Ride Idaho

I'm doing a cycling tour next week in Idaho; this will be my fifth tour. The riding will be challenging but not impossible as we will cover 400 miles in one week with about 10k feet of climbing. The scenery promises to be awesome - I will definitely report back after the trip with some pics.

While prepping for a tour gets easier with experience, each one has its own unique set of challenges. For the Ride Idaho, the biggest challenge (aside from trying to log miles in for preparation) is that we will be camping out every night. This has created an interesting dynamic trying to figure out what kind of camping gear to get. My buddy Jon in Idaho captured the essence of the trip best when he tweeted "this is turning into a camping trip with some cycling".

Luckily I got to do a camping dry run with my brother and nephew a few weeks ago. After this experience, I'm most worried about getting a good night's sleep so that I can have the energy to ride each day.

I'm looking forward to this tour because it appears to be well organized and it seems to be geared around having a good time. There are people coming from 31 states and Canada to do the ride.

Here's a link to the ride web site if you have any interest in checking it out:

http://www.rideidaho.org/

U.S. Open

Still moving along on the job search, although as you can imagine things are a bit slow being that it is summer and all. I'm trying to figure out the best way to categorize my efforts so that I can demonstrate which avenues are working best. Networking definitely yields the best results but you can cover more opportunities through job and company websites.

So far I've done a fair amount networking but only one interview has come from it. It was pretty late in the search process so I didn't really get that serious a look. However, it was good experience to interview and I may be brought in later if other opportunities develop. The trick with networking is to figure out how to be persistent without being annoying. I'm sure some of you will let me know if I toe the line!

Now onto the fun stuff. I got an e-mail through my Hunter College account that the U.S. Open was holding a job fair. I figured why not give it a shot? Getting paid to be outdoors could be a nice gig and I could use the cash. You need to be available for 14 straight days of work -- that part I have licked. I was willing to put aside friends ribbing me about Kramer getting hit in the head with tennis balls as a too-tall ball boy.

The invite said the job fair was from 12pm-4pm. I got there at about 12:15pm and there were about 300 people on line. But as I figured out later on, this was just one of about three lines. I ended up spending 3 hours on line to get into the "job fair", which consisted of only about 5 booths. The jobs ranged from transportation to working in retail or food concessions to being an ambassador that roamed the grounds to greet people and move VIPs around. I figured I'd put my efforts into the latter position, which of course had a another huge line. When I approached the booth I got a warm reception from the woman who was in charge. They try to do a 5 minute mini-interview to gauge affability, interest in tennis, overall experience, etc...After perusing my resume, she tells me that I should probably apply for Supervisor. Nice, a promotion before I even start! Then she lays the bomb on me. You need to be available on August 12th and 13th for training in order to be considered for the position. Unfortunately (as far as this position goes), I am scheduled for bike trip in Idaho until August 15th. She said that she may possibly be able to work around it but that training was pretty critical so it probably wouldn't work.

Being the professional that I am (ahem), I immediately sent her a follow-up e-mail reiterating my interest in the position and that I am available after August 15th in order to makeup the training. I just heard back from her that the best she was able to do was to put me on standby. Oh well. Who knows, maybe someone will bag the training and a spot will open up for me. Until then I'll be practicing my meeting and greeting skills.

Deja Vu All Over Again

One thing I like so say is that history repeats itself but is never the same. Or is it?

As I contemplated starting to blog as the Bully gain, I decided to show some of my old posts to my girlfriend.

Low and behold, I stumbled upon this gem from December 2009:

http://thebullycockpit.blogspot.com/2009/12/will-work-for-food.html

My god, why didn't I listen to myself? Well here I am almost two years later having gotten a Master's degree in teaching on blind faith alone. And blind faith has failed me! Teaching just wasn't right for my inner snake. But I'm not going to harp on the past, it's time to look forward.

So it's back to the drawing board. Back to the financial game. I'm motivated to prove I can not only make it back, but prosper as well. I have a new perspective and a renewed energy.

