I saw 192 this weekend

In the ongoing saga of trying to lose most of the 30 lbs I put on in the later part of 2007 and early 2008, I reached another milestone. 192#. This number represents 20 lbs taken off. I will temper this by saying that this is an empty weight. Just off the bike, just showered and no meal.

Some might not agree, there will just be some days when I will perform empty or real close to empty and that's just how it is going to be. On the really long rides, I would eat really heavy the night before doing them. That seemed to be a root cause of the excess tonnage. Anyway, I am sticking to the shorter 200k rides as a benchmark maximum so I don't have to take in 5000 calories the night before.

Saturday's 200k started close to home so I did it with some of the RUSA K-hounds. There were five in attendance. We rode from North Arlington out to Aledo, Willow Park and back along the Trinity Trail system and familiar roads in Parker County. Generally speaking, I had a good ride until about mile 100. I started to feel weak and the bonk was inevitable. Fortunately, the route had a tailwind the majority of the way home from that point.

Link to Activity on Motionbased

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Does Bernanke get it?????

Dear Ben,

The way you are handling the Federal Reserve Banks monetary policy stinks. You have escorted the US dollar to a level lower than the Swiss Franc, the Canadian Dollar and the Euro. I suppose the Ruble and the Peso are the new target lows you wish to accomplish. In the meanwhile, the dollar has lost 50% of it's value and forced the investors of this country to evacuate the plunging dollar as a benchmark of financial stability in favor of commodities such as energy, food and foreign currency. The counter effect of this is now we are paying extraordinary prices for gasoline, grain and related products and higher and higher prices as the trickledown effect hits all sectors of the economy.

Greenspan took the heat when the Fed raised interest rates in the summer of 2000. This was done to loosen the labor market when conditions at hand  suggested a contrary form of action. Guess what?  Between the vacuum of the dot bomb, the Cinderella effect of Y2K and the act of raising interest rates combined to shut down the economy. The difference now is that monetary policy is being compromised due to foreign entities abandoning their dollar holdings and flooding the economy with unwanted currency and you are printing billions to bail out Bear Stearns and lend to other shady Wall Street investment brokers to leverage their shaky holdings. This one is on your shoulders mister.

The economy is merely a measure of confidence, that of consumers and that of investors and financial institutions. Guess what Ben? No one has confidence in you. Every time you speak, the dollar becomes a little more worthless. It's time for some tough love for the rich bastards who make forty million a year running scam loan deals duping consumers into real estate purchases that leave the US taxpayer holding the bag. The US taxpayer and the average citizens aren't ready to float liquidity to those bastards at the expense of our own small little insignificant lives.

Take a look at the personal computer industry in 1995. A consumer buying guide for PC's in 1995 had no less than 200 PC manufacturers listed. Guess what, the herd got thinned out by natural order market conditions. The strong lasted or got bought while the meak perished and disappeared into oblivion. No one saved their ass.

When I get my economic stimulus check, there is no telling what I will do with it. I may hold and wait for you to step aside, I may decide to send it to the middle east in return for filling my tank. I may buy non perishable food because anything fresh is going to be so damned expensive I can't afford to waste it.

The flip side of this is that now gas is over 3.25 a gallon, I drive less, I drive slower and others seem to be as well.  Who knows, maybe we will revert to more community oriented society. That might not be a bad thing.
 
Mr. Bernanke, It is time for you to go away quietly before you get nailed crossing the street. Your actions are really starting to piss of America. You can defend yourself but you are still the one causing the financial decay to spread.

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Austin to Fort Worth bike ride

April 12-13

Austin to Fort Worth is a bike ride loosely associated with the Fort Worth Bicycling Association. It occurs every year sometime after Easter. I attended for the third time this past weekend. At the request of Gary Gottlieb, I shared a room for both nights of this trip that spent the first night in Austin and the second in Waco, Texas.

We stopped by Art's house before heading to Austin to see him probably for the last time. We all went to see him knowing the battle of the last 10 years has taken about every ounce of strength left the man had left in past few months. His family was there at this side as we spent about 15 minutes visiting. Art has been the clubs' greatest ambassador for many years and he welcomed me on my first trip with FWBA at Austin to Fort Worth in 2005. Art touched everyone he met. It will truly be a sad day here in the near future.

