migrant labor

Is president Bush actually going in the right direction on migrant labor? He ditched efforts at "immigration" labor reform prior to the 2004 election due to a lack of synergy among the Republican party on the issue... but has brought it back in a recent speech. Our economy has been tied to seasonal migrant agricultural workers since the abolition of slavery (practically), but recent crack-downs on border security have made crossings difficult, expensive and dangerous. Families in Mexico that send their sons and fathers across the border in an age-old traverse of this country to pick oranges, strawberries, apples, etc... has been disrupted. Families are separated not just for a growing season, but for years due to the dangers of crossing the border back into mexico for the winter. This has been an issue that has bothered me for quite some time and has only gotten worse since 9/11. Giving workers seasonal work permits is a step in the right direction on this issue. Am i actually agreeing with something Pres. Bush said!? holy shit. i'm worried that i'll be struck by lightening or something - or forced to move to Texas.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/29/AR2005112901528.html

to gym or not to gym

well, the four-week "rest phase" officially ended on monday. unfortunately, my back is really killing me. it took a beating during last week's all-day epic and hasn't felt decent since - even with the new bed we've been sleeping-on since sat. i've nicknamed the new bed "the sleep machine" as i've been late to work twice this week already! time flies when you're dead to the world. have a couple more long wknds of eating/drinking/being merry before getting into endurance phase, plenty of time to heal-up the back. i hope. maybe it's not my back that hurts, but my liver and kidneys from the severe pickling they endured over turkey-day wknd. don't quit on me now! heading to memphis on friday to party it up with my boys from high school before Zoof rolls to Afghanistan. 12 years since HS and the posse still rolls. pretty sweet.

for me, this early phase of training (next 4 wks) is basically hammering on the pedals for 80- 90mins/day in the biggest gear i can on the heaviest bike in the stable. when the legs feel sluggish, the next day is an easy day. wknd or night mtbike rides, maybe a road ride when feeling it. like to stick to the trails while the snow still hasn't flown, as there will be plenty of long slow, freeze-your-ass-off winter/spring road rides to come. but, everything i read says to get my butt into the weight room for leg work during this phase. i really should... looking into gym costs today, see if i can get a month-to-month membership somewhere... but the gym isn't why i ride. i ride to get into the flow, to mediate, to be free of the car during rush-hour and most importantly, to challenge myself physically and mentally. it took me a couple years to get an indoor trainer and now see that as riding - as it can be a huge mental challenge, but the gym is still the gym... but improving race results takes discipline and that discipline includes leg-work... and while i follow a rough Freil training schedule, for the most part everything is "by-feel" - i like keeping it loose, while also having weekly and monthly goals in place. keeps me from burning-out. mapping everyday out feels too constricting, too monitored... but need to accept and learn to love going to the gym for leg work.

turkey

weekend is finally ovah. we had jenn's fam over to the medford mansion, made a turkey with all the fixings, jenn busted-out an apple pie, drank a lot, ate a lot, the usual over-indulgent thanksgiving deal... on friday morning i woke-up early to the dogs whining for breakfast and immediately thought of the turkey-leg wating for me in the fridge. stumbled-down the stairs, threw-open the refrigerator door, peeled-back the tin foil covering the turkey to reveal a completely legless bird. "AGHHHHHH!" a 630a cry of despair. How could this happen? who would be so audacious as to take the chef's turkey leg? i cooked this damn bird, i deserve a leg! after questioning various family members the truth comes-out... 1/2 bottle of johnny walker black into the night, i ate the turkey leg... damn me.

rode to work again this morning and felt pretty good considering i haven't moved faster than a slow crawl for the past 4 days. it's still the prep phase of training so i'm not too concerned about the recent fall-off of fitness, but need to get into the weight room for a couple months of leg work here soon...

double kahuna

don't have long to sit here as i'm a slave to the 21lb turkey in the oven, but had to write something about wednesday's all-day epic before time passes and the vibe is over. tenps never broke the freezing mark and with heavy rains for days prior, it was a cold toe day, but it didn't dampen our spirits much. layered-up and got the wheels spinning at 730, broke for an 80min dirt nap at 1p, may or may not have built a fire to warm ourselves, ate an insane amount of food andy had cached in gloucester the night before - ham sandwiches, hot soup, coke, cookies, chips... why is it that it's always the food you remember after a hard day's effort? finished-up after sundown at 5pm, all told, 440mins of wheels spin time over 35 kick-your-ass east coast singeltrack miles. that's an average speed of less than 6mph i think. sufficient to say, my back is friggin' killing me after riding the hardtail all day - but man was it a blast. just throwing the light-as pisgah up and over, letting the heavy 2.3 hansventures roll through the lines, not fighting it, but keeping on it too. by the end i was junk, deep in the pain cave while andy led us home, pushed the wind on the final miles of road. that dude is an animal. led us all day, making the toughest trails i've ever ridden look easy.

