The Good Life

Verizon vs. AT&T for the New iPhone

2011-09-21T23:01:00.000-04:00

So which carrier is really a better deal for the iPhone. Well, if you look at the screen shot below from the Apple store, they both pretty much cost the same. The cheaper model is $199 for 16GB, and the 32GB model is $299.

Since the cost of the phone is pretty close, what about the total cost of ownership including rate plans?

AT&T
$199.00 for new phone
$36.00 one time activation
$39.99 per month includes 450 minutes plus 5000 night and weekend minutes
$25.00 for 2GB of data transfer per month
$20.00 per month for unlimited texts

Verizon
$199.00 for new phone
$35.00 one time activation
$39.99 per month includes 450 minutes plus unlimited night and weekend minutes
$30.00 for 2GB of data transfer per month
$5.00 per month for 250 texts per month

Total Cost of ownership (not including taxes) for 24 months:
AT&T $2275 vs. Verizon $2034
(this is assuming AT&T doesn't offer a cheaper texting plan and keeps the phone prices and rate plans the same)

Not to mention the coverage maps.

The AT&T coverage map above shows some dead spots along the I-91 corridor in VT.

The I-91 corridor above on the Verizon map looks better to me.

Both carriers are touting 4G service now and getting better into the near future.

I am pretty much sold on moving over to Verizon. The only drawback that I am aware of with the iPhone 4 was the inability to use both voice and data simultaneously. The big question is whether the new iPhone with Verizon coverage will still have this drawback...

Stay Tuned. Can you hear me now?

Why Politicians Are Not “The Solution” for Health Care.

2011-09-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

Lately we are hearing in the news that our nation has ahealth care crisis. Many say we need “HealthcareReform.” I disagree since our countryhas some of the best healthcare in the world. Refer to the January 2011 ranking of the top 1000 hospitals in theworld where the US holds all of the top 20 spots except for two Taiwanesehospitals. In fact, the US holds 426 outof the top 1000 spots for the best hospitals in the world. That’s pretty good numbers considering the UScomprises less than 4.5% of the world population according to the US Census Bureau. Even though some hospitals in the US may besub-optimal, we have quite a few great ones in comparison to the rest of theworld. With that said, I feel we havepretty decent healthcare in this country (I’m sure some folks will disagree forone reason or another, but I am entitled to my opinion).

Americans have access to healthcare since legally no one isturned away from hospitals. TheEmergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) was passed in 1986 bythe U.S. Congress which requires hospitals and ambulance services to providecare to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship,legal status or ability to pay. This isanother example of an unfunded mandate put in place by our government that I’m suredrives up health insurance costs. So eventhough 43 million people (roughly 14%) in the US did not have health insurancein 2008, these people still have access to healthcare, but perhaps not coveredunder a policy. And a 2009 CBS News pollshows that 64% of Americans think health care should be a right. Healthcare is often confused as health insurance; or is it really healthcare?

So why do we hear so much about healthcare from the news andfrom politicians? Why do we hear so manyfellow Americans complain about healthcare? Why do so many companies complain about skyrocketing healthcare premiums? Many people seem to think the major cause isbecause things are getting more and more expensive every year. However, according to the Bureau of LaborStatistics, the average rate of inflation between 2000 and 2010 was 2.5% per annum.So inflation doesn’t seem to be the cause since it has stayed rather steady. A few other factors could be compensation forhealthcare workers, profitability of hospitals, or profitability of healthinsurance companies.

Forbes wrote an articleabout hospital profitability in August, 2010. In this article they researched profitability of hospitals and found thatmany hospitals were turning operating margins above 25%. The most profitable hospital had anunbelievable operating margin of 53%! Thatmeans they were charging patients double what they needed to survive. Even not for profit hospitals were turningprofits!

I discovered through research that insurance companies arealso doing quite well. United Healthcarenetted 3.8 billion in 2009 and 4.6 billion in 2010. The #2 Health insurer in the US, Wellpoint Inc.made 5.6 billion in 2009 and 6.9 billion in 2010. Aetna netted 2.9 billion in2009, and 3.75 billion in 2010. BlueCross and Blue shield doubledits profit in 2010 from the previous year, raking in 1.1 billion. There are so many insurers, I could go on andon. If you want to get even more riledup, then go online and check out how many millions of dollars of your insurancepremiums are paid out in executive pay to the leaders of these giantbusinesses.

I have my theories of course, but I don’t think the government’ssolutions or regulations for health insurance will fix the problem. Politicians as of late seem to be very shortsighted and only seem to be interested in saying what people want to hear. In order to best describe my feelings, let megive an example:

Let’s pretend for a minute that I was going to offer you agrocery meal plan. I know you spend afair amount of money every month, so I am going to give you a really great policyprice which will take care of all of your grocery needs. I am going to get really low prices with thegrocery store since I have so much bargaining power (I'm going to get them a bunch of customers who can only shop at their store). Basically you take your meal plan card intothe grocery store whenever you want, and get whatever you want. It will only cost you $25 per trip as aco-pay. Do you think you will buy thesame amount of groceries you did in the past? Or perhaps might you get more and better ones? Do you think the store employees might throwin a few extra items with your purchase you might need since they are “covered”under your policy?

I bet if we tried this experiment, I would need to raiseyour “policy premium” after year one to regain my profitability. Then the grocery store would soon realizethat they can charge whatever they want to you (since you aren’t payingattention) because it doesn’t directly impact you. Soon after that, I would need to raise myprices again since my profitability has been reduced. Not to mention the prices for groceries wentup because of inflation. This systemsounds ludicrous to me.

I don’t think the founders of the “free market” would thinkvery fondly of our current system. It isbasically a monopolistic price fixing scheme that doesn’t allow forcompetition. So what is mysolution? Well, I probably don’t have aperfect one, but I definitely wouldn’t vote for a politician just because theyclaim they will solve our healthcare systems problems. Every solution I’ve heard from ourpoliticians is really no solution at all. The proposed solutions seem to bind us tighter to insurance companies,which I feel will only dig this hole deeper. Do we want to head in this direction? I really want to hear solutions that will improvethe quality of life for me and my fellow Americans.

But just stop and think about the system as a whole for aminute… why should your healthcare be tied to your job? You probably are not going to have your jobfor the rest of your life. My personalopinion is that insurance should be outlawed by the government unless the healthcarecompanies and hospitals are non-profit organizations. This still would be imperfect since it couldleave openings for some people to take advantage of the system somehow (asmentioned above). I would prefer ifpeople would go to a health care provider (doctor or hospital) and pay whatthey can afford for the services they need. In this model, people could pay for health services they requiredirectly and negotiate “fair prices”.

2011-07-31T21:18:00.000-04:00

Here is a video I found from the 2011 Bennington crit. I am on the front in the last part of the video. We blew apart this race!

Here is a video where I narrowly escaped a crash at the 2011 Naugutuck crit. (This was my last crit of the season)

My Summer Cycling Wrap-up

2011-07-29T20:23:00.000-04:00

2011 was a pretty wild summer of cycling for me. I went to a couple of stage races early in the season to see if my winter training would give me enough strength and endurance to finally climb out of the Cat 4s. I had been a Cat 4 since the late 90's, but I'd never had a solid enough season to get any results. This year I was able to build on top of my conditioning from the cross season, and also learned a bunch from teammates help, and learned some from my past mistakes.

The first stage race in the end of April was the Bennington Stage Race (AKA: Tour of the Dragons). This was a new event on the calendar, but it drew a handful of fellow teammates. Our Expo guys carpooled and spent a bunch of time eating and hanging out together in a cool part of Vermont. I had an especially great time at the crit and had a 6th place result and did a fairly detailed write up about the race. Granted, it was only a cat 4 crit, but we still had an average speed of 24.3 mph. This positive start to my season had given me hope to finally getting my Cat 3 upgrade this year. (I left out the part where I got dropped on the hilly road race)

My second stage race of the season was the Tour de Syracuse in the end of May. I had shown up with high hopes, but had them dashed by not being focused in the crit, and not being focused in the time trial. I had some issue with distraction those days, and I still don't know what it was. Perhaps it was the points series format that I wasn't familiar with. Or maybe the long drive in the car, or the food I ate the night before. Whatever it was, I had a disappointing event and the hilly road race didn't help. A few good things came out of this race. The first was a few new friends. The second was the fact that I need to focus in a race or I fail. The third was the realization that I needed to avoid races with hills.

