Mashers and Spinners

Tour de france is into the third week. One thing I noticed is Jens is a total masher. Every time they show Jens in the break away, I can tell who is Jens. His masher cadence is so distinctive. Compare that to Contador and Froome, their cadence is so smooth it's hard to tell who is who by cadence alone.

Thomas voeckler also has a distinctive cadence. Though some might not really consider it cadence. Voeckler never really looks smoothe or effortless like Contador or Froome. His style is erratic and looks awkward.

Nutrition and Riding

Lately I've been thinking about diet, nutrition and the impact on performance. One personal pet peeve is this whole chocolate milk commercial non-sense. The chocolate milk isn't better than plain milk as a recovery drink. I'm not going to bother providing links, since there's too many of them. Before Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution fought to ban chocolate and strawberry flavored milk, there weren't many commercials for chocolate milk. Chocolate drinks like Yoohoo and others had plenty of commercials. It used to be milk commercials showed the familiar white milk mustache.

I don't buy the whole argument that if it wasn't for chocolate milk, American children wouldn't get enough calcium or minerals in their diet. Most of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and Vietnam don't drink regular milk. Do their kids have issues with nutrition due to a lack of milk? Nope, they don't.

I think milk is great, even if I am lactose intolerant. I use Lactaid in my coffee every morning. My kids drink milk and love it. Nutrition for me is about finding the right balance of healthy fresh foods. Not eating processed frozen junk with a ton of chemicals. I find that when I eat a balanced healthy diet, my performance on the bike is much better.

In the mornings I eat some carbs, coffee with Lactaid and fruit. Lunch time it's usually leftovers from the night before, which is rice, veggies and some meat. Night time is usually rice/noodles with stir-fry and meat. Every now and then I splurge. Usually once a year I'll go nuts on a bag of Doritos, since they are wicked evil good. Yes, the ride after the Doritos-fest I ride like the Titanic. If I wasn't so lazy, I would show the nutritional information for plain versus chocolate milk, but that's too much work.

Funny video

I happen to come across this video about Dave mathews getting picked up by a fan.

dave mathew hitches a ride

I happen to notice dave mathews is riding a specialized s works. Can't tell which model, but the SWorks is prominant.

Thoughts on polar blue HRM

Now that I've used the Polar Blue HRM for several months, here's a couple of observations. Compared to my old Sigma HRM, which uses 2032 battery, the Polar blue doesn't last as long. Both 2032 and 2025 are 3 volt batteries, but 2032 lasts longer. Here's the specs for each battery.

Lithium 2032
3V
220mAh

Lithium 2025
3V
150mAh

What does that mean in practical terms? Assuming you use the HRM every day for 1 hour, 2025 will last roughly 2-2.5 months. My sigma HRM with 2032 last for about 4 months on 1 battery. Last year I rode about 5800 miles and needed to change the battery on the sigma HRM once. Basically 2 batteries from March - November.

At the current rate, I will need about 4 batteries with the Polar blue HRM.

Thanks to Salt Stick caps

I had a great time on Saturday riding Mount Greylock Century. For the first 50 miles, the temperatures were in the low 70's/high 60's. When I reached the bottom of East Holly road, my hamstrings started to cramp. Immediately I went into survival mode and went slow. Up to that point, I was doing great and got PR's on the two big climbs.

At the top of East Hawley rest stop, I quickly ate 4 Salt Stick caps. I also drank 2 bottles of water. 30 minutes later, the cramps were gone and I recovered enough to push through to the end. I'm so glad I bought salt stick caps and brought some on the ride. If I hadn't it would have been harder to finish the ride, given there's 11K+ feet of climbing.

I bought them from Run outlet

Why I ride

Today the sky is grey and the ground is wet. Earlier this morning, it was pouring and the water was flowing down the hill like a stream. I felt a sense of dread mixed with a slight bit of hope. The weather report could be totally wrong and I might be able to get a ride in.

Some people have asked me why I ride and why I like big climbs. The honest truth is I am addicted to riding. It helps clear my head each day, gets my heart pumping and forces me outside. Every day I ride, I feel the adrenaline coursing through my body. Before I started riding, my weight was around 185lbs. I had no energy, felt slow and had a tough time dealing with stress.

When allergy season started, I felt miserable. My eyes itched and my nose was running. Using flonase made it bearable, but it didn't wasn't fixing the problem. After I dropped 20 lbs and improved my health, I didn't need flonase any more. Since 2010 I've been off flonase after being on it for about 3 years.

Riding has done a lot for me. Emotionally, spiritually and physically I feel better. Why I ride? The real question for me is "why doesn't everyone ride?"