August 15th, 2008 John Sedlak
Ah yes, another post about how the coverage of the Olympics sucks. Or is it? No, the coverage has been great. I have been able to see sports I didn’t even know existed (air rifling anyone? Dressage?) and see my favorite pros do battles on the slopes and descents whenever I wanted to. I have also been able to avoid swimming and gymnastics like the black plague because I hear enough from my peers about how awesome so-and-so are.
So what am I complaining about? NBC has fantastic coverage, but why focus on two disciplines? Sure, America loves to watch teenage girls bend in ways that just look inhuman. And sure, America loves to watch the beast that is Phelps destroy his competition on a truly Olympic conquest. But these are just two sports out of the hundreds being played in Beijing.
Perhaps it would shock NBC to find out that there are millions of bike riders out there just dying for any coverage at all. That many of us stayed up for the full 6 hour road race just because we like to see every single pedal stroke of our heros. We thank NBC for the ability to do this, but wish they would give sports like cycling, archery, football (soccer), field (shotput, javelin, discus anyone?), and trap shooting, more on-TV coverage.
We like to hear Paul Sherwin discuss the strategy of the teams and some of us love to hear Phil drabble on about the sunflowers and how they always point towards the sun. There are many of us who wish NBC would give honor to those who deserve to be honored whether they be American, Chinese, Spanish, or Martian. Let us see them triumph over us. Let us see more than just two sports. Show the United States that the Olympics is more than just the sports we care about. That there is a world outside of America. You owe us that much after running spots for Visa that end up saying “Go World!” What they really mean is “Go World, except for anyone who isnt a gymnast or swimmer and a US athlete.”
I bet you didn’t even know that the U.S. won the gold medal in the women’s time trial and that we took bronze in the men’s time trial! Congrats to Armstrong and Leipheimer.
Posted in Cycling, General | 4 Comments »
August 13th, 2008 John Sedlak
A lot of cycling stuff lately. Today I went for a personal best on my 16 mile loop and did it. I beat my time of 48 minutes and 20 seconds with a much fasterer time of 46 minutes and 19 seconds! This bodes well for me because it is a much higher average speed and I went the direction I consider to be slower. I plan to continue flip flopping the course until I get sick of it or can’t get any faster. Next “time trial” will be within a week or two!
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August 10th, 2008 John Sedlak
While trying to figure out my fit on the bike I decided it would be a good idea to get some pictures snapped to get a better idea of how I look on the bike… Don’t mind the weird tanline on my wrist!! Now I just need to install my computer / sensors.
Posted in Cycling | No Comments »
August 8th, 2008 John Sedlak
So I bought a new bike, a Trek Madone 5.2 Pro. It is my first real roadbike, my first bike with shifters integrated with the brakes, my first pedals with a clipping mechanism, my first carbon fiber bike, and a whole lot of other firsts! The bike I have been riding up until now has been a Nishiki/CyclePro steel frame bike circa 1983, and man what a difference! Today I took the new bike out for the first time and it is just so fast, so stiff and so lightweight. I felt like I could just go for miles and miles on it except that my core strength isn’t where it needs to be for the new position.
Posted in Cycling, General | No Comments »
August 3rd, 2008 John Sedlak
A few weeks ago I wrote about a sucky weekend I had of bike riding. I have taken a very deep look at how I ride and took another shot this weekend at going 50 miles. My form has gotten so much better already and it shows because this weekend I went the full distance. However, without an odometer I have no clue how close to 50 miles I got. I do know it was within 47-49 miles for sure, if not more, based on the loops I took. When I finished I knew I could go longer and that was enough for me.
To fix my problems I did a few things: First I looked at how my legs were working with each stroke of the pedals. I found that my left leg was doing too much of the work involuntarily. So I am now pushing with my right leg. I also found that when I get tired I tend to drag my feet such that I don’t lift them up when I should which causes weight to be applied to the pedal moving upwards. I fixed this by making concious changes to how I pedal.
Secondly I looked at my upper body movements and found that when I was pushing hard I would sway from side to side. This is very bad because it is not only a waste of energy but also puts forces at a ninety degree angle to the direction I am traveling. I fixed this by ensuring my upper body remains still as possible throughout the ride. When I climb now, I make sure that although the bike swings from side to side, my shoulder remain in line with the wheels. Again, so as not to waste any energy.
