I stare out the driver side window and look out over the miles and miles of row crops that stretch as far as the eye can see. The fruit basket of the west flows past me to the melodious drone of the tires on grooved asphalt. Cruising along at 75 they blow past in a blur of green and brown, occasionally broken up by a canal or ditch bank.
It is one of those glorious Fall afternoons, clear skies and the rear view mirror revels the towering Sierra Nevada. In front of me the Coast Range sticks up like a small distant cousin. The two ranges spilling their souls over the eons to form the alluvial plane that feeds the millions. It’s only an hour drive to The Baths, but it always seems longer. The ever-present fear of the mustachioed, Ray-Ban Pilot wearing, donut eating, CHP officer stroking the radar gun tucked between his legs. Toothpick tucked in the corner of his mouth.
I have been a consultant to the City of the Baths for several months now and an interesting image has come into my mind. This City is still growing on the back of the Bay. Like low-lying ground accepting the floodwaters, The Baths accepts the multitudes that spill over and escape the grip of the Tri-Valleys, and the rest of the I-580 corridor. The snaking trickle of that leading edge of the water wiggles its way to the lower portion of the garden searching out the lowest spot until it settles in and begins to percolate.
The people seek out something else that is lower. They look to the farthest reaches of their tolerance for the car and settle into a community, only to leave it for most of the day, then return on the backs of their octane powered chariots to settle into the 2 month old home in a 100 year old City. Nearly half of its residents commute to the Bay every day to work. If your job takes you to the City, then that’s 4 hours of driving a day.
I could not do it.
I was thinking about that statistic for a moment. Cities like Los Banos, Santa Nella, Patterson, Tracy, they have evolved from the beginning due to the need for a place to stop, transportation could not get you to where you wanted to go fast enough and you would need to rest. The clop, clop of the horse gets old and you need to wash the dust off. Trading posts evolved to refill your 1-horse powered chariot, and your thirst for a little brown bag. Eventually people settled down and raised cattle and planted a few things. But still, it was just a stop and the growing stalled. As transportation got better, there was no need to stop, and over the years the vitality diminished as people drove on past. Everybody knows the story, but now, new life, a new beginning. Transportation (the car) has gotten so easy that you can live and commute to the farthest reaches of your abilities. These cities have grabbed hold of this and built their communities on the daily transients. It has interesting ramifications on a City, gone by day return at night. Families living their lives apart from each other, separate realities.
The Cities die by the car, and now live again by the car. The black strip of asphalt becomes the new lifeline to economic vitality.
The City keeps on growing, stretching its tentacles farther and farther out into the soil and wetlands making room for more babies and flowerpots. But now, they want the people to stay, planning business parks, industrial centers and community college campuses. The thought is, eventually they will break down, grow weary of the wretched commute and crave something close, something community, something more in the backyard. So the City keeps on planning. Lying pipelines underground to carry the waste, building water lines and treatment plants to quench the thirst of the weary traveler. Revitalizing the City center, waiting for them to stay, walk, and stroll. Reluctantly they finally let go and say goodbye to the high rise and the culture they so long have grasped to still be a part of.
Finally, again, the beginning of a new life, or so they hope.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Power-Tap vs. iBike
So I am delving into the world of power measurement. Like I really want to see how much, or not enough power I can kick out when I try to turn them over.
Borrowed an iBike from my Brother who went over to Ireland for the year and decided to give his body a break. It’s one of those back calculate wattage sort of deals that takes into account wind speed, road angle, combined rider and bike weight, moon phase to take into consideration tidal forces on the earth’s gravitational field. Runs some sick algorithm to tell you how much pain your in.
So I strapped it on the handlebars a few weeks ago and have been riding around with it. I am a minimalist when it comes to having things strapped to my machine. I like the lines simple, clean and elegant. The less the better, so I wasn’t to impressed with the size of the thing, and there was no stem mount option which isn’t really that big a deal, but I like to run with the forearms on the bars sometimes and computers mounted there get in the way, and throw off my total one-ness with the position.
Then a good friend let me borrow a Power Tap, so I thought, “Lets run both and compare the wattage to see the difference.” Unfortunately, I don’t have the download cable yet for the PT, then I could do real comparison and get statistical and all that. I could manipulate the results to say whatever I wanted. Kind of like industry sponsored research projects.
Anyway, the PT is a much more streamlined unit with a stem mount option. The controls are very intuitive, unlike the iBike where you are risking certain death trying to navigate the controls without reading the instruction.
