Thursday, January 29, 2009

Johnny and Other Errata

Johnny 'I don't do tape' at the Pony

I'm tired of whining about the weather around here so until I say it's good, assume that it sucks and we'll take it from there. My set of home rollers has a bad bearing and is obnoxiously loud - so loud that if I turn my TV all the way up (to 100), I still can't hear it over roller, bike and fan noise. To stay on good terms with my neighbors (even those who live across the street) I have been reduced to listening to music while training at home. That's just fine with me - I can tolerate 3+ hours at a time on the rollers if the tunes are good and I have fierce melon Gatorade.

So Greg, the coolest co-worker I have ever had, gave me all of his vintage Metallica. I killed more than 2.5hr on the rollers yesterday and never heard the same song twice. I won't list them all here but the albums ...And Justice for All, Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, Garage, Inc., Load, Reload, St. Anger and the new one, Death Magnetic were all in the queue. It was a most excellent indoor session. In addition to the Metallica he included some Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Y&T (remember those guys?), Queensryche, Pantera and Anthrax. No, I am not a closet headbanger. I openly embrace hard/heavy metal music. Love it. Always have. It's that Chicago Southside upbringing of mine. Additionally, Greg provided the one Kings of Leon album that my collection lacked. Love those guys - they are fast becoming one of my favorites.

Here's Friday morning's soundtrack:

Welcome Home (Sanitarium) - Metallica
Control - Puddle of Mudd
Blitzkreig - Metallica
Girls Got Rhythm - AC/DC
WTFF - Living Color
Run to the Hills - Iron Maiden
Girls - Beastie Boys
Looks That Kill - Motley Crue
Tush - ZZ Top
Fake It - Seether
Breakin' the Law - Judas Priest
I Don't Know - Ozzy Osbourne
Fade - Stain'd


Today was decent enough to get in some outdoor mileage on the 'cross bike with MetLifeGuy. We started downtown and made it up to Highland Park then back to Evanston for some coffee before it got too dark. The ride back to the dirty city (about 12mi for me) was pretty cold but it felt good to get out and open up the legs a bit longer than just for the daily commute. My poor bike is caked with road salt and grime so my bike cleaning boy is going to be on the hook tomorrow.

Some good things coming up - the Cervelo should be coming home this weekend and our new team kits have come in so hopefully I'll retrieve that stuff too. Best wishes to all the guys for a strong performance at the indoor TT on Sunday - I'll be thinking of you!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Yet Another Killer Spin Session

I figured class would be small given the Inauguration festivities but we had 17 - not too bad, all things considered. We did a really interesting session that I bogarted from a friend and it worked incredibly well. I'd already done my 2hrs of training for the day before class started (including - finally - a commute into the Loop) then we did 2 sets of 8X60sec VO2 intervals (not as hard as an AP interval) on 30sec rest with 5min between sets. We were all cooked at the end!

Here's the soundtrack (it includes my ride before class, class itself and then some spin down time):

Drown - Smashing Pumpkins
Seasons - Chris Cornell
Breath - Pearl Jam
Nearly Lost You - Screaming Trees
Jane Says - Jane's Addiction
Low - Cracker
Hello Conscience - The Zutons
Why Does the Sun Shine? - They Might Be Giants
American Idiot - Green Day
Hate to Say I Told You So - The Hives
Can't Stand It - The Greenhornes
California Uber Allies - Dead Kennedys
My Doorbell - The White Stripes
Killer - Boy Kill Boy
If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar
My Kind of Girl - The 45s
Get on Your Boots - U2
Novocaine for the Soul - Eels
City of Blinding Lights -U2

It appears that we're going to be above freezing tomorrow and Thursday so my butt is going to be OUTSIDE!!

I've just started 'No Ordinary Time' about the FDR presidency by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I read her book 'Team of Rivals' (about the Lincoln presidency) a little over two years ago and it remains one of my favorite books. She's got a very engaging style of writing which makes for interesting reading on subject matter that might otherwise be described as boring.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

My #1 Fans

Pearl iZumi is my #1 kitty (only because I've had her longest). I call her Zumi for short. She likes to walk dangerously close to the rollers while I'm riding indoors and meow at the top of her lungs to eat when I'm in the middle of an interval. I rescued her from Anti-Cruelty in 2001 and she's moved with me from place to place since then. Her hobbies include watching the birds and squirrels in the front yard, getting 'stoned' on catnip and chewing on shiny things that make crinkly noises as her pointy little teeth crunch down on them.
This is Gandalf who essentially disappears when he hears the rollers and suddenly materializes as soon as my ride ends, looking for something to eat. I rescued him from PAWS in 2003 and he's moved with me once. The vet calls him her 'handsome little gentleman.' Yeah, he's got her fooled on that! He's a delicate kitty who has allergies and is susceptible to all kinds of little bugs but is definitely the alpha cat in this house - he whups zumi's ass pretty regularly. He also likes to crunch on shiny things, bogart chicken from my soup, eat fuzz, get stoned on catnip and keep tabs on the neighborhood dogs, squirrles and birds. Such a boy.

