Happy Birthday Lauren

Today my little girl turned 1. I was heading to Aledo for the Ride for Heroes 100 miler; however, both kiddos had a rough night and it didn’t seem right to leave them for the day, so I skipped the ride. Luckily both kids started to feel much better as the morning progressed. At Grant’s suggestion we played “birthday games” all morning. Lauren was having so much fun that she broke into dance (see video above).

I did sneak out later in the day for a 4 hour ride, so all-in-all a very good day.

Happy Birthday LaLa, Daddy love you.

Savvy financial advice from Jon Stewart

I thought I gave some pretty good financial advice back in October; however, Jon Stewart totally “scoreboarded” me with his advice back in Dec. 2000. I know it was intended as a joke (and a slam against Bush), but let’s take a closer look:

The price of gold in Dec. 2000 was $270/oz.

The price of gold today is ~$950/oz.

If you invested $10,000 in Dec. 2000:

• In a mutual fund that tracked the Dow Jones – today you would have $6,635
• If you had invested that money in gold – today you would have $35,185

Unfortunately for me, I missed this episode of The Daily Show when it first aired

The third sign of the apocalypse – Snug Wow

I’ve written about commercials before here, here, here, and here; however, I have a particular interest in commercials for “As Seen On TV” products.  You’ve seen them – the products sold by the omnipresent Billy Mays or new up-and-comer Vince. I even gave my team “As Seen On TV” gifts for prizes at our last marketing offsite (Mighty Putty, Dryer Balls, ShamWow, etc.) So what happens when you combine the two hottest products in the market right now – ShamWow and The Snuggie? Now you know.

Happy Birthday to Fabian Cancellara

The VeloNews wall calendar in my office told me that today is Fabian Cancellara‘s 28th B-Day. Cancellara is what we call in cycling a “Badass” and is one of my favorite riders. On this special day I thought I’d share the video above from his amazing win during Stage 3 of 2007′s Tour de France (one of the most impressive attacks I’ve ever seen).

VO2-to-the-max Part 3: 25K Time Trial

Example screen shot (not my TT workout)

READ PART 1 HERE

READ PART 2 HERE

Tonight was my official second day of testing. The test consisted of:

• a blood draw
• 10 minutes on the bike (with mouth tube, etc.) at 70% of my max from test 1 (240 watts)
• another blood draw
• 25K time trial on the Computrainer

The course they designed for the 25K (15.53 miles) TT was very hilly. In order to prevent test subjects from really “dialing it in” and pacing themselves, the course had lots of ups and downs. Nothing more than 4%, but the longest flat section was probably a 1 mile or so.

After getting a feel for the course, I guessed that I would average 23 mph for the effort. I wasn’t allowed to see my time or any of the “averages” data during the ride (again, to prevent pacing), but when I was done I finished in 40:30 (which is exactly 23 mph). On the last few hills I got out of the saddle to really hammer it, since I had a little left in the tank, and felt really good. The next time I take the TT test (which is in 2 weeks) I think I’ll try to attack all the small hills standing and then let me legs “clear out” on the downhills.

When the test is over in 6 weeks I’ll get the blood work and other data back, which will indicate my true lactate threshold, blood pH, and what % of my calories burned are fat versus carbs when I ride. So far, a very cool experience.

READ PART 4 HERE

VO2-to-the-Max Part 2: First test of university trial

Velotron bike and testing equipment

READ PART I HERE

I qualified to take part in a study at TCU that is measuring the impact of sprint intervals on endurance performance in trained cyclists. To qualify for the study I needed a VO2 max of at least 55 ml/kg/min. – I got a 61.2.

So yesterday was my first official “test” as part of the study. I performed the same VO2 max test I did last time; however, this time I would have a catheter in my arm and they would do blood draws every 2-3 minutes to measure my pH and lactate levels. I asked what the highest VO2 max they had so far:

“You’re up there. I think our top participant had a 62.2″

That gave my competitive nature something to shoot for. Someone once told me if there are 2 or more bikes on the road – then you have a race. It’s true – every “ride” has several mini-races or competitions . . . competitive spirit just takes over.

This test started pretty good since I was now a little more comfortable with the mask and breathing piece. When I got to the point where I blew-up last time (390 watts) I forced myself to keep pushing just a little longer. The results turned out pretty good – I scored a 64.7 ml/kg/min.  I haven’t been able to race this season due to family and work conflicts, so it felt good to get the competitive juices flowing (even if it was against an imaginay opponent on a stationary bike). Funny, I always find that I’m most “at peace” when I have healthy competitive challenges/goals at work and physically/athletically.

That’s a 55lb. flywheel in back, and about as close as you can get to the true feel of cycling

Tonight I go back for the 2nd day of my first test block. Tonight’s test will be a 25K time trial on the Velotron stationary bike. I’ll be really interested to see where my numbers come out (specifically threshold power in watts) since I sold my PowerTap a couple months ago and haven’t performed a threshold test in 2009.

READ PART 3 HERE

READ PART 4 HERE