I don't really spend money like most people I know. I shop less for clothing than most guys. I still do not own a TV or a gigantic DVD collection. I don't have a gaming console of any sort. I don't buy a lot of food.

Generally I live as inexpensively as possible and then drop a bunch of money on a big (but 100% useful) item like a racing bike or an expensive computer. Then back to living a frugal lifestyle.

The water story made me think of how some other people would have responded to the situation (hint: rage) but what should I really expect? I'm getting more space for half the price of a comparable Manhattan apartment and besides, management is trying, they just haven't succeeded yet.

So the theme is: keep it tight. I own as few things as possible, and the things I do own need to work very hard for me. (examples: my bike puts on 1000-1500 miles a year with me and my espresso machine draws 3-4 double shots a day on average. Items do NOT get purchased and not used, like most of America's treadmills, for example) There isn't much I don't have that I really want for. Despite that, I made two very odd purchases recently, both of which made me think to myself: "Do I really want to spend this much for that?" In both cases the answer was a resounding "yes".

The first was a $300 DVR that I can use to record TV onto my Mac. It arrived just in time to work flawlessly through the World Cup. I didn't miss a single game that I wanted to see. Of course it Didn't beat being at Halo Berlin for the 3rd place match or The Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden in Queens for the final game (with hundreds of loud and enthusiastic fans), but was a great lead-in and has earned it's place in the stack of heavily used "tools".

The other item was a $400 smartphone. This one only took about an hour before I realized it had already paid for itself. I won't go into details here as I'm chronicling them at bronzefinger.com, but it makes it possible for a business person to actually leave the office. Amazing.

So following tonight's linear flow-of-consciousness this made me think a few things about money that I hadn't before:

- Being frugal/poor gives you the advantage of only be abstractly aware of "what you're missing out on". After many years of trying, pretty much all of my friends have stopped trying to "sell" me things because they know I'm just going to do my own thing and be perfectly content with it. What you don't experience first hand can't hurt you. Note to self: that's a good phrase -- will have to remember to use that one again in the future...

- In getting a glimpse of what you can add to your life by spending more made me secretly wonder: Am I poor?. Have I been poor this whole time and just been living in ignorant bliss?

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:25 PM | Permalink

The water situation is kind of weird in my apartment. Since our building got a brand new boiler which broke in the first week and was then repaired we finally have reliable hot water and heat (now that it's summertime), but curiosities still abound. Here are a few notes I've taken recently:

THE LEAKING CEILING

May 23: Mushrooms growing out of ceiling in bathroom. Wonder if they are edible. Decide that they are probably not and avoid tasting them. Noticed leak last Saturday and mopped/cleaned carpet, waited for drainage hoping it would be ok. It was not.

May 31: Today my bathroom ceiling started raining so I walked upstairs and harassed my neighbor. She says her sink pipe is leaking, which is possible, though I overheard her son say "mom, there is a huge puddle in the bathroom" -- I wonder why... Anyway, she said she would call management to bug them (again?) about fixing it. Took bath mat to laundromat to wash/dry. Called management and left a message to see if they have been in touch with my neighbor about this problem and asked them to follow up and let me know.

June 5: Called management again and talked to them live about how to deal with the leak and encouraged them to get up there to fix this at the source!

June 6: raining in bathroom again. Wait for it to stop. Mop floor, bring bath mat to laundromat for wash/dry.

June 7: Management showed up and was very impressed by my mushroom and mold collection. Last time they were here they just plastered a few holes in the ceiling and part of my wall, covering my hand-done paint. The time before they had only taken the cover of my light fixture off, dumped the water out, and put it back on. This time they replaced the entire ceiling and said they found the source of the leak and fixed it. I also had them remove the florescent light fixture from the ceiling since I had a very bright one over the medicine cabinet that didn't fill with water and drip on my head while seated on the toilet. The construction guys asked if I wanted them to come back and paint it and I said "no". I found out later this was the best use of everyones' time.

June 8: Swept and vacuumed debris left by construction workers. Bathroom smells like a new apartment, but only looks like one if you look straight up to the ceiling.

Early July: Heard water running above my new ceiling. Appears to be running across the length of it and down the wall next to my mirror. Paint bulges a bit. I figure it will hold.

Mid July: Tape on corners of ceiling starting to yellow. Two new mushrooms poke through seam between two pieces of sheet rock taped to form a seal.

Embedded in the sheet rock appears to be these little, round, plastic... caps for lack of a better term. I don't know why they're there, but they are coming into view after a few weeks of the ceiling being soaked in water. There is one directly above my sink that has soaked through and it is acting like a cute little drain, allowing all of the water to dribble through it. The good news is it drips right into my sink and down the drain. Time to call management and let them know that the drip is alive. Note to self: buy new toothbrushes.