The weather continues to be stellar around here so 2.5hr indoor rides were the plan for the weekend. I made up a playlist of some of my favorite things of late and have listed it below. There are a fair number of things that show up frequently of late basically because I like them (at the moment):

The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegroove - Dead Can Dance
Sunshower - Chris Cornell
Blow Up the Outside World - Soundgarden
Tempted - Squeeze
Novocaine for the Soul - Eels
The Awakening - Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel
One Better - Les Claypool
The Working Hour - Tears for Fears
Cold - Tears for Fears
The Mercy Beat - The The
I Will Possess Your Heart (long version) - Death Cab for Cuite
Forever Yellow Skies - The Cranberries
Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello
Fire - Jimi Hendrix
Hey Man, Nice Shot - Filter
How We Operate - Gomez
Up Tight - The Hives
Living Well is the Best Revenge - R.E.M.
Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix
Crumblin' Down - John Mellencamp
Turbo Lover - Judas Priest
Ironman - Black Sabbath
Spaceman - The Killers
White, Discussion - Live
Cult of Personality - Living Color
Freedom Highway (Live) - Mavis Staples
I Woke Up this Mornin' - The Mooney Suzuki
Whipping - Pearl Jam
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
Breathe - The Prodigy
Jesus Built My Hot Rod - Ministry
Crystal Village - Peter Yorn
Take a Picture - Filter
Everything You Need - Vertical Horizon
Lust - Tori Amos
They're Blind - The Replacements

I finally finished the Feinstein book about the 2004 Baltimore Ravens - it was long but definitely a good read. Not sure what's next - something short. Looks like temps will be in the 20s this week so I'll be outdoors as much as I can - I have some serious cabin fever going on right now.

Gotta go - Howie Long is on tv.......

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Uncle George, May You Rest in Peace

Sunday morning I was awakened by an early phone call from my mom. It's never good news when you field a phone call from your mother before sunrise on the weekend. She informed me of the untimely passing of my Godfather, her brother George. Uncle George was a larger than life character (literally and figuratively) who lit up the room wherever he went - a die-hard Cub fan and a funny, authentic, genuinely good man. Driving to funeral services today it made me laugh to see farewell messages on bar signs along US 41 - he was a social guy and everyone loved him. Though I didn't have much opportunity to see him as I got older and moved away, I will surely miss him as will everyone else who had the privilege of knowing him.

GEORGE F. KUHEL (COOL) ST. JOHN, IN George F. Kuhel, age 55, late of St. John, formerly of South Holland, passed away January 11, 2009. Beloved husband of Millie (nee Vukas); loving father of: Alex (Heather) Kuhel, Adrienne (Tony) Armatore and Erin Kuhel; cherished grandfather of four beautiful grandkids: Shawn, John, Chessa and Caleb; devoted son of Betty and the late Joseph Kuhel; dearest brother of: Joe (Kate), Ron (Cathy), Paul (Wendy), the late Richard Kuhel, Joyce (Richard) Dust and Linda (Chris) Jones; dear brother-in-law of: Mike (Alice) Pesich, Bronco (Karen) Pesich, Pete (Jeanne) Ostrowski, Nick (Chris) Vukas, Helen (Buddy) Copeland, Bob Vukas, Tony Pesich and Dorothy (Chester) Colvin; fond uncle of 29 nieces and nephews, 22 great nieces and nephews; also survived by many wonderful friends. George was a retired Supervisor for Commonwealth Edison State Line.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Well Isn't This Special?

The view from my front door this morning. Thankfully I park in the garage.

I need to rant a bit today - the snow and shit weather here has been annoying beyond belief. I truly don't mind winter in general so long as a good day or two gets stuck between the bad stretches but this is insane. We've not had a break from the snow/wind/freezing temp trifecta since that one freaky Saturday where it was 65 and pissed rain non-stop before the temp instantly dropped 45 degrees and everything froze. Looking out the window now it appears that the sun is peeking out for a short tease before the temps descend below zero. I'm loving this. Rant complete.

