Eating Well

I signed up for this magazine when a workmate was selling magazine subscriptions for her kid. I actually put the magazine in my daughter's because she enjoys getting any sort of mail. Three birds with one stone. Anyway the first issue came, and its actually very good, with approachable articles and recipes. Also much of it is online at www.eatingwell.com, and any magazine with a comic section that includes

"P.E.T.A People Eating Tasty Animals" is ok in my book.

Even the ads for King Arthur Flour had an interesting recipe for Cranberry Whole-Grain Muffins. HERE is the scanned in image of the recipe. Enjoy

Happy Thangsgiving

Get off the computer and eat

On The Money

My favorite portable energy source while riding is Espresso Hammer Gel. But variety is the spice of life, and recently picked up a couple bags of Jelly Belly Sport Beans. I encourage you to read the description and especially the “Ask Dr. Applegate” section. From the people who brought you the ultimate in bite size candies, this product is right on the money.

There

I usually try to keep my posts relevant to cycling, but this one is about another passion, software. I’m always on the lookout for the next killer app, and well the folks over at http://www.there.com/, I think have come up with one. Darn, if I had only thought of it first. The idea is completely obvious if you have teenagers who Instant Message, and have ever played a role playing game on the computer. Imagine being able to play a game on the computer in which you move yourself around, and are able to interact with other people also connected to the internet. Interaction means talking, not just typing, but also you see images of each other. The images of course are computer generated avatars, which you can dress as you wish. You and your friends can go explore a virtual island together, or just sit in a Tiki Bar and talk about quantum mechanics, or the relative sizes of the gap in Bob Roll’s front teeth, and Tom Boonen’s quads? There is a finite but rather complete set of emotions/gestures/actions you can portray to complete the realism. Here is me sitting alone in the Tiki bar waiting for someone. Not much difference between real life and the virtual one.

2006 Has Started

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the new cycling season than with some homemade corn bread, with the last of the garden's jalapeños. Old recipe is here. The team's year end party is just over, and the best thing about riding for a brewery (new website, check it out) is that you get to try out all the prototype beers that have not yet made it to the market. Pinch me. Of course no party would be complete unless there is some smoked food, and we had this beast cooking up pork, turkey and of course salmon. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera to the party, so I don't have any photos.
I've got a few specific goals for the upcoming year, but I'll keep those a secret for now. But in general I just want to see myself get better/faster/stronger. What I learned from last year is that my mind quit long before my body, the few times that I risked mediocre results for stellar results, well most of those times, the risk paid off. But motivation can't make up for of fitness, so I need some more stuff from that category as well.
Winter arrived today with rain and 40 degree weather. Snow is forecast for tomorrow.

Simplify

One of my favorite movies is “A River Runs Though It”, not only because of all the great fly fishing, but for one scene really. It’s when the father is home schooling his son on how to write. The son is writing some report and is turning it in to his dad for corrections. His father’s corrections are not of the usual type, rather he forces his son to say the same thing in ½ the number of words. He does this 2 or 3 times until his son is able to reduce multiple pages into a single paragraph. A lost art when today’s educational system encourages more words. In that spirit, I simplified my training by getting a PowerTap this year. Sounds counter intuitive doesn't it? I mean one more gadget; one more set of numbers will just complicate an overly complex process already. Yes, and No.
Knowing your power output at various distances is the most accurate way I know of gauging your fitness. If you can’t measure it, it’s not worth doing. I am no physical fitness guru by any means, but I know I spend more energy worrying about my fitness than I do most things. So hopefully this little measurement device will allow me to conserve that energy for something else. It buys me peace of mind, and in reality simplifies my life. I just wish I could get my money back on all the other crap that got me incrementally to this point. Its not unlike buying a GPS after you bought a series of increasingly better compasses and distance measuring devices for hiking. So when I am an old man…uh like next year, I will be able to say, remember when I was a young gun I was able to put out so many watts for 5 minutes.