A Non Traditional Thanksgiving at Casa De Fatguy.

Turkey? We don't need no stinkin' turkeys!



Broiled crab cakes, steamed shrimp, homemade skin on fries and a Saison Dupont!

(Hey Dad, looks good eh?)

Oh and I rode my bike today. What a disaster that was.

Lemme recap it for ya:

I woke up later than I wanted, no time to eat or have coffee.
I got my stuff together for the 10am ride.
I left the house 1/2 before ride.
I turned around 2 miles from home to get water bottles and cell phone I forgot.
I left the house again.
I turned around again 2 miles from home to get seat bag and frame pump I forgot.
I ate a Cliff Bar en route and rolled into parking lot 5 min late. But no one left yet. Phew!
We all rolled out. Pace OK for first 1/2 hour.
I got dropped on first big hill. I not sure if they dropped me or if I wanted to get dropped. It's November and I have no desire to be hitting 92% max HR all morning doing the Hills of Crownsville.
I catch up to one other guy who dropped himself for same reasons.
I ride for next 1/2 hr at a nicer pace and chat awhile with my riding buddy.
My chain starts skipping, and doing that autoshift thing, but I ride on.
My chain is skipping on every pedal stoke now and we still have 10 to go to Park & Ride, but I'm 3 miles from my house.
I apologize to my bud and turn off and head home to either get another bike or quit and get my wife to take me to the Park & Ride to pick up Jeep.
I get home. 23 miles done and 1 1/4 hrs in the saddle. 1/2 hr more than was called for on today's workout schedule.
I ask wife to take me to get Jeep.
She says OK and I go get Jeep.

Still, It was a beautiful day for a ride. I lost 2 more pounds this week and I have beer!



Is that a pretty sight or what?

Cheers,

FGR

(photos: My crappy cell phone camera)

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 11/21/08

Since the first picture in this series, four Fridays ago, I have dropped five pounds. I don't look much smaller, but I do feel better when I'm riding the bike. Like yesterday for instance. I'm enjoying some time off so I went and geared up for a cold forty degree three hour LSD ride on my TT bike. Aside from having fun going fast with little effort, riding a TT bike is a good choice on a windy day. Very handy bike to be riding when riding directly into a 20 mph head wind. I also rode with my Rudy Project TT helmet too. Again, a great choice on a cold windy day. No vents, half face shield, and ear flaps. As cold and windy as it was, I was very comfortable the whole time.

Base training is going very well. My mileages are not gonna set records, but my training time is significantly higher for a November than any time in my life that I can remember. So long as I can keep it going, I feel I will be going great for next season.

I haven't done any lifting as of today, so I leave it this post with a picture of my curious dog, Sophie. She almost stuck her nose in those front wheel spokes! You'll notice a different front wheel on the bike. What you cant see is there is a different rear wheel too. In the time between both photos I got 2 flats. I can't catch a break I tells ya! Hahaha!

At least my trusty beer fridge didn't let me down. As soon as the hour was up, I reached in to find a that I still had a couple of Spaten Oktoberfest left. Now I only have one left.



Cheers,

FGR

(Photos: Me and a tripod mounted Nikon D70. Taken on Wednesday night.)

211

That's what my trusty doctors office quality analog Health-o-Meter scale read this morning. I'll forget what Kyle's fancy digital scale was reading in the D'ville parking lot after we got done riding for 2 hours on Sunday afternoon.

I was expecting the worst as I dreadfully pulled the scale out into the middle of the bathroom floor. I really expected to see the weight go up, not down. It was a pleasant surprise to see 2 more pounds off from the week before. What ever I'm doing, I need to stick to it. I've lost 4 lbs in about 2 weeks since I started my 2009 season training on Nov 3.

What I've been doing is lots of zone 1, 2 and 3 riding and lifting weights. One the rollers during the week and outside on the weekend. On the dieting side I've been keeping track of food using the meal log feature in Training Peaks. I've been down the dieting path more than once, so using it is nothing new. Staying with it is the hard part. It does get tedious after awhile. In the past, whenever I have used a meal log to track food is when I've lose the most weight consistently. There is something to be said for accountability. It does keep a person honest. To a degree, of course. I can always omit something, but what good is lying to myself? The problem is sticking with the log. I should have done it all year. Maybe the fourth time will be the charm.

Week 3 is a rest week, so I have to eat light. I use the Virtual Coach feature of training peaks also and since I'm over 40, 45 1/2 to be exact, the training cycle reverts to 2 weeks on 1 week rest. I thought this was odd, so when I made my 2008 schedule I lied about my age so it would do the traditional 3 on, 1 off schedule. Looking back over the season and how effective my training was, I have to say I shouldn't have lied about my age. 2 on, 1 off may give the extra recovery time I need to keep from burning out.

On an unrelated note, Ratebeer.com has gone tits up. Seems they got hacked pretty viciously (from what I've gathered) and they will be down for quite a while. I was 8 beer reviews short of reaching the 100 beer club (not to shabby for being a member for less than 1 year and not turning into a real fat bastid) when they went offline. So I've got to keep track of them somewhere. Well why not here? Here's what I've sampled this week.

