It seems that the dog days of summer are here and with heat indexes around 110º I could stand for some cooling considering one of our AC units is in need of some service. On the health front, I think I have seen the Doctor more this summer for everything from an upper respiratory infection, severe jaw pain, to back troubles. All of these ailments have kept me off the bike and out of the gym far more than I wanted. Hopefully that will change with some cooler weather and some therapy on my back.
On the photography front, June was the busy month with the Tour De Cure charity bike ride and the DebRA.org patient care conference. This conference is a regular event for me every other year for the past six years. This year was a little different as I was requested to shoot several eb patients during some of their day to day activities that are normally carried out in privacy. At some point these images should be compiled into a Debra.org brochure for eb awareness and fund raising. For those that are not familiar with eb, CNN has done a recent report on the use of bone marrow transplants to lessen the impact of the disease.
At the slightest friction, Jake's skin would shed, leaving the newborn wailing in pain. When Jake rubbed his eye, a chunk of his eyelid would come off in his fingers. He was born with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a terminal genetic condition in which persistent skin problems lead to crippling deformities and, eventually, skin cancer. –Source: CNN
On the paddle board front, travels for work and my aching back are keeping me off the water. I did pick up a paddle that converts from a standup paddle to kayak paddle from boatstogo.com that is reasonably light for an aluminum shafted paddle.
On the blogging front, the WordPress theme has been updated to Suffusion and I have my own images rotating through the header. Given the small sliver of the image that gets displayed, some are pretty abstract. I am also trying out the Lazyest Gallery for a quick photo gallery. Currently I have copies of my favorites from timbrown.us (which need updating) on the photography page as a test.
The month started off with a nasty upper respiratory viral infection and a trip to D.C. for work. Then a weekend shoot of a the Tour de Cure as noted below. My most recent shooting was this past week in Cincinnati for the 2010 Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association (debra.org) Patient Care Conference. Some 1,400 photos later, I am back at home trying to catch up at work and help with family matters while my Dad is the hospital with cellulitis. All of this, while I try to meet some deadlines at work and write two papers I have due for the UNC CPDM course that finishes on the 29th. But before my papers are due, Debby and I have to run our Ride for the Tammy Lynn Center charity bike ride this Saturday. No offense June, but I will be glad you are history.
Being sick over Memorial Day weekend was not exactly in the weekend planner. It's 4am and I am wide awake from prednisone induced insomnia for some sort of respiratory infection that will not clear up. Felt bad a week ago today and got progressively worse with chest congestion rivaling the worst I have ever experienced. While I wish I knew where I picked up this bug, I know part of it was probably due to riding too hard on two consecutive group rides. When I went to my physician this past week, I took my heart rate stats from my rides and RPM (spinning) classes with me. On the group rides and solo road trips the doc says I am way over on my max HR and keeping my average too high as well. So whenever I can get back on the bike, I guess I will set my Max HR alarm for something a little lower and watch the zone display and keep an average on the screen as well. My Les Mills RPM class HR averages were not too bad. This brings me to another conclusion, I think the short duration, 44 to 50 minutes, of RPM may be part of my problem on the road. Looking at my heart rate over the longer rides, I see my HR stay pretty close to RPM levels for the first 45 minutes to an hour before starting to creep up after that until the end of the ride. I have to think that some of that is from the conditioning I am getting accustomed to with RPM. While there are some RPM+ (60 minutes) and RPM 75 classes available, they are not at times I can schedule.
I am enjoying my new wheel set from Performance Bicycles. The wheels are their new Forte Apollo models with 30mm aero rims and straight pull 2x spoke design. It took a while to figure out the supplier, but someone over in the forums at RoadbikeReview.com had a good eye and noticed the Novatech rim tape in the Performance product photo. Based on the specs of the Novatech Speedy model, the Apollo's match the Speedy version 1 set. The specs are 20/24 on the spoke count with 2x lacing pattern on the front and rear. The spokes are round Sapim double butted Lasers with brass nipples. The hubs have sealed cartridge bearings and the rear has needle bearing as well. The rims are a 30mm aero shape with a sleeve at the junction. Previous to this set of wheels, I was running Neuvation M28SL's with ceramic bearings. The weight on the Apollo's is almost the same as the Neuvations at 1650g. The Neuvations were fine for the first year I had them until I broke a spoke on the rear. A week later the spoke opposite the first broken one snapped at the nipple as had the first. About two months ago, I had a pinch flat blow out that threw the rear wheel out true and it seemed like I was having to check the true before each ride so I started looking for something else and the Apollo's seemed to be nice price point ($250) for a wheel that looks like it will last many years. I put some new Forte Road Pro+ 23mm tires on the rims and the ride is noticeably smoother than the M28SL's. I am not sure if this is due to the spoke design, rim or tires. The one concern I have about these wheels are the straight pull spokes. Sheldon Brown was never a fan of these, but they seem pretty standard on a lot of the Mavic's I see on group rides. As with any new design, time will tell.
Speaking of Performance, a new store will be opening in Raleigh at Sutton Square Shopping Center (Falls of the Neuse at Spring Forest Road on June 4th according to the Performance web site. Hopefully they will be doing grand opening specials at the other local stores as well. I spun the wheel and won a case of ProLink Gold at the last grand opening event.