Later in July: Black mold begins to form across the entire ceiling. The dripping is becoming more constant -- there must be a more serious leak feeding it. This is a problem because before I could count the time between drips and use that to coordinate grabbing things from the medicine cabinet and spitting while brushing my teeth. Any other kind of front-of-mirror grooming or shaving is out of the picture.

July 27: Management stops by and I invite them in to take a look at my spores and they exclaim "This is no way to live!". While many would agree, I find it a bit amusing, but am glad that they are committed to solving this problem. They promise they will be back tomorrow to fix the leak they are SURE they've found this time and replace my ceiling again.

THE CURIOUS SINK

Last winter my kitchen sink took to clogging every once in a while. There was no pattern to it, really. About half way through doing dishes it would clog and the sink would start to fill (we always use a strainer to keep it from gumming up with junk), and then as quickly as the clog started it would disappear and the water would swoosh down the drain, generally a half hour later when we've completely lost interest in dishes and are doing something else entirely.

I tried some heavy-duty drain cleaner one day -- an entire bottle of it -- to absolutely no result. I guess I've either got some form of moody rodent in this sink or the clog is further down the pipes somewhere. Maybe too many of my neighbors are showering at the same time. Maybe the storm drains out front are full. Whatever the case is, today is July 27 and I have fruit flies and gnats and these dishes are getting done one way or another.

Since it has a much larger reservoir and the same water supply I move my supplies and dishes into the bathroom and wash them in the bath tub. My jeans are rolled up like Huckleberry Finn and the water is a controlled splash thanks to my tub faucet being a single dial -- you only control temp, NOT the velocity -- kind of like what you find in hotels.

After I put the dried dishes away I tapped out the drain screen. What normally looks like a little hairy animal curled up for sleep looked, in it's food form, kind of like a little animal threw up on my sink.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 09:59 PM | Permalink

No play-by-play details today. I've been grabbing the Gu packets from on top of my microwave before every ride and due to the height I can not see the flavor before I have it in my hands. I stopped picking flavors on mood and am just going on the lottery system. Today I decided that if you're going to eat something so unnatural, you might as well do it with the least believable flavor. I think if I were to get a single flavor pack it would be orange, though I reject artifical orange flavoring in nearly every other food product.

The weather was party cloudy and cool with very little humidity. I thought for certain that today would be a great day for a peleton, which start to form in late July when there are enough people in good shape to hold one up.

Instead, I think everyone was strolling around taking America's "Victory Lap" after the announcement that Floyd Landis won the Tour De France. Floyd's story is an inspiring one that I may write about again later, but the gist of it is that he had a bad crash in 2003 and developed a degenerate bone disease in his hip which malformed the head of his femur. He couldn't afford to stop cycling and this was his big chance to win the 'Tour with Lance Armstrong (7-time champion) retired and the top five riders suspended before the race began. He trained in a particular way to have his bone actually scratch a groove in his pelvis to help him ride. Doctors were unsure it would hold up to the rigors of the tour. He almost lost the race a few stages from the end but pulled through in dramatic fashion. He is only the 3rd American to win the Tour De France so it's a big day for the US.

So I rode mostly alone for an hour and a half. The two noteworthy evens were another favorite rider of mine who I'll call Mr. Triathalete because of his tuck handlebars. Of course he could also be Mr. Time Trial or Mr. I-just-like-to-have-aerodynamic-bars-on-my-bike. I want to say Mr. Triathalon because of the sleevless jersey and extra water bottle cages beneath his seat.

He and I have crossed paths a few times. Generally he will take off like a madman on the flats and gain an enormous lead on me and I'll make it all up on the hill and more.

While I'm sure he could just be training hard for a triathalon and not be concerned at all about me, he always seems to be looking over his shoulder in a half-paranoid kind of way like "where is he?!?". Most of the time I'm just watching from a distance, making sure he doesn't get completely out of sight. I told myself that some day I should give him a run for the money.

I guess I haven't been eating enough fruit lately as I had a seated cap of 21mph. Anything over that locked both of my calves so I guess it's probably a good thing that no big groups did come along. For some reason I could do the occasional standing sprint so I did and concentrated on my arms and quads.

At the end of my ride today I tried a nice long sprint from the base of the hill all the way across the bottom of the park. I was in the drops and maintaining 28mph with a nice fluid motion, arms, legs, and lungs all in sync. It felt good, kind of like when I was running Track & Field.

