Poor health has taken its toll on my summer cycling. I have only ridden 10 times since Memorial Day and my speeds are down from a year ago while my heart rate seems to be up. Today I was able to ride in the Raleigh Police Memorial Foundation Five-0 ride from the Raleigh Trek Store. It was 33 miles with 1,700 feet of elevation gain. The weather was not too bad as the humidity was lower than normal for this time year and the temp only hit about 91 before we finished. Today was much better than my last ride, which is almost a month ago at this point. This ride was the MS Cup and Cone and even starting at 7:30 am we experienced heat indexes in the 107 range before the end. My motivation on the ride came from being a computer analyst programmer for the Raleigh Police Department in 1997 when we lost Detective Paul Hale. To experience the loss while working for RPD made a lasting impression of the dedication our police officers demonstrate each day.
On the health front, I am not sure what I was experiencing a couple of weeks ago, but it was the most severe pain I have felt. It radiated out from my right ear lobe area to my jaw and would almost make me double over in pain after eating. My physician thought it was a glandular infection and put me on an antibiotic, while some friends thought it was from gastric reflux, while my boss said her dad had experienced it and it was called trigeminal neuralgia. Luckily, I have not experienced the pain in the last two weeks and hope it does not return. My latest ailment is some sciatica, but today's ride seems to have helped loosen up the muscles in that area.
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.
Hopefully this post will coherent as I am not at this point. Started the day at 7:00am riding the 48 mile Cup and Cone Tour for the MS Society. The route included Col de Lystra and Damascus that totally kick butt for climbs and considering the temp was already in the 90's when we started, I was ready to SAG in from the 24 mile turn around. But I persevered up until a wasp, bee or hornet landed on my lip and stung me right inside my mouth. Luckily I am not allergic, but I did SAG the last six miles. From there it was a mad dash home to shower and head over to the Durham REI store for their paddle sale today. I guess I should elaborate on my previous SUP efforts first. About a week and half ago another outdoor store held a boat demo and I tried a Surftech Randy French 11. Compared to my old Hobie Alhpa 230a, it was like standing on a padded carpet floor compared to a Reebok unstable exercise platform. So I was pretty sure if I could find the right board at the right price, I would buy one. So back to REI, when I was over there a couple of weeks ago they were handing out flyers for the paddle event today and the deal was 15% off any canoe, Kayak or SUP board. Now the really interesting thing was they had an Ocean Kayak Nalu hybrid SUP in stock. This was weird as the REI web site said web only and the site has been out of stock on the Nalu for at least the past week. So I figured I would show up several hours into the event and find the Nalu sold, but it was my lucky day, front row parking, Nalu in stock, and 15% off plus the dividend I built up when I bought my Bic Jungle Paddle a couple of months ago. Hopefully I will get some time to try it out this week before the weekend, but it's so dang hot here right now. Even water sports are not appealing at the moment. Hopefully a good night's sleep will get me rejuvenated for Sunday. I will try and review the Nalu after few outings.
I spent the morning getting my old sailboard, a Hobie Alpha 230a, cleaned up and ready to try out as a Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP). The only problems found with the old board was the rubber nose cone and daggerboard seals were rotted, but those problems did not keep me from trying it out after lunch. I went over to a local lake that is limited to sailboats and paddle powered craft and put in at the kayak and canoe launch. I had forgotten how heavy old sailboards are and barely made it to the water before dropping the board. The fin on the bottom of the Alpha is a replacement I had to get many years ago before putting it away and is actually well suited for the job as it is a large fin with a shape that is thin where it leaves the box with a large bean shape at the bottom. Once on the water, I found the board to be pretty tippy, but I headed to the other end of the lake directly into the wind. I was doing pretty good until about halfway across the lake where I stopped paddling and as the board slowed I lost some stability and took a dip. Getting back on the board was really hard, but I managed to get on it, stand up and start paddling. But before going too far, I stopped and kicked the dagger board down. The daggerboard seemed to help with the stability of the board even if it did cause some drag. With it down, I made it all the way to the far end of the lake before taking my second dip, but getting back on this time was much easier as the water was only about three feet deep. I tried to follow the shore to get a little shelter from the wind as I turned back. My wife Debby showed up and I headed over to the boat rental hut to talk to her for a minute before heading back to the launch to call it a day.
I will have to say the experience was a good one even it did show that I need some gym time to work on lots of muscle groups. The one thing I know is that being on the water made me realize how much I miss sailboarding. So I am off to the hardware store in a minute to find something to replace the rubber nose and get some shower door seals to stick on the bottom at the daggerboard box. Then I have to look at the sail and rigging to see if I need to do any work on those. I know my Magnum Nova sailboard is unsailable at this point as the rubber mast foot is so rotted that it broke when I barely bumped it and while it could be a candidate for SUP it has V shaped bow and is more narrow than the Alpha. I am going to try the old board a few more times as a SUP before Great Outdoor Provision Co. has their next demo day on the 17th. At that point I can compare a new technology board with the old sailboard and see what I am missing, if anything.
