Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Author: Scott (Page 17 of 80)

Welcome To The Cuonzone!

February 25, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I’m not much of a sports fan anymore. I like to play sports, but I’m not that big on watching. I had an epiphany about sports as I celebrated Tennessee’s 1998 National Championship win and realized that I still had to go to work the next day.

I decided then and there that I would not get emotionally invested in something I have no control over.

But…I LOVE sports radio. Especially when Tennessee is getting ready to axe one of their coaches a question. There’s nothing like a coaching change to rile up the fan base and drive some high quality entertainment on the Knoxville ariwaves. Thankfully, I can still hear Tony Basilio over the internet.

With that, I give you the latest creation  inspired by the trials and tribulations of the 2013-2014 basketball team.

I Know How To Make Bowling Better Too!

February 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments

In the past, I’ve proposed some ideas on how triathlon could be much more exciting and engaging to more people. Nobody has listened yet, but that’s ok…I’ve moved on to making another sport activity better.

Bowling.

For various reasons, I don’t consider bowling to be a sport. I’ve always had two big issues with it that have disqualified it. First of all, you can win a world bowling championship with a cigarette hanging out of your mouth the entire time. Secondly, I don’t see how your opponent’s skills or performance impact yours. I mean, I’m sure they do somehow…I just don’t see it. It seems like to me the object is just to get the highest score you can every time out you sling the ball.

But what if that changed? What if bowling was a heads up game of 20 frames, with rollers alternating who gets first shot at a fresh frame?

Example: for the first frame, Player A tries to roll a strike. If he gets the strike, Player B will get to roll the fresh second frame. Ah…but he already knows that Player A gets his next two balls added to his score. So Player B goes for the  strike on the second frame, but if he rolls and only gets 9 pins, there’s only 1 pin on that second frame, but the full third frame for his second bonus ball. But Player A also gets the spare opportunity there. And…they get to go first on the third frame.

But wouldn’t it be great if, late in the round, guys tried to purposely leave splits they know are difficult for their opponents individual weaknesses? Lower scores for sure, but at least there’d be some strategery involved.

In other words, bowling commentators would have something interesting to talk about.

I may go out and collect some test data on this. I think it would be a pretty cool way to encourage people to stay sober at the bowling alley. Wait…bowling alleys may reject this scoring system entirely.

[image credit]

I’ve Been Gilloolied!

February 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

My theory is that a conspiracy took place to have someone hit me in the back with a pipe while I was skating training sleeping.

Either that, or I’m just getting older. This is the way my back used to feel for a couple of days after playing 80 minutes of rugby at 2nd row. That was one of the major factors in stopping–mostly because I was not much value to any team at any place other than 2nd row.

Now this is the way my back feels for 5 days after playing rugby in general.

The Missus says I need to focus on engaging my core and pushing my hips forward before coming into contact. So…a head’s up…

The next time we are about to collide, don’t be surprised if I ask you to hold up a second while I transition from tree, to down dog, then slowly roll my spine into the correct position and get centered.

Then you can run over me and it won’t hurt quite as bad.

Daily Reading List — February 18th

February 18, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Helmets not even in top 10 of things that keep cycling safe – Have to agree with this. My biggest fear on the bike is that it will somehow come dislodged from the trainer in the middle of an interval and I'll go slamming into my desk.

Dispelling Lactic Acid Myths – Gyah! I learned a ton reading this article!

"The takeaway? Concentrate on exhaling."

5 Myths About Running That Are Ready to Be Retired – "Chocolate milk as a recovery drink" needs to be added to every list like this.

Calf Heart Attacks – Ouch! Glad I've never had this. You'll never believe what the number one thing you can do to help this running injury get better. Yep…stop running.

Tour of Sufferlandria recap – Best. Haiku. Every

Angels Haiku
Pain pain pain pain pain
Pain pain pain pain pain pain pain
There were no Angels

The Pleasant Places to Live – Cool map! Take into account the sea breeze, and I'd argue that our June and July on the East Coast of Florida is pretty dang nice. Boost our numbers!