Tonight I'm going to sign up for the Ramapo Rally, a 100-mile ride through the mountains of Northern NJ and Southern NY. Last year it ended up being 120 due to poorly marked roads, with 64 of the miles uphill, sometimes at a grade of 7-14%. I'm sure if I had taken Brooklyn Velo Force up on some rides I'd have people to go with, but for now I'll be starting alone with hundreds of strangers. Fine by me as it's a chance to meet some new, good people.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:42 PM | Permalink

At the time (and to a certain extent also in retrospect) art school seemed like a good idea. Problem was that my trajectory towards the cruising altitude of adulthood was more like that of a butterfly than a jet airplane. I understood early on that I had actually put myself in a great position to submerge myself in art. I was surrounded by experts in a variety of fields and while they would lecture us students from time to time, the true value would be in having access to them so that I could ask questions and propel myself forward academically.

For whatever reason the questions did not come to me. I had very little money and handed in my photos mounted on cereal box cardboard because I could not afford matte paper. I ate ramen noodles with peanut butter. Everything but my charcoal was uninspired or satirical.

In one anatomy class we were to draw a life portrait of a model and identify where parts of the skeletal system were visible on the surface. I studied the lines and the negative space around our subject. I used my thumb to measure distances and angled. I layered the drawing to produce a believable volume with shadow. When all was said and done it did not look like a "Life drawing", it looked like a caricature. A kind of funny and eerily accurate one, but a comic nonetheless. I got 0 credit for it.

Things continued on like this for the duration and I left school with a smaller body of work than many of my classmates. This bothered me a bit as our lessons would feature all of these prolific geniuses, many of whom were also philosophers and scientists now that I look back on it... (funny that we didn't have any philosophy or science classes there...). I felt like I had failed as an artist in some way.

My goal was never to be an artistic superstar (I hate giving presentations to large groups and the pressure of being a spokesperson for a group of people), but this couldn't be the end of the road -- I had to redeem myself. The only thing I knew to do was to just put my head down and start working with the blind faith that I would still be somewhat potent when I am finally able to look back and see a respectable body of work.

The work seems to be paying off, as evidenced by the select work that is available online through the websites linked from this one. Nothing is award-winning or a gallery-show-sellout, but that is fine with me. I can see when people view my work, and occasionally get letters from them with feedback.

I came to realize that an artists "canvas" can be many shapes and sizes; It can be like a painted canvas, measured in x-y, it can be like a horn with sound expanding as it radiates outward, or it can be organic - the word-of-mouth spreading of ideas through people and the internet like a fungus.

Basically my canvases come in two sizes these days: my 5x7 Moleskine sketchbook that I carry almost everywhere (I have a shelf that has seen the collection grow every year) and 1024x768pixels. Both are close to the same size when you hold them up to one another but when you look at their added dimension they are both very different indeed. The Moleskine is freeform, and private (though even if you were to get your hands on it, it is very unlikely that you'd be able to decipher my frantic scrawling) and the other expands into other dimensions crossing boundaries of geography and culture in milleseconds.

All things considered I am very happy with my current predicament, I've got a little book to record my internal world and multiple digital canvases to share it with the world.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 12:45 PM | Permalink

It's true. When it comes to setting your diet it's easy to eat too much or too little, but getting just the right balance for your body and your activity level really takes a military-strength regiment.

This, I think, is a very large selling point for hard daily workouts. When you get home you have a few hours where you can eat pretty much anything. And you should. And you should enjoy it, you've earned it and will not be seeing it on your waist or hips in the morning.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:55 AM | Permalink

Riding every night and participating in a little friendly competition is a bit like being in your own miniature Tour De France. One of the major differences being, of course, that doing 20-30 miles a day is a lot easier on the body than 90-120miles a day.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:52 AM | Permalink

Last season I got in the habit of forcing myself out of the office at night to ride my bike. The previous few years I was working furiously to establish myself in this strange, twisted city and barely ate or slept. It was starting to take a toll on my health so I decided that I would have to forcefully drag myself out for some fresh air that would hopefully set off a chain reaction that would lead to, roughly in order: more hunger, more eating, more sleeping, more relaxation, and less stress. Oh, and maybe a return of the goatee that had gone missing for the last decade of "serious" and "professional" work.

While the full goatee didn't make it (the "soul patch" did) the plan worked like a charm and I quickly became reacquainted with an old favorite pastime.

Back in the midwest mountain biking was my thing. I had a $2400 Breezer that I raced every Thursday and used for long meandering explorations of the woods.

