July 2008 Archives

You don't truly realize how small the car is until it's squeezed between two gas guzzling giant SUVs.


Stormyva’s blog - Vox

There's a new photographer in town! Or at least one that I didn’t recognize, but he had some nice glass out at the Peter Teeuwen on Sunday!

Pablo Custodio took some great shots of all of the struggling racers. They can be seen and even downloaded for free here: http://www.digitalimagesbypablo.com/  The picture to the left is was taken by Pablo of Noni Williams…. who like always has a big grin on her face.

Keep an eye on his site after the Chesapeake Criterium on August 9th.... he will be there shooting too.

On Saturday I took the trip of to the MINI Guiness World Record Attempt that was put on by hrmini.com and sevencityminis.com at the Rockahock Campgrounds in Lanexa, VA. More detailed info on that excursion can be found in previous posts so I wont repeat myself here, but here's a link to the PHOTO GALLERIES.
Yeah that is the Mini Oscar Meyer Weinermobile in my side mirror! That was quite the interesting vehicle!

My least favorite actor/comedian does one of Amber's favorites ... Blinkx Video: Will Ferrell is The Phantom of the Opera

My wife directed me to the new Beach Eye Care website today. I found out that Dr. Neatrour has a blog there, but he is a bad bad blogger! He hasn't made a post since May. Come on Dr N..... you can do better than that! :)

About Eyeblog 20/20 | EyeBlog 20/20

Results from the second PLT Time Trial of the 2008 Va Cycling Season have been posted to Bikereg.com. Congrats to all of the Fat Frogs for the great showing and awesome times. Too bad my time sucked!


The Peter Teeuwen Memorial Omnium 23 Mile Time Trial #2 ALSO The VIRGINIA AGE-GRADED STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS Results

This was a pretty eventful weekend…. I got the MINI back on Friday night.  I took it even though Phillips STILL does not have the car fixed 100%.  The only thing that is left for them to do is fix the liner in the wheel well.  Then there was all the fun traffic and the MINI Guinness World Record Attempt.  Sunday was the Peter Teeuwen Time Trial.  With all that stuff going on I forgot to make a post about USAA.  So, here is the post that I promised to some folks. 

This weekend a fellow cyclist and I were talking about my recent blog posts.  She said I sounded very angry with the MINI insurance claim.  She was right, I was very angry when I made those posts, but I am not angry with USAA Insurance anymore.  The service that the new claims adjuster has provided has been excellent.  I can not complain about a single thing since he took over the claim!  He has stayed on top of everything and has helped out tremendously.  It is unfortunate that it took a scathing blog post to get that kind of service though.  Service that I would have expected from a company like USAA right from the start.  He also did a couple of things for me in the end that were not only un-required but completely unexpected. 

When we originally started this whole fiasco I opted for a standard sized car that ran $6.50 per day more than the compact car that USAA had agreed to cover.  The $6.50 a day was not that big of a deal for the original 6 days that I was told would be required to fix the MINI.  For anyone that reads this blog, they will know that that 6 days ended up being 19 days.  With the exception of approximately 4 of those extra days the delays were entirely due to Phillips Automotive’s lack of quality control and workmanship.  Despite that USAA has agreed to cover my out of pocket costs for the upgrade.  That to me is going well above and beyond.

I have changed my opinion about USAA Insurance.  It does appear that they do have some good people, ones that do care about taking care of the customer and providing good customer service. 

Hopefully I won’t need to deal with any more insurance claims any time soon!

Time Trials SUCK!  I went in to this one knowing that but was determined to do well anyways.  I did not succeed in doing well!  It started out with the never ending 6 mile stretch in to what felt like a steady head wind.  Then a turn in to more wind.  Then a turn in to more wind.  It did not feel like the wind ever let up.  Then about 35 minutes in to the ride I started to feel dizzy.  A couple more minutes then the nausea kicked in.  Another mile or two and I started getting the chills.  Now that was a weird feeling!  Riding along, I could feel the heat from the pavement and the warm air.  Yet I still had goose bumps and a chill.
I kept on riding and pushing as best I could, but I was not doing well at all.  It took everything I had just to make it back to the finish line.  Once off the bike it took a few minutes before I could actually stand with out holding on to something.
I can not remember ever having to push myself that hard for such a horrible result.  I think my time was right at or slightly under one hour.  That's a horrible time especially for what seemed like such a hard effort.  Maybe time trials just arent "my thing".