two-four, 2006

been thinking about what solo 24 to do next year... saw this on usa cycling and it's calling to me. with the "world championships" falling apart, seems like nationals is the way to go...

http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=1996

back in gear

rode to work today after a 3-4 week hiatus. it was solid. while i don't feel burned-out on riding too often, i definitely get burned-out on the commute. 9 miles of boston driving insanity... it's not the traffic or the ride that burns me out, it's the prep. it takes anywhere between 5 and 20mins in the winter months to ride 30-35 mins... then again at night for the ride home. so as summer fades, the race season ends and temps drop, i get fed-up. so i drive once or twice, but usually take the t... it doesn't take too many late trains or 60min/9mile drives for me to quickly flip-out. so i start riding again - and today was that day. thank god. on a bike i feel above it all. the only thing holding me back or making me late is the strength of the sticks.

30 days of the boss on satellite radio.

double kahuna this wednesday. 50+ miles of technical north shore singletrack. this ride has been attempted before, only to reject and deject those foolish enough to try (that'd be me and andy) - but not this time. what's going to be really tough is cramming a 10-11hr ride into 8.5 - as that's how much daylight we'll have once we depart at 8a... andy says the motto of the day is, "keep it rollin" - no doubt. but a real good crew assembled for this one. if these guys can't do it, it cannot be done!

friday night

it's time to get down. into my bed and sleep, that is. this week kicked my butt, but, i did manage to get 6-7 hrs of nice technical singletrack mtb in again - nights and wknd. i'm definitely holding-off on climbing aboard the pain machine (indoor trainer) for as long as possible this year. jumped-on for a 45min grind in the biggest gear possible on wed, but it was just for kicks. i know the 3hr indoor sessions loom ... and i've begun hoarding dvd's in anticipation... but until it snows a ton, i'm trail riding and lovin' it! ... but i also know this relaxed attitude will cease to exist soon enough and it'll be back to basics, back to endurance training... but until i get the sense that it's ovah and time to get to 2006, i'm riding-out the remenents of a great 2005 season! wed was a cool ride in that it brought me over 500 saddle hours for the year, the most i've done to date. with 600+ planned for next year, i hope for some solid results...

yo

so, here i am. at the dinning-room table (separated from the kitchen table by about 5 feet). big house we live in here in Medford... got a big bowl of american chop suey and a cold bottle of tuckerman's ale to wash it down with. should be eating a salad, but am just too dog tired to bother. work kicked my ass today, went-in early, again tom. but did go for a ride tonight... only to get my ass handed to me there too, just couldn't hold a line, would veer inches off-course and that's all it takes to eat shit on some of these trails... but the falls aside, the ride was good, it served its purpose. am refreshed now. ready to think of solutions rather than problems.

left the "packers" parking lot off school street at 4p w/andy, both of us with a lot on our minds. not a lot of talking, just a lot of falling. neither of us could get dialed-in for a while... rode some great trails, though, including g-spot, my new favorite. eventually ended-up on red rock overlooking cape ann (gloucester). turned-off the lights and just sat for 10mins looking-out at the lights below us. re-fueled, relaxed, reflected, then finished-off the ride with 30 more mins of solid singletrack back down to the cars on school street. nice 2hr ride (minus my double flats). couple beers, some laughs... now here i am. wondering how in the hell i'm going to get this video conference w/Botswana working by 10:30am tomorrow. don't even understand what in the hell the guy is saying. need to get him on the phone - early his time. ouch. another insanely early morning. sweet... the tuckerman's ale will make it all ok. if not this one, then certainly the next... or the next.

r & r

i've really been enjoying the training down-time of the past two weeks. eating plenty of tasty crap-food (yet friday's fisherman's platter was a huge mistake!) and riding only for fun - good solid technical mtbike rips with plenty of chatting. i'd originally mapped-out 2 weeks for r & r, but am feeling a couple more are in order, want to make sure i'm really fresh before focusing on 2006. didn't expect to be riding quite as much the past 2 wks, so the fitness isn't falling-off as quick, making for some of the greatest, most enjoyable riding i've ever done. 2-3days of rest, then a 2-4 hour rip. thinking of continuing this flow right through thanksgiving, finishing it off with an all-day epic the wed before turkey-day. 50+ miles of technical singletrack riding...

