SB Nation User Blog: kos

Do you ride? (Poll)

kos — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:31:37 -0000

One of the things that makes cycling so fun is that any of us can ride the bikes the pros ride (if our wallet allows), and we don't need to join leagues or put together teams or rent facilities. We just get a bike, dress up funny (as my wife says), and then hit the road.

So unlike most other sports, I've always assumed that the majority of cycling afficionados actually cycle. Since it's never a good idea to just assume, hit "Entry Link" and take the poll.

Poll

Which best describes you?

I'm an avid cyclist

71 votes

I ride ocassionally

5 votes

My bike is gathering dust

5 votes

I want to ride, I just don't have the equipment

1 votes

For me, cycling is a spectator sport

10 votes

92 votes | Poll has closed

On the bike

kos — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:57:00 -0000

This week I'll easily surpass 100 miles on my bike for the first time in ... forever. I went from being completely unmotivated to ride (it is a time drain, and worse with an infant and toddler at home), to day dreaming about my next ride.

I think there are two factors:

this site. Usually I started paying attention to pro cycling around Giro time, and was fully engaged by the Tour. This was the first year I've ever followed the spring classics, and I think thinking about cycling this early in the year helped rev me up for the road.
more sophisticated training tools. To be blunt, I suck. I wasn't given a single athletic gene. My brother got all of those. I'm a classical trained pianist, a political junky, and computer nerd. None of those needed athletics skills, thankfully. Cycling is the thing I did because I needed to do something as exercise.

Now I have a Garmin 305 with cadence and heart rate monitor. I have a CycleOps Pro 300PT stationary trainer with Power Meter. I've learned the value of a varied training regimen -- climbing, recovery, intervals, etc. Simple things such as learning proper cadence have improved my performance. I'm actually eating much better as well. And while I still don't understand 85% of heart rate and power training techniques, I understand enough that in the last two months alone I may have trained myself into the best cycling shape of my life.

And as sad as that sounds, it's hugely motivational. I feel myself getting better, and I want to do more. I'll never be a good cyclist, but at least I can rise above "embarrassment". Yesterday, I rode with a friend who used to easily toast me on rides, yet he barely edged me out in a sprint to end the ride. It's little things like that.

That means more time on the road, better fitness, better health, better stress control, and hopefully, eventually more energy at home (I'm still pretty wiped after rides). I'm pretty psyched.

So thanks to Chris for the kick ass site and for helping me appreciate the sport much more than before. Not only has the cycling season been more fun, but it's paid off in some pretty tangible ways as I clean up and prep my bike for tomorrow's ride.

Garnett to Bulls?

kos — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:45:08 -0000

The Daily Herald is reporting that the Bulls and Timberwolves are having preliminary talks about Kevin Garnett:

League sources indicated the Bulls and the Timberwolves have had some preliminary discussions about Garnett -- and the price would be Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas and possibly a first-round draft pick.

P.J. Brown and a couple of other players would be needed to even out the salaries.

Leipheimer to Discovery

kos — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:46:38 -0000

I've been out of it lately because of work-related travel, so was I the only person who missed the news that Leipheimer will be joining Discovery next year?

George Hincapie and Jason McCartney ride bicycles for Discovery Channel, America's only international team. Levi Leipheimer rides for Gerolsteiner of Germany, but will join Discovery next year.

They even got some practice working together at the US Road Championship.

Hincapie, McCartney, Leipheimer and Zabriskie were on the same radio frequency with Discovery's fill-in team director, Vyacheslav Ekimov.

Before the race, Leipheimer said: "We're not a team but we have a common interest. We'll work together for a while. Then it's every man for himself."

Well, it looks like they will be working together next year, and it looks like Discovery will have their team leader.

Baker and Prior

kos — Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:51:01 -0000

I'm watching the game on TV, seeing Prior having a great game. The offense is clicking, we're up 7-0, Prior gets out of the fifth no probs, qualifying for the win.

Bottom of the inning, Prior comes up to bat.

What the hell is Baker thinking? Is his mission in life to destroy our young arms? Prior is making a comeback from the DL, there's NO FREAKING REASON to keep him in a game that is pretty much safely tucked away. But he does anyway.

RSS feeds up

kos — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 19:38:26 -0000

I know some of you have complained about a lack of RSS functionality on the site. Well, we finally got it done. Below the Recent Diaries, you'll find links to RSS1, RSS2 and Atom feeds.

You can also subscribe to RSS feeds of your favorite diarists. Go to their home pages, and click on the RSS links on those pages.

Enjoy!

Baby pictures

kos — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 05:23:41 -0000

Excuse things around here as we celebrate Maya, the newest addition to the A's Fan Club.

Blez will be back soon (probably Saturday) with the second installment of his killer interview with Billy Beane. Until then, you're going to have to make do with diaries and baby pictures.

And as a friend of Blez's, I can confirm that yes -- outside of work -- he only wears A's gear.

Maya Conchita, newest A's fan

kos — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 01:37:37 -0000

Just got word that our fearless leader Blez is now a proud father.

7 lbs 14 ounces, 20" long, and a head of full, dark, thick hair.

More details as they become available.

RSS feed

kos — Wed, 29 Sep 2004 03:10:03 -0000

We've turned on the rudimentary Scoop RSS feed. Not the most modern, or up-to-date, but we'll get to RSS 2.0 and Atom eventually.

http://www.athleticsnation.com/index.rdf

Bear with us

kos — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 21:42:54 -0000

There are some technical difficulties that come with a migration of this sort. The big one is that people can't register. We're on it. I'll post an update when that error is fixed. Thanks for being patient.

Update [2004-9-21 18:18:47 by Blez]: The site will now allow you to create usernames...have at it, folks!