Va 511 is WRONG!!! It said no traffic on Route 64 and the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel!  There is a 4 mile backup east bound at HRBT.  1 mile backup at the bottle neck past Jefferson west bound. 2 mile back up east bound due to accident at Jefferson.

The bit above was posted from my phone while sitting in traffic at the bottle neck.  I called 511 to check traffic while on 264 in Virginia Beach as I was heading up the to the MINI Guiness World Record attempt. 
The event, which didnt break the record unfortunately, drew about 130 MINIs and was a lot of fun.  I will get some pictures of the event up when I have time to go through them.
The trip home was even worse.... stop and go starting west of Williamsburg.  A 6.5 mile back up at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel.  2.5 mile back up at the Monitor Merrimac.  So I hopped off the interstate and drove down Jefferson Ave to go to Trader Joe's.  Then took the James River Bridge for a more scenic and peaceful ride home.

That's right, today is not only Thursday, the day before Friday, the 24th of July. It is NATIONAL TEQUILA DAY!
National Tequila Day is a big thing seeing as Tequila is my second favorite form of alcoholic beverage right behind beer. Now I have a good excuse to have a shot with my wonderful Peruvian style dinner at Imperio Inca Restaurant.
Some interesting Tequila facts:
- 87% of Americans agree Tequila is not just for Margaritas anymore according to a survey commissioned by Tequila maker Don Julio.
- Tequila not labeled as 100% Agave is called Tequila Mixto and can contain up to 49% of other alcohol, such as cane alcohol.
- Tequila is most often found in 3 types: Blanco or Silver, Resposado, and Anejo. Blanco is the least aged of the bunch and is bottled immediately after distilling. It is typically a clear or silver color. Resposado is darker in color than the Blanco and is aged for between 2 and 12 months in oak casks. Anejo or Aged is aged in oak casks for over a year. More of the amber color and smoky oak taste is picked up by the tequila during the longer aging process.

I dont know how it started but let's all celebrate by taking a shot of Tequila today. Just make sure it's not at work and you aren't going to be driving afterwards!

If I have learned one thing from this whole mess with the repairs to the MINI Cooper it's how much of a difference a little bit of good old customer service makes.

The start of the USAA process was handled by a person that was either over worked, burned out, or maybe just didnt give a crap.  It's unfortunate but that was my first image of USAA.  Throughout the entire process the claims adjuster did not follow up on anything, let things drop through the cracks, and never returned phone calls.

On the other hand Phillips has had great customer service.  They have returned voice calls.  They have had things done when they were promised.  They informed of everything that was going on between them and USAA because they were also having trouble with communication from USAA.

This is where that customer service comes in.... I went to pickup the MINI at Phillips on Friday.  When I inspected the car I found the work to be unacceptable, as I had mentioned in a previous post.  My contact there apologized, assured me that everything would be corrected, and promised that they would do everything possible to make things right.  She followed up and continued to keep me informed of the cars progress.  Apologies or not, I was very disappointed and frustrated.  What did I do? I vented about the work quality and the way my claim was being handled here on my blog. 

It appears that my little corner of the net isn't quite as secluded as I thought and someone at USAA came across the post and contacted me.  This person was apologetic and promised to make sure things were handled properly.  He has done an excellent job of that.  He has been doing what I had expected from the beginning.  Acting as a liason between me and the other parties involved in the claim.  He is making me confident that there is someone actually properly handling the claim. 

What my contact at Phillips and the new contact at USAA have in common is a commitment to good customer service.  They have called me, returned phone calls, and kept the lines of communication open.  Despite the fact that there have been many problems that are beyond their control.  They seem to be doing everything in their power to take care of their customer.

