom of the hill near the lake. I have a quite bit of road rash and I'm going to see the doctor today because I almost fainted after jabbing my abdomen into a doorknob by accident. The good news is that it seems like the (new) bike was not badly damaged, only the saddle ripped, brake lever scuffed, quick-release scuffed, and wheels need truing. What a great first ride on the new bike!

Gory Pics
Shoulder and arm - the red spot that looks like a nipple is actually road rash on my back.



Abdomen



Torso and leg


Yeck!

7th place gets a medal

At the "Al Toefield memorial race" on 7/22 I was able to place 7th out of a pretty big pack of about 40 riders. The nice thing is I got a copper colored medal tied to a red-white-and-blue ribbon. It's made of real metal, although I doubt it's actually copper.

Today, Molly came with me to the race! Yay! We drove from our apartment to the parking lot in Prospect Park and I did a terrific job of not impressing her. My friend Brandon was racing, and he had the idea that we could form a breakaway in the first lap. So I joined him knowing that he's strong but not so strong that I can't keep up with him. We were away for less about 1/2 a lap, when I broke two spokes and nearly took out the whole pack. I had no idea what happened but it felt like my rear wheel locked up for an instant -- and then I couldn't coast because there was a spoke wound up in my freewheel. Soon enough the pack swarmed around me while I was yelling Woa! Woa! Woa! as I tried to pedal through it. The whole experience was a little harrowing but harmless. Once the pack had safely passed, I pulled over and looked to see the damage, then rode into the setup area to ask about swapping wheels. There's no free lap in this race I was told, so I swapped wheels anyway and just rode off the back of the pack for a good workout.

I need to figure out how many cat 5 races I've entered so far...
at least 2 at FBF
4 in prospect park
these 6 count toward upgrading to category 4, and there's a few at the velodrome.

Updates...

Raced on 7/15/06 at PP. Took a flyer on lap 4 of a 5 lap race... thinking we were at the last lap I sprinted for the finish and then looked back to the pack 300 yards behind me, gearing up for the upcoming climb. Having spent all my energy on a sprint I couldn't climb very well, so most of lap 5 was catching up with and working my way back up the pack. Finished somewhere in the middle. Need to listen for the bell next time!

Got a new chain by Sram. The KMC was squeaky and stretched, the new chain shifts like a dream and no more squeaky!

Tried to race at the track on Wed., but slow subways (all local) guaranteed late arrival. Might try to race fixed on Monday night(s) at PP instead?

Racing tomorrow in PP for the Al Toefield memorial race.

We ride bikes because we're dorks

Last night I rode with 7 guys from a USCF club that I joined. It was your typical roadie stuff... shaved legs, expensive gear, fancy hand signals to indicate that there's a tiny shard of glass in the road, etc. Aside from that, a nice group of guys. We talked about metabolic heart rate, protein, watts, etc.

Today I went to the bike shop around the corner for help removing a freewheel. There were a some messenger guys there. In contrast to typical roadie stuff was the typical messenger stuff. A crusty guy with dreads holding a paper cup and having beer breath handed me an invitation to a goldsprint on Friday, and a nice postcard for the rumble through the bronx ride. We talked about how fucked up they were and the girls on the postcard. Here's a scan of the postcard.

In conclusion, everyone who rides a bike is a dork. Self included.

Lactate threshold <> Influenza

Turns out slownes was due to the flu.

Recovery meant resting a lot, drinking soup, tamiflu, etc until today. Rode for 1hr 20minutes, about 15-18 miles easy pace.