Just like any new piece of software, I like to try and operate it without looking at the instructions, if you can figure most things out by intuition, then I feel the designers have done a good job. But that is a minor point. The big question is how do the units compare. Which one gives me the most bang for the buck, so that I can try to squeeze out every last bit of sick wattage.
Well, I noticed that the iBike was approximately +- 50 watts to the PT when you got above 150, and when you check in at 185, it is pretty easy to hit that mark once the road tilts up even a fraction. The PT was much more stable with both running output ever 1 second. Plus the PT has virtual cadence, which I guess is pretty cool. I think the real issue is cost, $300, versus, over $1000 (you can get a PT brand new for $800 or so on Ebay).
Anyway who really cares, just something to occupy the mind when you are numbing it during intervals.
All this talk of wattage and output files, calculation time steps and the like. Dangaa……I feel like I am at work. I remember when I would just go out and ride for fun. Me and the crew from the hood would roll at 5:05 am and try to beat the living crap out of each other. Man, I remember having to get all psyched up for the morning. Eat right, go to sleep early, and roll out of bed at 4:20, cup of coffee, banana, and march down the gravel drive in my mountain bike shoes to clip in.
It was always a race, mostly smiling faces, but sometimes nerves would get frayed. The goal was to get some exercise, ride faster than last time and stomp on your buddy, generally have a good time. Man…..I loved those morning rides, they led me to race my bike again, and the quest to get faster became all encompassing. How can I use my time more wisely, get the most out of my miles. When you can’t train 15 hours a week, you need every advantage you can get to help out. So now I am staring down at this little yellow box and letting it guide me.
Most of the Brothers understand, and go along with it, some even love the intervals, sprint training and slow base miles.
But every once in a while, we all just let it rip……I have to say, it is pure fun. Just like I was six again, rolling down the street in cut-offs, checkerboard slip-on vans, and a sleeveless Hulk tee, bruised knees and dirt under the fingernails.
Racing feels like that. Whether it is 5:05 in the Old Fig hood, or 1:30 in some coned off industrial park. Crazy, mad, sick fun.
Later
Borrowed an iBike from my Brother who went over to Ireland for the year and decided to give his body a break. It’s one of those back calculate wattage sort of deals that takes into account wind speed, road angle, combined rider and bike weight, moon phase to take into consideration tidal forces on the earth’s gravitational field. Runs some sick algorithm to tell you how much pain your in.
So I strapped it on the handlebars a few weeks ago and have been riding around with it. I am a minimalist when it comes to having things strapped to my machine. I like the lines simple, clean and elegant. The less the better, so I wasn’t to impressed with the size of the thing, and there was no stem mount option which isn’t really that big a deal, but I like to run with the forearms on the bars sometimes and computers mounted there get in the way, and throw off my total one-ness with the position.
Then a good friend let me borrow a Power Tap, so I thought, “Lets run both and compare the wattage to see the difference.” Unfortunately, I don’t have the download cable yet for the PT, then I could do real comparison and get statistical and all that. I could manipulate the results to say whatever I wanted. Kind of like industry sponsored research projects.
Anyway, the PT is a much more streamlined unit with a stem mount option. The controls are very intuitive, unlike the iBike where you are risking certain death trying to navigate the controls without reading the instruction.
Just like any new piece of software, I like to try and operate it without looking at the instructions, if you can figure most things out by intuition, then I feel the designers have done a good job. But that is a minor point. The big question is how do the units compare. Which one gives me the most bang for the buck, so that I can try to squeeze out every last bit of sick wattage.
Well, I noticed that the iBike was approximately +- 50 watts to the PT when you got above 150, and when you check in at 185, it is pretty easy to hit that mark once the road tilts up even a fraction. The PT was much more stable with both running output ever 1 second. Plus the PT has virtual cadence, which I guess is pretty cool. I think the real issue is cost, $300, versus, over $1000 (you can get a PT brand new for $800 or so on Ebay).
Anyway who really cares, just something to occupy the mind when you are numbing it during intervals.
All this talk of wattage and output files, calculation time steps and the like. Dangaa……I feel like I am at work. I remember when I would just go out and ride for fun. Me and the crew from the hood would roll at 5:05 am and try to beat the living crap out of each other. Man, I remember having to get all psyched up for the morning. Eat right, go to sleep early, and roll out of bed at 4:20, cup of coffee, banana, and march down the gravel drive in my mountain bike shoes to clip in.