Once the summer was underway I went to the local Tuesday night crit at the Rent, which is promoted by CVC. My best Tuesday night of the year I rode the "B race" and then followed it up with riding the "A race". This night was notable because I think it was the most and fastest racing I have ever done in one night. Over 38.5 miles in 1.5 hrs. The average speed of the "A race" was 27.2 mph!
On Wednesday nights I was either helping or riding our local time trial promoted by our club the Expo Wheelmen. I also raced the Sturbridge Mass Time Trial one night.

I started to scour the calendar for races without hills and in the beginning of June I drove to New Jersey for the Watermellon Crit. My sixth place result started to give me hope again. I also raced in the Masters race and got into a break for a while. I ended up blowing up since I didn't have quite enough endurance for two races in a row that day.

The day after being in New Jersey, I decided to mix things up a little and did a Cat 2 mountain bike race at Domnarski Farm. I finished a hilly mountain bike race top 10 with a 1:01:53 lap time. My goal was to crack an hour, but I'll need to try harder next year.

The following weekend I found a gold medal in my hands for a third place finish at the Nutmeg Games. The reason I was a gold medalist, was because I was the top finisher from the State of Connecticut. The net result for me was more upgrade points, and a great experience.

This is the point when summer started to get a little crazy. It seemed like something was going on every weekend. Plus my teammates were showing up at the local races and working hard to keep things together and pushing the pace on the final laps to keep things strung out.
Feeling like I needed points because of local events being cancelled, I drove to NYC for the Harlem crit. This was a points format crit, so every 5 laps the riders sprint for points. Whoever has the most points at the end of the race wins. I attacked on one of the wrong laps and got frustrated. It was not a great day for me.

Throughout the rest of the summer I kept training and racing the Tuesday night crits. I raced the Attleboro Masters crit which averaged almost 27 mph. It was crazy to be in a bunch sprint with such a bunch of fast racers. At the New Britain crit I got another sixth place finish in the Cat 4 race.

And finally I finished my road racing season for this year at the Naugatuck crit. I signed up for three races for the day. The first race was a Cat 4/5 and I won the bunch sprint on the final lap, but since a rider had gotten away off the front, it netted me second place. Then I jumped into the Masters race, but my body needed more recovery time, so I only did part of the race and then bailed out. Then I lined back up for the Cat 3/4 race and finished it up near the top ten in the bunch sprint. The race was a race filled with crashes, and I was thankful to end my season safe.

After all of my 2011 racing, I sent my racing license Cat 3 upgrade request along with all of my race info to USAC. Some people say "It's about time". But I say, "Finally!"

2011 Watermelon Crit

2011-06-04T21:15:00.026-04:00

This week I received an email from the race promoter of the 2011 Connecticut Stage Race (AKA: 2011 CSR). The message said our local race was cancelled this year due to low pre-registration numbers. With that large hole in the racing calendar I was a little bummed, and I needed to find something to fill it with. As I mentioned in my previous post, I am hunting for cat 3 points, and I know my strength is racing flat criterium type races. With all of this in mind, I decided to drive three hours to the Rutgers campus in New Jersey to race today in the 2011 Watermelon criterium event. Yes, it may sound crazy to drive 3 hours to race in two short races, but I love crits, and I have been scouring the race calendar for places to score upgrade points, and this event sounded like I had a chance to score a few.

Following the directions to the race from the website, I found the specified parking lot quite easily. The 4 am wakeup had made me a little groggy, but I still managed to fill out the release form as I registered for two races. I told the guy at the registration table Cat 4 and 35+. He looked at me and replied "45+?" inquisitively. It was slightly humorous, since this is about the third time I've gotten this response lately. I mean, do I really look that old? Is it my beard? Who cares. With such a long drive I figured I should take advantage of the chance to score a couple of pack finishes at least. Pack finishes, top tens, and points each count towards a USAC Cat 3 upgrade. The gnats were plentiful at the registration area next to the start line, so I was glad to get out of there, pin up my number, and do a quick recon of the course.

The course is sort of a triangle shape (0.7 mile long) loop, but the main straightaway is curved making the turns not too extreme of angles. The main straight at the start line goes slightly downhill, and hangs a left at the first intersection. This turn is super fast since it was coming down hill and can be apexed way to the inside since the pavement coverage is so wide. The back straight is basically flat, and had only a few minor potholes. The next left has a bunch of bumps leading into the corner, which made for a rough ride for a high speed corner. When you exit the corner, the road very slightly slants upwards, about 23 feet of vertical per lap according to my garmin. This straight leads back to the third left turn, which swings back out onto the finishing stretch. After my pre-ride I was pleased with the course overall.

The cat 4/5 race got underway on schedule and it was pretty fast. It was a very large field, maybe 60 or 70 riders. My strategy was to "sit in" and conserve, but the yo-yo or slinky effect of the massive group was burning up my legs, so I moved up in the group within the first couple of laps. I heard a guy at the start of the race bragging to his buddies about how he led out his teammate for a win last week, so I marked that guy, and sat on his wheel in the bunch. The race was actually a little bit boring at this point. People at the front tried to get away, and the big engines in the group would rev it up and reel them in. It was constant surging, but pretty uneventful. No premes. Bah! The most exciting part was when some water bottles had fallen out of cages and were rolling around in the rough turn #2. The race organizers quickly cleaned up the bottles after we passed by and removed the excitement.

I pulled up alongside my marked rider (in the green above) after about 30 minutes of racing and told him that I adopted him as a teammate since I had nobody for a lead-out. He said he was flattered, and right away I could tell by his body language that he would set me up for a good finish. He stayed on the outside edge of the group, and kept right up near the front. On two laps to go the pace was flying, and I almost got taken out by a guy in a turn who swerved cat 5 style. With the near miss behind me, I refocused on the wheel of my guy. One lap to go, a team in light blue and white setup a train at the front. It was full speed and they peeled off tour de france style after each one had given it their all. I hung on in the top ten, rounded the final corner. There was noise from a large crash right behind me. I continued to focus on sitting behind my leadout man, and when he started to sprinthe freaked slightly, rear wheel skidded sideways, but recovered quickly. I couldn't wait, so I blew around him and chased the 10 or so guys who were already sprinting towards the finish line. I scooped up a few places and got 5th. Yes! Thats worth points and counts as a top ten and a pack finish!

I hung out for a while and watched some junior racing which was cool. They had quite a large field of young riders. Some of the kids looked tiny on their bikes. I also watched the womens cat 4 race, and waited for my Masters 35+ race. My race started a little late, but once it started rolling, it felt like we were trying to make up time. Long story short, I hung in there for quite a while. I got into a 4 man break group that lasted maybe half a dozen laps until one of the guys threw down an attack on us. That move blew up a group that might have been able to stay away. At one point we had a huge gap on the field. Once the main field gathered us up, it was attack, after attack, after attack. Ouch. My legs started to cry. Then 30 minutes into the 40 minute race my legs went ka-boom. The switch was turned off. I rode back to my car, and packed up my stuff. Even though my second race didn't go so well, it was another perfect day of racing in the books...

Like poking a stick in a bees nest... Out in the Break!

My Garmin data from the 4/5 race
My Garmin data from the 35+ race

...and yes, they gave away watermelons as prizes to the winners...

Did I mention that I love bike racing?

2011 and Still Going

2011-05-03T21:00:00.000-04:00

So I wasn't sure what to expect after this winter following the cross season since I was headed into back surgery, but things seem to have worked out for the most part. I got my surgery done in December, and was laid up for a bit, and then had to take it easy for a while, but I was back on the bike within 5 weeks (I think - pain meds - ahhh). Then I started, very slowly to ramp my training up with a goal of 10 hours per week of ride time, hoping to bring that up to 12 hours per week by the end of March.

In early February I got a nasty cold that I couldn't shake, and I had to take a few weeks off my training plan. Good thing I rested up because then the weather broke, the six foot snow banks started to melt, and I got out on a bunch of weekend rides. Most of the rides I went out on in the 30 and 40 degree days had destinations with warm plates of food. Which was a stark contrast to all of the hours I spent riding on the stationary trainer, accompanied by boredom or netflix movies, made the outdoor rides seem quite enjoyable.
I went to a Bethel training race in March and had a great time. There was a huge field, and I felt great. I even dragged my teammate Lance up the hill to win a prime, and I bridged a gap or two during the race to test myself. I felt like I didn't lose too much conditioning since cross season, but I was slow to recover from hard efforts...

With a bunch of anaerobic club rides and and a decent Expo Wheelmen Time Trial under my belt, I signed up for the 2011 Bennington Vermont Stage Race (AKA: 2011 Bennington Race Weekend, or The Tour of the Dragons.) I knew going into the race that my strengths would be in the TT and the crit. The road race had some pretty severe hills, which is something a 200 pound guy usually doesn't specialize in.
I wrote about the stage race from my perspective here:

Now I have one point towards my cat 3 upgrade. The question is, can I (or will I) get the 19 more points I need to earn my upgrade this season. I'm not getting any younger ya know...

