PHAT Tuesday

That darn paczki keeps making it's way onto my Fat Tuesday post every year...

Fat Tuesday has no religious connotation to me whatsoever - my lifetime quota of time spent in church and on religious endeavors was achieved many years ago. I like to look at it as more of a day to think about all the 'bad for you' food that I love but never eat as doing so would cause said calories to end up taking permanent residence in my ass. Over the last few days I've had discussions with friends about which two 'bad for you' items they would like to be able to eat in any quantity forever without repercussion - makes for good small talk, right? Here's a random smattering from both men and women, all generalizations as there are so many varieties of each:

* hamburgers
* pizza
* chocolate
* cheese
* ice cream
* french fries
* anything deep fried in duck fat
* cake
* beer
* pop tarts - also known to me as crack tarts - just can't have these in the house...
* peanut butter and jelly on white bread
* hot dogs - totally gross but oh so good...one of those things about which the origins need to be ignored while eating
* prime rib
* guacamole
* cookies (any kind)
* BBQ ribs
* macaroni and cheese (the real way - not out of the box)
* authentic Mexican food

Though I don't identify with the whole Lent thing, I can definitely go with the whole sacrifice/give-up something for 40 days in effort to feel the pain of my Catholic brethren. I tried to not cuss last year and we all know what happened with that. So I'm going to try something much easier - no PBJ and no cold cereal, period. I think that's quite enough. Hopefully I won't develop the shakes.

With that in mind, here's today's playlist for class - 6X3min Vo2 efforts:

Fire Woman - The Cult
See a Little Light - Bob Mould
Fall Back Down - Rancid
C'Mon Everybody - The Chevelles
Do You Wanna Dance - The Ramones
Why Go - Pearl Jam
Call in the Cavalry - The Shys
Someday - The Strokes
Stairway to Heaven - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Sick City Sometimes - Buzzcocks
Only the Good Die Young - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
That Great Love Sound - The Ravonettes
What Keeps Your Heart Beatin'? - The Rattlers
(What Do I) Do Right? - Jimmie's Chicken Shack
Riders on the Storm - The Doors

Just finished 'Hell's Angels' - it was fascinating and a fast read. I've started 'An Idiot for All Seasons' by David Feherty and will pick back up on the Goodwin book in a few days. After a week of bike hate I'm back to work and feeling good. Winter started early for us this year so right about now would normally be (4 months of crap weather) time to be outdoors more and it's just not happening yet. I had a little meltdown/submission week and now I'm all good. As my friend Jimmy said this morning, "sometimes you need to go to the zoo." Well said.

Almost forgot - congrats to the PACT/Dishnetwork boys on their fine performances at the indoor TT last weekend. Ted, Jim and Dan - way to represent!

Thursday - Winter Returns & I Master a New Trick

Happy Birthday, Beth!!
yes boys...she's single!! Then again, she's also smart and almost 6ft tall so keep that in mind.

Oh yeah - back to snow, ice and temps in the low teens. Bring it on - no more teasing with the sunny skies and temps around freezing. I did a short ride on the rollers before class today, tried something and was completely surprised - I can ride the rollers with no hands!! I'd never actually tried to do it before but today I got this weird wild hair and there it was - pretty cool. Now I can play two handed air drums in class - no more of this one handed stuff...and air guitar too!

This is what we're listening to today:

Monkey Man - The Rolling Stones
Doesn't Remind Me - Audioslave
Up Tight - The Hives
Danny's Song - Me First & the Gimme Gimmes
Hello Conscience - The Zutons
Authority Song - John Mellencamp
A Tisket a Tasket - Stevie Ray Vaughan (thanks Peter!)
I Predict a Riot - Kaiser Chiefs
Crawl - Kings of Leon
Valerie Loves Me - Material Issue
Longview - Green Day
Don't Change - INXS
Warning Sign - Coldplay

I'm thinking a trip to The Art Institute of Chicago is on the schedule tomorrow after finishing with work. I understand the Edvard Munch exhibit is amazing. He was supposedly an anxious boy. I get that. What I'm reading: still working on the tail end of 'No Ordinary Time' and just started 'Hell's Angels' by Hunter S. Thompson.

