Jeff Rubin the former CIBC World Markets chief economist wrote a book a little while ago, Why Your World is About to Get a Lot Smaller. In this book Rubin calls gains in efficiency "head fakes". What happens when people discover that they can heat a 1500 square foot home with the same natural gas they once needed for a 1000 square footer? They get a 2500 square foot home. Oh sure it is a little more thoughtful than that, but I clearly remember when mom and dad went from a two car to a one car family. The new car cost as much to lease as the two old cars did before. Dad said the savings would be found in reduced auto insurance, still I think my parents could have saved even more if they had stuck to a more modest vehicle. (Do not even get me started on the irrationality of SUVs with big engines, big diesel engines.) As for my parents luxury car, it ended up costing a lot more than the two previous cars combined - replacement car parts are not cheap.
Speaking of efficiency I have started my spring training, building up intensity and duration. It seems hard to believe but just a month ago riding to work was, thanks to the exceedingly cold temperatures, painful. Now my biggest issue is keeping the sweat situation under control as I hammer down University.
In the evenings I often ride out on the lakeshore trail to the Humber River and back. It is not a particularly trying ride, actually it is quite easy. But a short hop along the water's edge gives me a chance to stretch my legs and forget about everything, even if only for a short time.
I have to admit though, riding the trail is not all fun, now that the weather is improving the trail is crowding. I suspect in the weeks to come my route may take a more northerly path west. But as always my rant (yes dear reader I come packing heat today) is directed at automobile drivers.
Why is it that drivers believe that the rules of no parking or no stopping when in a bike lane do not apply? Sometimes I think I should lug a hammer or perhaps a brick around and smash the windows of cars that force me to ride in and amongst the two ton moving killing machines. I try with quite some success to ride where there are bike lanes, this means that over an 8km direct route to work I end up going about 12km. But the truth is there is little point, every few blocks some piece of work has lodged his (or her?) car right in the bike lane and forced me to pass through and between cars. What's the point of a bike lane if cars can park there?
Sometimes I think that (Toronto candidate for mayor) Rocco Rossi, who seems to be campaigning as a conservative candidate for mayor of Toronto (he was the former national director of the Liberal party of Canada) is right, we don't need a bike lane on Jarvis St or Bloor Street. Frankly given the lack of regard motorists have for cyclists and bike lanes, I do not think a bike lane will not do one iota of good anyway.
What Toronto needs, desperately, is huge, god awful, painfully, horribly, expensive oil. Gas so unaffordable that Rocco and his cronies are reduced to public transit.
I suppose this next bit reveals me to be the antisocial curmudgeon everyone has always suspected, but I long for the day when gas is so expensive everyone is reduced to riding bikes. I have a really mean spirited dream to ride up behind some of the really offensive drivers (in my dream those drivers would, because of peak oil, now be cyclists). I would come up behind the offensive drivers, the ones who used to stop in bike lanes or cut me off whilst merging with traffic because they were not paying attention, we all know the type, the ones who honked and drove recklessly. Well I would love to come up behind them and scream obscenities at them and then hammer past as they struggle on under the weight of all their flab. Of course in reality the cyclist who was a motorist deserves no such treatment, they are to be commended for doing the right and decent thing. Still the dream of exacting vengeance on overly aggressive drivers lives on!
Anyway I donated blood again, number 68 for me. I got to thinking, my type, AB+, is pretty rare and exotic, but not very useful. Given how much donating hurts my performance why do I bother? I guess the person (or 68?) who's life I saved can explain why my donations matter, I just hope my donations are saving lives. It would be a shame if my blood was just poured away.
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
On Jealousy.
To my readers, if you have never read Michael Barry's blog you should have a look sometime, I've got a link to it on the right. Not only is he a Toronto boy and a cycling nut but his name is rather similar to my own. Except he's the lucky guy who gets to ride a bike for a living, and live in Spain during the off season. (Yes I am rather jealous.)
