PODCAST - Cooking Zen

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Pull up a plate and load up on some home-made goodness while we cook up some potato wedges and hummus!

Potato wedeges are great fuel for ultra-long workouts and races.  High in potassium and starch, they are pure diesel for your motor.  Hummus is a great everyday food, sporting and incredibly low glycemic index.

While we are blending ingredients, I play music from The Flyers.  I met the bassist at a Beer N' Bikes meetup.  Below are some pix of fixies from the event.

Shownotes!

• Baking home made potato wedges
• Voicemail from drew - what do you do on your rest day?
  1. Go really easy.
  2. Clean your bike and give it a safety check.
  3. Make food.
• Went mountain biking with Chris M. and he broke his taint.
• The Joke's on Me by The Flyers.
• Pulling the wedges out of the oven.
• Started using White Lightning.
• Put your iPhone in a Ziploc sandwich bag to keep it waterproof!

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PODCAST - Rocky Raccoon 50 Miler Ultra Trail Run

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This is a GREAT show with tons of audio from an epic race!  Triboomer and I ran 50 MILES in the woods of East Texas at the Rocky Raccoon 50 Mile Trail race.

Listen in for great audio from the race, tips on how to run ultras, and general insanity from this crazy race.

• Intro clip - "Colossal" by Wolfmother. Go buy their music!
• Brett and Triboomer in the car.
• Saw a guy running the 100 miler with one leg.
• I have the running zombie look.
• Triboomer has the caveman look.
• Together we are BOOMAFORNIA!
• My drink mix exploded last night.

• Made a timing chart on Tyvek paper and taped it to my wrist.

• Triboomer is racing for AthletesForACure.org and TeamWinter.org.
• Ultra chicks are HOT!
• One stretch has no aid station for 6 miles.
• Fuel - Hornet Juice, honey, Gatorade, Tylenol, and Red Bull.
• I'm like a meth head on Red Bull.
• Triboomer like Gummi Bears and caffeine pills.
• Bumped into Chris M. and Josue Stephens.
• Transition clip - "Freak on a Leash" by Korn. Go buy their music!
• Running with TriBoomer - about 20 miles in.
• Transition clip - "Gullah" by Clutch. Go buy their music!
• Interview with Gusano and Chris after the race.
• We feel like we've been hit by trucks.
• Get your bacon covered fajitas at the Bandera Grill.
• I hallucinated armadillos, Triboomer hallucinated bats.

• Triboomer's major injury.
• Triboomer had an awesome fall.
• Emily's mad at me for not being serious. Again.
• Check out books.google.com
• Got top 50% in the race.
• Finished in daylight.
• No blisters.
• Couldn't walk normally for 3 days.
• Saw a bunch of show fans. Very cool!
• The Hornet Juice rocked.
• Ultrarunning is pacing, not racing.
• Race in smooth socks, not mesh.
• Potato cubes/wedges work great.
• Bodyglide, people!
• Pour fruit punch Gatorade all over yourself, then roll in sand.
• Actionwipes RULE for clean up.
• I'm back in the groove, working out triathlon style.
• My right shoulder has sh$% itself, but I can still swim.
• Coaching rocks.

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Lightning Strikes Twice

I've been using TriFlow as a bike lube for quite a few years now and think the stuff's great.  But I was just cleaning my drive train and remembered how well White Lightning used to work on my mountain bike years ago. 

My favorite memories were of how I never got bike grease everywhere (White Lightning is wax-based instead of oil) and my chain and gears lasted FOREVER.  The stuff is fantastic.

My ownly frowning moment came when I finally had to clean up my bike for resale and I had wax buildup in places I couldn't get to.  It was a real pain to get it all off!

I went to the bike shop and bought a bottle of the old WL. Kinda expensive nowdays for some reason. International wax shortage?  Cleaned off the Tri-Flow and put on the WL.

I've never used it on a road bike and never used it when I'm riding as much as I do now.  It dawned on me how Zen WL can be.  Self-cleaning, simple, doesn't leave grease everywhere, just plain and simply works.  I'm biking A LOT and I don't want to be cleaning my bike instead of riding it.  Just a little dab now and then and that's all you need.  When I finished the lube job and stood back, I actually felt a load lift off my shoulders.  I apparently had some guilt building up about not cleaning my bike enough and this fixed it.

If I'm as happy with it on my daily beater as I'm thinking I'll be, I'll probably start using it on the BMC and my commuter/frankenstein/cyclocross thing.

So, I'm all waxed up and ready to rock.  Just wondering what everybody uses to clean off the excess wax when needed.  Tips?

Review - SRAM Chains with PowerLink

I just cleaned my road bike and wanted to make a quick post about how great a certain type of chain can be.  SRAM makes a chain with a "PowerLink" - a link that seperates into two pieces and allows you to take the chain completely off the bike in seconds and with no tools.

If you get a chain that quickly comes off, you can get your bike REALLY clean, really quickly.  If you can clean your bike well in a short amount of time, you're much more likely do do it often, improving speed and also saving bucks on worn out parts.

If you haven't discovered this product/feature yet, here's how it works best -

• Squeeze the pins together in a certain fashion, chain pops completely off the bike.
• Put the chain in a small container, spray in some degreaser.  I use an empty Gatorade Powder container.
• Spray your chainrings and cassette with degreaser.
• Shake the heck out of the small container (lid closed) for a few minutes.  The shaking agitates all the grime off your chain.
• Use and old paintbrush and lay it into the cogs while you spin the rear wheel.  This gets all the grime off your cogs.
• Do the same with the front chainrings.
• Pull the chain out of the container.  Rinse it and your cogs/chainrings with water.
• Dry. (I go surf bike porn on the interwebs)
• Stand in stunned amazement at how unbelievably clean your chain just became.
• Pop chain back on.  Lube.  Ride.

It is absolutely AMAZING how fast and how clean you can get your drivetrain in just a matter or minutes by being able to pop the chain off and shake it in a container with degreaser.

COMING SOON!

I just put Specialized Bar Phat gel handlebar pads on my bike.  I've only ridden it a few minutes on the rollers, but I'm already very impressed.  Full review after a few long rides.

Single Speeds are Awesome. Don't Buy One.

I was out on a four-hour ride Saturday, enjoying the heck out of riding my single-speed in the 50x14 gear.  Single-speeds are great because they force you to crush your legs to climb any hill.  Train on one routinely and your cycling abilities will skyrocket.

But, the truth is I wasn't on my single-speed.  I don't even own a single-speed (anymore).  And you don't have to, either. 

All you need is a regular road bike and the discipline to stay in one gear.  Save your money from buying a whole other bike.  All you need is discipline, and discipline is free.

The problem is, discipline can be the hardest thing to get.  Here's how you can receive some - Bike single speed for the first half hour of your bike ride.  Next ride, do a full hour.  Keep moving up until you can do your whole long ride in a big fat gear.

Again, the dividends from riding single-speed are huge.  You don't have to do it every ride.  Just once a week for some variation on your regular routine.

Enjoy!