Castle Crashers is easily the best XBLA game of all time. In fact it is the only XBLA game to actually make me want to keep playing more and more of it. So much that my thumb now feels numb from all the button mashing! For those who do not know, Castle Crashers is a side scrolling button masher RPG that is cartoony, funny and 4 player coop over Live. At least when it works it is!
IE8 Beta 2 is out! Here I am running it on Vista Ultimate X64:
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Games | John Sedlak | 
August 28, 2008 10:19 am | 
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