Cycling ‘much safer than playing rugby’ – Well, now that's finally answered.

Google Releases Chromecast SDK To Developers – Avalanche of game updates coming in 3,2,1…

A Different Kind Of Schedule For Me

February 12, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I was going to focus on fast instead of far for this year. I took some time off after the Tour of Sufferlandria (a whole week off the bike) to recharge and get ready for some new stuff.

Lots of new stuff actually.

This spring I’m committed to (gasp) rugby for the for first time in a long time. Well…not too committed, I’m only going to practice once a week. But there’s an Old Boys tournament in NOLA this April, and I want to show up not only fit, but also with at least some of the strength and rugby mobility I’ve lost over the past couple of years.

It also helps to have held a ball recently.

This actually fits in pretty well with my efforts to try and get a little faster. I’m focusing a lot more on fast twitch in my non-rugby days with intervals. You could make the case that I’m more committed than the average rugby player because I’m going to training once a week and actually doing something on the other days. 😉

And then there’s that mobility issue–back to yoga.

The Missus has a YogaGlo subscription, and when I started checking out their offerings for endurance athletes, I was pleasantly surprised. I’m getting in a couple of short sessions each week focusing on hammies and hips, but also getting some arm and shoulder work in.

The missing piece to my whole plan is swimming. I’m not going to get in nearly enough. Saturday morning Masters is one tough workout a week, but that’s my only access to a pool. I’m hoping I’ll be able to squeeze in at least one day of OWS, but that sort of depends on the availability of partners.

The hope is I can make it to the end of April without any injuries, a little more speed, a little more strength, a little more mobility, and ready to switch things up a little.

Here’s the general schedule:

  • Mondays: moderate bike + stretch yoga
  • Tuesdays: run intervals + stretch yoga
  • Wednesdays: easy bike + long yoga
  • Thursdays: tempo run + rugby
  • Fridays: long slow bike + stretch yoga
  • Saturdays: masters swim + hard run
  • Sundays: long run

[image credit]

Faster First, Then Farther

February 4, 2014 / / 0 Comments

I just thought of something while wandering around the grocery store aisles. This is changing my not-so-well-put-together plan for 2014.

I’m going to take a year to forget about going far, and just focus on getting faster.

I’ve heard this idea discussed on the ZenTriathlon podcast pretty often, and it ran through my mind while doing the Tour of Sufferlandria also. It always seemed right, but just not what I wanted to do, so I kind of ignored it.

I like going far.

And fast hurts.

Over the last year, I’ve proven to myself that long isn’t a problem for me. True, still no 140.6 on my resume, but I’ve done the long swim thing, the long run thing, and the ride-the-bike-hard a lot thing.

What I haven’t done (ever) is the fast thing.

And here’s what I realized today…

My ability to go long is not going to be limited by my age. But my ability to go fast is a place where age has probably already caught up with me a bit.

I can always go farther, but I won’t always be able to go faster. So I’m going to go faster this year and keep everything relatively short. That means nothing longer than a half-marathon for runs, nothing longer than an Olympic distance tri, and a lot of time swimming intervals with a masters group.

And more yoga. And more lifting. And more weight loss.

Daily Reading List — February 3rd

February 3, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Pre-Season Weaknesses: Become A Faster Runner – "The Fit, But Slow Runner" caught my attention right out of the gates. 10k training may be in full effect. After rest.

Amazon looks at boosting Prime fee – Not happy about this, but I feel like our family makes money on Prime as it is, so can't complain too loudly.

Trainer Road Will Make You Stronger – Trainerraod: Best. Value. In. Cycling

Effective as hell too.

Finally, A Digital DJ That Knows Its Stuff – This is my biggest complaint with Google Music. I don't understand how a company so good at meta-data processing can offer up a product so bad at DJing radio stations. Pandora was way better at this in 2008 than Google is right now.