That brings us to this last night.....

Karen at Karen Got Wheels has posted a mention of a product called a Sport Kilt. These were originally made popular by none other than Gilbert (aka Nerf and Keirinracer) as can be seen in the picture to the left. They work much better than a towel when it comes to changing shorts out at a bike race. It's much less likely that "Willy" is going to peek out and look around when covered with one of these!

Last night was my first ride on the new saddle.  The Bontrager Inform RL.  Needless to say it was awesome!  No numbness, no sore spots under my sit bones.  I was able to make the Pungo Loop without having to constantly stand and shift in the saddle. This is the second Bontrager product to go on to my bike.  The first was the Bontrager Fit VR “Mini Drop” handle bars.  They were originally designed for women, but as short as I am they worked perfectly.  So that’s two times that Bontrager has been able to solve fit problems for me on the bike! 

We were riding this Saturday and the person that I was riding with asked if I had done any upgrades on my bike.  That got me to thinking….What has been done to my bike?

I started with the Felt F5C which was a pretty nice bike.  First came a set of Ksyrium SSC SL wheels.  The next upgrade was the Bontrager Fit VR bars.  Several saddles swaps.  Then, I moved up to Campagnolo Chorus from Shimano Ultegra/105.  Now the Bontrager Inform RL Saddle.  The only things on the bike that are original are the seat post, forks, and frame.  So, in the end I have ended up spending almost $3000 for my  ride in it’s current state.  Next time around I think I will start with the frame and build up from there to get what I want in the beginning!  Then again who would have thought that two years ago when I bought the bike I would still be riding it.

I guess my previous posts, "USAA Sucks" and "Another disappointment with the car" have gotten some attention on the internet from USAA.  I was contacted by someone from USAA this morning that showed concern over the whole claims situation and what has been dismal customer service from USAA so far.  We'll see what happens now.  Hopefully things will turn around for the better!
Those that know me, know that I am "anal".  I like to be meticulous, organized, and well documented.  That anal-ness is obvious in the fact that I have kept a decent log and notes of all of my dealing through this mess.  Unfortunately, in the beginning when I was less concerned over the way things were being handled I was not my normal self.  The early notes did not have exact times and where scattered across several pieces of half sheet sized paper.  So, for the benefit of the folks at USAA and anyone one else that wants some very boring reading.  I have compiled all of my notes in to a Google Doc document that can be accessed here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d28bwt7_137cc2xwxfw
This was emailed to what I am hoping would be the proper email address for the person that contacted me.  Hopefully he got it, if not it's here for his use.

My fingers are crossed that I can update the USAA Sucks post with some great information soon.  Stay tuned!

No races this weekend!  Without the fuel efficient MINI we opted out of driving to Richmond to do the races and had some fun staying in the good ol' Hampton Roads area. 

Saturday we were supposed to go to Gloucester for the Renaissance Festival, but work and traffic had other plans for me.  I received a phone call from a customer that was having problems with equipment.  So I had to head to the Norfolk Naval Base to deliver equipment.  We were going to leave for Gloucester from the base.  Traffic screwed that one up though.... there was an 8 mile back up at the tunnel.  We scratched Gloucester at that point and drove back to the Ghent area of Norfolk to check out East Coast Bikes and Cogan's Instant Art Bar.

The reason for the trip to Ghent was to hit East Coast Bikes to see check out a new saddle.  For those non-cyclists types or those, like me, who still have the word seat ingrained in their head from years and years of calling a saddle a seat.  A saddle is in fact a seat.  It's the place where your arse gets beaten to a bloody pulp from all of your weight bouncing on and being supported by places that weren't exactly meant to support weight.  The mission to find a comfortable saddle has been going on for awhile now.  It started with numbness.  That was cured by getting a seat with a cutout in it.  Now the numbness is gone, but after a long hard ride I was having some MAJOR soreness around my sit bones.  To be graphic, sometimes I had what looked like blood blisters.  Obviously that isn't right, so I was very excited when I read Bryan Burn's post about the Bontrager Inform RL saddle.  After reading the post I went over to the Bontrager site and did some more reading.  It sounded like this seat might just do the trick!  Normally I buy all of my gear from Fat Frogs Bikes, but they aren't a Bontrager dealer, so the next closest place was East Coast Bikes.

