Sorry for the lack up updates, but work has been handing me my butt. I'm reading a lot of literature and trying to design my new experimental set-up. For those that care, I'm working on large scale impacts, specifically asteroid fragmentation. It is some pretty crazy stuff as I'm trying to run a lab experiment (cm length scales) and scale it up to asteroid impacts with lengths on the km range. I'll be at a conference in Houston next week so I'm sure I'll be bored in my hotel and update frequently. Perhaps I'll catch you all up on the past month or so.
In other news, I've been riding my bike a little more. Three days in a row in fact. I did 45 mins of tempo at a local park called lake Montebello. It is a nice paved 1 mile loop with separated bike and running lanes. A little boring and repetitive, but with only an hour or so of daylight after work it sure beats the trainer. It felt kinda like a 1-man crit, bizarre. I actually rode the 20 mins back from the park in the dark (i have lights).
Racing starts for me this weekend at Navy. I think I'm ready to rip it up as long as no one attacks in the crit and the TT is downhill with a tailwind both ways. The TT profile is here. I predict that last 2 miles are gonna hurt a lot.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
3...2...1...
So the Tour of Cali kicked off today. The big euro-pros hare in town, but I hope that our domestic boys can add tot he mix. There was a little drama with Rock Racing and I think that they mishandled the situation by lettting the roster issue stick around till the last min. That said, I'm starting to like Mr. Ball a little more. I watched him address the press and while he is a bit of a maverick, and while he over used the phrases "first and foremost" And "period", I think that he is genuine in his intentions to improve the sport of cycling. Velosnooze has the interview here.
For those that care, you might notice that I've dropped the moniker "Old Balls", while calling myself "Dr. K" is a bit pretentious I don't think that old balls is appropriate any longer. The new group I'm riding with has a large contingent of riders 5-10 years my senior, and they are faster than me. Case in point this weekend, new teammate and fast man Rick Norton put me in the hurt locker. About 2.5 hours into the ride after some nice rotating paceline riding we start climbing. The pitch increases as the climb progresses and eventually it is just him and me. I'm starting to pack up and decide to sit on. He flicks and in my state of oxygen debt I blurt out "I'm just gonna sit", his response, "OK". Then my lizard brain realized that that was the biggest mistake I could have made. I could literally hear the countdown...3...2...1...boom. Rick stood up, accelerated and left me clawing after his wheel. Needless to say I could not match his acceleration and blew up pretty hard. All in all it was a good ride and getting handled from time to time is a good thing.
In other news Sean "sweeper" Keefer was visiting his chica in B-more this weekend. We had lunch today, and he filled me in on the haps and the craps back in C-U. I't is gonna be a bit strange not being with the Illini kids (and other MWCCC peeps too) this weekend at OSU. To those there, have fun at the races. I'll pray for warmer weather that usual.
For those that care, you might notice that I've dropped the moniker "Old Balls", while calling myself "Dr. K" is a bit pretentious I don't think that old balls is appropriate any longer. The new group I'm riding with has a large contingent of riders 5-10 years my senior, and they are faster than me. Case in point this weekend, new teammate and fast man Rick Norton put me in the hurt locker. About 2.5 hours into the ride after some nice rotating paceline riding we start climbing. The pitch increases as the climb progresses and eventually it is just him and me. I'm starting to pack up and decide to sit on. He flicks and in my state of oxygen debt I blurt out "I'm just gonna sit", his response, "OK". Then my lizard brain realized that that was the biggest mistake I could have made. I could literally hear the countdown...3...2...1...boom. Rick stood up, accelerated and left me clawing after his wheel. Needless to say I could not match his acceleration and blew up pretty hard. All in all it was a good ride and getting handled from time to time is a good thing.
In other news Sean "sweeper" Keefer was visiting his chica in B-more this weekend. We had lunch today, and he filled me in on the haps and the craps back in C-U. I't is gonna be a bit strange not being with the Illini kids (and other MWCCC peeps too) this weekend at OSU. To those there, have fun at the races. I'll pray for warmer weather that usual.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Links...
To facilitate your time wasting, I've added some links to the right side of the blog. Notable additions that have not been mentioned on this blog before are Mademoiselle Cole and Craig Erbach. Jess is still slummin it in CU while C-Bach have moved to the land of cheese.