Reading between the lines of the latest Facebook usage data – “We’ve asked about Google+ in the past and were worried when we heard respondents being interviewed that they weren’t sure if we were asking about the social networking platform or more broadly about use of any Google product. That was a while ago and we will likely be including Google+ the next time we ask people about social networking platforms.”

Well…yeah. I'm pretty sure that's exactly where Google is going with Plus. It's not as much of a destination as it is a layer that connects all Google products and services. Sure, there's a site there you can use as a "red Facebook", but the scope is way past status updates, likes, and shares.

I think Google is perfectly content to sit back and play possum with this for now.

What Should a 4 Year Old Know? – Yes. Yes. Yes.

7 Tools That Let You Control Your Own Data – OpenPDS is very interesting especially. I don't mind the idea of sharing data so much if I have more control over the precision of that data.

Google Launches AdSense Direct, A New Tool For Direct Ad Sales – I'm open for bizniss.

Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 – Stage 9 Report

February 2, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 9 – Violator

  • Duration: 1:08:31
  • Power: 303 watts
  • Average Cadence: 80
  • TSS: 89.4
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  1:47 pm on Sunday, February 2

Ugh…I purposefully never did this ride before today because I wanted it to be a surprise to me. And because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it.

Violator starts off with the typical warm up. Then you do some sprints, followed by a few sprints, then ending up with a nice little set of sprints.

Violated–64 sprints in all.

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_9_violator

Actually, it wasn’t too bad. Granted, I didn’t get to watch the video because when I went to download it my link was expired. Luckily, the fine folks at Trainerroad still let you pull up the profile and do the ride, you just don’t get to see the cool cycling footage and read the sadistic jokes.

I watched a documentary about Bo Jackson instead. It’s all good. I’ve contacted The Sufferfest, and they’ve already gotten back to me with a link for the download. And I’m probably happier not having seen the video and knowing I’d missed all the cadence queues. Again.

So this ride was probably easier than it should have been, but my legs are scattered, covered, smothered, topped, chunked, diced, broiled, charred, and toasted.

And I did it all for this:

tos_badge

A little badge on my Trainerroad profile that says, “I really WILL beat my ass today to kick yours tomorrow.”

This Tour was a lot of fun. I think they did a great job keeping the pressure on everyone, and these rides weren’t just suggestions–do them or get dropped!

Also, it’s great that they raised so much money (over $57k at posting) for the Davis Phinney foundation for Parkinsons.

One of my former rugby teammates has Parkinsons, and it’s something I’ve talked about before. It’s especially viscous to see the disease attack people like Pat and Davis Phinney–people who are active and healthy. This is the part where I ask you to click on the link for the Davis Phinney foundation and make a donation.

Can’t wait to do this ride next year!!!

Previous Stage Reports:

Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 – Stage 8 Report

February 1, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 8 – Blender

  • Duration: 1:44:26
  • Power: 314 watts
  • Average Cadence: 84
  • TSS: 140.5
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  2:19 pm on Saturday, February 1

Confession – I totally ignored the cadence queues on this ride. Before you write me off as a cheater, let me explain…

You don’t show up to play a round of golf and monkey around with your swing on the course. You do that on the driving range. In practice.

This being a Tour (race), it isn’t the time for me to go off and try to do something I’m not good at, especially when my main objective for the day is just to keep up and not get dropped. This video calls for long periods of high-cadence work.

But it doesn’t make sense to do that on race day when you can pull the same power at a lower cadence and keep the heart rate under control…right?

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_8_blender

The upside is that my first attempt at Blender and several days doing the Tour of Sufferlandria have shown me I’m weak at long periods with high cadence. It’s something I’m going to work on (that means doing this ride A LOT) in the future. I’m well aware that riding at a high cadence evens my power distribution out through the pedal stroke, and that’s something I want.

But I’ve also heard some really knowledgeable triathletes talk about the fact that everyone has a natural cadence, and it’s better to work off strengths than weaknesses. I think that’s somewhere in the mid-80s for me–data analysis coming to verify that.

