idroolinmysleep asked: Lance Armstrong's $15,000 helmet. You might get a kick out of this.
http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/07/armstrong-helmet-exclusive/
Yes, I read early on about the work Giro put into get Lance the “perfect helmet”. Giro got a special effects team to create a $15,000 replica of Lance in the time trial position. Then they put the model in a wind tunnel to find the perfect fit.
Giro isn’t the only helmet manufacturer that is shortening their helmets for similar performance in a head wind, but great performance in a crosswind. Kask has also done one, here you can see Bradley Wiggins wearing his helmet that I’ve affectionately called, The Bun.
(Sorry for the late reply.)
Ask your question, here: Ask BtB
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Things have been good. Really good. When I look at my weight loss progress and compare it to other people’s weight loss progress, I’ve done really well. I don’t mean to be arrogant, but the fact remains that I’ve read numerous people’s weight loss troubles and have been extremely blessed in that I’ve consistently lost weight week-to-week. I didn’t have to write those post doldrums about how I ate so much pizza that I gained a few pounds and that I’d do better next week.
That ends today.
Why haven’t I posted lately? Well, I’ve had some problems. I hit the 50lb loss mark a few weeks ago and have had horrible eating issues lately. I had a workshop at work last week where lunch was provided, and it was horrible. An extreme deviation from healthy eating. I haven’t watched my points because I’ve been scared of what it would result. I’ve said at the beginning of every week, “I’ll do better this week”. Only to eat just as horribly as I did the previous week.
The only saving item is that I haven’t blown my weight up to dangerously. I Yo-Yo’d around the 220lb mark, and I’m still dancing around it. For you guys that don’t know, I want to hit 200lbs…in fact a few pounds less. So another 20lbs is going to be dangerously hard to hit if I keep eating like I had. I’ve also not ridden my bike as regularly as I could have. I’ve had some big family things come up, as well as events that I’ve attended that has precluded me from riding. It’s beginning to wear me down.
So, for all of you people that liked the fact that my posts tended to always be pretty rosy, I apologize. And for all of you that have read my posts in disgust that I was always loosing when you might be having trouble, here you go. I want to say: I’ll do better, but after over month of saying this…if feels like just words now. But that’s what this blog is for, maybe by finally telling you all, I’ll actually do what I have been telling myself for the past month. Thanks.
Hello friends, remember this. You cannot ride away from the rain. It will attack you every time.
It has rained almost everyday last week, which really put a damper on my riding. So Saturday I pull out the old weather.com guide, it says 15% chance of rain. So I’m good to go. Ten minutes out, it starts sprinkling. I look at the sky to change direction to try to ride away from the rain, well it doesn’t work. After 30 minutes of drenching myself, I give up. I park at a CVS and wait for my brother-in-law to come pick me up. Sucked too because I only went half as far as I wanted to. The rain didn’t ease up until another hour later, so I guess I made the right choice.
I hopped on the trainer last night, but my computer battery died. I accidentally left it on yesterday. Oh well.
The Tour de France is underway… Wondering who to support?
This graph makes me laugh, especially the bad victory salutes. Enjoy.
YEAH! I got in 2 rides this weekend (long weekend for me). The first one was after 1.5 weeks off the bike due to rain and other things. It was bad. I was huffing and puffing and hurting and feeling like throwing up and trying to eat something and failing…but still got in a decent amount of miles. Just a few miles became really really slow. Had a hard time riding above 10mph for a stretch, but did alright. The second ride I did much better, but still went down a road which I hate. There’s this one road that for some reason if you ride in this area everyone feels it’s a must have part of the ride. I don’t know why this is, but it’s horrible.
This road is a steady uphill run on a chip-seal surface that hasn’t been resurfaced in decades. Oh, some of the pot holes have been sealed, but we (as in fellow cyclists) all know what sealing a pot hole means…either a bump or it’s settled and is still sort of a pot hole. The start of this road also contain a nebulous vortex that creates a low pressure system guaranteeing that the wind will be in your face no matter when you ride this road…or what the weather is doing elsewhere. So after that road, I felt pretty spent and so the trek back wasn’t as fast as I had hoped but, I did feel better.
