Mad Manatee Mentors CLOSED (Poptart/pet pic bribes?) (Page 55)

The power numbers are just numbers without a way to relate them to you. That's where FTP comes in. Performance at threshold is fairly simple to figure out and is useful to know for various things. All of the work you described relates back to a common point as they are a percent (or range of percents) to something. Meaning threshold performance, or FTP since we're talking bike power. As your FTP goes up or down the power values you associate with those zones should follow accordingly. Greg LeMond still said it best, it doesn't get easier, you just get faster.

Without having a reasonably established FTP, you don't actually know if your workouts were Z2, Z3, Z4 or wherever you thought. Then for the harder workouts, if you don't ever do them, you will have to relearn how to work up there again. And it can take a few workouts to do so.

Thanks

This desert has grown on me, but I do miss the coastal rainforests. When I was teaching I raised money to take my classes to Marin Headlands for a week of outdoor education. Outside, hiking, rain or shine. Muir Woods day hike was always a highlight for the kids. It was amazing how they could be awed into silence.

Vegas...don't blame you. From my few previous trips I didn't realize how much there was to do off The Strip.  Next time things will be different! A high school/college acquaintance lives there and works for a rehab center that uses "experiential therapy" (yoga, rock climbing, kayaking, hiking) as part of their program. She's really gotten into rock climbing and now ice climbing. Love the pictures she posts.

Tragic for all involved. Did you see the Velo article about the Boulder cyclist that was hit by a car and TICKETED!!!!!?!?!?!?!?!

I think I'll watch cartoons upstairs with the kids.

I love a good game.  But let your playing speak louder than your mouth...meh.

That's what I was thinking. Such an accomplishment...to hold her own into "old age"

Mary- any response from your bus-bike guy?

Stacey- I was going to say happy things about finding your bike deal, but then I got to the car repair bill  One step at a time...or bus ride? Depending on how Mary's deal works out, that might be Plan B.

I heard back from him and we're working on a time for a test ride.  SOOOOO excited!!

Wow. My body is still a little rocked after the weekend's adventures. Every slow run I have done the week has been a struggle.

When my socks rolled down during the trail race there was a ton of friction on my heels and they got all bloody and blistered. As if that wasn't enough, the ascent in snowboard boots/splitboard ripped them open further. I have like, 4 band-aids and a steady reapplication of antibiotic in hopes I can get them healed up before we attempt St. Helen's this weekend. 

If they don't close up beforehand...any tips? Should I just tape them up? Because I think applying lube/anti-chafe would hurt if they are open still. 

I did.  Disgusting!!!!!  I just love the presumption of guilt by the cop.  I hope the cyclist fights the ticket--and gets a judge who's a cyclist or at least more fair-minded than the stooopid cop.  I'm frankly amazed that the cyclist didn't die or even get seriously injured and I'm glad the woman who hit him took immediate responsibility.

Yeah, clearly an anti-cyclist cop. Driver admits guilt, cop tickets her AND the cyclist. Wow! Didn't sound like he was going to fight it but at least he has a media outlet with which to communicate the issue.

Wow, that must have been an amazing experience!  Hopefully the meeting with the Zulus was a chance for some reconciliation as well.  Sounds like a pretty horrific conflict for both sides.  I honestly hadn't heard of it until today.  Shows you my ignorance of South African and British history!

I'm going to Louisiana in a couple of weeks.  I sing in a choir that performs Negro spirituals, which served as a way for slaves to communicate among themselves using biblical references without the masters knowing what they were talking about.  Songs like "Wade in the Water" were used to instruct runaway slaves to walk in the water to hide their scent from the bloodhounds tracking them.  We'll be performing at Whitney Plantation near Baton Rouge.  Whitney has been restored and augmented to focus primarily on the psychological and physical impacts of those who were enslaved.  I anticipate that's going to be a pretty powerful and emotional day.

Wow, that is very cool, Mary.  I went to a small museum on the outskirts of New Orleans when I was there after the hurricanes and I learnt a lot about the history of the area.  Now I, too, need to go look up Rorkes Drift because I have no idea.