Rouge Dead Guy Ale - Awesome deep translucent amber color that was almost pearlesent. Big fluffy, merange like butterscotch head that unfortunately disappeared quickly. Aroma of sweet hops. Crisp and dry on the palate with a nice bitter hop aftertaste that didn't linger longer than necessary. Malt undertones are welcome presence. No trace of grassyness like you get with an over hopped ale or IPA. This is one very well balanced ale. One of the best i've had in a long time. A pleasant surprise for me, as I have avoided buying it for the longest time. I've often dismissed Rogue brews just because the bottles and beer names seemed too gimmicky. I glad I was wrong

Rouge Dry Hopped St. Rouge Red - Its a wonderful red ale. One thing I've noticed about Rogues brews is how great they look in a glass. And this one is no exception. It pours a pretty reddish copper color with a reddish creamy head. The carbonation is pretty high and the bubbles were beautiful as the climbed up the side of the glass. The aroma has a subdued hoppyness and the that carries over to the palate. Unfortunately the taste is average. It's not a bad brew by any stretch but the taste doesn't match up to the appearance. If Rogue could combine the appearance of St Rouge with the knockout taste of Dead Guy, I would be a fan for life.

Cheers,

FGR

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 11/14/09

Well another week goes by and maybe I've lost another pound or so. I feel better, so that's got to count for something. Last week I managed to put in 8 of the scheduled 9 hours of training. I only missed out on a 1 hour ride on Sunday. It was my wife Dana's birthday so we spent all of Sunday together. This coming Sunday is my Dad's birthday. He's in Texas staying with my sister Nancy, husband Kurt and the grand kids, Hank and Bill (Henry and William). I like to call them Hank and Bill 'cause it annoys the heck outta my sister and probably my brother in law too. Kinda funny the sophomoric crap you engage in with your sibling even when your both in your 40's.

Anyway, this ones for you guys. Happy Birthday Dad!



Extra lift pic. This week, the Bench Press.




Cheers,

FGR

A Night Out With The Homies

Friday night as I was riding home in the car with my wife, Dana, I get a call from one Lance Lacy at around 4:30pm. He tells me some of us who live with 10 miles of each other were gonna be getting together with spouses and girlfriends for dinner at the Sakura Japanese Steakhouse on Housley Road (near Westfields Mall) in West Annapolis and follow it up with some drinking and fun at Stevie D's house in Millersville. My wife had a long day and didn't want to go, but I was up for it, so long as I got a ride in before. Dana gave me a pass and told me to have lot fun. So after doing a 45 min stint on the rollers, I got dressed, put on the sharp, new Team Latitude polo and headed on over to the restaurant. I got there and everyone except Sue Estes had already arrived. Ali, aka The Wheelsucker, was there sans date too. That's good, so now I wont feel like a total loser being by myself.

L to R: Amanda Wu, Amy Jones, Lance Lacy (partially hidden), Kyle Jones, Sherry Collison (Lance's girlfriend), Ty Wu (mostly hidden) and Ali Meller. Not shown, is me who took the picture.

They seated us pretty quick and took drink orders. I was kind of disappointed at the beer choices so I ordered the old standby, Sam Adams. Mind you they had every Japanese beer and Sake, but I'm not a fan of either.

They seated us a a really large grill horseshoe style. I took and end seat directly facing the Teppanyaki chef so as to get the best opportunity to get my eyebrows singed off. He did warn me...



Amamda, Ty, Sherry and Lance



Kyle, Amy and Ali



Me, and Amanda. Only Sue is missing.



That's Sue on the right.

I ordered the Filet Mignon and Chicken combo with Teppanyaki Shrimp and fried rice appetizers. The chef did all the usual stuff, the egg on the spatula trick and the onion volcano. It was pretty cool to see a Teppanyaki chef work the grill in person versus watching it on The Food Network. The food was excellent. I left nothing on my plate.

After we were done, we all packed into our vehicles and headed to the beer store and then Steve's place. While at the Waterbury there was much discussion about the proper 40 to pick up. I was looking for a 40 of Bass, but ended up with a 24 oz Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Kyle Jones on the other hand went right for the good stuff. We all thought he was getting these for Amy, but he said they were for him. You draw your own conclusions...LOL.



