Wednesday, June 9, 2010

They got the wind part mostly right

The cold front dipped further to the south than the computer models suggested is what I am guessing is going to be the explanation. But sunny and 76 never came close. It was complete overcast at my 12:40 start. It remained overcast for the first hour or so, some patches of sun appeared after that and at about one and a half hours the sun actually very briefly lined up with one of those breaks in the clouds and shone down upon me. This phenomenon proved to be rare.

I wore a jacket.

Unfortunately, they were right about the wind. It blew pretty hard but even there the prediction missed out. Right up to the time I headed out the local weather channels were saying WNW winds. Well it was west alright but to the extent that the wind was anything other than straight out of the west I found it to be a couple of ticks south of west. This makes a big difference to a rider whose regular routes are mostly either north or south.

But who cares? It was grey and unpleasantly windy, I got no photos.

On the subject of bone density my credentials to comment are thin (Bachelor of Arts, not Science) but I am betting that cyclists have lower bone density than all of the athletes whose activity involves standing directly up on their two feet. However, I suspect that cyclists' bones may not be much less dense than, for example, swimmers, and I am pretty sure cyclist bone density is way better than bone density for someone whose major activities are deciding which ESPN to watch and whether or not to supersize that.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Here's an unpublished photo from Day 3. It is the backside of the former Bourse, the former stock market.The Bourse is a round building and because of that it ends up being a very useful landmark. This picture was taken from the corner of the Eglise Saint Eustache on our way to the street market. That's the head and hand sculpture on the left.

4 comments:

gfr said...

Every time I see that bone density study quoted it says that bicyclists have lower bone density 'than other athletes.' Yeah, so? There is no other athletic endeavor that I will ever do with the regularity and intensity that I bike. I know this to be true. So the question is not 'bike or run' -- cause that isn't the choice. It's biker or marathon sitter. My heart and lungs and legs 'think' biking, my bones are no worse off. End of rant.

Nice photo of a stock market. Something I would have photographed had I been there.

Unknown said...

I suspect the loss has to do with dietary co-variants to cycling more so than the lack of impact in the activity. The article suggests competitive cyclists are burning more calories than consumed and losing a fair amount do to sweat... So keep the meat and dairy on the training table and don't just carb-load like a marathoner. And drink something with calcium in it...Propel Calcium, maybe... Emeril WAS right. More bacon please.

Unknown said...

There's always more...so I went searching for Gatorade and calcium and ended up running across a lawsuit between Powerade and Gatorade (read "Coke" and "Pepsi") over advertising of ingredients -including calcium. It seems that Powerade contained calcium that Gatorade was unable to source due to the "worldwide calcium shortage."

http://lawvibe.com/gatorade-v-powerade-the-battle-over-the-incomplete-espn-magazine-advertisement/

I'm sticking to the bacon solution.

gfr said...

I don't sweat.

Best pre-ride drink. Chocolate milk.

Best recovery drink. Chocolate milk.

"Studies" -- at least one -- seem to support this. Calcium is good.