Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

Stop Yelling

Dude, I am really getting tired of the yelling on bike rides. It’s bad enough when life is stressful in other aspects, the last thing I need is yelling when I am trying to relax and relieve some stress by riding.

So the National Champion invited me to come up to the track tonight to try out the structured training workout. Mrs. Smithers gave the OK so I figured why not? It would give me a chance to dial in the new track bike.

Going up there I knew that I was only going to have a limited amount of time to spend at the track so I was going to maximize the time that I had. The way the workouts were set up is that a group of 6 or 8 riders would set off for some very fast laps with riders pulling at the front for one or two laps and then pulling off and attempting to get back onto the back of the group. Once this group finished their session, which took between 12 and 15 laps, another group of 6 or 8 riders would get ready and set off for a similar session while the first group recovered. Since I was going to take off after about an hour I thought I would just do back to back sessions until I exploded.

I was feeling pretty good, a lot better than I expected to feel. It was getting close to 7pm and I was thinking about taking off and heading home but I decided to do one more session before I took off. The National Champion said something to the effect of “I guess we need to make these harder if you are doing them back to back.” I was going to blow up soon but I figured that I would be able to hang in there for one more.

So off we went, faster and faster, harder and harder. I was feeling ok and hanging in just fine until the National Champion got the front and started to pour on the steam. It only took 2 laps before things went sour for me.

There were a couple of guys behind me left in the paceline so I had a couple of options. In theory I could have speeded up to prevent the rider behind me from having to shut a gap down. But I was rapidly losing it so this was not an option for me. I could have just sat up and not moved up track there by preventing the riders behind me from trying to get back on the wheel, but that would have been tres uncool. So I swung up track and got the hell out of the way.

I knew that I had created a tough situation for the rider behind me as he now had a bike length plus that he had to close on the National Champion as the pace continued to heat up. I felt bad about it and apologized profusely as I moved out of the pace line. The guy behind me in line got all hot about it and swore something at me as he rode by.

I understand the feeling. You are giving 100%, on the rivet, total red line, and some dude just opens a gap that you now have to close. It sucks ass and it’s natural to be unable to control your emotions in this situation. I am not going to get all upset about some dude swearing at me once, even if it is just training.

I cooled down on the track for a couple of laps and then rolled off with the intention of riding a couple of laps on the infield track before I left. But the guy who I had gapped was apparently still all pissed off about my move and decided to let me have it.

Look, when someone makes a mistake that negatively affects you there are two options. You can be gracious and dignified and speak with the individual that made the mistake and explain how it affected you, or you can be a dick and pitch a fit and make yourself look like a jackass.

I’ll be the first one to admit when I make a mistake. I had already apologized on the track and apologized again in the infield. But it wasn’t enough for this guy and he continued to rail on and on about what I should and should not do and blah blah blah. I finally told him that I got it and that he should just lighten up.

So whatever. I obviously wrecked his life by forcing him to try and close a gap and chase down the National Champion in session of a free of charge training ride. How tragic. Trust me, life can get a lot worse than this.

Anyway, he won’t have to put up with me during these training rides for the rest of the season anyway. They switch to Tuesdays next week and that’s Urthel ride night.

Posted by Smithers at 9:49 pm in Local Cycling | Permalink | 3 Comments »

At the track

At the track

Originally uploaded by smithersmpls.

One week to race night!

(sent wireless via Treo 650)

Posted by Smithers at 5:53 pm in Mobile Post | Permalink | No Comments »

Haloscan

A bit spotty today I know.

But I am not switching to WP comments no matter how many times you ask…

Posted by Smithers at 3:56 pm in Miscellaneous | Permalink | No Comments »

Lunch for moths

Someone just sent me an e-mail asking why paella would make a good lunch for moths.

I’m not sure…

Posted by Smithers at 2:35 pm in Miscellaneous | Permalink | No Comments »

Lunch for months

I made paella for dinner last night.

I always go crazy with the ingredients and now I have enough paella to last me into the next millenia.

Anyone want to come over for lunch? For the next few months? Can I freeze this stuff?

Ingredients:

1/3 cup of Olive Oil
1 Small Onion, minced
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
3-5 TBS’s minced fresh parsley

1 generous pinch of saffron
2 TBS’s of chicken bullion

3 skinless Chicken Breasts, cut in large chunks
4 Chorizo sausages

2 green peppers, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced

8 oz tomato sauce
1 tsp. Sugar

4 cups of rice
7 cups of water

salt

1/2 LB - 1 LB shrimp, leave shell on
1/2 LB calamari
1/2 LB scallops
1/2 LB mussels
1/2 LB clams
(I have experimented with fish and crab but it just disintegrates during cooking)

Directions:
You are gonna need a big pot for this! Sauté onion, parsley, and garlic in olive oil until the onion begins to become transparent. Add saffron, chicken bullion, chicken, sausages, peppers and sauté until chicken has become white. Add tomato sauce, sugar. Stir. Add rice & water and bring to boil. Salt to taste. Boil 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add shrimp, muscles & scallops, boil an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Simmer 10 minutes covered, stirring occasionally. If the rice appears to be getting too dry during the last 10 minutes, add more water. If the rice is too wet at the end of the 10 minutes, uncover and evaporate unwanted liquid.

Posted by Smithers at 12:36 pm in Miscellaneous | Permalink | No Comments »

One kid = happier, more kids = less happier?

Psycho Today:

Kohler found that mothers with one child are about 20 percent happier than their childless counterparts; and while fathers’ happiness gains are smaller, men enjoy an almost 75 percent larger happiness boost from a firstborn son than from a firstborn daughter. The first child’s sex doesn’t matter to mothers, perhaps because women are better than men at enjoying the company of both girls and boys, Kohler speculates.

Interestingly, second and third children don’t add to parents’ happiness at all. In fact, these additional children seem to make mothers less happy than mothers with only one child—though still happier than women with no children.

“If you want to maximize your subjective well-being, you should stop at one child,” concludes Kohler, adding that people probably have additional children either for the benefit of the firstborn or because they reason that if the first child made them happy, the second one will, too.

So, according to this important research, Mrs. Smithers is now 20% happier than she was before Baby Smithers was born.

I am 75% happier that Baby Smithers is a boy rather than a girl. So instead of being only 8.55% happier I am really 15% happier.

Both of us are going to drop in happierness once the next Baby Smithers is born. So Mrs. Smithers will probably come down to about 11.5% happier and I will probably drop down to the 8.55% happier level.

I will keep you updated as to the happierness level as we move along here but in the mean time I have created this handy happierness chart for you to follow along with the progress so far:

HAPPIERNESS SCALE

Posted by Smithers at 8:27 am in Family | Permalink | No Comments »