It was always a race, mostly smiling faces, but sometimes nerves would get frayed. The goal was to get some exercise, ride faster than last time and stomp on your buddy, generally have a good time. Man…..I loved those morning rides, they led me to race my bike again, and the quest to get faster became all encompassing. How can I use my time more wisely, get the most out of my miles. When you can’t train 15 hours a week, you need every advantage you can get to help out. So now I am staring down at this little yellow box and letting it guide me.
Most of the Brothers understand, and go along with it, some even love the intervals, sprint training and slow base miles.
But every once in a while, we all just let it rip……I have to say, it is pure fun. Just like I was six again, rolling down the street in cut-offs, checkerboard slip-on vans, and a sleeveless Hulk tee, bruised knees and dirt under the fingernails.
Racing feels like that. Whether it is 5:05 in the Old Fig hood, or 1:30 in some coned off industrial park. Crazy, mad, sick fun.
Later
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Ask and You Shall Receive
(Click to Inlarge)The shot on the right shows the fractures in the iliac. You can see the break that runs all the way down and into the joint space (acetabulum). The break actually starts as two fractures that come together. The two breaks created a large floating piece that needed to be stabilized. The lower break on the pubic bone, you can't really see, the circle shows what I thought was the break but it is actually on the right side as well.
On the left you an see the hardware used to stabilize the breaks. A 4 inch plate across the top of the iliac arch that was attached with 4 screws and a long pin. The longer plate was placed to stabilize the break of the acetablulum. Doc Lindval used 5 screws to fasten that sucker.
Friday, October 5, 2007
October 29th
This Tuesday will be eight weeks since surgery and Tracy has been progressing well. We finally went to her second post-op check up last Monday and things are looking good. She was released to drive and her time on crutches was cut by one week.
So the big day is now set at October 29th. No more freaking crutches, walker or wheelchair. There have been times when I thought Tracy was going to chuck them through the window. Be rid of the offensive aluminum sticks that have for the last 8 weeks become her surrogate appendages.
Although, at that point I will be at a certain disadvantage. You see, now I can hear her coming. The distinctive click, click, click of the crutches lets me know when she is rounding the corner. The one thing that has been plaguing her the last 5 weeks is post concussion vertigo.
It started in the middle of the night. Tracy woke me up and was panicking. The world was spinning and she was terrified. Like one of those drunken nights where you need to hang your foot off the side of the bed and place it on the ground to make everything better. That is until you end up puking all over the floor next to toilet, if you make it that far. It comes and goes, is the worst in the morning but sometimes lasts all day. She saw a neurologist yesterday and he said that in 90% of these cases it will go away in a couple of months. She is excited to start physical therapy and we have a clinic picked out that is owned and operated by a couple local riders. They do PT, and positional exercises that help with vestibular issues that cause vertigo.
It will be good for her to have an outlet, to push her body and sweat. We are really looking forward to the 29th. My B-Day is the 3rd of November, so everybody be thinking about what you want to get me. Tracy walking will be one of the best presents I could ever get. Although, a power tap would be a close second.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Ramblings
My friend Brian Boudreau was hit by a car while going out to the 5:30 am ride two weeks ago. The lady that hit him was not looking and creamed him from behind. Fractured his femur in three places, broke 6 ribs, badly bruised his shoulder and punctured his lung.
Man…..what a bout of bad news we have faced lately. The secretary from the office got a call the other morning. Her 20 year old brother was killed while driving to work early on Monday. A good friend breaks the news that his wife has breast cancer, and a coworkers fiancé was in an automobile accident in Belfast and he had to jump on a plane Friday afternoon go take care of her.
Bad news rolling in like the tide, nothing can stop it. It just keeps on coming. Sometimes it is hard to find perspective.
I got an e-mail from someone close questioning why we ride bikes and weather it is safe. He is a rider and someone who has left the sport in the past, found the love again and has become addicted to it.
Ah the ride….roll out of the driveway and down the street, into the hills or across town. I have enjoyed the freedom for so long, it is hard to imagine life without it. How much caution do we need to take. Is it worth it?
I was having a conversation with Tracy the other day. We were discussing how every person we know who has been riding for any considerable length of time has been involved in some sort of crash. Racing, riding, training, crashing….they all seem to go together. Does it mean that we stop doing what we love, what makes us feel alive? Think about all the hours that all those people have spent on the bike. Hundreds of thousands of hours spent on the bike that not only create a healthy person, but also show your kids that a healthy lifestyle is good. Do you need to ride your bike to stay healthy? No….but who wants to spend all that time in the four walls of some club. Get out and feel the wind in your face.
