Day: August 15, 2006

I Wish I could believe…

Phonak’s disbanding after this year. An open letter from Floyd Landis:

While the recent allegations against me hurt us all, I respect the fact that the Phonak team must follow its own rules and charter under these circumstances. I just wish that all the parties involved would do the same. Despite this, I will not relent on my pursuit of the truth. I will not shy away from this fight.

Most of all, I understand that this situation impacts families and friends other than my own. It affects the businesses and sponsors that support cycling as well as the sport itself. It is for this reason that I am determined to show that I followed the rules and won fairly and cleanly. There is a greater integrity at stake here than just my own.

I thank you all for your support and courage as I embark on this journey to restore my name, the team’s name and the image of cycling.

Jimminy Christmas. I’ve sat here looking at this for like 10 minutes, and cannot think a coherent thought on the whole subject.

If Floyd’s lying, well, he’s a dirtbag of the highest rank.

If he’s telling the truth, and the lab, or the Societie de Tour de France is trying to frame him, then the UCI, the WADA, the ACA – the whole organization is crooked, and what’s the freakin’ point?

Hey Jane! How do I get offa this crazy thing…
<snare>
called
<snare>
Life?
<Cue soprano sax and standing bass; blow out candle, tilt hat down on nose, take deep drag on unfiltered Camel, and Exit Stage Left>

Betchya I’m Faster!

Monday, Lunchtime:

I set out with Jon to go run Burma. The breeze blew, the birds sang, and the sun beat down on our ears. It was an unusually cool day for August, a gift from our neighbors to the North – clear, with a fresh breeze blowing in off of the Atlantic. Absolute perfect weather to beat the snot out of each other.

One of the “real” runners in the office, Frank, was joining us on Monday, as his usual running buddy was off. But, Frank left his ID in the locker, and had to go grab it right after we started. We went ahead and continued on.

Man, what a day! There’s good ones around here much more often than people let on (Southern New England? Think “Gulf Stream” in the winter, “North Atlantic” in the summer), but this one was Primo, after a week or so of borderline “Hot” weather. Plus, we actually made it out of the office on a Monday, so it felt doubly like playing hooky.

A little after the first mile, Frank caught back up to us.

And something snapped – The juice kicked in (not like doping juice, just “the juice”, y’know?), and I thought to myself, “Self? Sure, you completely blew up last Thursday and Jon spanked you like a whiny child. But today’s a new day. Why not take a flyer off the front, blow out the carbon, go for broke? When you blow up, Frank and Jon’ll continue on and have a pleasant run, and you can run in peace.”

I couldn’t think of any reason why not, so I gradually upped the pace until conversation ceased and I noticed Frank and Jon a pace or two behind. “Great,” I thought, “Now just wait until I croak.”

We continued out until the iPod said “20 minutes”, then turned around. I started to pop almost immediately, but I think that Frank and Jon were, too.

About a mile into the “Back”, Frank finally catches back up and starts talking. Jon’s hanging in pretty well, but about 20 yards back. Frank and I run for a while, putting a little distance into Jon (We did call back after the turn; he told us to go on ahead if we had legs). After about a mile, Frank goes off the front on a gentle rise, and i watch him go, saving some energy for the hill at the end.

Frank slows up for me, and says “We were setting a pretty good pace on the way out. What happened?” I say “I just wanted to see how hard I could go. Dunno why, but I love to press on the out and suffer on the way back.”

We finish up, then walk back to Jon as we’re cooling down. 4.8 miles, 41.5 minutes. Freakin’ Awesome.

Round

Lake Manicouagan as seen from Earth orbit. Image courtesy NASA.

So, I’m looking for something on Google Earth, and what catches my eye but this ring way up in the Great White North (Which is inhabited, entirely, by guys wearing “tooks” and trying to get free beer by growing mice in beer bottles. Or, so says this educational film that we watched in High School.

Manicouagan Reservoir is an annular lake in northern Quebec, Canada, the remnant of an impact crater made approximately 212 million years ago, towards the end of the Triassic period. … The island in the center of the lake is known as René-Levasseur Island.The crater was created by the impact of a 5 km diameter asteroid which excavated a crater originally about 100 km wide although sediments and erosion have since reduced its diameter to about 72 km.

(More at Wikipedia)(Which is probably the understatement of the year)

Anyway, it looks like an absolutely cool place to take the kayak – something like 40 miles side to side.

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