Anyway I just wanted to point out a few specific posts Barry wrote that I found particularly interesting, Getting Back on the Bike seems appropriate this time of year, it is about resuming training after the off season rest. Of course my off season is about three months, Barry's is about three weeks (insert more jealousy).
Another interesting post is about bike mechanics on the pro teams. As Barry points out in Mechanics' Tools, a pro tour mechanic often starts that career in their teens and often find themselves doing the mechanical work for their entire career. Now that would be a really awesome job for me, combining my love for cycling with engineering, except I'm a little past my teens now. I guess when it comes to the pro mechanics all I can do is be more jealous.
Anyway I just wanted to point out a few specific posts Barry wrote that I found particularly interesting, Getting Back on the Bike seems appropriate this time of year, it is about resuming training after the off season rest. Of course my off season is about three months, Barry's is about three weeks (insert more jealousy).
Another interesting post is about bike mechanics on the pro teams. As Barry points out in Mechanics' Tools, a pro tour mechanic often starts that career in their teens and often find themselves doing the mechanical work for their entire career. Now that would be a really awesome job for me, combining my love for cycling with engineering, except I'm a little past my teens now. I guess when it comes to the pro mechanics all I can do is be more jealous.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
On Spring
Spring officially beings March 21 at 1732 UTC (or 1:32 in the afternoon two weeks this Sunday) when the vernal equinox takes place. The fact that I have already logged appreciable distance rides does not make the pending arrival of good weather any less exciting. (Especially given how crummy the weather was last year.)
The fact is were it not for the thought of long rides in the sun, with green fields and grass all around, I strongly doubt I would be at all sane by Friday. So in the spirit of dreaming of warm weather here my goals for 2010:
1. Do at least one, preferably all three OCA ITTs, try to average no less than 40km/h for distances of 15km or less and no less than 37 km/h for longer ITTs. (A little ambitious, but it is always better to aim high and come up short than aim low.)
2. Toronto to Rochester without wanting to just roll over and die when I get there.
2b. Rochester return to Niagara Falls if not all the way home, subject to weather.
3. Achieve demerit point velocities in a 60 (or higher) zone, in Ontario one must be driving at least 15km/h over the posted speed limit to get demerit points. (Note this goal cannot apply on downgrades greater than 3%. In other words, my goal is not achieved if I scream down a steep hill, I need to be on near flat, flat or up hills and doing the required 75km/h to reach this goal.)
4. Ride to Lake Simcoe a bunch of times, of course, hey it is my favourite ride. On McCowan between Doane Road and Ravenshoe road pull at no less than 40km/h the entire way. On the journey home, once south of Ravenshoe, on Warden, average no less than 33km/h to Stouffville Road. (If the lights are green, average at least 35km/h.)
5. Ride the panacke of South Western Ontario to Rattle Snake Point, climb said hill with a 53/39 chain ring and 11/23 cassette. Have enough left in my legs to still be able to catch any break aways or race David Silcox to the next Taxi without going into cardiac arrest as soon as we reach the "finish".
6. Do. Not. Bonk. Ever.
The fact is were it not for the thought of long rides in the sun, with green fields and grass all around, I strongly doubt I would be at all sane by Friday. So in the spirit of dreaming of warm weather here my goals for 2010:
1. Do at least one, preferably all three OCA ITTs, try to average no less than 40km/h for distances of 15km or less and no less than 37 km/h for longer ITTs. (A little ambitious, but it is always better to aim high and come up short than aim low.)
2. Toronto to Rochester without wanting to just roll over and die when I get there.
2b. Rochester return to Niagara Falls if not all the way home, subject to weather.
3. Achieve demerit point velocities in a 60 (or higher) zone, in Ontario one must be driving at least 15km/h over the posted speed limit to get demerit points. (Note this goal cannot apply on downgrades greater than 3%. In other words, my goal is not achieved if I scream down a steep hill, I need to be on near flat, flat or up hills and doing the required 75km/h to reach this goal.)