I have a friend from Holland and she was telling me how they used to ride their bikes everywhere when they were younger. 10 miles to school, 6 miles to swim practice. In Holland….Think about the weather in Holland, partly cloudy with a little sun and a few showers is a great day. Now she tells me that her sister and brother in law have two cars and drive everywhere. Their kids are overweight. They drive everywhere, and gas is 8 bucks a gallon. They are both overweight. She thinks that wealth has made them lazy…..interesting concept. Have to think about that.
My last post was about the passion of it all, the need, the itch to get out and ride. How important is fulfilling that need in your life. I got a comment form a guy from Tucson about how his wife was thrown from a horse and spent two years recovering. They stopped risking, living, riding for a while and they realized that they felt dead inside. Irritated, frustrated. The most interesting thing was that the kids could feel it in them as well. They realized that living is better than cowering in fear.
Adrenalin can be addicting, but I am not talking about adrenalin. I am talking about feeling your body working, moving your muscles and getting out in the air and taking it all in. Feeling the sun on your face, close your eyes and feel it through your skin. Experiencing, living it, loving it.
For me it really comes down to this. Do you trust God with your safety? I am not saying test the limits or devote your whole life to it. I am saying you can’t be afraid to live. The fact remains, rain falls on everyone, and how you deal with it is the real question, the test. Adversity brings out the real person in you and it is so important to find out who that real person is.
Why do we crash and get hurt. Sometimes crap just happens, but sometimes the surgeon has to make a few cuts to fix the problem.
My 2 cents
Man…..what a bout of bad news we have faced lately. The secretary from the office got a call the other morning. Her 20 year old brother was killed while driving to work early on Monday. A good friend breaks the news that his wife has breast cancer, and a coworkers fiancé was in an automobile accident in Belfast and he had to jump on a plane Friday afternoon go take care of her.
Bad news rolling in like the tide, nothing can stop it. It just keeps on coming. Sometimes it is hard to find perspective.
I got an e-mail from someone close questioning why we ride bikes and weather it is safe. He is a rider and someone who has left the sport in the past, found the love again and has become addicted to it.
Ah the ride….roll out of the driveway and down the street, into the hills or across town. I have enjoyed the freedom for so long, it is hard to imagine life without it. How much caution do we need to take. Is it worth it?
I was having a conversation with Tracy the other day. We were discussing how every person we know who has been riding for any considerable length of time has been involved in some sort of crash. Racing, riding, training, crashing….they all seem to go together. Does it mean that we stop doing what we love, what makes us feel alive? Think about all the hours that all those people have spent on the bike. Hundreds of thousands of hours spent on the bike that not only create a healthy person, but also show your kids that a healthy lifestyle is good. Do you need to ride your bike to stay healthy? No….but who wants to spend all that time in the four walls of some club. Get out and feel the wind in your face.
I have a friend from Holland and she was telling me how they used to ride their bikes everywhere when they were younger. 10 miles to school, 6 miles to swim practice. In Holland….Think about the weather in Holland, partly cloudy with a little sun and a few showers is a great day. Now she tells me that her sister and brother in law have two cars and drive everywhere. Their kids are overweight. They drive everywhere, and gas is 8 bucks a gallon. They are both overweight. She thinks that wealth has made them lazy…..interesting concept. Have to think about that.
My last post was about the passion of it all, the need, the itch to get out and ride. How important is fulfilling that need in your life. I got a comment form a guy from Tucson about how his wife was thrown from a horse and spent two years recovering. They stopped risking, living, riding for a while and they realized that they felt dead inside. Irritated, frustrated. The most interesting thing was that the kids could feel it in them as well. They realized that living is better than cowering in fear.
Adrenalin can be addicting, but I am not talking about adrenalin. I am talking about feeling your body working, moving your muscles and getting out in the air and taking it all in. Feeling the sun on your face, close your eyes and feel it through your skin. Experiencing, living it, loving it.
For me it really comes down to this. Do you trust God with your safety? I am not saying test the limits or devote your whole life to it. I am saying you can’t be afraid to live. The fact remains, rain falls on everyone, and how you deal with it is the real question, the test. Adversity brings out the real person in you and it is so important to find out who that real person is.
Why do we crash and get hurt. Sometimes crap just happens, but sometimes the surgeon has to make a few cuts to fix the problem.
My 2 cents
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