Thirdly, I looked at when I was pedaling too fast or hard and changed my strategy. Because my 50 mile loop[s] have 4-5 hills that are still a tad challenging to me I have forced myself to restrain from blazing across the flat sections. Today this was helped by catching people and being able to wheel suck for a bit. Thank you for all the help out there! It was much appreciated!
Fouthly, I made sure that I was as clean as possible before going out. This meant little to no pizza and a very small breakfast before riding. I had a bowl of rice crispies with some bananas and some coffee. This also meant that I carried only two water bottles rather than the four I carried last time. The weight savings were noticeably, although next time I will probably carry three bottles or grab a refill as I ran out at around 40 miles.
And lastly, I made sure that I carried gatorade instead of just water! This ensured that my legs were still good for the last couple of climbs I had to do. Boy was the gatorade and power bars a life saver today. I ended up eating my power bar a little early, but it felt great. I immediately felt the change and felt basically fresh even after 25 miles of some pretty hard roads.
Tomorrow I get back into the normal 16-20 mile routine until I can go longer in the short time I have after work. I have lost a total of 0 pounds, but feel stronger and thinner. Once I change my diet for good I am sure I will lose some weight.
Posted in Cycling | 1 Comment »
July 27th, 2008 John Sedlak
Just after writing that last post I decided to open the blinds to my window and immediately caught a glimpse of two young deer laying in our backyard, just chillaxin. So I quickly put my 100-400mm L on my XTi, snuck out the front and around the side of the house and caught a few shots.
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July 27th, 2008 John Sedlak
Carlos Sastre has taken yellow all the way home today to win the Tour De France in the overall best rider (time) category. Congratulations to him and the whole CSC team who also took the overall best team classification as well as the white jersey (best young rider). Carlos beat out Cadel Evans by attacking on Alp d’Huez and holding everyone off in the final time trial.
Posted in Cycling | No Comments »
July 26th, 2008 John Sedlak
The biking season is just coming into full swing for me. Unfortunately I got a late start because I wanted to work hard first this summer and make some money, then ease off and get into a nice rythm. Before this past week my average weekly mileage had been stuck around 20-30 miles. This week I have ridden 53 with the intention of riding more had my bike not been in the shop for half of it.
One of the goals of this season was much like the goal of the previous season: to get my 16 mile time to under 50 minutes. Today I set out to do this and finished with a time of 00:48:22.xxx! This means I averaged roughly 20 miles per hour over the entire course (if I did my math correctly) which is well above my previous best of 17mph average.
Now that I have knocked one item off my list it is time to continue and work on the others: weight loss and overall distance. Weight loss will come, I am sure of that, but my bike is definately hurting me on distance. It sucks my energy because of how much friction it has and is unreliable when ascending. My highest mileage to date is 40 miles, and the goal is to get to 75 miles by the end of the season.
Who knows, I may just do it.
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July 21st, 2008 John Sedlak
The SharePoint Happenings Blog has a great post about customizing forms for your lists. I am using this to get rid of certain fields that I do not want to be entered when a new item is added. For instance, I default the Status field to “In Development” (Open/Assigned) and force the user to pick this by hiding the field.
Posted in Coding, SharePoint | No Comments »
July 17th, 2008 John Sedlak
What a post by David Millar. If you don’t follow professional cycling, then you may not know about the doping problem that has plagued the sport. Many say that one of the biggest reasons behind it is that the races are just too demanding. The Tour de France is incredibly long and has only a few rest days. The riders are expected to go over gigantic mountains, travel all over france and be able to do this day in and day out for days and days.
I say that is hogwash. No one is expecting the riders to do it faster than before. Races like the Tour are meant to be so long that a large part of the field doesn’t make it to Paris. Finishing the whole Tour is supposed to be as prestigious as wearing the yellow jersey but the cyclists who dope would have us think otherwise. I say any doper who gets caught should get a lifetime ban from the sport. Simple, objective, ultimate. Clean the sport out; there are plenty of others out there to fill the holes.
Posted in General | No Comments »