2010 Cross Season Roundup

2010-11-17T10:48:00.000-05:00

My goal for the 2010 cross season was to get enough USA Cycling points to get my Category 3 upgrade. As the rules are written, a Cat 4 cross rider needs to complete 10 races, or get 10 upgrade points within a year. Points are earned based on the placing and the number of riders in the field. The UASC rules for cross can be found here.
Here's how it played out:

Brewery Ommegang - second place finish scored me 4 points.
Day 1 of the Providence Cross Fest - 10th place result 0 points
TCC Mansfield Hollow Cross - fourth place finish earned me 2 more points

Day One @ Downeast CX race in Maine - another fourth place and 2 more points

Day Two @ Downeast CX race - finished on the podium in second place for 4 more points

Since my total points was now up to 12, I requested my USAC upgrade on the website and it was granted. I picked up a sticker for my license at the Northampton Mass Cycle-Smart International Day 2 race. This was my third time racing in the Cat 3 field, but was my first cross race as a Cat 3. I had little expectations since the previous day I had ridden an 82 mile off road adventure, and at this race and the field was huge. Starting from the back of about 150 riders, I finished 99th.

Providence Cyclocross Festival 2010

2010-10-09T23:31:00.005-04:00

The Providence cyclo-cross festival is a two day race that takes place at Roger Williams Park in the south-western side of the city of Providence, RI. This beautiful park is a perfect venue for such a large event, since it is filled with various terrain, and it has lots of parking on along the roads that go through it. Near the race course, the park has outstanding views of small lakes which surround the area. In an infield grassy area, the race promoter organized a small tent city, which was the hub for most of the racing activities. There were various vendors including (but not limited to) Kenda tires, REI, Cannodale, Wheelworks, a custom wool jersey company, a bouncy house for kids, a couple of food trailers, and a Harpoon beer tent. The race promoter also strategically placed an announcers tent among the tent city beside the course, so the folks who were armed with microphones could call the play by play for each race over the loudspeakers. Today, the weather had temperatures in the high 60’s and there was a blue sky with lots of bright sunshine. The combination of hundreds of cyclists, hundreds of fans with cowbells, and this great venue; made this a perfect atmosphere for cross racing.

Today, I was racing a 40 minute race with the older fellows in the 35+ age group for category 4 cross racers for the first time. My race started at 8:45, and I arrived at about 8 o’clock. My semi-late-ish arrival meant that I wouldn’t get to pre-ride the course, since the younger cat4 riders were already out there racing. There were 83 riders in my class, and since I registered only a few days ago, I got called to line up for the start almost dead last. My day wasn’t starting out so good, but I had a good feeling about what was in store from my warm-up ride. I felt a little off, but I felt very well rested. I was hoping I could burst off the start line and get going after a lap or so around the course. I figured after a lap around, I would know the terrain and obstacles, and would be able to strategize where I could go hard. I knew I would be working my way up through the crowds of riders (which I call traffic).

The only thing I knew about the course, beyond the 50 meters or so that I could see, was the help my teammate in my group offered me before we lined up. He said something like, there is a hard right hand turn that goes out onto some grass, then it gets crazy… At the start line, “30 seconds until we go” was called out, and I locked one foot into my pedal and visualized killing it for the straightaway that went up a slight grade in front of us, and then staying to the inside for the right-hander. “Go!” We were off. I attacked from the line and passed about 15 to 20 riders in the first 100 meters. Then we turned the corner and were onto the grassy sections. I continued to pass riders left and right as I mashed away like I was trying to bend my crank-arms.

After I completed my first lap, I had a really good introduction to the course at a relatively high rate of speed. Most of the straighaways were really fast becasue of the rolling terrain. Many of the corners ramped down in the straight sections which helped me quickly get up to speed. The entries into the corners were tricky though. Many of the corners had reverse banking and loose dirt and/or gravel. This created quite a few crashes in the corners from front wheel washouts. There were basically four sections of the course that required a dismount of the bike. There was a set of concrete stairs that went up a steep hill. Then there was a set of man-made wooden stairs which were staked into another hillside. There was a straight section that led up to a set of wooden barriers which were about 12-14 inches high. And the final dismount section was a short but very steep uphill near the start/finish area, which resembled roto-tilled topsoil more than a race course.

This course was very long and challenging. I found some of the long straight sections to my liking. Some of them were very bumpy, two sections were loose gravel, two were pavement, but much of the course was smooth grass/dirt. I found myself powering along the straight sections and passing riders before the corners while looking out for roots and bumps that were hidden in the grass. Somewhere along the second lap I heard someone yell to me that I am in the top 20. I thought to myself that they must be kidding. I figured I was maybe 30^th or 40^th. Then later in the lap, I heard a spectator tell a rider in front of me that he was in 18^th position. I decided to put the hammer down and see if I could make it inside the top 10 at this point. Every rider became my prey. One by one I picked them off on the straight sections. I kept telling myself that I need to pass them when they are trying to recover, and it worked. I braked hard before the corners so I could maintain control. I was mastering the corners by the second lap. The only problem was, my stomach started to act up. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but it felt pretty sick. I tried to ignore the feeling and continued to ride.

On the final lap, I went back and forth with a Cannondale factory team rider, who passed me, and I passed him. Finally he passed me again on the final run-up. I decided I couldn’t hang with him since my stomach felt like it was going to puke if I pushed harder, but I felt pretty good since he was the only rider that got ahead of me over the last three laps. On the road that led up to the finish the Cannondale rider passed one more rider and I followed suit. I was guessing I was near top ten and I was happy with that. As it turns out, I was 10^th! Now I was really happy to know the race was worthwhile for me since I was hoping for at least a top 15 finish. It was another great day of racing at another great course, and to top things off, the beer tent had a cold beer waiting for me. I can’t wait for next year already…I’ll be there both days for sure.

What 2010 New England CX Races are on Tap?

2010-10-04T15:39:00.000-04:00

It's only the first week in October and there is still a long way to go this 2010 cross season. I have my sights set on getting my cat 3 cross upgrade before the end of the season, and the only way to do it is to race.

- Providence has a 2 day CX festival this weekend 10/9 & 10/10

- Mansfield Hollow and Stratton Brook Tobacco Valley race in Simsbury, CT on 10/16 & 10/17

- New Gloucester Maine is the Verge race 10/23 & 10/24.

- North Hampton Verge race 11/6 & 11/7

- Moser farm in Ellington CT on 11/14

- East Hampton spooky cross on 11/21

- Sterling Mass Verge race on 11/27 & 11/28

- last Verge races on my schedule are 12/4 and 12/5 in Warwick, RI

I have two complete months and 14 possible races left to try to ramp up my conditioning, while the days are getting shorter and colder.

At the end of October we will change the clocks back and it will be dark when I get home from work.

ugh.

I'm going to get in as much riding as possible over the next few weeks, since I will be getting lots of time on the trainer in November.

Brewery Ommegang Cyclocross Race

2010-10-03T22:08:00.003-04:00

CX @ Brewery Ommegang -- part of the NYCross.com Series

One day last week I decided to head up to New York for a cross race rather than going to the large cyclocross weekend event in Gloucester, MA. The race in Gloucester was going to have over 125 cat 4 riders, and over 125 cat4 35+ riders, and races were scheduled for both Saturday and Sunday. The race in Cooperstown, NY at the Ommegang brewery only had 20 some odd pre-registered riders signed up for the cat 4 race (ended up being 35 racers), and only took place on Sunday. I wasn't feeling like racing both days and I didn't want to deal with the massive herds of riders, so I figured I would drive a little further, but take part in a race where I would have good chances for a top 10 placing. As an added plus, it was advertised to have a beer tent that the racers pass through as part of the course. How cool!

My day started out pretty good. I was up at 4 am and drove until 7:30 am. My organizing and packing of the car the night before had proved to be helpful to get me out the door and keep me on schedule for the day. When I arrived at the brewery in Cooperstown, the registration folks weren't even ready yet. I took care of business and got my bike and gear ready for a good hour of warm-up. I went back to the big beer tent some time after 8 o'clock, and signed up for the cat4 race and the 3/4 men race. What the heck, I figured. I drove this far, so getting in nearly 2 hours of racing wouldn't kill me. They gave me my number for each race, along with a corresponding ankle bracelet timer chip. When I asked the folks at registration which side my number went on, they seemed befuddled. I'm not sure if it was because it was a shivery 30 degrees and their brains were frozen, or if they didn't have a chance to have coffee yet… but nobody could give me an answer. I asked them which way we were going past the timing tent, and they motioned up the hill, so I figured it out. Oh boy. I was hoping the rest of the day wouldn't be like this.