I will be posting about my efforts to find a job. It's going to be a combination of networking, craiglisting, headhunting and searching company websites. I think they say that looking for a job can take upwards of 6 months even in a good economy. So sit back and get ready for some good blogging content (at my emotional expense).

Fixated

My metamorphosis from Wall St. bigwig (cough cough) to student over the past year is being paralleled by a fundamental shift in my cycling viewpoint.

When I moved to Queens, I got a single speed bike for commuting and running local errands. I love the simplicity of a single speed. No more anticipating changing gears, changing gears, and wondering if you are in the right gear. The constant tinkering works against the inherent simplicity of cycling.

I recently took a deeper dive into simplicity and switched to a fixed gear bike. A fixed gear doesn't allow you to "coast". You have to pedal at all times and you brake with your feet by stopping the pedals. Some people use front brakes with this setup because as you could imagine it sets you up for a hugely dangerous scenario not being able to stop very quickly in the face of danger.

The best analogy of how feels to be on a fixed gear bike when danger is approaching is when you are skiing on a steeper slope than you are comfortable with and you start speeding toward a tree out of control and you are having problems turning your skis. I've actually had a few close calls so far -- even thought about bailing off my bike to take the lesser pain of road rash vs. crashing into a car. But so far I've managed to escape each situation by keeping my cool. The upshot of riding a fixed gear bike is it is fun in an intense way and the workout is multiples of a regular bike because your legs are constantly in motion and your muscles are always working to control the cranks.

The more I write here the more I think I need to get a front brake. The bike doesn't look as cool but it sure beats dying.

Here's a pic of my rig. Bike porn at its best.

He's Baaaaaaaaack

The Bully's back. I've got a new look and most likely some new angles. Not sure which way the new blog is headed content-wise. Stay tuned and we'll figure it out together.

A Week of Firsts

This is a big week. Weather permitting, I'm going to do my first cycling ride of the season tomorrow. I hope to get in about 25 relatively flat miles.

Perhaps even bigger, on Thursday I start my master's degree in elementary education at Hunter College in NYC. This will likely be a traumatic event that will result in a few posts. So at the very least it will be entertaining for my reader(s).

Open Reading

I've done a fair bit of reading over the past year so I figure why not give my reader(s) some of the benefit. I'm going to list the books I've read with a one or two sentence review/recommendation. Each time I finish the book I'll update the list. (FYI, if you double-click on the list it will open in a separate window and be much easier to read.)

Will Work for Food

My long vacation is coming to a creeping end and it's now time to find work. When I lost my job a year ago, I felt like I was given a new lease on life and the freedom to pursue whatever I wanted.

However, over the past few months, as my mind grinded on my next pursuits, I was humbly gripped by fears of taking two years off to go back to school and starting over in a completely new capacity (teaching) on blind faith alone. In my time of reflection, my firSSt revelation came from a friend who reminded me of the story of a farmer that found a frozen snake in the field. He took the snake into his home and nurtured it back to good health. As he picked up the snake to release it, the snake bit him. Perplexed, the farmer asked the snake why he bit him after he saved his life. The snake responded "I'm a snake, that's what I do."

While channeling my inner snake, I realized I'm a finance guy. Starting in the new year, my search for a job in finance will begin in earnest. However, I'd prefer to trade quality of life for stress/pursuit of riches. Here's my wishlist:

1. Job in finance department or strategic development area of a company (e.g., position reporting to CFO)
2. Institutional equity sales
3. Buyside analyst

I realize the search isn't going to be easy given the current employment situation. Thus, I'm taking a systematic approach:

1. Networking
2. Headhunters
3. Websites

I will keep you guy(s) updated on my progress.

Who's Going to Save the Savers?

What a difference a year makes. Or does it? Has anything really changed in our societal behavior patterns? What our economy needs in the long-term is some good old fashioned prudent saving but everything the government is doing encourages the opposite.

Consumption, speculation and greed. Feels like deja vu all over again. God save you if you decide to save -- he may be all you'll have left.