As for me I put in another good ride today. It was really windy today--like Illinois Windy. At one point I was going downhill pushing about 250W and only going about 25MPH silly stuff for sure. Alright I need to get to bed as I can feel the start of an ear infection and I don't have access to the JHU health center yet due to some paperwork issues, more on this debacle to come.
As for me I put in another good ride today. It was really windy today--like Illinois Windy. At one point I was going downhill pushing about 250W and only going about 25MPH silly stuff for sure. Alright I need to get to bed as I can feel the start of an ear infection and I don't have access to the JHU health center yet due to some paperwork issues, more on this debacle to come.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Allow me to re-introduce my self, my name is Dr. K
Well, as most of you know I've finally finished my Ph.D. That was just over a week ago. Since defending on Feb. 1 It has been a bit of a whirlwind. Here is a short (or not) rundown of my last days in Champickle: Making changes to the dissertation on Thus. night, filling the Blind Pig with friends on Friday (thanks to all that came out), Surviving the ride home in the snow, renting my breakfast on Sat. morning and barely feeling good enough to go out with my research group and advisor for lunch. Packing most of my shit and leaving town by 6:30 on Sat. night. I arrived in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon and moved in to my new place. Pretty hectic.
I started my post-doc at Johns Hopkins on Monday at 9:00AM. This my friends is probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done. Fortunately my boss and research group are super cool and have eased my moving to baltimore a great deal.
My new housemate is very cool too. She is an architect and a bustling socialite. I went out for happy hour with her and some friends last night and it was a blast. I rode down to the bar from work which is ~5 miles one way. Being new to town I went thru some pretty rundown areas, and have since adjusted my route. I'll be sure to give some updates on life in baltimore in the coming days.
Today was a great day on the bike. I met up with Paul, Ken, and Susanna a little south of my house and we rode about an hour north to meet the team group ride which leaves from the sponsoring shop, Race Pace Bicycles. Then it was a 2 hour ride with a sizable group throgh northern Baltimore county. The terrain out here is fantastic. Lots of rollers, and good road surfaces. I ended up with 4:15 of saddle time today, not too shabby.
The people on the ride were really nice too. There was one guy (Mike) who has even looked at my blog to get an idea of who I am after I posted to the team listserv. Perhaps the comment of the day, which was said on two separate occasions, was , "They ride bikes out there???". this was in response to me telling them that I had just arrived from IL. Pretty amusing to me.
Allright, I think I'm off to eat some dinner before I pass out. Thanks again to all those I left behind in C-U. I'm missing you already, and i fear it will get worse after the "newness" of Baltimore wears off. Also big thanks to the LSV/KBS team who made me feel as comfortable in the group as I did back in IL.
I started my post-doc at Johns Hopkins on Monday at 9:00AM. This my friends is probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done. Fortunately my boss and research group are super cool and have eased my moving to baltimore a great deal.
My new housemate is very cool too. She is an architect and a bustling socialite. I went out for happy hour with her and some friends last night and it was a blast. I rode down to the bar from work which is ~5 miles one way. Being new to town I went thru some pretty rundown areas, and have since adjusted my route. I'll be sure to give some updates on life in baltimore in the coming days.
Today was a great day on the bike. I met up with Paul, Ken, and Susanna a little south of my house and we rode about an hour north to meet the team group ride which leaves from the sponsoring shop, Race Pace Bicycles. Then it was a 2 hour ride with a sizable group throgh northern Baltimore county. The terrain out here is fantastic. Lots of rollers, and good road surfaces. I ended up with 4:15 of saddle time today, not too shabby.
The people on the ride were really nice too. There was one guy (Mike) who has even looked at my blog to get an idea of who I am after I posted to the team listserv. Perhaps the comment of the day, which was said on two separate occasions, was , "They ride bikes out there???". this was in response to me telling them that I had just arrived from IL. Pretty amusing to me.
Allright, I think I'm off to eat some dinner before I pass out. Thanks again to all those I left behind in C-U. I'm missing you already, and i fear it will get worse after the "newness" of Baltimore wears off. Also big thanks to the LSV/KBS team who made me feel as comfortable in the group as I did back in IL.
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