Soundtrack - Tuesday

I got a lot of really positive feeback when I began publishing my spin class playlists so I'll keep doing it. In class today we talked a bit about being 'average' and how anyone can be average - shutting down early, losing focus, being lazy, etc. - it's easy to be average and just squeak by. Average sucks - be better, be more, work harder, go farther. Not just anyone can do that - only those who do that little bit more, that hang on a little longer and try harder can be better because face it - you can do it, you just have to want to. And I've never really met anyone who really wants to be 'average...'

Shine it all Around - Robert Plant and Strange Sensations
White, Discussion - Live
Weapon of Choice - BRMC
Read My Mind - The Killers
LA Woman - Billy Idol
Red Morning Light - Kings of Leon
Life on a Chain - Peter Yorn
The Pretender - Foo Fighters
Nobody Does it Better - Me First & the Gimme Gimmes
Slither - Velvet Revolver
Porch - Pearl Jam
Release - Pearl Jam

Perfect?

Eddie

Anyone who knows me well is familiar with my feelings about perfection - the 'perfect' designation is not something I give freely so if I say something is perfect, consider it to be a rare occasion. For lots of reasons music is a huge part of my life - not just because my job depends on it but also because it has the ability to communicate emotion and feeling beyond what I am capable of expressing. It can alter mood, behavior and feeling and transcend barriers - I would truly be lost without music in my life.

Yep - I was indeed a 'band fag' back in high school but wasn't treated like a typical band geek because I was a multiple-sport starting athlete. Trust me, I wasn't a great musician but I learned a ton and developed a deep appreciation for all genres of music (except for maybe country - and western, polka (Polish or Latin), soul, hip-hop and rap...sorry). I can easily listen to a classical piece by Silvestre Revueltas and follow it up with some Slayer without a second thought.

So, following up on a previous blog comment, I asked the spinheads for their input into my "most perfect albums" list. I got some good feedback and have gone ahead and listed some of it below. Feel free to make recommendations and if you are too shy to comment, send me an email. These are not in any particular order, just a random brain ramble. I can pretty much listen to any of these start to finish and skip nothing:

10 - Pearl Jam (but of course)
Synchronicity - The Police
1984 - Van Halen
Back in Black - AC/DC
Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
IV - Led Zeppelin (then again, everything Zep is perfect)
Dookie - Green Day
Live at Fillmore East - The Allman Brothers Band
Odelay - Beck
Audio - Blue Man Group
Strange Brew - Cream
Who's Next - The Who
Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix
Metallica - Kill 'em All
Substance Disc 1 - New Order
Nevermind - Nirvana
Frampton Comes Alive - Peter Frampton
Eponymous - R.E.M. (Green is a close second)
Sitcky Fingers or Let it Bleed - The Rolling Stones
Chronicles - Rush
Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty
U2 - The Joshua Tree
Eliminator - ZZ Top

What else? Speak up or never be heard....

Friday at Last

That's a fine looking tat, eh? Oh, nice bicep too...pretty hot

What a week this has been - too much to detail here but suffice to say that I'm happy that we've almost arrived at Friday (the 13th !!) without any animals being hurt along the way. I heard a great quote on the radio the other day and got a good laugh, "hard work pays off in the long run. Laziness pays off now." So I mentioned it in class and got a few laughs before we started to do some tasty VO2 and LT work. Here's the soundtrack (I've been on a PJ binge of sorts lately):

Rifles - BRMC
Jeremy - Pearl Jam
C'mon C'mon - The Von Bondies
Get on Your Boots - U2
Breakerfall - Pearl Jam
Unchained - Van Halen
Sheila take a Bow - The Smiths
Porch - Pearl Jam
Leaving on a Jet Plane - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Kashmir - Led Zeppelin
Early to Bed - Morphine
Spaceman - The Killers
I Want You - Kings of Leon

Looks like maybe some snow this weekend but temps should be sort of agreeable - 30s both days - so I'm hoping that all miles will be completed outdoors. I guess we'll see....

February Fluke

Cupcake, don't EVEN touch my bike-you'll make it slow...