Here in the land of concrete road bikes are the *only* choice. My road bike had been raced for a few seasons - the only problem was: it's most recent race was two decades prior. For a 1989 bike it was in very good shape and I had upgraded nearly every part but the frame and that classic nothing-says-1980s-like-color-coordinated-gruppos Sante drivetrain.

As I was narrowing down my search for a new bike it occurred to me that I would probably also need to invest in some new cycling gear. The summer before I had purchased my very first cycling jersey which on it's first day was dubbed "magic". I remember it well, it was in the mid 90s and humid and I remember the first thing I felt was: (1) not entirely wet and soggy and (2) AIR!, wonderful air passing through the shirt and evaporating my sweat! While I was familiar with how this wicking material worked in theory, experiencing it was an entirely different thing. It was a revelation. This would change everything.

The replacement would not just have to be more expensive (read: higher performance), it would have to be the perfect statement. Bright is okay for visibility but neon is out. Also the idea of paying to become a billboard for a company is ridiculous to me and one of the greatest mind engineering tricks advertisers have come up with in the history of advertising. Having a jersey with stupid sayings like "I like beer" would not fit my personality. Lastly, the plain colors of the past (my jersey was a neutral gray with two subtle vertical racing stripes down the front and back) may be a bit too...dull.

So one would think that this would leave a person with pretty much nothing, and it did. I considered making my own jersey and made some mockups, then found the Classic Brooklyn Jersey, pictured here.

My girlfriend and I have had a friendly "Brooklyn vs. Manhattan" war raging for years now with me obviously on the Brooklyn side. Without going into detail here, the "represent" value of this jersey was immediately apparent, as was the high tech fabric.

I've never considered myself a loud, truck-driving, flag-waving, beer drinking American so the idea of essentially turning myself into a 6' flag for our country gave me pause. Complicating things was the administration (of our country) who, at the time, were trying very hard at the time to yank this very flag over onto their conservative side of the fence. They were busy passing things like the "Patriot Act" which essentially eroded the civil rights of our citizens and gave the government the right to detain anyone for any reason. Our fine leaders were also working on expanding their ability to spy on their own people, and continue to suck more and more money from their pockets into overseas wars of retaliation that warped into unilateral pre-emptive wars against anyone who looked funny.

The general mood they were trying to create was: either you love our country and are with us 100% or you are unpatriotic and should be ashamed (and put in jail if we can get that bill passed quickly).

I dreaded the idea that wearing this flag would suggest that I was a war monger who opposed civilian privacy, gay marriage, and individual thought and expression.

After letting this marinate for a few weeks, and after talking to a few of my political allies we came to the conclusion that this was NOT the administration's flag. They did not swoop into office and change our existing democratic flag to this one. No. This was still America, and even though it is going through a difficult time which I can not understand or explain, it still is a great country and I have high hopes that it can recover. This is my flag and my country as well. I love it, and I love freedom.

It was time to take our country's flag back.

August 11 update: Though the internet seems to be a pretty thorough source of information about life in industrial countries since the 1990s, once you start to go back a few decades the info becomes quite spotty and irregular. Mainly, it seems, items of historic importance or "retro" items making a comeback are the things that get the blog posts, written articles, and purchasable merchandise. Though I don't have a lot of sources to cross reference this, it appears that the Brooklyn cycling jersey doesn't really have much to do with Brooklyn, NY. Competitive Cycling states:

Of course this modern jersey does actually have an icon of the Brooklyn Bridge on it so it's easy to see how one might not know it's real history.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:41 AM | Permalink

It looked like we were going to get slapped by a few of the wet tongues of a hurricane-like cloudmass sneaking in from the east of the city. The doppler radar showed a swirling colored octopus and my weather widget's forecast for the next three days flipped from sunny to thunderstorms in a heartbeat.

As often happens, the clouds started to bear down our fair city, then miraculously evaporated.

Today was refreshing both because I'm fairly well fed for once, and also because the humidity and temp were way down as compared to the last few days.

The first few laps were nice and easy, and I kept a look out for a (cycling) storm forming. I can't verify this for sure but I'm starting to get the feeling that in order for a group to form (aside from starting out with a group of people you know) you almost have to have a certain number of guys hovering around -- one will pull ahead and set a very steady tempo (no wavering or swerving) as if to say "I'll take the lead here" and the others kind of fall into place. If it's just two or three guys forget about it -- posture and pride are too important. If you're the one guy latching onto the other guy's slipstream that's a sign of weakness. If there is a small group of you and you all seem strong you may silently decide to all get together and kick some ass around the park.