today i began re-reading pertinent portions of Friel's mtbike training bible to begin preparing the training and racing schedule for 2006... where to peak? what to peak for? TransRockies is the first choice. just need to find a partner with a similar mindset so i can lock it in...

went for a good one on saturday - 4 hours just wasn't enough. planned the ride with rob, but also threw-out an email to thom parsons, a guy who rolls with IF. thom brought another solid dude, lloyd - both on singlespeeds. don't see too many hardtails on the trails we ride and you definitely don't see too many singelspeeds. rob, thom, lloyd and i had a great rip! there are two kinds of riders, those who laugh-off crashes and mishaps and those who get angry at themselves (or the bike!). i much prefer riding with the former and have been lucky to meet so many who are. i sometimes mutter a bit when hammered into the ground, but in general, life's too short not to rip - and have fun trying!

during the sun-soaked ride rob held his cell phone close as stacey is nine months pregnant and been feeling ready. not more than 2 hours after we finished-up, stacey was in labor with Lola arriving on-scene early sunday morning! stacey (or Lola - or both!) were so ready, the doctor didn't even get into the room in time to do the delivery. so, big congrats to the follansbees on healthy baby girl #2...

early run

i ran today. didn't mean to, just sorta happened. fell asleep crazy-early last night - the demo'ing of the front porch took more out of me than expected, or more likely it was the six-pack andy and i drank after. besides biking - hammering and sawing shit sure makes beer taste good. andy swung the 12lb sledge while i worked the crowbar and saw-za. good times. anyway, found myself awake way early today, so decided to drop some maxxis hansventures off at rob's house for him to try (was supposed to drop them off the night before, but that six-pack changed my mind).

as i found myself peering-through the follansbee's front door at 630 in the morning, i thought, rob's so hard-core, he's probably already out running. then i realized that if he wasn't, he or stacey would probably be pretty pissed to see me peering through their door. but, maybe i should ring the doorbell and ask if rob wants to run. then i realized i was thinking about running, that's weird. then i thought about how pissed i'd be if someone rang my doorbell at 630 in the morning, or how freaked-out i'd be to walk bare-ass naked down to the coffee pot and see rob peering through my door. so, long story longer, i got outta there and soon found myself at the trailhead in my carharts. hadn't really planned on running when i left the house. and it didn't totally suck, carharts and all. the broken toe is still kinda pissy, but only hurt going downhill. and now that i've gotten started on some cross-training, the question is, will i make it into a gym this year to lift? last year i used the tyler hamilton method of off-season strenth training - push the biggest gear on the indoor trainer as long as you can while watching re-runs of doctor who. i'm just guessing about the dr who thing. he seems like a dr who kinda guy, but for all i know, he's watching baywatch re-runs on the spanish channel 'cause they show a little more tail.

1.5 servings?

i don't understand how a bag of potato chips or a can of soda can be 1.5 servings? of course, i shouldn't be eating chips or drinking soda, so i have no reason to be ranting about such a thing, but it annoys me nonetheless. that being said, try these chips - they rock - and don't make me feel like i'm breaking my training table discipline. but they are 1.5 servings to a bag. wtf? who eats 2/3rds of a bag of chips and then saves the other 1/3rd? do you then buy another bag of chips the next day, eat 2/3rds of that bag and save the other 1/3rd - then combine the two 1/3rd bags into a full serving for the 3rd day? man, that's a lot of work to get one f'ing serving of chips.

talking about crap-food, here's one of many scary articles on high fructose corn syrup (do a google search on high fructose corn syrup and the truth will reveal itself). i decided to cut HFCS out of my diet about a year ago (with the exception of the beloved cola during some races) - and began finding it in everything. from powerade to bread, most products have some HFCS in them to extend shelf life (with its friend, hydrogenated oil)... HFCS doesn't even get broken down in the stomach, but in the liver. i don't know what that means, but i have a feeling it's not good. (Shopping at trader joes has helped as they don't source HFCS in their foods).

i've been diggin' jason's (aka, mr soiled chamois) cooking habits. way to be healthy - good food = good fuel = good riding! all the beer i swill probably negates the fact that i watch everything else i stuff into my mouth... but who's perfect? question for jason is, how dirty are those chamois? i heard about this 24hr race team that would share a pair of chamois for a whole race? now that's dirty.... but i guarantee when racer A's scabies get onto a brother's cock and balls, those chamois get washed.

