440 Update

Some of the local race organizers (see above) here in the St. George area have caught wind of the 440 and decided that no such event should occur. They have enlisted the help of the St. George BLM office to have them crack down on the unsanctioned event.

Somehow they are threatened by it, I think it might have something to do with......

Who's getting it or not getting it and we can not allow such shenanigans to effect their bottom line. So they are throwing up various and sundry reasons as to why I have to shut it down.

They cannot however kill my dream, so all four of you that have paid me, (you know who you are) will be getting your money back. The fun police have spoken and I accept their ruling but now I HAVE to ride it.

So some guys will be getting together for a plain old ride on October 23, all are invited, come one come all to ride the public trail system just like we do every weekend. Only this time we can stick it to the man.......... just a little bit.

Sing it Dewey.

233 is the magic number.

I am now onto my 6th Garmin 305, every little while they just decide to stop working. Garmin's customer service has been top notch and I usually have a new one within a couple weeks.

This years swap over coincided with me having to scrub the hard drive on my computer. Due entirely to user interface I lost all the data for Virtual Mark, we may never know if I could ever beat him.

I may take some heat for this from some of my "peers" but this year I have begun training with a heart rate monitor. I do this mostly because I am old and can't go hard every day like I used to, I need a recovery day or two mixed in to keep me going.

So this morning I riding along, slowly, trying to keep the HR under 142bpm and I noticed that whenever I went down hill my HR would jump thru the roof, usually it goes down.

I took a screen shot off the Garmin Connect, click it open and check out the max heart rate;

Just so you know, I have tested my max heart rate while on the bike and I know that at 184 bpm I start to black out. Tough to stay upright while seeing stars.

Q: So what time is it when you see a max HR of 233?

A: Time to get another heart rate monitor.

Taco Town

That's what I call a taco.

Mmmmmmm.....guacamolito sauce.

Do I know you?

About once a week I get a random solicitation for friendship on my Facebook page. Yes I have one, doesn't everybody? It is almost always girls and I find it sort of pathetic and sad. I myself have one FB rule, NEVER SOLICIT FRIENDSHIP! If they ask me, (and I know them) then I probably won't turn them down. But complete strangers??

This is what I got today:

Readers, meet Pearline Worthington.

No, I don't know her, or anyone else in the skank of the month club. Why is it cool to take your own picture and squintch your face into some rediculous smirk? Nice lid and ensemble by the way Pearly, I can't tell if you are on your way to the beach, the bar or snowboarding.

Goodluck finding friends Pearline and call me if you want to work on your image, I'm a life coach.

Tar and Loathing

I hate chip sealed roads. What is a chip seal road? Well let me enlighten you, if your county or municipality is low on funds or just really cheap then this is what they use to "repair" the roadways. Santa Clara is working on their roads this week and I am not happy.

They lay down a lay down a layer of tar over the existing asphalt and then spread gravel over the top and roll it tight with a wheeled roller/compactor.

They then wait a couple of days, letting traffic imbed the gravel further into the tar and finish it off by sweeping of the excess gravel.

They say it is 4-5 times less expensive than putting down new asphalt but it will only last for a year before it starts degrading to the point that it was worse than before. It's like putting a bandaid on a sucking chest wound.

Here is what the final product looks like up close. It's a glorified gravel road.

They are terrible to ride your bike on, maybe the average motorist would never know the difference but I assure you, they really are bad.

And if you are unfortunate enough to try and ride it when it is fresh or really hot, you get this.

Yesterday in the Tour of Utah my boy George Hincapie went down hard, notice the road surface he is on.

A quote from Velo News;

Stage winner and former teammate Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny’s) was behind Hincapie when the crash occurred. “I think what happened is the side of the road looked like pavement but it was actually gravel,” said Leipheimer. “He didn’t notice and his front wheel slid out. I don’t know how he’s doing, but I hope he’s OK.”

When there is no curb, the excess gravel gets left on the side of the road and it is nearly indistinguishable from the regular road way because it looks like a gravel road. George got 8 stitches and abandoned the race. Look close at his right leg, yuck.

I know that I can do nothing to stop the use of chip seal but ranting does make me feel a little better. I will probably get hit by a car anyway.