When we all got to Steve's he was out on his back deck blowing off fire crackers and bottle rockets at his neighbors. Seems the party was already going. After tiring of lighting off noisemakers a hasty retreat was made back into Steve's kitchen for some shots of Bourbon. Doetch went all out and picked up a bottle each of Makers Mark and 1792 Ridgemont Reserve. First up was the Ridgemont. I took my shot and slugged it down expecting the burn and gag, but not this time. It was like drinking a shot of ice tea. 1792 is probably the smoothest Bourbon I've ever had. I'm normally a vodka guy, but I will buy this. The Makers Mark was next and it was quite good also, but not nearly as smooth as the Ridgemont. Just to be sure we had another shot of Ridgemont. Did I mention this stuff is really smooth? After this I was ready for a beer so Steve handed me Grolsch to go along with the Sierra Neveda. Needless to say I drank them both and I think there was more Ridgemont too. After awhile things were getting really warm and fuzzy. I also think there was some guitar playing going on too, but I don't think I could call what I was doing guitar playing. It's been 13+ years since I played out with a band, and when I stopped gigging, I pretty much stopped playing for myself too. I've picked it up for longish stints on occasion over the years, but I'm very rusty to say the least and being drunk doesn't help.

All in all we had a great time and around 11 pm we all took off. I live 5 mins away from Steve, so my ride home, while not kosher, was not a big deal.

So now I've learned a few things about my teammates. Outside of racing, they're all great people and lots of fun to hang with. I need to start practicing my guitar on a more regular basis. And lastly I still get hangovers. I didn't do my 3 1/2 hour training ride until 1pm. By then I was able and the weather had cleared up. I did a pretty decent solo ride from the Park & Ride to North Beach and back. Using my TT bike I stayed mostly in zone 1-3 and came in with a nice 18 1/2 mph avg with 2500 feet of elev. gain for 60 miles. Maybe I should drink more often.

One last thing before I forget. There is no such thing as a free lunch when your married. Dana had off work on Sunday and her birthday is tonight. Happy 39 hon!

Even so I spent the whole day with her on Sunday and we went to Stitches 2008. A yarn and knitting expo at the Baltimore Convention Center. I think we actually spent more time at the light rail stops waiting for the damn train then we did at the expo. Still any day I get to spend with my wife is a good day.

Cheers,

FGR

(photos: Me-Casio Exilim Z600)

Also posted on the unoffical ABRT Blog.

Fatguy Roller Pic of the Week - 11-07-2008

Another week has gone by and I've managed to do seven hours of training since last weeks picture was taken. Seven hours in one week in November is pretty good considering my track record with off season training. Although I don't look any better, I do feel better and with 2 lifting sessions done for the week I am not nearly as sore as last week.




How about that shot? I took it doing a warm up set of squats. No one ever looks pretty doing squats do they?

My weight on 11/1/08 was 215. Great. This is gonna be much harder than I figured. One of the things I may be doing is skipping club rides until 2009. I've been doing a little reading about base training and I have come to the conclusion that for myself they might be counter productive right now. In the mean time I will more than likely ride with one of the slower groups that meet at Davidsonville or ride by myself. I will definitely be giving Big Jim a call for some winter LSD once he's done racing cross.

Cheers,

FGR

Umbrella Girl of the Week

It's all over. Formula One crowns its first black champion, Lewis Hamilton. Hammy won it on the last corner of the last race on Sunday in Brazil. Despite the best efforts behind the scenes all season to hand the title to a Ferrari driver, Hammy pulled it off and I hope he walked right up to Max "I like Nazi Hookers" Mosley and Bernie Ecclestone and gave them both big "Fuck Yous!". Well, I'm sure he didn't 'cause he has class. But I don't, so I would have. Congratulations Lewis Hamilton!





In other news - Barrack Obama became our first black President elect.



Almost forgot...This will be the last one. Kyle Jones is back posting bike babes.

Cheers,

FGR

(Photo Hamilton: Crash.net, Photo Umbrella girl: unknown.)

Do people really drink this stuff?

I thought perhaps being a prodigious coffee drinker, I may have sampled pretty much every thing there is to offer coffee wise. I was wrong. Whist being dragged by my wife, Dana, to Big Lots I found a whole end cap of these. 2 bucks for 4. So I grabbed one. I got this at the Lexington Park location, but she dragged me to Glen Burnie too and they had even more of the stuff and also two more coffee flavors. Mocha and Vanilla. They are probably cold now, so maybe they'll be my drink of choice while I workout tonight seeing as they are in the beer fridge next to the rollers.

I'm thinking it must really suck bad. Seeing the organic blessing stamp on it means that Whole Foods couldnt pass this dreck off and Big Lots ended up with a truckload to sell to unsuspecting morons like myself.

Cheers,

FGR

(Photo: Me-LG Rumor cell phone camera)

Rockburn CX 2008 Masters B Race Pics

Howdy Ho,

First off, many thanks to LSV and Matt B. for hosting a great event. It went off like clockwork and I think all us on the officiating crew had a good time.

Here are some pics from the 10am Masters B race and a other random shots from the pits. I only had the chance to take a few. Today I was working many places besides the pit. To be a good official, I have to learn all the jobs. My apologies for the quality of the pictures. I was shooting these with a pocket Casio Exilim Z600 and not my camera of choice, my Nikon D70.

Here is the link to the pictures

It's pretty heavy on my ARBT peeps, Pete, Mike, Ali (his first race) and Chris. Also quite a few of other riders I know, Jim, Jon, Shaun, etc.


Cheers,

FGR.