Bullying the Market

Did the Bully just nail the top of the market? The S&P closed at 1097.91 on the day he recommended to sell equities. (You could have easily sold at this level the next day as well.)

Take a look at the daily S&P candle chart. Looks like we are going to test the 50 day MA for the second time in a month. Will we hold this time? The Bully's best guess is we bounce off the 50 day MA initially but break through to the downside shortly thereafter.

From Bully to Beary

Back in the beginning of April, the Bully called for a 50% retracement in stocks that would likely take us above 1000 level on the S&P (see link below). Actually, technically speaking, the 50% retracement level is closer to 1125 but no matter how you slice it we're basically there. Can you smell the optimism in the air now that "the recession is over"? Hmmmm...investors are eating up the profits and asset prices that are being supported by the government pumping tons of stimulus into the economy. But the structural issues surrounding our economy continue to be avoided and have only gotten worse. The only way to find a true bottom in the market is without intervention. It's only a matter of time until the index finger collapses on the hopes of a V shaped recovery and all that is left is the market giving investors the middle finger.

For the one or two of you who look to the Bully for market and financial advice, now is a great time to sell your equity positions and start getting defensive again. Surely you can't imagine this would be the right move with such optimism brewing but these are the moments that define great investors (going against the thundering herd). With Wall St. paying out huge bonuses again and Main St. suffering, you can bet your sweet bottom that more stimulus is going to be hard to come by when it's needed again (which will be soon).

http://thebullycockpit.blogspot.com/2009/04/50-retracement.html

Movie Wednesday

Semi-retirement is turning into a bit of a grind. Sure, I'm back looking for work and trying to get into a Master's of Education program, both of which are good for my mental state as it relates to having a longer-term plan. Nevertheless, trying to keep busy on a day-to-day basis is proving a bit of a challenge, particularly as the weather is now cooling.

So I decided to go to the movies on Friday afternoon. Like every good (semi-)retiree, I'm always looking for a good deal. While the matinee deal of $7 is a nice little bargain, Wednesday is a special day with all movies only $5.50 all day long. So now each Wednesday that I'm free I plan on going to the movies. If the mood strikes me and there's something worthwhile, I'll provide a movie review here.

I do have a review of the first movie I saw, Capitalism: A Love Story. Overall I'd say it was a solid movie that is worth seeing. It brings up some very interesting points, particularly in light of the record Wall St. bonuses that are likely going to be paid this year. The best parts of the movie are when MM gives historical perspective comparing us to the Roman Empire and the how the Reagan and Carter eras set some destructive wheels in motion. He argues that we have exported all of our manufacturing and industrial expertise in the name of profits (agreed). Finally, he provides some interesting insight on the bailout package (although I think he borders a bit too much on conspiracy theory here). Areas where I believe he falls short are when he tries to humanize the situation and shows depressing footage of people's homes being repossessed. While it's sad and I'm sympathetic to people being put on the street, it reaks of the victim syndrome. He shows several families that have lived in their houses for 40+ years that get evicted. But if they've lived there for so long why do they have debt on their houses? Sure MM tries to blame the politicans giving confidence in the value of people's homes and that they should tap the equity but in my book you can never blame someone else for your own greed. I'd like to see the whole story of the ridiculous items they bought by tapping their home equity loans. This may not actually be the case (they may have tapped their homes to just survive) but it's an area where MM comes off as sensationalist and potentially without regard to facts. I know this sounds insensitive but I'm just providing a review. Another area where he falls short is in not providing solutions. Sure, he does delve a bit into companies that are run as cooperatives (which I believe are great and likely where our economy is headed in the longer-term). But he could have done more to provide potential solutions.

Overall, I'd give the movie 3.5 stars out of 5.0

Under the Gun

I set a goal of cycling 4k miles this year. I was holding out hope, but after this weekend I don't think it's realistic (I'll explain more below on the weekend). I have a new goal of beating last year's mileage. I've done 3,235 so far in 2009, which is 365 miles shy of the 3,600 I did in 2008. But it's gonna be tight. The days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder. I'm going to need a lot of motivation and some luck from the weather to get things done.

