trainer ride

having the kids and a full plate of activities planned for them, i had little time to ride today. of course, that had to be on the trainer.

i still have possesion of dan's powertap, and have been using that in conjunction with my hrm. information overload is my middle name these days. i warmed up for 20 minutes, then hit some 3 minute intervals. they weren't all that. i started the first one trying to maintain 350-360 watts, and that was hard. my heart rate climbed into the 170's, and that wasn't the name of the game today. the second 3 minute interval, i targeted 330-350 watts, and that worked. (i have to give myself the 20 watt spread because the powertap is so sensitive that it's too hard to have a smaller window.) the third 3 minute was the same, but for some reason i climbed up to 350 and held it for the duration, albeit at 175 or so. i topped those off with some 20-on, 40-off intervals at 525 watts at 120rpms. 5 of those, and it was to the showers.

there was lots more to be had in terms of output, but i see no reason to put forth that much effort right now. i would love to be able to put in 3-4 hours, but my limit on the trainer is only 75 minutes, and the weather is not cooperating.

hanna's here

hanna is with us again, and she is filling us in on all the high school musical and hannah montana gossip and information. here, she is showing off a few of her dance moves.

buy this, go fast

galloping horse

dan's new bike

dan sent me this shot of his new bmc. it seems that today was the first time he threw a leg over it and did 4 hours at the training camp. yikes. go, dan.

super cool hot rod

this 1926 packard is, uh, not quite restored to stock. it's had some...modifications.

in case you didn't catch it in the first photo, that's a viper v10 under the bonnet. 2007 Barrett-Jackson show, photos courtesy of Autoblog.com.

You need a new HOUSE

BUY ME! BUY ME! BUY ME!

Consumer Reports

Read This

for 20 years i have shaken my head when confronted by the brainwashed hyperbole spouted by the "Consumer Reports" zombie. you know the type. whenever anyone mentions a product they just bought or are thinking of buying, the zombie parrots CR's spewed babble. no thought, no passion, just regurgitation of CR's opinion, without questioning the results or how the results might differ from personal experience.

while there may be no monetary incentive for CR to get results from advertisers, there is personal bias which exists in every human being, even the the holier than thou CR writers. and i'm sure the occasional uproar over an important safety device like a baby seat doesn't hurt circulation or subscriptions, either.

don't be a zombie. use YOUR brain, not someone else's, particularly not CR's.

guess i'm gettin' old

well, the last of the hot rod parts came off of the mustang this morning. it only took 55 minutes to remove the exhaust that i had put on less than 3 weeks ago. last week, i took off the throttle body and plenum. and, i never even installed the gears. most of the stuff is already sold to the locals from stlmustangs.com.

so what happened?

i can't stand the cramped car anymore. i can't stand the noise. i can't stand the buckboard ride. i need better milage, and even though it averages 20mpg, that's not enough. it just isn't any fun anymore.

when the top was down, all of that went away. the problems were still there, but having the top down just made them unimportant. now that the top is up full-time, and probably will be for another 3 months, the fun isn't worth the pain.

i'm getting old, i'm getting practical, i'm getting soft. whatever. these things wouldn't be so bothersome if the car was a weekend car, or a third car for the family. but getting pooper in and out with the car seat, or shoving hanna and tyson in the back, is just torture.

so what will it be? a station wagon? an suv? nah. i still have to have something with a sporting bone in it's body. but it has to be an automatic. it has to be relatively quiet. it has to have a good ride....and we KNOW it won't be a honda or a toyota, don't we?

you need these

MULLET HEADS link to craigslist posting....

what will they think of next?

aaaaaaaaaaa! aaaaaaaaaaaa! oooooooooh!!

american idol is absolutely the most agonizing show on television. i guess the first part is supposed to be. but, we all know the first stages involve lots of goofs. i don't like to watch it, i don't like to hear it. but deanna watches it, so being in the room means i'm watching it.

i could put in ear plugs.

this is one of those photos

that, when he gets to be 12 or so, is going to wish we didn't have.

give a 5 year old a camera...

and this is what you get.

....and this, too.

getting sleepy. soooo sleepy...

i'm a mess. i've got lasagna all over my face, cheerios on the table here, and apple juice all over my face. i'm sooo thirsty, but i'm sooo tired, too. dad? a little help?

ahhh. very nice, dad. now, i'm just going to shut my eyes a little while you hold that bottle for me...ahhh.....seriously....

slurp. zzzzz. slurp. zzzzz. slurp. zzzzz.

uh, poops?

that's NOT where that goes....

all trainer, all the time

not being the type of guy that goes out no matter what the weather, i spent my riding time this weekend on the trainer. saturday i repeated a power workout that dan and i have talked about and again it hurts the decrepit left knee. it's so hard for me to go outside the normal 75-110rpm range. any lower or higher and it hurts the knee. mostly lower cadence with higher gears...ouch.

i'll talk to dan and find out alternatives.

sunday was the same ol' indoor extravaganza. this time, i was watching a football game which, ironically, didn't make the time go by any faster at all. it didn't help that i was just doing a "ride" with no purpose but to keep the heartrate up. it didn't help that the bears and the other team, which escapes me, were playing pretty poor football. maybe they were playing really good football, and that's why neither team could get much done.

an hour of that was all i could stands, i couldn't stands no more!