5 Hours

Just completed my first 5-hour training week since January. I understand rest is good, but this is harder than training! The only good thing about taking time-off is that when i do ride, it's a rip! The legs are super rested and ready to roll... Had a good one on Saturday up in Lynn Woods. Jenn convinced me to ride there for a change of pace - i was determined to clean the basement and do other exciting house chores (have to make use of the biking downtime) and argued that it wasn't worth driving 25mins to Lynn when i can roll out the door to the Fells... but i rode Lynn on Jenn's suggestion - and it was a blast!

When i started to really get into riding, i'd roll in Lynn as we lived in Swampscott, right down the road... On Saturday, as i rolled through the old school lines in a short-sleeve jersey, enjoying this last bit of temperate Fall weather, it was nice to think back to where i was and where i've gone in mtbike racing... down the Camel Path, over to the Underhill trail, up and around Walden Pond to the power lines, back down the Overlook trail, then up onto the old Bow Ridge, it was really sweet to see how the skills have developed and improved over the past couple seasons (as i hadn't ridden these trails in at least 2 years).

As dark approached (4pm!) temps quickly plunged from 70 to 50, leaving me shivering while hammering to Swampscott on the road to Dr Mike's house (where my woman was to scoop me up). As i hammered through the twighlight, i once again wondered where i'd be in this sport if i hadn't met andy, brad, daren and others - folks who have had the patience to roll w/me as i gained experience... and in their patience shown me the soul of the sport, that in modesty the soul of riding becomes visible (something i'm still working on)... and i thought of where i'd be if i didn't marry such a generous, thoughtful woman, willing to share me with my passions - and push me to excel in them... 20mins later, as i sat at dr mike's warming-up/stretching, in rolls jenn with a basket of skinless chicken wings, thinking i'd need some protein after my ride...

night ride

weather's been perfect all week - needed to take advantage - went for a ride in the Fells w/andy last night. rode a trail that usually has me hiking a bit, but last night i got freaky on it. the Hansventures were sticking like glue and lines just opened-up, lines i'd never even thought of as being lines. weird that such a ride would occur at night... maybe the lights helped bring focus. maybe having rested legs helped... maybe not worrying about how the ride effected training helped... who knows. all i know is that it was an f'ing blast! don't want the snow to fly. even though i'm burned-out on racing and training, feels like i'm just gettin' into ridin', finally riding technical sections w/o thinking... it's just like boarding. by the time i'm rollin' through tough lines in the woods, taking good drops, etc, it's late march and the season's ovah... oh well, enjoy it while it lasts!

Fixed Gear

Rode the fixed gear down to the train today. it's been a while... and i almost died coming-down off the step-as hill i live on... but it was worth it.

in the early '80's my mom nabbed an aluminum trek racing bike from a sponsored grad-school friend of hers. she and i used to ride together when i was a kid - her on that sweet old trek and i on whatever bike i was currently beating the piss out of. for years it sat in my folks basement in Georgia until i liberated it in 2002. i didn't really know what to do with it at first - the frame is only 47cms, but i also couldn't let such a piece of biking art sit unattended to in my folks basement... i brought it into the boys at western cycle and one kinda insane, but solid bike commuter turned wrench, convinced me it needed to be a fixey for commuting 'bout the city. and so it was.

that first winter, i was scared to ride it in traffic, so i'd roll about my neighboorhood late at night, feeling every inch a part of it, the ride... the winter beers i'd swill before rollin'-out probably helped aid in my feeling so a-tuned, but that's all part of "winter training." i'd go to sleep at night and feel the bike in my legs. after attempting to ride on it with the home team during some early season training romps, i realized it wasn't the best tool for a racer, but it sure is fun to ride. so, it sits in my basement for 10 months of the year, waiting for the fall, when training is done and riding is just about what i want to do, not what i have to do.

the weather in beantown is absolutely perfect this week and here i am, resting, riding the couch for a couple-few weeks before getting busy on next season's training plan. the couple miles i'm pedaling on the fixey can't be considered training... man, i feel weird. not riding. not thinking about riding or at least trying not to think about riding. not thinking about what race i need to be ready for. last fall it didn't hit me like this, but this year i'm kinda freakin'-out. i'm burned-out enough that i don't want to train, but i'm also having a hard time losing that part of myself - even if it's only been 2 days! i got problems. not real problems, just selfish, irrational, bike-related problems. not the worst kind of problems to have...