I hadn't ever been to East Coast Bikes so I was very impressed when I walked in the door and saw the selection of bikes.  Especially the Felt B12 near the front of the racks.  I was greeted by a very nice employee who took us right back to the Bontrager saddle display and the special fit system.  The Bontrager Inform line comes in 3 different widths to accommodate different sized people. 

To properly size the saddle Bontrager developed a special fit system.  I was expecting this big elaborate system, but it was only a board with heat sensitive gel on it.  You sit down and it leaves an imprint of your sit bones.  Pressure is then applied to the gel where your bones contacted it and a color shows through.  The color corresponds to a size designation for your proper width saddle.  In my case it was the 146.  What was really cool was the fact that there was one white seat left and it just happened to be in my size!  On the way to the register we noticed that East Coast Bikes happens to be a Hammer Nutrition dealer as well so we snagged a container of HEED.  I had been wanting to try out HEED to see if it would eliminate the stomach pains I have been getting while training and racing.  The product I am using now contains glucose and sucrose.  Those two sugars have been reported to cause some people stomach cramps.  Hopefully the HEED will work!  I was impressed with East Coast Bikes they had a good selection and carry several items that I aren't normally stocked at Fat Frogs.  There location is good too.... it will give me an excuse to eat at Tap House Grill and a new favorite, Cogan's Instant Art Bar, more often.

After leaving East Coast Bikes we walked a couple of blocks over to...

Despite the fact that I was horribly pissed off about the whole MINI body shop/insurance situation I still managed to go through the pictures my wife took at the Hagerstown Criterium. So here is the link to the photos in my photo gallery: Hagerstown Criterium July 2008 Photos The photos are pretty large in their original sizes so be patient when trying to open them.

I was excited! I thought I was going to get to pick up the MINI tonight and finally be rid of the VW Rabbit from Enterprise Car Rental. Was that to actually happen??? NOOOOOO! But I cant blame that all on USAA this time. Phillips Body Shop had faxed over a request for final approval ob the repair amounts to USAA today. The fax was followed up by a phone call to our "wonderful" claims adjuster Shawnta. Of course Shawnta did not answer her phone and the call went to voice mail. 8 hours later the voice mail still had not been returned. The fax that was sent over is now somehow lost in the USAA black hole along with the other voice mails and faxes. All was not lost though..... the person that I was working with at Phillips Body Shop was going to be nice and let me pick up the car with out the final authorization from USAA. I was excited! I was finally going to have the MINI back so I could have it to do the Hampton Roads MINI Club drive to the Gloucester Renaissance Festival. I arrived at Phillips around 4:30 and was instructed to inspect my car despite the fact that it had not been cleaned and prepped yet. When I got to the car I was surprised at how much dust a car can build up when it sits in a body shop for two weeks. Then I walked around to the side that was worked on. The first thing I noticed was the weather stripping/trim piece along the window which wasn't attached properly. I lightly pushed it and it settled in to place, no big deal there. I looked at the paint next and saw exactly what I was dreading. The paint looked like the surface of an orange, the entire door had a horrible case of orange peel. An even closer look found dust stuck in the clear coat in several places as well. Frustrated as hell at this point I proceeded to inspect the door jambs only to find harsh paint lines from taping along the inside edge of the door. I wasnt done finding crap though, the door jamb showed deep sanding marks from what looked like probably a 100 grit or coarser paper. What the f$%& a body shop that works on Mercedes and other high end stuff turns out work that looks as bad as something from Earl Sheibs. I dragged Michelle who was my contact at Phillips out to show her this wonderful work. She is so nice, she apologized profusely, and told me she would have it back in the shop first thing on Monday to have her painters look at it. More than likely this means another week without the MINI!!! The MINI went in to the shop five weeks after we purchased the car. They have had it for two weeks and will likely have it at least one more. So much for enjoying that new car smell!
This has truly been one of the worst car owning experiences I have ever had!  USAA has sucked from the start with their horrible customer service and response.  Enterprise screwed up the car reservation and put me in a gas guzzling F150, swapped it out with a car that smelled like a sweat factory and vibrated like crazy.  Now Phillips is putting out shoddy work.  ALL I WANT IS MY CAR BACK AND FOR IT TO LOOK LIKE IT DID BEFORE THE ACCIDENT!!!!  Is that really too much to ask for????