I went back to my car and on my numbers, ate some fruit, spun some high revs on the trainer to get my heart going, and drank some glucose. I was ready. I did a quick pre-ride of the course and found it to my liking. It had lots of tight turns roped off, one tricky barrier setup in the middle of some turns, and a few short flat sections. On the back section of the course there was only one short hill, and another longer hill that wasn't as steep. Mostly of the course was wet grass, with a few 10 meter sections of dirt gravel mix, and one section through the woods that was spongy wet compacted mud. The downhill along the open field was bumpy grass, so it limited the ability to pedal hard and therefore limited top speed. My game plan was to do the first lap as hard as I possibly could, and then see what happens.

I set my tire pressure low since there were no major tube-pinchers on the course, and got lined up early to wait for the rest of the cat 4 riders to gather around the staging area for the start. There was a 50-60 meter sprint from the start line to the first corner that went right, so I took the front row, way up on the right. The USA Cycling official called the riders to the area and explained the rules, and the promoter thanked us for coming out. Next thing I knew I heard the word go, and I was hard charging for the corner in full out sprint over the bumpy ground. I made it to the corner and charged hard around it out in front. I already had started to put a gap on the majority of the field…hammer time…I cranked thru the sections of sharp corners and held the lead. Then I went around the entire course with nobody in sight behind me…I was wondering where everyone was, not that I was taking much time to look back over my shoulder.

Sometime along the second lap, a rider caught up to me. Where the heck did you come from I asked him. I let him by me and followed his wheel for half a lap. When I felt rested and sensed he was slowing, I hit the gas again and left him behind. I went a couple more laps off the front. When I came around the start finish area with two laps to go, I had a rider charging hard behind me. I let him by me and tried the same tactic to sit on his wheel. I was hoping I could follow him and then take him on the last lap. I followed hard, but the harder I followed, the harder he went. Finally on the last lap he was opening up a gap on me, and I decided to concede for second place. I rode out the rest of the lap in cruise control and was super happy to cross the line with a good result.

I did a cool down ride and still felt pretty good. My leg muscles had gotten some abuse, and I could feel it, but I still felt strong. I started to strategize the 3/4 race in my head. I decided I would try the same approach and see what happens. I got the lineup a little too late and the good spots were taken. I ended up wedging my way in to the far left hand side in the front row. At the sound of the whistle I was off and again had a great jump. I had shifted thru almost my entire cassette in the first 70 meters and was flying. I caught onto the wheel of the rider who beat me around the corner on the inside, and I followed his tempo for the entire first lap, then things got hazy. I hung on and hung on for a few more laps. If memory serves me right I was still in top 3 with 4 laps to go, then I popped. My legs would have no more and I couldn’t recover the overly rapid beats of my heart. As I fell out of fifth position, I gave up…I rode along the edge of the bushes and watched a train of racers sail past…ugh! Then I decided I would ride back to the beer tent and take the rest of the day off.

On my way back around the course to the beer tent, I got passed by a bunch more riders. I was still catching my breath, then all of a sudden I felt fine again. I noticed there were still quite a few riders behind me. I started to think that maybe I should stay on the course. To upgrade from a cat 4 to a cat 3, you need to have completed 10 races, so…If I complete this, it will count as another race. I picked up the tempo again and rode out the last three laps in good form…in fact I didn’t get passed by anyone…and might have passed one or two riders who popped. I wasn’t sure about my result, but I went back to the beer tent, listened to the band, and enjoyed a cold one. I had fun watching the other races, and helping heckle the riders for the rest of the afternoon. Results were later posted and I was 25^th out of 59. I was shocked. I thought for sure I was near the back since I lost track during the race…Cheers to another fun day and two more completed races!

Link to the Team Ommegang – Syracuse Bicycle:

http://scarr-ommegang.blogspot.com/2010/10/cx-brewery-ommegang-results-are-posted.html

Results:

http://www.bikereg.com/Results/2010/10/04-CX-at-Brewery-Ommegang-NYCross.asp

Palmer "Jungle" Cross Race

2010-08-29T22:46:00.000-04:00

Today I went to my third cyclo-cross race of the season in Palmer, Mass. Even though I woke up a little sore from yesterday's race, my energy level was pretty high and I was excited to take on another challenge. The weather was another beautiful day and I actually got to the Palmer votech school with time to properly warm up and pre-ride. I did one lap around the course and figured out why they call this the "jungle". 80 percent of the race course goes through the woods, which has roots that cover the ground like giant spider veins. The other 20 percent of the course goes though a small field, and goes on the long, straight, and flat driveway into the school. There were two short steep hills in the course that were pretty much rideable, and there were two longer hills of about 15 to 20 yards, that were steep and loose soil. I actually ran these hills at a better rate than I ran yesterday.

I had a very weak start after about 150 yards of sprinting on blacktop before we made a left hand turn onto wet grass and disappeared under the thick tree cover. Out of the 50 riders in my field, I would say I was about 40th or so into the woods.

I worked lap after lap to pick off riders. After I would catch and pass a rider, I would drive onward to catch my next prey. At some points I was stuck in traffic in some of the technical sections where the ground was covered in large roots, and some other times I was riding by myself with out anyone in sight.

I lost track of the number of laps, but after my second lap I crashed when trying to ride up one of the loose climbs, and as a result I dropped my chain. This mishap lost me some time, scraped up my leg, and caused me to get behind riders I had just worked really hard to pass.

The loud cheering of fellow Expo Wheelmen back near the starting line gave me a boost a of adrenaline and helped motivate me to drive hard for my last two laps. I passed a few riders on the final lap who were tiring and I ended up 23rd for the day. I was really hoping for a top 15 finish, but regardless, I had a good time. It's a few weeks until my next cross race and I'm planning of working on my fitness over that period, and I plan to sharpen my handling skills on the cross bike since I feel that is a weakness of mine at this point.

Munson Cross Race 2010

2010-08-28T22:33:00.000-04:00

Today was a beautiful day to do almost anything outside. Lucky for me I was signed up for the second race of the 2010 Tobacco Valley Cyclo-Cross Race Series and today’s race was being held in Munson, Mass. The course was right behind the high school, and I had no idea to expect.

I went to the table near the entrance of the high school and picked up my number for the day. When I was back at my car I saw Lance J. and Dave D. arrive, who are both teammates of mine from Expo Wheelmen. They were stoked and so was I, so the three of us set off to pre-ride the course together.

Let me try to give you a description of the first section of the course. Ok, so the start is in the school parking lot which is nearly as long as the school building that sits behind it. The race organizers have the riders line up in front of the school entrance, ride across the length of the parking lot, take a long left hand sweeper turn down into a lower parking lot, cross that lot in the opposite direction, and then hop a curb and bomb down over a steep grassy embankment.

As we pre-rode, I thought oh shucks. That curb is going to take out a bunch of riders at the start. I mean, who would suggest a pack of riders (on cross bikes) go full speed on blacktop (in a somewhat downhill section) and negotiate a bituminous curb that sat at a 45 degree angle to our path (not to mention there was some sort of two odd astro-turfed, foot wide ramp, that sat in the middle of the opening). My brain (or at least what is left of it) told me that I was not at this race to take any major risks. I instantly decided that I was going to take a super conservative approach today; which meant I was going to let the bunch sprint to the curb, and watch to see what happens.

We rode the rest of the course and there was quite a mix of terrain. Others who pre-rode the course explained some of it to me as “scary”. There were sections of tall grass that was roped off with a few sharp switchback turns. This stuff was textbook cross. There were sections of loose woodchips that hopped on and off of blacktop sidewalks. Hmmm, tricky. There were a few wide open stretches of blacktop; including one section of a blacktop walking ramp that leads to the top the hill behind the school, and had a switchback mid way up. I have to admit. The course was now starting to grow on me. I like the wide open fast sections where I can lay down some power. I looked down at the 48 tooth big ring and grinned.

The next couple sections of the course wasn't quite so pretty, but it was just as exciting. From the top of the ramp there was a downhill section with a fairly smooth line and a grassy area to either side. This section was fairly steep and of course had a very sharp right hander at the bottom. This led up over a power roller and all of a sudden ducked into the shade of the trees. The transition from light to dark made it hard for my eyes to adjust quick enough to see the rocks that seem to pop up everywhere like gophers. Bang! I smacked straight into one of the rocks on the pre-ride while following my teammates wheels down the dusty descent, and it almost threw me off the bike. Whew. That was close I thought.