After being called the third most miserable city in the US (due to things like our stupid-high taxes, high unemployment rate, the Cubs and the lousy weather) Chicago decided to be warm for a few days. Of course with that freaky warmth comes the obligatory ubiquitous wind but I'll take mid-60s and wind right about now. It truly is but a fluke as we will be returning to February's normal freezing coldness later in the week but you'd best believe I'll be logging some solid outdoor miles before things get ugly again.

Tuesday's lunch hour soundtrack is below. We'll be doing 5X4min VO2 intervals:

Piss it All Away - Puddle of Mudd
Breath - PJ
Bullet with Butterfly Wings - Smashing Pumpkins
Molly's Chambers - Kings of Leon
Deep - PJ
Astro - The White Stripes
Passive - A Perfect Circle
Rocket Man - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Dirty Little Thing - Velvet Revolver
Ragoo - Kings of Leon
Firestarter - The Prodigy
Release - PJ

Yep - lots of PJ but my lost '10' cd has been replaced (thank you!!) so I included a couple tracks from what I consider to be one of the most perfect albums ever produced. Think about it - how many cd's can you listen to from start to finish without skipping anything along the way? Zeppelin IV? Pearl Jam '10?' The Police 'Synchronicity?' I feel a Top 10 list in the near future....

The Cervelo Comes Home and New Rollers

Home at last and ready to be dialed in.

They're so shiny and quiet!!

This post sends a huge thank-you to Peter at Sportcrafters. I've ridden exclusively on two sets his rollers for close to five years and logged (quite literally) thousands of miles and hours between indoor training, teaching spinning classes and race warm up. I've posted previously about how 'tired' and worn out they are from use so after a little research and a phone conversation, Peter honored his lifetime warranty policy and without hesitation he shipped me two new sets to replace my old ones. Included are resistance units on both sets so now I can do my minute long +500w repeats indoors. Thank you Peter and Sportcrafters!

Uh-Oh...5-0!!

That's right - meteorologists are forecasting high temps near 50 for this weekend! Yeah, that forecast also includes some rain but at this point I'll take it. I doubt my bike cleaning boy will enjoy it but I know that I will. You know things are pretty bad when you walk out and 15 degrees feels almost decent. Steve was in Tampa last weekend and he said the nicest thing was to walk out the door and not have to brace himself against the freezing coldness.

Spin today will be 3X10min threshold efforts on short rest (I only have 50min to work with so we try to squeeze a fair amount of work into that):

Got Me Wrong - Alice in Chains
Breaking the Girl - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Follow You Down - Gin Blossoms
Be Somebody - Kings of Leon
Dr. Feelgood - Motley Crue
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvanva
1969 - Stooges
Morning Glory - Oasis
Infected - The The
Feel a Whole Lot Better - Tom Petty
Blurry - Puddle of Mudd
Even Flow -PJ
The Cisco Kid - War
Closer - Kings of Leon

Still reading 'No Ordinary Time' by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's a long book that meticulously documents the FDR years focusing especially on domestic and international events that precipitated US involvement in WWII. Fascinating stuff, really - at times I'm finding it difficult to put it down.

Not a whole lot to report other than severe cabin fever that I hope to temporarily suspend with some outdoor miles this afternoon and a new chain. It'll be cold but it beats riding in my living room anyday.

Time for a Chain-ge

Yeah....definitely way overdue for a new chain.

For those of you out there not familiar with the nuances associated with the need for a new chain, you should NEVER not ever be able to see daylight between the chain and the teeth on your chainrings. I'd say this fine example is at least 1000mi overdue for a change. Thankfully there's not any cassette or chainring damage at this point but I'm pretty lucky. How did it get so bad? Well...the chain has been so dirty and grimy for so long that when I was finally able to degrease it this is what I found. Bad, bad bike racer!

Now that football season is over I'm happy that my weekend post-ride ritual of couch time will continue as golf season is under way. That means as soon as the snow melts around here I'll be heading to the driving range for some anger management sessions.

The groundhog saw his shadow yesterday which means 18 more weeks of winter. SERENITY NOW!!

Also - congrats to the PACT/Dishnetwork contingent on killing things at the indoor TT last weekend. Dan, Ted and Mike all had strong rides. They're just beasts - guys, you inspire me!!