At least spin classes have been full and fun lately. We did some intervals this morning and while most of the class was awake, those who slept through the session at least made an attempt to look like they were working (no, they can't fool me anymore...). Here's the soundtrack:

Crystal Village - Peter Yorn
Drift and Die - Puddle of Mudd
You Wreck Me - Tom Petty
Breakerfall - PJ
She Builds Quick Machines - Velvet Revolver
C'mon C'mon - The Von Bondies
Better Man - PJ
Isn't She Lovely - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Crystal (long one) - New Order
Rockaway Beach - The Ramones
Ready to Go - Republica
Riders on the Storm - The Doors

Now it's time for a fun-filled 120 minutes of trainer time. Let's hope my ass doesn't fall asleep. Thought for the day: mediocrity sucks so just shut up and ride your bike :)

Monday, January 12, 2009

Indoor Distractions

Yet another fine day of snow here in Chicago made it impossible to ride outdoors so I was stuck on the rollers in the living room for my training session. I have cable tv but it seems there's never anything good to watch when it's time to ride but I got lucky on Saturday - Tyler was on so I parked the rollers in front of 50 inches of unedited HD and enjoyed every second of it. I'm not really into Brad Pitt per se, but I have an appreciation for Fight Club. It's one of those movies you can see 100 times and notice something new every time you watch. Not to mention the eye candy. A few weeks ago I watched Die Hard (uncut, in HD of course) and well, what can I say? Bruce Willis had it goin' on in the 80s!!

That was Saturday. Sunday wasn't quite so bad so I managed a 3 hour ride in the coldness and ice. I swear there must be a foot of snow on the ground by now. Temps are expected to fall as the week progresses so that we'll be seeing subzero highs.

So bored. So very very bored right now and it's only January. At least the Cervelo is in the process of being built so when it's finished I'll post some pics. Also - I'd like to send very good and positive thoughts to someone who's dealing with some bad ju-ju right now. Yes it sucks but it will get better.

Today's lunch hour soundtrack (a hard tempo session):
Machinehead - Bush
Boys of Summer - The Ataris
Pretty Fly - Offspring
Heavy - Collective Soul
Hello Conscience - The Zutons
Spirit in the Sky - Dr. and the Medics
Falling for the First Time - Barenaked Ladies
This Fire - Franz Ferdinand
Dancing with Myself - Billy Idol
Come out and Play - Offspring
Amazing - Madonna
What I Like About You - The Romantics
Spin - Lifehouse
Jung at Heart - Master Cylinder

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Snow Ride!

Some of downtown & Lakeshore Drive before the snow ride started

Tuesday night we accumulated some precip which made for perfect snow ride conditions Wednesday morning. Temps were pretty agreeable though still only in the 20s with some stiff West wind. After morning appointments I caught up with some of my favorite boys for a lakefront path snow ride. They were all riding on studded tires so it was hard to keep up with them on my standard cyclocross tread - I found myself going sideways more times than I could count but somehow managed to stay upright for the entire ride.

Heading South the path hadn't been touched by a plow or salt which made for lots of nervous moments and cautious (but fun!) riding. There's something way cool about riding in the untouched snow - the sound of it crunching under your tires and the 'insulated from the outside world' feeling it provides. Heading back North wasn't quite as fun since the plows had come through and dropped salt so it was easy to find a pavement patch to ride on most of the time.

This year's winter has so far made outdoor riding difficult - bitterly cold, windy and snowy conditions have caused me to curtail the amount of outdoor saddle time I've been getting. I truly despise riding indoors so having a day like Wednesday made for a really nice departure from the rollers, if only for a day. Thanks to Lou, Josh and Mike for letting me tag along.

I'm still reading 'Next Man Up' but managed to sneak in a quick read of David Sedaris's 'Holidays on Ice' which was tremendously amusing. Spin classes have been at capacity all week and will probably remain that way for a while until things taper off in February. Here's today's soundtrack:

Season of the Witch - Donovan
You Better You Bet - The Who
Chains of Love - The Dirtbombs
Lips Like Sugar - Echo and the Bunnymen
Whatever Happened to My Rock n Roll - BRMC
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
Do Right - Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins
This is a Call - Foo Fighters
Alive - PJ
It's Alright - Big Head Todd and the Monsters