At the base of the hill the trail is a nice double wide and fairly smooth section, only to be ended with a hard switchback to the left. This next section was like the Appalachian trail. I threw my bike onto my shoulder and hoofed it. Then there was a short flat section, followed by another quick uphill that was covered in rocks and roots. This one had a rideable line to the far right (which came in handy during the race to pass people pushing their bikes) that was disguised by the rack. This section was followed by a short flat section of 10 yards or so, then another uphill (with another line to ride but it had some loose sand and gravel). This was followed by a longish section of flat that had only a few rocks and random roots, and ended with a mack-daddy of an uphill. This hill was steep. I would guess it was 25-30 yards or so, but my elevated heart rate while walking up it while carrying my bike made it feel more like it was 100 yards.

Once I crested the hill, we were in the ball field behind the school, not in the woods anymore. We basically rode the perimeter of the field, zigged and zagged a little, went over some barriers, and then found our way back ‘round to the start again. Oh boy! I thought, how many laps of that are we going to do in 40 minutes?

So we lined up to start, and I was in the second row. My teammates, who are more daring than me, were in the front row. Once the group raced around the corner towards the curb I sat up expecting a major disaster, but there was only one rider that smacked it and endo-ed. It sounded like carbon cracking…ouch, that hurt. I saw my teammate take the hole-shot and head down the embankment like crazies. I hopped the curb, focused on pedaling, and decided I would set out to see how many riders I could catch during the race (since I was starting from the back). I was cautious on the technical sections, and put the power down on the wide open sections. I think I caught and passed more than 5 riders per lap (some of those folks might have been pre-riding the course for their upcoming race).

The laps blurred together after a while, I think we did 5 or 6 total, but I remember seeing the 2 lap to go card. My lines I found in my pre-ride were working great and I felt good. I had a cramp at one point in my side, but I worked through it. I was tired as heck running up the hills (ok, I was walking at some points), and sweating like crazy, but I had great recovery, and I was able to power it on the open sections and pass other riders. As I was passing one of the other riders in the woods, I asked him if he thought we were top 20. He scoffed, and told me that we had to be “further up than that”. I was pleasantly surprised to hear his opinion. I thought we were mid-pack, but then again I hadn’t been counting.

It was a very fun day. I’ll definitely be back next year. Congrats to my teammates Lance who got the win, and Dave who grabbed third. Two expo guys who cashed in on prize money…and three guys from our club finished inside of the top ten for the cat 4 field. So it wasn’t only a fun day, it was also a very good day!

Mudslingin’ Slogfest - Blunt Park Cross Race, Springfield Mass

2010-08-22T00:28:00.000-04:00

So today was my first cyclo-cross bicycle race for the 2010 New England season, and as the day unfolded, it turned out to be a great learning experience for me. I was hoping to start off the racing season by dipping my toes into a dry and fast course as a transition away from the road riding I’ve been doing. One thing we can always expect is change, and upon waking up a half hour later than planned, I could hear the rain falling. At that point I knew the day would not turn out exactly as I was hoping, but I dodged the raindrops as I loaded the things into my car and prepped myself to roll with it.

As I drove on the highway I reminded myself that this race is part of a larger picture. I have been thinking about racing in both the Tobacco Valley points series and the Verge point series (which is more regional than local), so I planned to use this first race as a gauge to help me determine how much of a personal investment I wanted to put into this 15+ race cross season. I figured that if I don’t do very well in this CAT 4 race, then perhaps I will forgo the whole idea of racing the other races, which would save me the money of going to the races and purchasing another bike. This thinking sorta relaxed me and took off some of the pressure, even though my ETA of arriving at an unfamiliar place was 45 minutes before my start time of 9 a.m. Yup. I was stressed.

Ok, so I found the parking lot. Where the heck do I get my number? I asked a guy parked next to me and he pointed me towards a pavilion nestled under some tall pine trees about 120 yards away. It was tough to see since the rain was misting, and it was dark and overcast. I signed my life away, headed back to the car, and saw some other expo guys pre-riding the course with a bunch of the Cat 4’s who were ready to race. I hastily got dressed, pumped tires to 30 &40 psi, and rode around trying to warm up my legs for about 10 minutes before I heard a loudspeaker call my group to the line.

A large group of riders formed at the starting line and filled the narrow asphalt road which was directly in front of an older camper that was being used for officials and scoring the races throughout the day. I noticed riders had numbers on either side, so I asked one of the officials near the camper which side my number should be on…needless to mention it was on the wrong side…just then, “5 minutes until we start” bellowed an official through a loudspeaker.

I got my number situated, and got my shirt back on, and the zipper wouldn’t zip. I about lost it. Deep breath I thought…I still have a couple minutes at least. I looked around at the 40 some odd riders around me in my group who were socializing with one another. These guys look like experienced riders and they looked relaxed while I am freaking out trying to get my shirt zipper up. Some of them were already muddy from pre-riding the course. Then I got thinking. Am I at a disadvantage?

Now let me explain my sudden lack of confidence. First of all, I am riding a borrowed bike since I haven’t made the leap to add yet another bike to my corral. These guys must all have their own bikes that they are used to riding…right? And second, I have very little experience racing this sort of event since I only have one cross race prior under my belt (using the same borrowed bike last year on a different course). I wasn’t sure what the course would be like. These guys have pre-ridden the course, so they know the fast lines and I don’t. At this point, one of my teammates from Expo Wheelmen came up and told me to get into my big ring for the start. Another teammate told me about a fast line around a log. That was great. It was a huge confidence boost, took my mind off of the worrying, and next thing I knew, we were off!

I started off in about the 5^th row back, straight down the blacktop road, until we do a switchback turn to the left and go onto the grass on the edge of the woods. I sprinted the big ring as instructed and was heading into the turn in about 10^th position. I saw my only teammate in my field, who was the leader of the pack, go down hard right on the road when he was steering into the turn. This caused mass confusion in the group since we were trying to funnel three or four wide, through a one bike wide hole. I heard clanking of wheels and spokes as bikes knocked together, followed by some cussing, but I just focused on pedaling out of there and told my teammate to get back on the bike and get moving as I went by.

My first lap was difficult since I didn’t know the course and I wasn’t warmed up (check those off as lessons learned). I was frothing at the mouth as I followed wheels so closely that I was eating dirt, while the rain drizzled and the knobby tires began to roto-till the trails into a black sticky mud that was flying eveywhere. As I came around from the first lap, one of my spectator teammates told me I was 16^th. It gave me a little time to think. The course had a bunch of tricky switchback turns, and very little climbing. There were only four major obstacles that required dismounting from the bike, and there was one section of knarly roots with both a high and a low line. I knew my strength was the fast straight-aways, and now I knew where they were. I decided I would try to pick off a few riders, but shoot to maintain my position in the field the best that I could. The points for this race series are given to the top 15 riders. Now that I knew how long a lap was (seemed to be about 7 or 8 minutes), I knew I only had a few chances in this 40 minute race to pass on the straight sections.

As I came up behind slower riders I found it hard to pass. The myriad of turns caused riders swerve from right to left, so every time I would approach to pass, my passing lane would get closed off. Finally I passed on a straight section. Ha. My plan is working…heh, heh, heh. Oh yeah...now it began to downpour.

On the third lap I was soaked, but the 70 degrees was ok in the rain. The water was cooling down my steaming body. Overall I now felt like i was warmed up, but at the same time I felt a little spent since I pushed hard already without warming up. My teammate who crashed in the first corner of the race was now behind me and he was charging hard. Rather than holding him up, I told him I would give him room, with hopes I could follow his faster wheel than mine. Once he was by me I was right on it…but a few minutes later we went charging hard into the switchback first corner again…and crash. My front wheel slid out from under me on the greasy road, and I slammed it hard. Oh, shucks (or something) I said, or maybe yelled out.

About six riders passed by while I checked my loaner bike, and my body for damage. Surprisingly, everything seemed to be ok, but I knew I got some road rash on my left leg and hip. As I climbed back on and pedaled the final laps around the course some pain began to set in, but I soldiered on. I decided to hammer the best I could and just finish the race at this point. This is after all, just a race to help me decide if I like cross enough to keep doing it.

So I had fun. Even though I finished 23^rd out of 43, I learned a bunch that should help me do better next time. Hmmm. The races on the calendar for next weekend are Palmer and Munson.I wonder what the weather will be like.

Click here to see more photos from my race

Joe Tindal

Cat 4 Cross Racer

Exposition Wheelmen

Hangin' off the back and having fun.