Strangely, I get the same results running. As long as I stay in the mid 80s, I’m good. But my HR blows up when I try to run 90 rpm–that magic number everyone is supposed to hit.

I’m beginning to think recommended cadences are a lot like BMI.

One more day!

Previous Stage Reports

Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 – Stage 7 Report

February 1, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 7 – Angels

  • Duration: 1:04:43
  • Power: 382 watts
  • Average Cadence: 82
  • TSS: 99
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  11:15 am on Friday, January 31

And… The Hunted

  • Duration: 1:01:30
  • Power: 366 watts
  • Average Cadence: 84
  • TSS: 99
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  9:33 pm on Friday, January 31

This is the stage I’ve been dreading since sometime around mid-November. Angels is just a really freaking hard ride for me. I have a hard time recovering once my HR gets up into the 160s, and this ride puts me there a lot.

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_7_angels_profile

Nothing different this time around–begging for mercy about halfway through the second climb. Still, I made it to the end with my breakfast intact.

Again, no records set, but I’m ok with that.

I’m learning a lot about my strengths and weaknesses riding ToS. Maybe “learning” isn’t the right word…”confirming” is probably better. Long steady efforts at a moderate cadence are like candy to me, but sprints or repetitive high-cadence efforts shred me, even if they are at low power are really tough. I’ve noticed that the recoveries at the end of the rides tend to see me riding at about 84 rpm to get my heart rate down.

I’ve also figured out that I need to hold off on taking in water during the recovery periods until my heart rate is back under control. Taking a drink makes my heart rate go up, and I can manage to take in liquid during a work period. Rest is the only time I have to recover my HR though, so I’m holding off on drinking until I’m under 140 bpm.

Anyway, that all went out the door once I started up riding The Hunted. I was completely in survival mode for most of this ride, just doing what I could to stay on the line. Successful, but even the warm down didn’t help me recover. My HR was 152 at the end of the ride, and it left me feeling pretty worried about how I’d get through Stage 8.

Blender is the only ride I’ve ever done on Trainerroad that I couldn’t complete. Fingers crossed for this ride…and the 64 sprint finish that is Violator.

Previous Stage Reports

Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 – Stage 6 Report

January 30, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 6 – A Very Dark Place

  • Duration: 0:50:49
  • Power: 341 watts
  • Average Cadence: 86
  • TSS: 84.0
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  5:15 pm on Wednesday, January 29 (Because it’s Thursday somewhere)

If there are any ho-hum days on the Tour, this is definitely the last of them. A Very Dark Place is a relatively short stage with a pretty good mix of riding on the flats and climbing. Lots of cadence changes, which is a challenge for me mostly because my bike really needs a tuneup to make shifting smoother.

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_6_a_very_dark_place

If it didn’t require so much energy, I’d be tempted to give myself a little pat on the back at this point of the Tour. I’ve set one personal best for power output (20 minutes) during the Tour, and that was just by a few watts on the very first day. I’m pretty happy with the way I’ve held back, ridden the line, and not emptied the tank at the end of rides where I feel good.

The last time I rode A Very Dark Place, I set 7 personal bests–from 5 seconds all the way up to 5 minutes–and I was pouring the coals to her on the last interval, riding way above the line.

But I didn’t have Angels and The Hunted pointed at me the very next day the last time either. Stage 7 is the one I’ve been dreading since I first saw the schedule. These two rides aren’t horrible when ridden separately (although Angels puts my HR well into the 170s), but riding them back to back is going to be a real challenge.

Decision time: ride it today and take tomorrow off before Blender (the only ride that’s ever dropped me), or take today off and do two hour stages on consecutive days?

Going to have to think on it.