One thing I can say for sure, is it's one thing to be flying down the road in a wind vacuum at 25 mph, but if you should find yourself there and you are able to hang for a lap or two, you'll be asked (without words) to do your share at the front to "earn it" (like any pack of guys) or the leaders will do everything they can to drop you.

I'm no mooch, but as everyone started getting pulled into the gravity of the two-wide pack I was getting the feeling that this was going to get pretty quick. This pack was being led by two guys in matching jerseys so I took that to be members of some racing team, though what "cat" (category) I couldn't tell you.

First lap was a gradual picking up of the pace -- everyone remained two wide for 4 turns, then as the speeds started tickling 22mph the group, like taffy, started stretching out into a single file line for maximum aerodynamics.

I hovered around the #3 spot of nearly 10 and at the bottom of the first downhill two dudes decided to bust it out -- it looked kind of like a practice for a lead in to a sprint finish with the first guy creating a vacuum to catapult the second guy out of. We were doing about 35 at the bottom of the hill and guy #2 flings out from behind the leader and keeps the pace over 30. I said forget that and gradually eased down to about 24 and apparently everyone else agreed. One by one the group pulled back together and we closed in the huge gap the leader made by halfway up the hill.

Our pack leader (helping us chase the breakaway guy) set a blistering pace on the incline, nearly as fast as I've been able to manage alone -- the slipstream helped me to stay with the group. By this point I was in-and-out of being alert and zoning out while gazing at the rear wheel of the guy ahead of me, maintaining about 6" of space between them at all times.

I ended up taking two pulls in the 4 or so laps I was with the group; a 24mph pace from the top of the hill to about 32mph through the bottom (4-7 on the map) and a second serving of downhill which proved to be my undoing. If your legs and lungs are strong you can do a nice easy pace of 18mph all day long and hardly feel it -- it's fast enough to be brisk, but not so fast that you're stressing the parts of your bike and creating your own "wall of wind" to fight through. With a pack of competitive guys breathing down your neck you work when you get to the front of the pack and I just didn't leave enough gas to jump back on the train as it passed me on the lower flats.

In glancing down at my bike computer I had already ridden my hour for the day and the average speed was reading comfortably over 22mph. That means that at almost no point in the last hour were we traveling less than 20mph. That is a mighty fine ride.

I took an easy half lap and coasted all the way down the 'slope to 5th Avenue to pick up some espresso beans from Gorilla Coffee and with blinking lights on, spun home to shower and bring today in for an easy landing.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:10 PM | Permalink

Eventually the weather will get a bit nasty and I'll switch from obsessing over cycling to something like heavy confections, wine and wool, but until then my evenings are on the bike.

I realized that I've been posting all of these entries about Prospect Park (where my nightly rides take place) but have not posted any visual indication of what the ride is like. Here, then, is The Route with numbered points of interest:

1. Since I live a block off the southeast side of the park, #1 serves as my entrance and the beginning of every ride. This is the low point of the park and contains only rolling lumps to begin. Flow of traffic around the park is counter-clockwise. Autos are only allowed in the park from rush hour am to rush hour pm. Beginning at 7pm the park is closed to all motor traffic and us cyclists get two vehicle-sized lanes of traffic (in addition to the cycling lane on the left)
2. After a few minutes of spin you're hit with the hill, a steep grade that takes you up to the Grand Army Plaza. The first section will give you a little burn in your legs
3. The incline of the hill eases for about 20 meters then ramps back up to it's steepest grade. Most riders who have been holding their pace will begin to slow at this point due to the steepness or because of their legs beginning to tire.
4. Section 4 would be characterized by rolling hills with a very very gradual climb up to section 5. For whatever reason you almost never see anyone making any moves in this stretch. Probably because they are still recovering from the hill.
5. After climbing from 2-5 now begins the release, the big downhill stretch which will take you most of the way to 7. Though I like to coast now and then, when things get competitive you'll see trains being led by someone pushing hard at the front. Generally speeds are about 30mph but they can easily near 40 on good days.
6. I only mark this point as it seems to be the point where the largest numbers of stupid pedestrians gather and get hit by bikes. This is a good section to be "heads up"
7. Here at the bottom of the hill one of two things will happen: (1) The group will hit "cruise control" and have a smooth flight allllllll the way to the hill or (2) someone will decide it's time to do a 30mph sprint clear across the bottom of the park, blowing the group up into little pieces. If strong, it will re-form shortly before the hill.

Overall the park is about 5km around and laps take around 10 minutes to complete at a good clip.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 10:25 PM | Permalink

A meeting with a prospective tech person got rescheduled so another evening is free for riding.