Fall River Crit 2010

2010-08-15T13:00:00.008-04:00

Since I am planning to do as much cyclo-cross racing as possible this fall, I have been trying to ramp up my high intensity training. As a natural means to an end, crit racing seemed to be a perfect fit to help intensify my somewhat lax training program. While I was searching for local events, I found the ‘Blount Fine Foods Fall River Criterium’ on the New England schedule. Since it was just over an hour away, I decided to give it a try.

Cat 5s were racing when I arrived and I noticed major pain on the faces of the riders which was being inflicted by a small hill after the finish line. I only had an hour until the start time for my race, so I registered and headed out for a warm-up ride. When I rode over to turn #4, I noticed a hill that made me loose a bit of confidence. The climb between turn #3 and turn #4 was about 400 meters long and about a 5% or 6% grade. I am not a great climber, so I quickly began to envision myself hanging onto the back of the group…which is exactly what happened.

I lined up in a good start position, and felt ready to go, but had issues getting into my left pedal, and my good position all of a sudden was converted into a position in the back of the field. It didn't really matter because after about 6 or 7 laps, the lactic acid in my legs was overtaking my muscle output, and I could no longer hold the 22-24mph pace up the climb. I rode on, still at a vigorous pace, and tried to keep the group in sight for a while. Then I worked to catch other riders who were dropped. I tried to stay low and aero down the finish straight since there was a headwind that was killing my speed. I worked super hard solo, and after catching up to the fourth dropped rider, I was pulled from the course by the officials since there were only 5 laps to go.

It was a bummer to get dropped, and even more of a bummer to get pulled from the race, but at least the experience provided me an indication about where my level of fitness stands compared with other Cat 4 racers. With my 40 out of 43 finish, I decided that I have a lot of work to do before the commencement of ‘cross season.

Read more about the course here, and read how my friend SOC made it to a podium spot.

Joe Tindal

Expo Wheelmen - Cat 4

Tokeneke Road Race 2010

2010-08-08T22:00:00.002-04:00

I registered for Tokeneke Road Race in the early summer with high hopes of doing well in a local hilly race. I call this a local road race since it takes place in Connecticut, even though it is over an hour drive from home. I call it hilly since I am not a rider who normally excels in the hills. The last time I did this race (I believe was way back in 2002 when I was 10 lbs lighter) I stayed with the main bunch until the final climb of the last lap, and I even passed some riders on the last climb.

I was initially hoping for a repeat performance of 2002; however my training plan over the summer had been blown apart by a broken collar bone in June and chronic L4-5 disc issues in my lower back. My broken collarbone had kept me off the bike for about a month and a half in June and July. And as a result I lost my conditioning and sacked on a couple of pounds of fat. To add to my disadvantages, my back pain still had a slight but negative effect on my riding, especially on some rides over 2 hours. So I decided to scale back my desires of being in the top 25 or so, knowing how I felt in the days leading up to the race. I decided I should shoot for finishing the race. I figured if I finished this race, then I would have at least one road race result (rather than another DNF) for 2010. My goal was to dig hard for the first lap and see what happens.

My facebook status @ 7:24 am the morning of the race read: “Driving to Tokeneke road race. Planning to kick ass off the back.” My status reveals my true level of confidence before we started…

Upon arriving at the field where everyone parks, I noticed it was beautiful weather. The sky was a bit cool and misty, but I could feel the sun was trying to slice through the cool morning fog. It was about 68 degrees F, which is in my opinion a perfect temperature for cycling. It is a temperature that is warm enough to wear shorts and short sleeves, but not so cool that you get a chill. I was one of the first ten or so people to park, and I quickly got my bike off my rack and road the .3 of a mile down the road with a guy who parked next to me named Al. We found our way over to the registration tent and everything was setup exactly the same as when I did this race before. For me, it was a bit of déjà vu.

After riding back to my car, giving a good morning wave to Dennis as he arrived in his car, pinning my numbers to my jersey, changing into my clothes, and riding a brief warm-up; Dennis wisely suggested we get lined up early so we get a good starting position….so we did. We started out the race in the front few rows. Dennis rode beside me for a few miles and he even joked that we were in a top ten position. I thought to myself that I like being up there. After the pace felt like it was slowing, I worked my way up the gutter and set the pace on the front for a nice long pull or two. I felt rather comfortable and strong on the bike at this point.

As our group hummed along, the sky got progressively cloudier, and rain began to mist as our peloton as we neared the long decent before the dam. On a couple of the short rises, I was trying to be very conservative with energy, and dropped back about 20 positions. When we were descending the steepest hill before the dam, I was riding right near the yellow line, the rain began to lightly fall, and I heard lots of rubbing of cork on carbon. Suddenly one of the riders in the middle of the pack (who was just slightly ahead of me) began a death wobble since the front wheel and handlebars viciously jerked from side to side at 40+ mph. For a second I thought this was going to be a nasty pileup, carnage, with full fledge pandemonium. “Attack” I thought, but miraculously the rider recovered control without incident, and everyone else quickly got back into formation.

(Yup!, that's me!)
We rode past the photographer at the dam, and things were still pretty intact. At about mile 7, we turned a corner onto the very rough Beach Rock road, which was a climb. I focused on not hitting potholes while I dug deep to stay in the top 35 or so.

As we powered on, I looked over my shoulder and saw the damage. It looked like the group spit out about 10 or 15 riders on the first surge. I tried to keep my speed up, but I felt myself losing ground to the faster guys as things strung out. At mile 10, we hit a very long hill that seemed to go on and on. I spun and spun at about 13 mph on this steep little section, but it wasn’t enough as I slowly drifted back through the group. When the official’s car crept past me I knew I had been popped. I jokingly held out my hand and asked the official in the passenger seat if they had a water bottle for me to hold onto as they went by. I was now in full chase mode with the car right ahead of me for the next few miles, but I never made up any ground. Eventually I caught a bunch of others who fell out of the back like me, and we formed a small group that basically rode out the second half of the first lap together as we watched the car go out of sight.

We descended the long twisty (smooth) shaded road at just about 50 mph in a full tuck position. Then at the base of final climb of the first lap my legs were feeling pretty good. In our chase group of 8 guys or so, I sat on the front and set the tempo. I knew we had zero chance of catching back on to the main group or even another chase group…but I was still turning the pedals over ok. I thought about abandoning the race since my body was cooked, and mentally I was a little bit frustrated. So looking for ideas, I asked one of the guys I was sharing the pace making with if he was riding a second lap. He said of course he was since it was a nice day and he was going to get his money's worth out of this race. His opinion sat well with me, and it changed my frame of mind, so I decided to finish the second lap as well. As we crested the hill, we passed under the finish banner for lap #1. As we went past the finish area and then through the crooked junction of rt. 20 and rt. 179 there were sparse bunches of spectators, who were cheering and ringing cowbells for the dropped cyclists. Even though my heart was pounding fast, and I was trying to catch my breath, I caught a glimpse of my kids cheering away as I passed by and turned my focus to stay with the chase group.

My legs were now more tired than ever, even with the cowbell adrenaline boost. I somehow caught back on and followed wheels for a while. Then a state police cruiser slowly drifted by with lights flashing. Uh oh I thought… I began to wonder what group is catching us. How could they? We’ve been keeping a tempo above 21 mph average… I didn’t have much time to think since on the next climb our group got swept into the middle of the 45+ field. Phew. We were flying…that was only for a few minutes until the official on the motorcycle rode up alongside the group and ordered the cat 4s to “neutralize off the back”. He then forced us to follow his motorcycle which he slowed down to a crawl on the descent towards the dam (which let a huge gap open up between us and the other cat 4 chase groups who were just ahead of us). Damn I thought and perhaps uttered. The little bit of enthusiasm that I had now was completely deflated since we were forced to sit up for over a minute as we watched the riders ahead of us ride away. When we were signaled to race on, we proceeded down what was left of the hill and across the dam again without anybody in sight. We did however manage to pick up a couple of cat 4s when we were motoring along with the 45+ field.

As we approached the turn onto Beach Rock road again, I asked if anyone had a gu since I knew I was zapped, and my legs weren’t going to be able to do much more. I heard a voice say “Hello neighbor”, and Al (who parked next to me at the beginning of the day) courteously held his hand out with a gu pack. He joked and said “shwag!” since it was something he had gotten from free at the race registration. (I owe you one man)

Our chase group was now comprised of about ten or eleven riders and we worked up the next series of climbs. The natural attrition of not very well conditioned and overweight riders left Al and I watching the other guys ride away. These guys ended up finishing 4 minutes ahead of us, but my legs were cramping at around mile 37 and I could no longer hang onto them. Oddly enough, Al had the same cramping problems, and we eventually came upon a shelled 45+ rider who knew what we were talking about. He sucked our wheels for a while but eventually even popped off of us on the second to last climb of the day.