Previous Stage Reports

Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 – Stage 5 Report

January 29, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 5 – Extra Shot

  • Duration: 0:22:24
  • Power: 380 watts
  • Average Cadence: 87
  • TSS: 36.5
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  9:06 pm on Tuesday, January 29 (Because it’s Wednesday somewhere)

And… The Wretched

  • Duration: 0:49:28
  • Power: 358 watts
  • Average Cadence: 82
  • TSS: 76.6
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  9:33 pm on Tuesday, January 29 (Because it’s Wednesday somewhere)

You have to wake up earlier in the morning than this to fool me. The tour route specifies that you must do Extra Shot before The Wretched. The thing is, there’s no warm up in Extra Shot.

It doesn’t say in the Tour guide that you can’t warm up..it’s just not part of the Tour.

Only a moron would jump into a 20 minute time trial without warming up first, so the smart money is on people who realized this beforehand and did a warm up before getting out on the course.

Surprisingly, I realized what was going on and did a warm up.

Not giving myself too much credit though. If I was really smart I probably would not have decided to do ToS. And honestly, I probably should have done a longer warm up. I just did 6 minutes at an easy pace, getting my HR up to ~120 and holding it there. But I started pretty late (9 pm), so I was anxious to get going.

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_5_extra_shot

I’d never ridden Extra Shot before, and I didn’t think it was too bad. Again, wish I’d been warmed up more, but this is another one of those rides that is sort of built for me. Actually, The Wretched (part II of this stage) is too.

Being completely honest, The Wretched is a pretty easy ride for me. I actually went back and reviewed the last time I rode it after I finished to make sure I wasn’t under-working because of some equipment setup was off. But it was just as easy the other time I did it.

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_5_the_wretched

Climbing on the trainer just feels good to me. My legs are still relatively big and strong, so pushing a big gear doesn’t feel like too much work. Of course, this would be completely different if I was on an actual mountain carrying my actual weight.

But no one is pitying me on the sprint stages when spinning fast just means moving big heavy legs around and around, so I’ll take my easy stages where I can get them.

The Tour itself is only finished with Stage 4 at this point, and there’s a 35% drop-out rate so far. I still think most of the people still in the peloton will have no problem hanging on.

Until Stage 7.

Previous stage reports:

 

Tour of Sufferlandria 2014 – Stage 4 Report

January 27, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 4 – Hell Hath No Fury

  • Duration: 1:11:59
  • Power: 347 watts
  • Average Cadence: 88
  • TSS: 109.0
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  12:15 pm on Monday, January 27 (Because it’s Tuesday somewhere)

The prospect of racing against a a group of really fast women, which is the story of this video, doesn’t usually sound very enticing. What do I have to gain? I either get beat by them (likely) or I win (less likely) but walk away feeling like I should have won in either case. I have to say, this ride wasn’t as tough as I was expecting it to be, especially after the past three days of the tour. I actually think it was the easiest stage so far.

Granted, it’s totally set up for a guy like me to succeed–long (20 minute) work periods with long (up to 6 minutes!) recovery time in between the big ones.

I ended up riding at the exact same power as in stage 3, but for a longer period. Cadence almost exactly the same as well. Yet this was soooo much easier for me.

I like to gauge the toughness of a workout by the number and type of sounds that come out of the mouth-end of my body during them. The really tough ones involve sounds that resemble the noise you’d make if you had a piano on your back, just a few seconds before you completely give in and the piano crushes you.

The toughest workouts involve the sound that a rugby hooker makes when the tight-head prop has located the back of his head on the hooker’s sternum, and the opposing hooker  is using his shoulder to bury the guy’s chin down and bend him in half. It’s sort of a squeaking sound.

It means you’re cracked when you hear it on a bike.

Well…it means your cracked in both cases–cycling and rugby.

I only made one sound during the toughest part of this ride, but it was a “Whoooo!” sound, Ric Flair style. The ladies featured in this video went for a ride on Space Mountain, and I was stylin’ and profilin’ the whole way up.

hell_hath_no_fury_like_ric_flairIt’s ok ladies…this ride was made for me, so I’m bound to give you another shot at it. You may just have to wait a while. You see, Space Mountain may be the oldest ride in the park, but it’s still go the longest line.