That is the headline I saw as a I scanned the headlines on the Google News page. Sad that that is the only publicity the Tour is getting. Even sadder though is the fact that there are still people in the Tour stupid enough to try and get away with it.
The Associated Press: Tour de France rider detained by police for doping

Check them out:
2008 Tour de France - The Big Picture - Boston.com

What a weekend! Amber and I left Friday night to head up to my "ex-"in laws house for the weekend.  The plan was to spend some time with my son who is staying with them for the summer and get in a bike race. I say "ex-" in laws because they are ex, the marriage that made them my in laws is over, but despite that fact we are still as close as ever. They are the best people! 

Anyways.... the drive up was uneventful and we got there around 10:30 on Friday night. Anyone that has left the Hampton Roads area on a Friday afternoon knows uneventful isn't something that happens very often. There was NO backup at the tunnel, no backup where the super-intelligent traffic engineers had five lanes narrow down to two, and the rest of the trip up 64 was smooth sailing!

6:00 AM Saturday morning came around all to fast after tossing, turning, and having an all around lousy night of sleep. I was dragging! I managed to drag my butt out the door and get three kids and gear packed in to the RAV4 by 7:15 AM.  We got up to Hagerstown around 8:00 which gave me plenty of time to warm up and get myself stressed out about the hills and turn 2. 

The start time finally came and we were off. We made the first left turn going in to the steepest of the two climbs. Made the slight veer off to the right at the top of the hill, then dropped in to the "nasty turn".  There it was the first wreck of the day. It was on the first turn of the first lap of the first race! Wow.... a lot of firsts! The rider in front of me went in to the turn to fast and had his back wheel slide out.  I hopped to the side and some how made it around him.

This "nasty turn" was a very hard left turn coming off of a slight down hill. The turn could have been fast but there was a strange drop off going in to it.  It was one of the spots on the course that I was worried about. Throughout my warm up I was focused on coming up with the best route through without loosing momentum while giving myself the most room to move if other riders lost control.  Coming out of the turn in was a slight down hill with another left turn at the bottom.  Next was a small climb up then a wide 90 left turn that put you in to a headwind heading back to the start/finish line.

After seeing the wreck in the "nasty turn" in the first lap I was really focused and over stressed, but after several laps I managed to settle down.  I became very comfortable with the Cat 5 group I was riding with. They were very stable and seemed to be in control of their bikes.  That is something that doesn't always happen in a Cat 5 race.  I also realized that I was really was really enjoying the course.

The scenery was great and the fact that it was more technical than a flat oval was awesome. I was surprised how fast the racers were too. It seemed that the average pace was faster than that of our races here in VACA land. The hill climbs and the more technical layout of the course broke up the monotony that I find comes from running the same oval and wide turns over and over again.

30 minutes and many laps later I crossed the finish line somewhere in the excess of 34 miles per hour to place 5th. I was supposed to have a first place finish but it seems that the Long "crew" and Matt that were officiating didn't want to believe me when I told them that it didn't matter what the camera and their lap counting sheets said it was me that came across the line first. That aside it was a great race.

Kudos goes to the promoters and everyone else that put on this race. They picked out an awesome course and did a great job with the all of the preparations. The course was well marked, police and course marshals did an AWESOME job keeping it clean and clear, and the officials crew was top notch.  I even saw one of the police officers come out in to the course to pick up a piece of trash! 