Today was really damned hot. Since I've been riding frequently and have a tendency of overheating I decided to take a little different approach to today and that was: not to overextent myself. How novel, right?

So we're out to spin, and not to push the tempo and let things fall where they do.

Even though I loathe the heat I'll jump ahead to the summary of the ride and say, with much surprise that not only did we average 19.5mph, but we also rode for and additional hour longer than usual. I'm not sure how this happened but it's a good sign for my upcoming century rides.

A few laps in I joined a two-wide, 5 rider pack that was having a conversational stroll at 19mph. I just hung out on the back of it for a lap or so, then eased myself to the front and out ahead at what I thought was a reasonable 21mph before the downhill section. Nobody seemed to follow. Even though I was just coasting, at the bottom of the hill the group was pretty much out of sight. So I eased up to 18mph and was back to my spin.

Another turn in and I hear some turning gears and I presume it's part of the group catching back up. As it turns out I'm being passed by a young (early 20s) girl with a well-conditioned and smooth (almost television-commercial-quality) pony tail on a Giant with a tattoo on her back just above her cycling shorts.

Aside from being fit and attractive I think nothing of it but am curious how fast she's going so I eased the throttle forward a bit and clocked her at 20mph. I look down at her feet and she is wearing ordinary sneakers and using flat pedals.

Just as I'm being impressed one of the guys from the pack passes us going at a very strong clip (obviously showing off) and I find myself sighing and standing up for a sprint chase, our new friend receding into the background.

I'm joined just a few moments later by much of the rest of the pack plus a riding acquaintance of mine that I had passed almost a full lap ago. He informs me that everyone had been chasing that girl for the last half-lap.

Guys are hilarious, if not completely predictable.

Over the hill I picked up the pace and threw in a little sprint at the bottom of the hill since my legs were feeling good. I pulled over at a water fountain to refill both of my water bottles (due to the heat even at a relaxed pace I was pulling water about 6 times a lap and using about twice the water than normal). I had a chance to get them both filled before anyone I recognized caught up.

I rode for another hour pretty much alone and was surprised at the performance despite the heat - apparently ratcheting your effort down that one single notch to within your capabilities makes all the difference.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 01:53 PM | Permalink

Although purely symbolic, I discovered today that the visor on my helmet detaches, revealing a very respectible-looking road helmet.

This represents the last piece of my mountain biking past being shed for East Coast Road Riding.

I don't expect this to make me any faster, but it should help a little in the headwinds which the visor always seemed to catch on and push against.

Cara and I were going to see Yo La Tengo today but she was feeling under the weather and there was a little sun so guess what? Another ride just opened up. :-) Another late start due to tightening bolts around the bike and waiting for the faucet mount PUR filter to dribble two bottles worth of water. (My local drug stores were out of replacement cartridges so against my better judgement I'm attempting to get another week or two out of the current one)

I need to pay more attention to this, but it seems to me that five /~ is the magic number ~/ when it comes to forming packs.

I found just such a pack immediately upon entering the park. Nice strong pace. Over the top of the hill I accidentally ramped up to 24mph, then 32 on the downslope. Around the bottom of the hill I saw what a breakaway can do to a non-cohesive group -- it can break it up like a bomb. Two Jamaican-looking guys sprinted off, one guy kinda/sorta followed, I kept steady and another few guys we pciked up recently fell off the back.

Again, patience paid off -- the sprint was the end of the ride for these guys and the rest of us floated back together at the end of the stretch and were back at it.

After an uneven hill (18mph of swerving between slow groups of riders and inline skaters) we were down to two riders, me and a guy with a baby blue bike.

The next hill was the last for my riding companion. He took off at 21mph+ and I decided "what the hell" and tailed him. We were side-by-side at the top, shook hands, and he pulled out the northern exit.

It took me a half lap to catch my breath again.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 01:35 PM | Permalink

Today's cycling flavor: Orange burst
Verdict: Not too bad
Ride: An easy 20 miles in exactly 60 minutes

Due to an evening appointment cancellation my evening was freed up for some cycling. Got a late start due to rain -- it was pouring until 6:30. I figured that an hour would be enough time to partially dry the pavement, but it was so damned humid that it remained as wet as if it were still raining. A last second phone call held me up another half hour but I was determined to ride, even if it meant I was starting at sundown and riding with my lights.