So I’m four days into the tour, and I’m a day ahead of schedule. Stage 5 is looking to be pretty tough, with a little bit of a pull back on Stage 6. I’m still thinking Stages 7 and 8 are the true tests, and they are back to back.

Looking at the official stats on Trainerroad this morning, it looks like 30% of the field was dropped after the first two stages. I think most of the people in the peloton right now have already proven themselves and will be able to hang on until Stage 7.

I’m guessing we’ll get to Stage 7 with more than 50% of the registered riders still in the game. But I think those two days are really going to break some people down. Just hope I’m not one of the ones that gets broken.

Previous stage reports:

2014 Tour of Sufferlandria – Stage 3 Report

January 23, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 3 – Revolver

  • Duration: 0:45:38
  • Power: 347 watts
  • Average Cadence: 89
  • TSS: 82.3
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  12:42 pm on Sunday, January 26 (Because it’s Monday somewhere)

Revolver is a speed driven ride. High cadence during the intervals–thankfully it’s short. But that doesn’t really provide much by way of consolation.

This ride is brutal.

Pretty simple–16 reps of 1 minute on, 1 minute off. That’s more like a semi-automatic with a full magazine than a revolver–with one in the chamber if you count the warm up, which was hard enough by itself after all the attacking and climbing required for ISLAGIATT yesterday.

This was my first time attempting this video, and I debated knocking this ride down to 90% before I started, but opted to ride at 100% since it was only 45 minutes long. When I looked at the ride feed on Trainerroad, it didn’t seem like anyone was getting dropped here,  and most people seemed to be riding it at or close to 100%. So I figured I’d roll the dice and ride it at 100%.

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_3_revolver

Definitely doable, but definitely painful. I honestly don’t think taking 10% off would have made much difference. My heart rate was only recovering down to the mid-150s by the end, and peaking at the low 170s–stopping just before I reached max during the intervals, and starting back just as I was starting to recover in the rests.

I had a little trouble the first two intervals getting the gearing right, but I finally found the spot where I could alternate between big ring and small ring and on the front and keep it steady on the back, so my cadence stayed pretty steady for the duration.

Glad this one is over. I’m definitely weakening as the days go on–24 hours of rest will be good.

And, is it me, or does there seem to be a lot of repeated footage between this video and some others?

Previous stage reports:

 

2014 Tour of Sufferlandria – Stage 2 Report

January 23, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Stage 2 – It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time (ISLAGIATT)

  • Duration: 1:56:39
  • Power:  340 watts
  • Average Cadence: 84
  • Heart Rate:  152 average,  175 max
  • TSS: 164.8
  • Ride %: 100
  • Start line:  4:57 pm on Saturday, January 25 (Because it’s Sunday somewhere)

ISLAGIATT is a climbing/endurance ride–lower cadence makes me happy…usually.

I’ve done this ride once before, and one of the things I like about it is the story line.  Basically, you are lowly rider having a lackluster tour, and all the people in the home country want to see you go for the Most Aggressive Rider award on this final mountain stage.

I wasn’t sure if it would be as fun riding it for a second time, but I think the story really kept me going. I reviewed my last workout on this ride before I started, just so I’d know what to expect, and was thinking this would be an easier (though longer) day.

I was wrong. This ride ran me up to the rail. My max HR is right around 180, and I spent plenty of time in the mid 170s. I was over 153 bpm for 1:11:00.

tour_of_sufferlandria_2014_stage_2_islagiatt

In other words, my endurance is a big limiter. That’s going to show up later in the tour for sure. I’m expecting hell on Stage 7, and I’m plotting a rest day the day before it.

I wish I’d gotten this ride in a little earlier in the day, but I doubt sleeping in and resting for much of the day really hurt me either.

Tomorrow’s ride, Revolver, is only 45 minutes long. But it’s loaded with sprints.

Goody.

Previous Stage Reports:

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