The only complaint was that Joe Jefferson guy... he sure does have a mouth on him.... he was doing nothing but talking trash about people and playing awful music. They need to ban him from those MABRA races. Maybe then we can get him down here for some of the VACA events! :)
This was one of my most favorite cycling events so far!

The rest of the day Saturday was spent wandering around Shepherdstown, WV and swimming with my family.  Shepherdstown is a small college town with an artsy flair.  There are a lot of unique shops scattered along the historic main street section.  One thing that always amazes me there is how friendly and welcoming everyone is.  The first place we hit was Lost Dog Coffee shop.  They have a killer selection of loose tea and whole bean coffee.  They also make a great cup of coffee.  Lost Dog also has a nice display of local artwork on display.  Now that we had our caffeine fix we continued up the street and came across a bike shop called Shepherdstown Pedal and Paddle.  The shop was run by a nice guy that even gave my son, Devon, a t-shirt and I didnt even buy anything!  He had a good selection of mountain bikes and some other really nice gear and took the time to just chat with us.  He seemed to be very knowledgeable about the bikes and the area's trails and resources.  One thing that they do is Segway tours, next time I am up there and have more time I am going to have to try that.  Luckily for my wallet on this trip there wasn't too much in the road bike department and the cylco-cross bike that he had was a little too big for me. 
Sunday morning we were pulled from our slumber by the scents of a wonderful breakfast.  Eggs, lots of fresh fruit, sausage gravy, and buckwheat pancakes. We all dug in only to have Amber start having an familiar itching feeling in her mouth. The same one she gets after ingesting walnuts, which she is highly allergic to. We scrambled to find her benadryl.  She took a dose and we hit the road.  The swelling and itching proceeded to get worse, and she even broke out in hives. Two more doses of benadryl and the symptoms finally started to subside. We now know she's allergic to buckwheat in addition to pecans and walnuts.  Hopefully we dont find anything else!  The rest of the ride home was much like the ride up.... minimal traffic and a nice steady speed.
Now I am home, exhausted, and ready to crack in to a nice bottle of Petrus Golden Tripel Ale!

 

Here is a link to the consolidated results from the Hagerstown Criterium Challenge:

http://www.bikecvcc.com/avc/Events/2008/hagcrit_2008/2008%20Hagerstown%20Challenge%20Criterium%20Results.html

Following is a google map of the actual course.  When I was trying to see what and where the course was I had a hard time finding anything on it.  So here it is:

View Larger Map

UPDATED 7/29/08:  USAA assigned a new agent to my claim and he has gone above and beyond on everything!  Read more about it here: USAA Isn't so bad after all.

Our Mini was hit by a USAA customer June 6th.  Our car finally got in to a body shop on July 7th.  There was a 3 week delay in getting USAA to accept liablility because they couldn't get in touch with their client. No big deal, that's understandble.  What is a big deal is that the claims agent, Shawnta, would not return phone calls.  Multiple calls to this USAA claims employee would go unanswered.  Then when it went time to line up the rental car our wonderful USAA insurance claims person called and schedule the rental at the WRONG Enterprise location.  Luckily my wife and I are anal and called to confirm things ahead of time and found about it before we went to pick up the car.
It gets better though..... the first day that my car is in the shop they find damage that was not visible before tearing the car down.  That is normal and I expected it.   What I didnt expect was that voice mails and faxes to several people at USAA starting on 7/7 have still not been answered and it is now July 10th!!!
Both I and the body shop have left voice mails and sent faxes to two claims adjusters AND a claims supervisor and no one will return phone calls.  So here it is almost four days and the MINI Cooper sits in a bay at Phillips while we drive a $20 a day rental on USAA's dime all because a few slack ass good for nothing people are too good to return messages.
USAA SUCKS!!!!!  The USAA credit card is getting closed, no more considering moving our investments to them, or our banking either.  If they cant handle a simple insurance claim I am surely not giving them nor relying on them to do anything else right!!!
Again USAA SUCKS in case you didnt catch it the first couple of times!!!!!