Some notes on the weather during the ride:

• You know how girls "don't sweat, they glisten"? It was so humid that is what I was doing. I every time I looked down at my arms today they were shining.
• My cycling outfit stuck to me like a second, slightly wet and heavy skin.
• While riding the condensation would slowly build up on my nose until droplets formed and fell to the ground.
• It is so humid that even though there is no breeze it feels like it -- the particulate count in the air just pushes against you the entire time you're riding. The good news is that it's a "slippery wind" and doesn't seem to slow one down as much as a "real" wind
• You know those "God rays" of sunlight that beam out from behind certain clouds from time to time? That was happening with the street lamps and trees after dark
• Today was so humid that it helped me finally understand the earth's atmosphere. You know how you first learn about the atmosphere and space as having hard boundaries and everything is really cut-and-dry? It's a nice concept but later on you learn that there is no boundary, really, and that the earth's gasses just kind of thin out the further into space you go. It's the same with the sun and it's rays and much more. By being able to visualize and *feel* the bottom layer of gas we're living in it's easy to picture it thinning as you go higher up and out into the "black matter" that's space
• It may be a time-of-the-year thing more than a weather thing, but the fireflies are out. I always love riding with them

So there weren't many riders out today. Actually there were so few I could count them on one hand. There was a casual riding couple and a few "sport" riders. Apparently nobody else in the 'hood has such an advanced weather forecasting system in their home as we do here at Haus Interactive. (Dopplar radar widget for Mac OS X) Either that or everyone was afraid of ruining their bikes with a little water (I made sure to wipe mine down and lube the chain immediately after getting back in).

Today we're trying to mix it up a little: take it easy (18-19mph) on the flats and stand/sprint the 2nd half of the big hill to work out the arms a little. It's nice to be able to do this alone every once in a while as when there are others around I always get this competitive itch and I can't just let people go by me.

After 4 laps I pass two of the sport riders and I think one of them started to tail me for a lap or so. I'd hear a little splash or deraileur click here and there but you not see him in the shadows as we rode under street lamps.

It got me to thinking about life experience a bit and the virtues of experience vs. youth and raw energy and even humans vs. computers. Actually, when we look back on it, the evolution of computers may end up looking quite a bit like the development of a human being: at first the main focus is performance, speed, and strength. Later on it becomes smarter reactions, parallel thought, finesse. I was thinking about this as I rode; I've been riding for years and learning little singular lessons here and there all along the way: how fast is too fast in the rain, what shadows look like under street lamps and how to tell how close someone is to you by them, easing over road anomolies, how to fall and crash properly, how to feel your threshold and stay under it, how to tell how strong someone is by their spin, if someone breaking away from the pack is going too fast and will be caught, and much more. Once you learn these lessons you don't need to think about them consciously anymore. You ride and you casually glance around and pull in enormous amounts of information and know what is happening without even thinking about it. You are in complete control of your body, your bike, and to a certain extent, the riders around you.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:12 AM | Permalink

I'd like to start out by saying that the "Espresso Love" flavor of Gu (tm) is not love. I am an avid espresso drinker and this is considerably closer to "ass" than what I drink thrice daily, and what I do actually love.

Cara and I have a tall social/music schedule this week so this was probably my only night of cycling. We did a shot of "Espresso Love" (not the real love) and hit the track. Immediately upon entering the park and nearing the merge lane I saw a pack forming and dropped to a low gear to turn a few extra RPM to speed my warmup while I watch the group coming together.

I think our cutoff jeanshort wearing friend upgraded shorts this week and is now sporting some form of Quicksilver surfing shorts or similar. I got a closer look at his bike today and it's one of those fancypants handmade titanium bikes. If I had unlimited funds I'm not sure what I'd get for my second road bike (the first would be a recently discontinued Breezer Venturi) -- maybe I'd get something titanium like a Seven or a Merlin. Though I haven't gotten my bike on the scales yet, I know it started at 19lbs before I upgraded all of the Specialized parts to Ritchey so with pedals we're probably 18.5 or so -- plenty light to hang with these fast groups.

As soon as the pack lined up about 6 long a guy in a neon orange bike sprinted out ahead but nobody chased -- we were already going 21mph which was comfortable enough. In 7/10 of a mile or so we'd be at the hill and could catch him then.

We cruised along nice and easy and slowly started to reel him in and by the bottom of the hill, sure enough, we were right on his back wheel.

The next thing that happened was kind of interesting, nobody wanted to lead up the hill. Everyone was trying to keep their pace but kind of fanning out to the far left and right. Of course I love the hill so I went up the middle and kept it at a steady 18mph. There was the sound of clicking derailers as everyone adjusted. A stout but strong guy caught up to me half way up the hill and gave a huff and put the pedal down as if he owned the hill. We threw a little fuel at our calves and burned over the hill at over 22mph and only slowed to 20 over the top and eased back into that pace for a while. A few lumps over the top two guys who presumably were with me the whole time passed and I tucked in behind their draft. A glace back and I didn't see anyone.