4. Ride to Lake Simcoe a bunch of times, of course, hey it is my favourite ride. On McCowan between Doane Road and Ravenshoe road pull at no less than 40km/h the entire way. On the journey home, once south of Ravenshoe, on Warden, average no less than 33km/h to Stouffville Road. (If the lights are green, average at least 35km/h.)
5. Ride the panacke of South Western Ontario to Rattle Snake Point, climb said hill with a 53/39 chain ring and 11/23 cassette. Have enough left in my legs to still be able to catch any break aways or race David Silcox to the next Taxi without going into cardiac arrest as soon as we reach the "finish".
6. Do. Not. Bonk. Ever.
Monday, March 1, 2010
On A Few Random Thoughts
Well the Canadian Olympic Men's Hockey Team won the gold. As a Canadian I think it is Federal law that I include that note at the beginning of my first post game Blog entry. So there, I said it!
Alright in fairness, as a Toronto boy growing up in the 70s and 80s, you do not follow hockey unless you had some sort of mental disorder. Hockey was predictable, The Leafs would loose. So I followed baseball; but, honestly is there a sport more boring to watch than a ball game? I gave up on Baseball after two back-to-back World Series wins and a strike, the back-to-back wins sort of felt like mission accomplished and the strike felt too much like a big "Fuck you" from the guys who were paid millions to scratch their male anatomy whilst spitting on national TV.
Maybe that's why I took up more speed based sports? Sort of me versus the clock. And I stopped watching or following sports for several years. Judging by the popularity of the PS3 and Wii, I would have to say I was ahead of my time.
Anyway enough lamenting my lack of sports heroes. Although after my previous rant, I really better say something nice, and this one is well deserved, Yes the Canadians were awesome, they won the gold and nobody expected them to, but we would be lousy sore winners if we didn't acknowledge the outstanding game the Americans had. Truth was the Americans should have clobbered us, maybe the loss in the first game against them woke our boys up to reality but the fact was at times, even in yesterday's game it looked to me like the Americans were skating circles around Team Canada. So yes we won, but I have to ask, why did I never hear the Star Spangled Banner? Maybe I remember wrong but do we not play the national anthems for all three podium countries? And why did no one from Finland come to collect a Bronze? (Or did they get that in a separate ceremony?)
Well enough of winter, I rode my bike to work and it feels like spring. I hope I'm right, shoveling snow sucks and I don't care how much the kids love the good old hockey game.
Alright in fairness, as a Toronto boy growing up in the 70s and 80s, you do not follow hockey unless you had some sort of mental disorder. Hockey was predictable, The Leafs would loose. So I followed baseball; but, honestly is there a sport more boring to watch than a ball game? I gave up on Baseball after two back-to-back World Series wins and a strike, the back-to-back wins sort of felt like mission accomplished and the strike felt too much like a big "Fuck you" from the guys who were paid millions to scratch their male anatomy whilst spitting on national TV.
Maybe that's why I took up more speed based sports? Sort of me versus the clock. And I stopped watching or following sports for several years. Judging by the popularity of the PS3 and Wii, I would have to say I was ahead of my time.
Anyway enough lamenting my lack of sports heroes. Although after my previous rant, I really better say something nice, and this one is well deserved, Yes the Canadians were awesome, they won the gold and nobody expected them to, but we would be lousy sore winners if we didn't acknowledge the outstanding game the Americans had. Truth was the Americans should have clobbered us, maybe the loss in the first game against them woke our boys up to reality but the fact was at times, even in yesterday's game it looked to me like the Americans were skating circles around Team Canada. So yes we won, but I have to ask, why did I never hear the Star Spangled Banner? Maybe I remember wrong but do we not play the national anthems for all three podium countries? And why did no one from Finland come to collect a Bronze? (Or did they get that in a separate ceremony?)
Well enough of winter, I rode my bike to work and it feels like spring. I hope I'm right, shoveling snow sucks and I don't care how much the kids love the good old hockey game.
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