Mike has finally posted a Coach's Tip with a report on a race that I will actually be doing, the Hagerstown Criterium! Hopefully this inside information on the course will help we blow out the whole Cat 5 pack and win the race. Ok, I have to wake up now.... Maybe it will allow me to at least finish with the pack. Either way I am excited to be racing on a course that is more than just a flat oval and with a different field of racers. It will be strange to be the only Frog in the field though.

GamJams.net: Where Mid-Atlantic bike racers roll: Coach's Tips For... Hagerstown Challenge Criterium

Back in January I came across the Bride 2b Primal Wear cycling jersey I thought that was the tackies or maybe the coolest jersey, but it has now been topped.
Here's the perfect accessory for the Bride 2b Jersey, none other than the Ritz Cyling Jersey.  Now a couple can have the proper attire when they ride down the aisle to get married.
This one is also available at primal-sports.com:
http://www.primal-sports.com/p-811-the-ritz-blue-ls-cycling-jersey.aspx

Last night I did a great workout... Spinervals Suffer-O-Rama.  Well, that is if your definition of great is cramping legs at the end of the ride and stiff legs the next morning.  Even with the pain it was fun in a sado-masochistic sort of way.  The weather was perfect and I was excited to get out riding for the first time in a couple of days.  I fired up the iPod to a good hard rock playlist and rode out through the neighborhood at a steady hard pace.  At the turn on to New Bridge Rd it was time to fire up the video and start the real workout.   In this particular video there are several hard 100% effort sets as well as some hard tempo ones.  My legs SCREAMING were screaming even after the first set.  The Suffer-O-Rama work out took me all the way out to Creeds and of course ended there leaving me to struggle all the way home with wasted legs.

I am very happy with the motivation that the combination of music for a warm up and the Spinervals video has been given me on my interval days.  It breaks up the monotony and Coach Troy yelling over your shoulder as you hammer out that effort is a big help at getting the most out of every second of each sets.  It is amazing how much more difficult the workout seems to be on the road than on the trainer!  Especially when it's hard efforts in to a steady 7 to 8 mph wind.  In a couple of weeks I will find out if all the hard work is helping when I race in the Hagerstown Criterium Challenge.  Who knows maybe I will even place well.

Pedal'n Arounds' wife, aka The Bike Widow was nice and had some T-shirts made up for him.  All three of the ones pictured are great, but I especially like this one:

I might have to steal this idea and make a T-shirt or two or three of my own.  Of course I will buy one from them first! 

Check out the other designs: http://pedalnaround.blogspot.com/2008/06/t-shirts.html

Boo Bee Juice Drink for kids is now available in the UK in four great flavors: Strawberry, Orange, Mixed Fruit, and Pineapple.

Ok…. that’s just a cool name for a drink.  I want some of that for my next race.  Even better I will get some for my son to take to school with him in his lunch box.  I can hear the conversation now…. “Hey, Bobby do you want to taste some of my Boo Bee?”  Even better the results when little Sally is overheard by the lunch lady asking Bobby the same question. 

More information, if you really need it can be found at the UniBev site: Boo Bee Juice for Kids.

The Wounded Warrior Unity Tour:

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Hello, “NAME REMOVED TO PROTECT THE HORRIBLY GUILTY!”,

Thanks for agreeing to help spread the word on this.

For the VA Cycling and BikeBeat websites:

"What:  2nd Annual Wounded Warrior Unity Tour
Who:  Armed Forces Cycling Association
When:  Saturday and Sunday, 27 and 28 September, 2008, 8am start with pre-ride briefings and registration starting at 6:30am

Where:  Day 1 = Fort Eustis to Fort AP Hill /// Day 2 = Fort AP Hill to Walter Reed Medical Center
Why:  To support our Wounded Soldiers
How:  Detailed ride/registration info and points of contact are available at www.afca.us/events/events.html"

Thank you for your consideration regarding this most worthwhile event.

Very Respectfully,
”NAME REMOVED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT”
Peninsula Bicycling Association
Killer Bees
United States Air Force (Retired)

This sounds like it would be a great opportunity to get out and show support for those wounded in the line of duty.