If anyone is riding the Triangle Tour de Cure next weekend, I will be the official volunteer photographer again for this year's ride. This year there is a ride on Sunday that stays in the Southern Pines area in addition to the ride back to Cary for the folks who ride down on Saturday. Once the weekend is done, the photos will be up on performancepixel.com.
I have to brag on my nephew Quinn a little bit. Thanks to the folks at Providence Baptist Church and their "Joy Prom", Quinn was able to attend a prom with his date on his 18th birthday. This little guy has proved all of the medical doctors wrong three times over with this birthday milestone. The greatest part of the day was his date. Karin Gabrils, the exchange student from Sweden, was Quinn's date and you can see by the photo was all smiles along with Quinn. Karin volunteers in Quinn's classroom at school and wanted to be his date when she heard about the prom.
Helped out Donna Webster, one of the ADA St. Paddy's day cyclists, by shooting a wine tasting she organized in memory of her sister. Met some great people, many cyclists and tri-athletes all helping out a very worthy cause – Hospice of Wake County.
Hospice Wine Tasting (Random Image)
Thanks to all of the cyclists who came out and rode the St. Paddy's training ride for the Tour de Cure. There were over 50 folks that braved the initial clouds for a ride that ended with semi-sunny temps in the high 60's. The photos are available at performancepixel.com.
(Random Image)
Many thanks to all of the players, parents, coaches and volunteers for making our first season of Upward basketball a great success. The photos from the last day of games is hosted on timbrown.us at this link:
http://www.timbrown.us/index.php?album=%2FFBC%2F2010-02-20%20Upward%20BB%20Games
(The server was updated overnight to another system as noted in a previous blog entry. Hopefully no one will have any trouble finding and downloading images on the new system. But if you do, email me using photos _at_ timbrown.net)
I finished my second 100K ride today while participating in the annual Firecracker ride for MS. I rode with Rick and his son-in-law Dave. We did not push it too bad. I have not looked at the stats, but I am guessing it will be about a 16 mile per hour average. No issues with the bike or problems on the road. I did try some Gu Refuel at the end of the ride and managed it pretty well, but tangerine would not be favorite flavor. Now for a cool shower and a nap.
I am playing the fantasy TDF at velogames.com. I am not giving my picks away just yet, but I will post the teams I built once the second stage is in the books. I am happy with day 1 results.
I don’t have the final numbers yet, but based on what we knew as of last Friday night and with the folks that registered the day of the ride, there were right at 100 riders for the first Ride for the Tammy Lynn Center. The folks at Tammy Lynn are tallying the fund raising amounts and should be posting a total sometime this week.
Debby, Ralph, and I really appreciate everyone who rode and all of the volunteers (our friends). Usually I am on the other side of the camera at these types of events so it was a relief to perform the sweeper duties on the 50K route instead of pretending to be Graham Watson. The photos from the event are here. Many thanks to Cindy for taking on the role of photographer/sag driver as well as Rachel our other sag driver. Little do you guys know that if you cramped up on the 100K the sag driver could provide immediate massage therapy. Too bad my friends Dennis and Ed found that out the hard way with real cramps. Please check your goody bag for discount coupon for a massage from Rachel.
If anyone rides the Firecracker ride out of Cary this coming weekend, I will be there in my lime green Boone Bike & Touring jersey. Please say hi, so I can say thanks again.
Some of the sponsors for both in kind donations and other types of support were:
- Bruegger’s Bagels
- Caribou Coffee
- Cindy Adams (Photos & Sag)
- Cycling Spoken Here
- Detour Bars
- Food Lion
- Great Harvest Bread Co.
- Lifestyle Family Fitness
- McDonald’s (Kildaire Farm Rd.)
- NC State Centennial Campus
- Performance Bicycles (Cary & Corporate)
- Rachel Wilde (Sag)
- Rest Stop Friends (You know who you are)
- Rick Fleck (Routes)
- Rita’s Ices (Morrisville)
- Road I.D.
- Sam’s Club
- Subway
- Target
- Whole Foods (those yummy granola bars)
The Ride for the Tammy Lynn Center is quickly approaching. This Saturday is the date. Debby and Ralph are working hard to accomplish the last minute tasks that come up just before the ride. I rode the 100K a few weeks ago and appreciate all of the folks who have signed up for the event because I know 2,700 feet of climbing over the route with expected temps in the high eighties to low ninties is a chore. With the registration deadline tonight at 11:30, we are over 70% of our goal for registrered riders. I will be the sweeper on the 50K course if I can stay healthy. After my Body Pump class on Monday night, I spent about 20 minutes on the Arc trainer. I don’t know about anyone else, but I could do without that machine. I followed up Monday’s workout with a 27 mile ride on Tuesday. It was another personal best for average speed for the distance. I tried to rest yesterday and today, but I am still getting a scratchy throat. I guess as long as it doesn’t get any worse, I can ride. I am hoping a good night’s sleep will take care of it, but that might be wishful thinking.
