Today I slept in as long as CB would let me, made a sensible breakfast, and had the idea to see what was playing at the $2.00 theater. Nothing good was playing and CB said I should check the regular theater. There was a movie I wanted to see playing in 30 minutes and CB decided we should get up and go. This was very out of character for her, she never does anything spur of the moment.
I grew up hanging out at the movie theater and I don't require a movie schedule to decide to go. It has not been uncommon for me to just show up see what the next movie playing is and buy a ticket. It could be a cartoon, a western, or an action movie- makes no difference. Now that the movie is over, we will head to her parent's for veggie burgers and no one will realize that in my head I am just counting down until my long ride tomorrow. The plan is for a two hour ride, this will be my longest non-stop ride ever. I have ridden a half century but I got off the bike at the aid station. If I could pull 28-30 miles at a slow pace I think I will be on track to a good time at my HIM.
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This week like many of the bloggers I follow I was given a stylish blogger award. I got mine from Moving Mertle at Diets and Sweat. I feel that blog awards of this nature (as opposed to blog awards from say everymantri.com) are similar to the chain mail or herpes of the blogoshpere. In case you don't know- glitter is the herpes of craft supplies. Anyway, I do not mind sharing and I kind of like passing them on because I enjoy reading about history of other bloggers. You know- the really interesting stuff that makes us who were are, the stuff that has nothign to do with our training.
Post and link back to the person who awarded you this award
Share 7 things about yourself
Award 5 bloggers who have "Stylish" blogs
Since I have already linked back to Moving Mertle I will share seven things about myself and then tap 5 more people who can share if they wish.
1. I have been obsessed about cycling power for the last three months. Several times a week I scour the internet to find articles explaining power testing and power training. I have found a ton of stuff to pay for and little for free. I may have found one good blog, after I examine it a little more I will share if it is good. For the last year I have hear people talking about power training. two or three guys in my group ride (can't wait for it to start again) ride with them. None of this got me interested. The stationary bike at the Y has a power meter and I have been monitoring my average wattage. Now that I have some figures I want to find out how to do a proper power test and figure out what typical power output is for an age grouper. Yesterday I averaged 120 watts over a 30 minute interval workout. My best (and last interval) was 2:30 minutes holding 311 watts. I also want to know how wattage on this trainer would translate to a proper cycling power meter. I would like to assume I could do better because with cycling shoes and proper pedals as opposed to the flats on this bike.
2. I recently applied for and was given the position of Greater Charlotte Triathlon Examiner. You may be asking yourself how is a novice in his second season going to write about triathlon. I pitched the position based on writing as a beginner. As I discover new shops, clubs, training sites, I will write about them. Hopefully, this will generate a little income for an extra hour or so of work.
3. My biggest fear in life is failure. I am not a fan of public speaking and don't want to walk around carrying spiders, but failure is the thing that leaves me sleepless most of the time. Most of my obsessing about work, triathlon, and many other things leads back to fear of failure.
4. I love the UK. I love London. I studied in London twice. Once in undergrad, and once in grad school. I love the history of the city and the buildings. I love the culture. I love that I never felt crowded like the videos of the streets of NYC. We spent the lost week of my grad program there in Paris. Paris was cool but i felt very isolated due to the language barrier.
5. I love games. I collect Monopoly. I have an all black board, a board based on London (standard board int he UK, I think), a board base on Berlin, and I have tried to win one written in arabic on eBay. My second favorite game is called crack the case. As far as video games go I didn't grow up with any so I never got one until college. CB bought me a PS2 just to help me make friends when I was a junior, I have probably only logged 100 hours on it in 7 years.
6. My Freshmen year of college I pledge into (no wait that's illegal)- I joined Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. A Phi A in the nations oldest historically african-american, inter-collegiate fraternity. Founded December 4th, 1906 on the campus of Cornell University in Ithica NY (14853). The Nu Zeta Chapter was founded in 1977 and I was the first caucasion brother to join. Before me the closest was a Dominican and a Puerto Rican brother in the 1980's. When I wanted to join some of the brothers contested strongly. I pledged anyways, some of those same brothers tried to make me quit, eventually an older brother told to lay off me and treat me like any other aspirant after he observed my mental toughness for weeks. Despite the initial opposition, I eventually became the chapter president. Only having sister i wanted to build male bonds in college, so I knew I wanted to be greek. I did not fit in with the indigenous mountain boy student population (have you seen deliverance?) so I felt more at home with other men who had more urban upbringings like myself. I learned a few lessons that i hope my brothers learned as well, like being a minority doesn't make you diverse, multi-cultural or not-racist and that just being a minority doesn't make your upbringing more dysfunctional (or harder) that some one who is not a minority. Two of my brothers had that latter belief, just because they were minorities life was harder. Both of them were raised in nuclear families with chief of police fathers; while I was raised on welfare in a single parent home and am the spawn of an addict and a coke dealer. Stereotypes are a bitch!!!
7. Lastly, I hate people. That is why CB thinks that me blogging and tell her about my "friends" posts is interesting. I do consider many of you friends, many of you I would love to sit down to a meal with in real life. Away from blogging and outside of work (I tend to be outspoken at work) I am the most bashful person you would ever meet. My school teachers thought I was depressed because I was so withdrawn. Actually, I lack the social skills needed to build spontaneous relationships and small talk annoys me. In school I avoided the cafeteria and mall food courts make me anxious due to the number of people. I have never hit on an unknown female or gotten a phone number, All of my relationships come from activity based organizations or things of that nature. Some home blogging lets me connect with people without that spontaneous interaction.
I now tap
Patrick M. the doer of things- so stylish he has his own social network
BDD because his blog layout is BAD ASS
Mandy @ Caratunk Girl because I think she is stylish for a town with 60 people
Joel at Trimadness despite the fact he went to Appalachian State; and,
Mrs. Tucker because she is standing over my shoulder and nagging me that she wants to do it.
She is rushing me off to dinner so I will come back and link back to everyone's pages later as well as do the notifications. If you find this on your own before that time wow you are a great follower and have too much free time. OR both.
5 comments:
I am a great follower and currently have too much time on my hands until it's our turn again to play in the tournament.
I'm pretty sociable, but that's mostly an act. I have to be outgoing for my job and try to model good social skills for my kids. I find it much easier to "join" online than in real life, which is why I'm still not part of a running group. I did join a womens cycling group, but you could join online, so it remains to be seen if I actually participate.
This was interesting. Enjoy not resting tomorrow. :)
Luke - training with power is the bomb. That is all.
If you are looking into training with power a couple of resources that you might want to check out are the Andy Coggan/Hunter Allen book as well as the Google wattage group. Some things to consider:
1) Calibration on health club stationary cycles for power can be suspect. In real life I calibrate my power meter before every (yes every) ride. I've found they can vary by 10% day to day. Due to that, don't worry about the number itself and pay more intention to the trend (hopefully increasing).
2) The wattage number itself doesn't really matter as much as the w/kg ratio. w/kg can tell you how you compare to others (and even more so against yourself).
3) There are a lot of info on the web but it can become confusing. Basically, figure out your FTP (there are many different tests to get you the same number - the most popular have some variation of a 20' Time trial where the average power is about 105% of your FTP if done properly) and then design a training plan to increase it over time. Remeasure from time to time to see if it is working. Repeat.
Email me if you have specific questions.
Oh, I would love to train with power someday...ahh...
Thanks for the tag!! I was trying to think of a few posts for when I am gone, I will do this one and schedule it for sure! :)
Wow, very cool about the fraternity. That takes huptza for sure.
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