Thanks for all you guys support…I’m feeling good. I feel as though I’ve stagnated in my weight loss. (Only 1 lb over that past few weeks.) I might be at the point where I’m building some leg muscles but not sure. I hope I can kick this hump and shoot for my way down to my goal weight.
I said a while ago I would post my “Little Victories” to the site and then you guys sat there patiently waiting for them…only to be disappointed. Not anymore!
Little Victories, defined as situations in my weight loss journey where things happen that aren’t overwhelmingly awesome, but can give you just enough boost to keep going for a while. I’ve talked to people before that claimed they couldn’t keep on their diet, workout routine, etc. because it was difficult to see results. I contend they weren’t looking in the right spots or seeing the certain things that might have given them enough boost to see the results they were initially expecting. Here’s one of my first.
About a month ago, I had to buy a new belt. Not because my old belt was worn out and needed replacing. Not because I saw this belt on the rack and OMG! I had to buy it. Not because of any of those…I ran out of holes. Putting my old belt on the tightest hole still didn’t make my pants feel secure. So I needed a smaller belt. Pretty awesome, huh!?!?
Keep in mind this is my “Little Victory”, yours may simply be you moved down one hole in your belt. But the key is to recognize these and treat them for what they are: results!
What are your “Little Victories”?
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Just moments ago Johan Bruyneel announced on their website the team for the 2010 Tour de France. I totally called this team! I was going to post my predictions today but found out this morning when I got on the computer that Team RadioShack was listing their team this morning….so I can’t prove my calls were predicted correctly…but you trust me right!?!?
Here were my predictions:
So those guys were the shoe-ins. Horner because of last year gets on that list. The last five were a little more difficult, but there are a couple things based on hearing the political stuff from last year and understanding some of Bruyneel’s choices that I picked these guys (which as of this morning are confirmed for the team).
The last two people are a bit more difficult. These guys are the kind of domestiques that you need in the mountains as well as the guys that can possibly hit a break if necessary. There are a number of choices: Zubeldia, Muravyev, Paulinho, Rubiera, Vaitkus, or Beppu. Out of these, my guess is that Bruyneel (in this Lance comeback team) would want some tour experience in these last two riders. So that leaves Zubeldia, Muravyev, Paulinho, Rubiera, or Beppu. Vaitkus might be a good choice if Rast wasn’t on the team. Out of that group I removed Rubiera—age would be a factor and his lack of selection last year, good rider but doesn’t fit this Tour team—and Beppu—new to the team and Bruyneel would want someone that helps solidify the team dynamic…Beppu needs more experience on this team.
So here were my choices and why. I’ll also add what I think lead Bruyneel to choose this team.
So why didn’t I choose Zubeldia, McCartney, Impey or Steegmans?
Hope that helps, I was pumped when I heard I got it right. I hope Bruyneel’s predictability doesn’t hurt the team, maybe he’s saving the unpredictability for race time!
Thoughts?
Again, since the Tour de France is coming up, I am talking more about it rather than my weight loss progress….well, because it’s the Tour.
I talked last time about my predictions for Team Garmin-Transitions and this time I’ll talk about one of the other US teams in the Tour this year, HTC-Columbia.
Velonews released their Tour edition and talked about each team and their strengths and weaknesses. Here’s the team they presented:
Not a bad set of choices, and honestly pretty much what I would have said save Siutsou and Velits. Not sure who I’d put in their place, Andre Greipl (G) maybe…but not clear on who else. With Kim Kirchen moving on (who by the way got completely shafted when it came to team support in last years Tour, Hincape didn’t even help out…really made me feel for the guy…now with him in a coma it upsets me even more since I felt Katusha would provide much better support and improve his chances of winning), HTC-Columbia has no leader for the GC outside Tony Martin. Monfort maybe, but Martin is looking much better this year. The problem? If Cavendish puts on a show like last year, HTC-Columbia will—once again—drop GC hopes and Tony will get very little team support.