I keep seeing hits on my blog for previous year's Tour de France picks, so here are this year's picks sorted by value (see below):
| Team |
Rider |
Cost |
Country |
| BMC |
Cadel EVANS |
$9 |
AUS |
| AST |
Alberto CONTADOR VELASCO |
$13 |
ESP |
| SKY |
Bradley WIGGINS |
$3 |
GBR |
| LIQ |
Ivan BASSO |
$6 |
ITA |
| TRS |
Lance ARMSTRONG |
$7 |
USA |
| GSS |
Tyler FARRAR |
$5 |
USA |
| SAX |
Frank SCHLECK |
$5 |
LUX |
| TRS |
Janez BRAJKOVIC |
$1 |
SLO |
| COF |
Rein TAARAMAE |
$1 |
EST |
My unscientific method actually had some rhyme and reason to it. I took the UCI world rankings and cost of each rider and devised a formula to compute value in regard to their ranking. Then I tried work within the spending limit of $50 to build the team. I made some adjustments to get a few of the favorites in there and finally I needed some domestiques to finish out the team. If it's like years past, I am sure I will get some "your team sucks" comments, but heck just seeing how it pans out is half the fun. If you are going to leave me a derogatory comment, post your team roster so I can comment back.
I am playing this year at NR Toone's Fantasy site (http://www.nrtoone.com/fantasy/cycling/index.php?page=home). Here is the spreadsheet I used. Sort by one of the first few columns (A-K) and place a '1' in the My Team column to build your team. Columns L-O at row 1 show your progress at building your team. Good luck.
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.
My busy week of travel to D.C. culminated with a late Friday night return home and early Saturday start to photograph the 2010 Tour de Cure. This charity cycling event raises money for the American Diabetes Association. Leading up to the event the local WRAL TV station ran a health story on one of the participants Marci Williams who has lost over 100 pounds to control her Type II diabetes. Sadly some comments on the story show how little the average person (animal lover) knows about diabetes, the types and available methods of glucose control. A recent story in "The Times" (London) has great write up by James Clarke, a Type I diabetic and photographer; his previous efforts to control his sugar levels and the realization that carb counting and adjusting insulin dosages is worth the effort for long term control. Too bad I can't link in WRAL comments or I would link to James' story for the misinformed.
Turn out for this year's event was great even with the 90+ temps. Thanks to all of those who rode and special recognition has to be given to the Red Rider team – those who ride with diabetes. The photos are available on performancepixel.com. While you can order prints from the site, my goal is not to make money from this event. I am a type II diabetic and my photography is a volunteer effort to help the cause. That said, if you want to download the original photo file from the site, find the photo and then hover your mouse over the left edge of it and a menu should appear with an option to download the image.
Also many thanks to Amanda with the ADA and Thomas Henson for making this year's event a great one.
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.
Couple of photo shoots kept me busy all day Saturday. The first shoot was the 2nd annual 5k "Run for Our Heroes" sponsored by the Raleigh Police Officers Memorial Foundation. They doubled the number of participants this year and had some awesome weather. The photos are available at http://performancepixel.com/runforourheroes2010. The second shoot of the day was the North Carolina Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) Support group in Rockingham. I have to say this not so much of a shoot as it was meeting for me to attend and see old friends and meet some new families who share this disease. The photos are on timbrown.us in the dEBra folder. The password is the name of the eb mascot. After the EB meeting, we stopped and had dinner with some friends in Sanford.
On Sunday we managed get in a bike ride and missed the rain clouds, but got a little bit more of a workout due to the wind. My new wheel set from Performance did well and at some point I will write a short review. Now back to the regularly scheduled grind.
Chalk it up as a lesson learned or intriguing marketing study, but if you were like me and ran out of time to make it by the Performance Bicycles store for double points this weekend and did a web order on Sunday night, you might want to check the prices of your order with their latest mail order catalog. It seems the web site prices don't match the catalog and there are currently three, count'em THREE, versions of the current catalog with prices that don't match the web or the other catalogs. It's my bet that my call to the 800 number was the first of many, and this may turn out to be a busy Monday morning on the Performance phones. Taking the time to check the prices saved me $50 dollars on a combo purchase. Sadly, the customer service representative could not fix the price in the existing order so I have to make sure I see a $50 refund on my credit card after the order ships. Hopefully a second call will not be necessary, but I am not holding my breath.