On the final climb, I was struggling to keep a high enough cadence to maintain a respectable pace, but Al set a nice slow tempo and I followed it. Every turn of the crank I kept telling myself, ”compact, compact, compact”. Even in my misery, it was really nice to be riding with someone. We chatted about things like cold beer and ice cream. While we dreamt, we kept the pace nice and steady, and at the 1K mark, there was a cat 4 rider just ahead of us. I decided to set the tempo, which Al followed until we caught this lone rider. Then I told Al to sit on the train and I led it out at a measly 25 or 26 mph so he could easily slide by the two of us at the finish.

Overall, this was a very well organized race and a fun event. And as usual the course was very beautiful and fast. Even though I placed 72 out of 100, it was a perfect day for me since I met my goal of finishing a road race. I am already looking forward to racing it again next year and doing better.

Joe Tindal is a member of the Exposition Wheelmen

A Boy and His Bike

2010-06-30T12:06:00.001-04:00

My son started to ride without his training wheels on June 13th. Since then he has gone on the rail trail three times.

4 miles.

6 miles.

and 8 miles.

He rode the same number or miles (or perhaps more) than I did in June!

Spring Cleaning

2010-04-09T18:10:00.002-04:00

This is how I clean...

The Find

2010-03-12T13:42:00.002-05:00

How do you transport a powerwheels when it won't fit into the car?

On the roof, of course!

In like a lion, out like a lamb?

2010-03-03T10:51:00.006-05:00

February started out as a bitter cold month with lots of snow and now March is showing some signs of having some nicer weather…it is even beginning to get mild. We had a sunny day yesterday, at least for a few hours. But with the temps in the 30s, it still requires a fire to keep things warm...

I was lucky enough to get away from everything, and check out this cabin near the Appalacian trail in New Hampshire. I put off this trip until I finished my last class for my master's degree. Yeah! I'm finally done.

The cabin turned out to be pretty nice. It would be fun to go back and spend time writing, thinking, dreaming, and planning for an entire weekend...

February Ride

2010-02-21T17:16:00.002-05:00

Today was a beautiful day... My Surly Long Haul Trucker loved the melting snow...
The last time I rode outside was 12/4/09, so it felt fantastic to get out and spin my legs. One of my favorite things about the day was the sight of the maple syrup buckets on the trees...this means spring will be here soon!

Boiler Video

2010-02-17T16:07:00.004-05:00

Here is my Tarm Boiler in action.

Down by the CT River

2010-02-15T14:52:00.002-05:00

I don't see any eagles...

Let's see. Planning for 2010 already?

2010-02-15T10:41:00.006-05:00

Let’s start out by finishing my master’s degree this second week in February.

I hope to relax in a cabin situated in the woods on the Appalachian trail in New Hampshire February 27^th.

On Sundays in March and April help out at Bethel Spring Series criterium races.

Ride the third annual Gravel Grinder in Waterbury VT, which will take place on April 18th (northern Vermont).

Ride the Bike New York Five Boro ride Sunday May 2nd with 30,000 other cyclists.

Sunday May 23rd is Sound Cyclists Bicycle Club's 33nd Annual Bloomin' Metric bicycle tour.

Help out at the Cycling Concepts and Expo Wheelmen weekly time trials.

Explore for 10 days in June on The Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal from Pittsburgh PA to Washington DC.

Teach a credit free summer course at the local community college July 20^th and 27^th.

Go touring from Burlington VT, to Montreal, and then Quebec City… in steamy August hoping to gather enough information to write a book.

Um, maybe go for a long mountain bike ride September 26^th.

Somehow squeeze in some time to work with my professor from my undergrad to hopefully publish a business article.

Oh my. I need to get ready.

Joe Tindal

Sunday Ride

2009-03-23T20:57:00.002-04:00

So, I went for a Sunday ride with the guys and we clocked in about 50 miles in 2-1/2 hours. Not bad considering we did about 4500 feet of climbing. It was like a day at the beach...only it was 42 degrees and windy...

Sent from my iPhone

2009-03-23T20:43:00.000-04:00

Happy Spring!

Who needs donuts

2009-03-08T09:34:00.000-04:00

Gotta love the frosting!

Magic Sky

2009-03-08T09:09:00.001-04:00

(Damn)

The Woodshed

2009-02-02T00:24:00.002-05:00

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

-Robert Frost

So here’s how I got instant email push on my 3G iPhone:

2009-01-22T16:24:00.005-05:00

Here's my situation:
· I am using our Outlook exchange webmail to access mail at work
· I am using IMAP Gmail for my personal mail
With the way things were setup, I had to wait every 15 minutes for my phone to fetch my emails.
I could ask IT to enable some sort of push function for our exchange mail, but that would be perhaps difficult. Furthermore, Gmail does not have a push function for its mail yet. So following a path of less resistance, I decided to take advantage of push email by opening a free Yahoo account for email. I learned online Yahoo uses a P-IMAP function, which pushes mail when it's received.

Here's what I did:
1. Open a new Yahoo email account

(Sign up here: Link to Yahoo Mail)
2. Then set a rule in your Outlook to redirect a copy of mail to the above address.
(How to Article: Follow steps to configure mail redirect)
3. Then set your Gmail to automatically forward mail to the Yahoo account listed above
(Instructions: Gmail how to forward)
4. Then set your iPhone to accept mail from all 3 accounts

In your iPhone go into 'settings' from the main screen and set up 'fetch new data' as follows: Push needs to be 'on'

Under 'advanced' set:

i. Gmail to 'manual'

ii. Yahoo to 'push'

iii. Outlook to 'manual'
(Each mail site has well detailed help pages to connect to iPhone)
(More help can be found here: Apple iPhone Support)

Once you get mail from Yahoo, it acts as an alert for you to check your mailboxes, and on my phone usually takes about 10 seconds to show up the new mail in the other boxes once I initiate opening of my mail app. The down side is that you need to periodically get rid of the mail in the Yahoo account. I found the quickest way to accomplish this is to go into the Yahoo mailbox via the iPhone, and select the 'edit' button. Then check each message radio button, and then select the trash can. (kind of a pain, but hey, instant email)

In essence, my Yahoo account gets a copy of every message I receive. When it notifies my phone, I have new mail it is the copy of the message in the Yahoo mail. What I pay attention to when I check my mail is the number of messages that appear in either my Outlook or Gmail.

Warm Weather

2009-01-01T23:13:00.000-05:00

It's cold out there, but it's warm in here... Thank goodness for that wood heat. If you want to read a neat site about wood heating, one of my favorites is www.woodheat.org

Pantry Cabinet

2009-01-01T22:42:00.000-05:00

So I started off the new year by building a new base cabinet for our pantry out of some quartersawn white oak. By the picture, you can imagine how much the kids enjoy it. They were climbimg all over it like a jungle gym.
The next steps are to build the drawers and doors...and finish the whole thing with a nice clear coat. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Firey Obsession

2008-12-30T18:35:00.000-05:00

So here is a shot of the Tarm mid-way thru a burn today. You can see how the lower log is crispy while the ones above it still look like I just put them in. This is because of the downward drafting fire. Very interesting....

Wood is Good

2008-12-30T12:45:00.001-05:00

I was bringing in a few armloads of firewood this morning and noticed I have consumed about one cord so far this heating season. Since I have not kept the boiler going all of the time, I have also gone through about 200 gallons of heating fuel since we started using heat in October. I am going to try to keep the wood going more consistently now that we are in the colder months.
The photo above is the woodshed I made a few years back. I built it using 6x6 timbers, and I designed it where each side can hold two cords of wood or four cords in total. It is also accessible from all sides, which helps with rotation of old and newer wood. It holds 4 rows deep of 18 inch firewood and is almost 7 feet high in the front, and about 5 feet high in the back. The roof and large overhangs help keep the wood nice and dry from the rain and snow, and on days like today when the wind blows through the stacks, it helps them dry out even more. I am curious to see how much wood we will consume for the rest of the heating season using the Tarm Solo 40.

Photo Fun

2008-12-14T20:04:00.000-05:00

So we tried to get some photos for the holidays.

It was really a blast!

If you don't believe me, just look at those mugs...

Can you guys say cheese?

2008-11-26T10:59:00.000-05:00

So we had a serious cold snap over the past few weeks. Many nights were in the teens or twenties, and many days hardly got into the thirties. Over this time, I kept the boiler stoked up and running for about 12 days straight. Overall, I am happy, but I feel like things could be tweaked to make it work even better.