The third in our group dropped off at the bottom of the hill so we were left with me and a young guy on a bianchi. Since we had broken off the pack which still contained some speed demons I think we both decided to keep the pressure on and gain some more distance over the next few laps. This guy seemed like another racer as we traded pulls pretty frequently -- 4-6 per lap in very even intervals. Basically we'd try to keep the pace at 22-23mph and whenever one of us started to slide a little (down to 21) the other would jump in front.

On the hills we'd ride more or less side-by-side keeping each other in our peripheral vision to make sure neither of us was going to try to make a break for it again.

After three laps we shook hands and he was out for the day, leaving me for two cool down laps which on the last one I had to fight off a guy on a fixed gear and a mountain bike (the hill took care of the mountain bike but the fixed gear guy seemed pretty fresh and after a half-lap battle I let him have it).

Today's average speed was the best of the season so far: 21mph (thanks to a few good pulls by a few strangers). My endurance doesn't seem to want to let me maintain these speeds for longer than an hour (by which time I've burned through a packet of Gu and two water bottles) which makes me wonder if I'm not reaching a theoretical peak for my diet/sleep pattern/ride time logged. We'll see in the coming weeks, but I've never been much for a strict regiment, even though the results are undeniable.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:15 PM | Permalink

If you own your own business or are a workaholic there really is something to be said for taking a break every once in a while.

Up until the 4th I was doing a lot of multi-tasking, a lot of caffeine drinking, and a lot of hard cycling and was starting to feel the effects.

- My thoughts were cloudy with trying to keep up with the changing lists of priorities and projects. Much of my day was spent keeping track of everything rather than DOING anything
- Work progress was slow due to ADHD
- My knees were feeling a little stress from all the speed workouts

Decided to "unplug" for the 4th: no caffeine, no work, no riding. Slept all night/day/night.

This am I awoke feeling refreshed. I did not feel rushed, thought the amount of work was the same as before the holiday. There is clarity and order. My knees feel better.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:42 AM | Permalink

Though I have not survived a natural (or man made) disaster, I have read stories and seen testimonials. One of the key concepts about disasters seems to be this: when they hit, it is very unlikely that you will be completely vaporized. There is a complex dance of things and atoms knocking into other things and atoms and it seems like a lot of the time, if you can *just hang on*, you can survive.

Same, too, with sports. You just never know what is going to happen until it does.

I decided to shoot a Gu(tm) shot before the ride today instead of during it.

A lap in I am approached by a group of 5, and a pretty fun one -- I see a beginner (a guy in cutoff jean shorts who has a very nice bike and who keeps trying to sprint ahead of the group and getting reeled back in), one of the regulars (a fast/athletic type) and a few of the racers.

Over and down the slope it's my turn to pull and I give my calves a little shot and I'm surprised to see that my speedometer reaches 25mph. Crazy.

After the hill it's already just me and the two racers -- generally time for me to get dropped. Somehow I manage to stay on the train after one of them ratchets up to 26mph on the flats.

he pulls aside after a half lap and it's me and a short dred who is in a "zone".

What happens next is unexpected -- he stays on my tail and does not try to take the lead, despite the fact that I've eased up on the pace considerably (and am hiding the fact that I'm gasping a little bit).

Though I'm a bit burnt I try to keep us at about 21mph on the flats and he is perfectly content to stay where he is until we reach the benches before the pre-hill lumps -- and he pulls off the track.

The original group must have completely splintered off as I didn't see any of them on the next two cool down laps.

You never know what will happen if you can *just hang in there*

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:41 AM | Permalink

There are some guys that you just peg as racers -- you can tell by the way their muscles are chiseled, the shaved legs, the brighter jersey, and how easily they spin.

Today, and I feel no shame in this, the racer cleaned the pavement with me.

He was riding fairly casually until I passed. Upon doing so he stuck his bike to mine and we traded pulls for a while.

I took the first hill pretty fast -- 20mph over the top, but on the second one he wanted to turn it up a notch. We accellerated the first half in our saddles and then stood for the 2nd half in an all-out (at least for me) sprint up the steepest part of the grade.

I stayed within 10 meters of him over the top but he didn't let up. He gave one of those Lance Armstrong glances back and he was gone -- not even within sight by the time I made it to the straightaway at the bottom of the hill.

Oh well. I didn't get overtaken by anyone else that day.

Posted by Aaron R. Deutsch at 11:39 AM | Permalink