About 24 people rode various stages of the two day event. The main topic and main obstacle for the festivities was a very imposing north wind that moved into the area over the weekend. It was a far cry from the tailwind festival it has been in years past.

Day 1) We had a pretty functional group the first day for many miles. I am guilty of ratcheting up the pace to rid myself of the dead weight sometimes but that didn't happen Saturday, at least not on purpose. Gary and I worked most of the trip together and the first day, the effort lasted the entire ride except for my time on the tandem with John's wife, Susan. I run gps on my bikes for long trips and I had the entire course preloaded for the weekend so getting lost was out of the question. For the most part of Saturday we really didn't slow down at all covering the 102 miles of the ride. The wind kept it civil but we kept the hammer down to get in with a 15.1 mph average. We all made it over to Olive Garden to settle the tales and hear the lies of the days adventures as told by the cast of characters.

Day 2) The day started out OK but went south pretty early. Phil Schenck went down on the road in Waco on a section of Waco Drive that is pretty dangerous with some gaping cracks that have taken down other riders on different days. He was taken to the hospital and found to have 3 broken vertibrea. It definitely put a damper on the riding for a little while. Once we got back to riding, it appeared the wind was a little more of an obstacle than the day before. Our early path was to the northeast but would eventually turn to the northwest putting in direct headwind for the longer portion of the ride. We made it to Penelope with two engines and a rudder. Gary and I were trading pulls and the guy in the racing kit was sitting in and not taking a single pull. It kind of drove me nuts.  Steve Gray and Bobby Emmett followed the sag van motorpace style. The van passed us and I was riding alone again. I pulled into Malone about three minutes after the motorpace crowd and filled up my bottle with cytomax and grabbed a cookie or two. I waited a couple minutes at the road before starting off again on the road to Malone. The direct headwind now around 20 gusting over 30 mph was beginning to set the tone for the rest of the day. I made it to Malone around 1:30 and Michele, David and Brad were there. Jim, Mark, RoRo and Jim Burrows had all ridden past me riding the tailwind.

I spent about 20 minutes there before heading on alone. Next was the section I call "eleven miles of hell", a portion of hills, chip seal, and usually a southerly headwind that just makes life difficult when coming from the north. The table was turned but the same rules applied coming from the south and the wind barreling in from the north. Downhill stretches of this road were about 18 mph and that was while peddling while uphill stretches were anything from .01 to 10 mph going uphill. David, Michele and Brad just slid right past me. I knew what I had been dealing with for the last 150 miles and I knew what I had left. I did my pace. It was nice once I made to Maypearl since they repaved 157 all the way to Venus. New pavement didn't make me any faster though. It was still a tough headwind and I was getting tired. David, Michele and Brad were stopped in Venus when I pulled up to the light but I didn't stop. It was nice once I got north of 67. It was less traveled roads and familiar roads making it feel like the ride was just about over. I began seeing other riders, who rode out to meet us, once I got closer to Rendon. A spot light kept me from catching them until I got to Forrest Hill. It was Vernon, Katrina and couple others as we stopped at Shelby Lane. I gave Vernon a break out front before he released me to take off to the finish.

It took right at 8 full hours of ride time to finish this course. 12.5 mph average speed.

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I love 195 now more then 198

After a couple pretty tough weeks of hammering away about 700 miles on the bike the blubber seems a little tough to get burning. I guess it will just take heat to melt it away. We haven't actually seen it but I know it's coming. I have made a little progress and fair progress I guess. About a pound a week is about all I can realistically  expect.

I had 360 miles two weeks ago when I participated in a 200k brevet. Last week I had 275 and this weekend with inventory at work on Saturday, I just rode 101 miles on Sunday. I am still avoiding the really long stuff because I am still trying to catch my shadow. On the longer rides, my shadow is pulling me because I am going so slow!

Next weekend is Austin to Fort Worth and that should be fun but I do have some other pressing issues that hopefully end up being okay.

Saturday didn't go to well at work. My boss had something to say and what she had to say could have been said better. Unfortunately, she didn't spend the last 10 weeks figuring what to say and what came out really came out wrong. She really didn't like my response and said I didn't show her respect. I do respect her but not more than I respect myself.

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