I had to read it twice as I just don't get it.  I am curious as to what the specific citation language is.  Have a hard understanding how in this circumstance "failing to move over" makes any sense.  He says he was not riding side by side or in the middle of the road so if he is riding on the right half of the lane it makes no sense.  He has no legal obligation to get off the road unless there is some odd law there (again curious of the exact statute).  If this situation is as it is presented I would certainly fight the ticket as a matter of principle.

I'm guessing your wounds are too big for the Band-Aid blister-specific strips (or whatever they are)?  Ya know, the kind you put on and leave on a few days?  I'm brainstorming for a solution for a bigger area and not coming up with too much.  3M makes a really awesome flexible, stretchy tape that could possibly get utilized for something...

That will be a very moving trip in many ways.  Have you read Twelve Years a Slave?  It was a very eye-opening book for me.  And yeah, now I need to go read up on Rorkes Drift, too!

I've always been intrested in history so when I spent 6 months in Georgia I visited several plantations and read a lot of books about that era.

That's great that your step daughter wants to participate.  I would strongly encourage it.  Nothing beats when you see the sense of accomplishment on their faces when they finish.  Down the road they make great training partners and turn a "me" thing into a "family" thing.

I just looked up the law (sometimes being a paralegal has its non-work uses ).  The law says that if a cyclist is going slower than the normal speed of traffic and in a lane big enough to be shared with a car, s/he needs to be far enough over toward the edge of the lane to be passed by a car but not so far over that the cyclist has to ride in unsafe conditions (crumbling shoulder, gravel, etc.).  The cyclist isn't expected or required to ride without a reasonable safety margin on the edge of the lane.  So it really boils down to whether this guy gave the driver enough room to pass safely.  Without a reconstruction of the accident, there's no way to know where he was in the road and it becomes a case of differing perspectives.  I wonder if the cop would have cited him if he had been more injured.

Super cool!!  Sounds like you and she have a pretty good relationship and you're setting a good example for her in terms of the fun of doing tris.

Interesting article about some research going on here at the university where I work.  One of our civil engineering professors is looking at why cyclists break traffic laws and whether it has to do with how our transportation systems are set up.  He's also interested in why cyclists are considered more criminal than people who speed in their cars.

 I feel a lot of the why they break the law part is addressed is his quote, "If you're sitting at a red light and you're waiting at a queue with a bunch of cars and there's no cross traffic, it does feel safer to get ahead of those cars and establish myself in the lane as opposed to trying to compete with them," 

And then of course there are the types that just think they are above the law and critical mass groups that go out of their way to be cyclist-jerks.

I also think there is a huge us vs them piece and sadly I think the attitude of A LOT of cyclists don't really help the relationship. Not to mention car drivers who have not taken a moment to try and put themselves in the shoes of the cyclists. 

I don't know about the cycling communities in your cities but I think the general feeling about them around here is that cyclist are pretentious aholes. 

Why thank you.

No that is not the case here in Raleigh.  Certainly there are some but I don't appreciate being thrown into that group. 

It's an engineering problem and an attitude problem CYCLISTS and PEDESTRIANS (including runners) ARE TRAFFIC.  Plain and simple.  If the light will not turn for me no matter how long I stand there with my bike, whose fault is that?  If I contact the local authorities and mention the problem (nicely), and I am told to "act like a pedestrian," is that an acceptable solution?  If the light won't turn for a car, would the problem be corrected? 

(edited to correct typos)

Interesting article and interesting research. Of course the comments are always enlightening as well. I see both law-abiding and law-ignoring cyclists here. Unfortunately, though the city is trying to change, it is not bike friendly. I regularly hear on the road and in converstion that I don't belong on the road (of course I hear that in Colorado as well). We've had a couple of recent situations where cyclists were killed by motorists and the motorists weren't punished becuase they weren't negligent enough. Seems it almost has to be to the point of intentional.