From Fall 2008

The boiler water temperature on the coldest of nights was about 155-165 degrees F, while gassifying for many hours on end. Meanwhile, my house maintained about 65-70 degrees F day and night even though the boiler never reached full operating temperature. I was typically loading small loads of wood, about 8 or 10 medium sized pieces, every six to eight hours. I found I needed to tend to the fire every couple of hours if I wanted to keep a hot gassification flame. Therefore, I needed to keep the wood from bridging up, so I would gently move the wood around until it settled in place against the refractory stone. However, on some days I left the house, and the fire burned well without tending for eight or so hours. It just seemed like the boiler was hotter, and gasifying better when I kept the fire tended to. I feel sort of like an old railroad fireman...

Dueling Boilers

2008-10-21T18:09:00.001-04:00

I finally got a few pictures of the boilers. Here is what it looks like. It has been cool enough out to need the heat, so I fired it up today, and I'm probably going to keep it going for a few days in a row. So far, it has been down into the 40's, and it has kept it nice and warm in here. I'm actually looking forward to those frosty cold days and nights.

Burning wood might seem a little redneck or hillbilly to some people, so I found an appropriate Dueling Banjos clip on You Tube:

Zagray Farm - Tractor Show

2008-10-13T20:52:00.000-04:00

So I took my son to the fall 2008 tractor and equipment show at Zagray Farm in Colchester, Connecticut. Early in the morning it was raining, and I was a little hesitant about going, but then it cleared up. Despite the rainy and cold weather, we had a great time. My son said this particular tractor in the photo looks like scrap, but many of them were also very nice. I hadn't been to the show in a few years, and the QVEA club has really made great strides towards making the show a great success.

They have old tractors and equipment. I believe some belong to the club, and some belong to local collectors. There is also a swap meet (or flea market) mostly consisting of old tools and parts, but there is some really neat stuff that can be found there...

This large crane shovel was in tough shape the last time I saw it, but look at it now. The club has really done a great job fixing it up. They even gave live demonstrations of the equipment in action! The show is a great time for people of all ages.

Leaves are falling and smoke is out the chimney

2008-10-04T21:36:00.000-04:00

So, I finally got the boiler fired up today. I followed the instruction booklet from the beginning, and thanks to that, and a little luck, I really did not have any issues. I had a bunch of trips to the plumbing shop to get the hard piping pieces, but other than that, it was straightforward. I will post some photos asap.

Things I purchased (did not come with the boiler):
1. Circulator pump, flanges, and gaskets
2. Aqua-stats and immersion wells (2)
3. Piping, shut-offs, purge valves, Air scoop, Flow-checks, Exp tank
4. Overheat dump zone with normally open zone valve
5. Coin vents
6. Plugs for unused bungs
7. Branch circuit-wiring, switch, boxes, safety thermal device
8. Pipe and fittings for pressure relief
9. Smoke pipe
10. Boiler drain
11. Exhaust thermometer

Back in the summer, I planned my layout, where the piping runs were going to be. Since I am tying into an existing oil boiler, the main pipes are already in place, and I had to consider those for my planning. I have a supply and return manifold, and the plan was to tee into them with the wood boiler. I started by connecting the supply of my oil boiler to the supply of my wood boiler. I bought a few pieces of black steel 1-1/4” diameter pipe at a time, so I could measure the next distance each time. Since it worked well, I followed the same plan for the return piping. The return piping has a big mixing valve to prevent cold water from shocking the boiler, so this required a little extra planning, piping, fittings, and trips to the plumbing shop.

Here was the order of tasks in which I completed them:
1. Move boiler into basement
2. Position on concrete blocks
3. Install smoke pipe
4. Connect hard piping
5. Install controls from control panel
6. Wire 110v electrical circuit for controls, aqua-stats, pump
7. Fill with water (fix leaks)
8. Make fire

Tonight, it is about 40 degrees F outside, but it is hard to tell because it is 70 degrees F in here. My baseboards and radiant floor system are dumping out the heat, and the wood boiler hardly makes a whisper. I started the fire at about 5 p.m. tonight for the first time ever, and I would compare it to starting a woodstove. I used a bunch of newspaper, and kindling until the fire was roaring. Then I put a few small pieces of firewood into the firebox to see what would happen. Much to my satisfaction, the boiler hummed along at 160 degrees F, shut itself down for a while when it reached 170 degrees F, and then restarted when the fan came on. The fire has been burning for just over 5 hours now, on a very small load of wood. It feels like it will be a cozy and warm inside our house this winter.

So far, so good.

2008-09-06T16:57:00.000-04:00

Since my last post, much time has gone by, but I have been busy. One of the things I was doing in my spare time was cleaning up a pile of firewood. A friend of mine, and a neighbor also gave me a bunch of maple that I had to cut up and split. Now we have a little extra heating fuel reserves (wood).

As a follow up to my last post, I called Tarm to clear up a few of my questions. Their support person took the time over the phone to answer all of my questions, and was very helpful. He explained how the documents tossed in with the manual were newer addendums, so I am to follow those.

I have the boiler mostly piped up with a pump and the big mixing valve. Now I just need to finalize a few things, and then I should be able to test it out sometime before October. One thing I need to get is a reducer collar for my flue because my chimney has an eight-inch flue, but the boiler is only a six-inch pipe.

Tarm Boiler – Wood fired central heating system

2008-07-14T20:39:00.001-04:00

Looking into the future, I only have a few things on my mind. Projects and bills mostly, then followed by family and work stuff. Well, there is a correlation in many ways between projects and bills, but at least some projects intend to reduce amounts of future bills after paying for a fixed cost asset. So what is the payback or ROI? We looked at these boilers over 4 years ago, perhaps 2003 or 2004, so in marketing terms this is considered a high involvement decision.

Might I digress, I'm not a plumber, but I have done some plumbing in my life when mandatory. Knowing how to do plumbing in Connecticut is metaphorically like having a bird in the hand. In other words, hiring a plumber would blow my ROI, so doing it myself can save a wheelbarrow of cash. Here in lies the rub. I hate plumbing, yet I know it will be cost effective, so I do it. I dislike the puzzle of parts and fittings, even though I have mastered the technical names and terms of them. Tee fittings have three ports. Two are the run and one is the branch. This is important to know when purchasing the correct parts. Also, there are parts called, immersion wells, aqua-stats, flow-checks, mixing valves, expansion tanks, air scoops, street elbows, and a myriad of others are necessary to get the job done right.

Therefore, following the advice of a brilliant guy at work I purchased a plumbing textbook prior to building the addition on my house. This turned out to be very helpful. The book gave me a CD with software to calculate heat loss and fluid flow (i.e. – pipe diameter), as well as hundred of other pragmatic information that was needed to plumb my oil boiler and radiant heat system.

In June, we purchased the Tarm wood boiler, borrowed a pickup and got it to our house. Then the trick was sliding it down the hatchway and into the basement. All 1000 lbs went in easy as pie thanks to my neighbor's innovative thinking and his old doodle-bug with a hand winch powered hoist on the back.

So I have it in the basement, up on the concrete blocks, and have spent 3 days trying to decipher the installation paperwork. It is full of old version of material and information that contradicts itself. Before I go much further I need to call Tarm to make sure I understand which instructions are correct.

Summer '08

2008-07-14T18:15:00.000-04:00

This summer sure has been nice. I graduated with honors and a B.S. business degree after 6 years of attending CCSU part time. We had our first family vacation where we got to spend some time with my family, and the kids got to see their great-grandmothers. While this may not sound like much, it was basically our first time out of the house in three years.

We also spent many weekends with the inlaws, and other friends, including a Rock Cats baseball game. To top all of that off, the kids are getting older, more independent (potty trained), the house project keeps progressing one step at a time. During the days, my numerous projects at work keep me busy, while my wife is busy with the kids and housework.

My favorite part of this summer has been the milestone of playing catch with my three year old son. When we play in the yard, he chucks a baseball to me, somewhat side-arm, but he manages to get it to me almost everytime. Very impressive! He also throws the ball in the air, and swings the plastic bat to hit it. This is perhaps a skill I couldn't master until I was eight or nine years old.

I have also had the luxury to begin commuting to work on my bike again. I have done this since I was 14 years old (my old 7 mile commute to Orford Service Center), and I continue to enjoy it. My route is about 5 miles each way, and uphill both ways, so I get in about 1 hour of exercise a day. I have been preveiwing the weather, and picking days, usually two per week. I have found this very enjoyable, and when I get home I can shower and spend the rest of the night with my family.