This past weekend, I was scheduled to do three days of riding in the Catskills. An NYCC member put together a plan to have about 30-40 serious cyclists stay at a cheesy dude ranch (in order to keep the costs low) and ride amongst the fall foliage. He spent countless e-mails downplaying the accommodations in order to manage expectations about the condition of the property and the quality of the food (it's an all-inclusive type of deal).

All told I was hoping to get in about 200 miles over a 5 day stretch including a warm up ride on Thursday. However, early Thursday morning I got an e-mail from a company for a last minute interview. I really want the job so I skipped the warm-up ride. Fast forward to Friday night. We pull up to the ranch, which is about 2 hours from NYC, and I can't believe how hillbilly the clientele is. It's 9pm and there's a full-blown drunken Karaoke session happening just a few feet from the reception desk. I'm beside myself. I'm ready to eat the cost of the whole weekend. I can't imagine staying here much less eating all my meals here.

When we got to our room I felt a little better. It didn't quite smell as bad as I had feared and while the condition wasn't great, it was bearable. The walls however were paper thin. At this point I'm still fearing eating at this place.

We wake for breakfast and some of the anxiety has washed away. We sit with a bunch of people I know and I'm feeling better. The food is actually fairly edible. And the visuals weren't near as bad as I was expecting. I head back to my room feeling better.

The weather forecast called for 60 degrees and sunny, which is on the border for a normal shirt sleeve jersey. I debate bringing my windbreaker, which folds into a pouch, but I leave it behind thinking it is an unnecessary inconvenience. As I'm leaving my room I see everyone in cold weather gear. I jokingly poo poo them. Boy was I wrong. About 5 miles into the ride I'm feeling a chill as the sun goes away. Then we start climbing, and climbing hard, for about a mile. I ask someone if this is one of the two big climbs we're scheduled to do. Nope, just a warm up they say. Hmmmm, I'm losing my edge. About 15 miles into the ride the wind starts kicking in as we pass a reservoir. Now I'm getting cold. We make a right and head into some more brutal climbing. This time instead of a mile it's about 3 or 4 miles and steeper. I ask someone if now this is one of the two big climbs we're scheduled to do. Nope, just another warm up they say. Ok, had enough. I'm freezing and my legs are burning already. If we are doing substantially more climbing I figured it's going to get even colder. I thank everyone and turn around to head home. I feel like a bit of a wuss but the cold and climbing just psyched me out. I ended up getting 40 miles in, which wasn't so bad.

At dinner that night I learned that the second climb I did was, in fact, one of the two big climbs we were scheduled to do. Actually, it was the harder of the two climbs! No matter, I was so friggin' cold I really needed to just go back. Turns out that it got even colder at the top and people who were dressed in tights and layers with jackets were cold. I can't imagine how I would have felt in a short sleeve jersey!

Ok so long story longer the meal at dinner was actually pretty solid but the visuals were really getting to me. I can't get too descriptive for fear of being called a snob. But given that I didn't really want to ride the next day, my desire to leave the place was burning. Additionally, my elbow was hurting me for some reason. I spoke with the guy I rode up with and talked him into leaving a full day early! It certainly helped that the weather was even colder on Sunday. I went to the front desk and told them we were checking out early in the slim hopes we'd get a refund for the last day...and we go one. BONUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I wasted two days and a couple hundred bucks. I'll never do this trip again, no matter how little money I have. Just not my thing. Now I have to figure out a way to makeup those miles.

10,000 Miles Under My Feet

I haven't been posting much because I haven't had much to say. I also haven't been riding that much lately. Only about 200 miles over the past month. I did however, surpass a nice milestone today as I now have 10,000 miles under my belt as a cyclist.

Getting back on the bike after a bit of a layoff really reinforces your love for the sport. I pushed pretty hard today and did surprisingly well. I feel great right now.

Rohan the Barbarian

Next week I'm off to Amsterdam, Belgium and France with Dr. Ed. It seems like every cycling tour brings a new twist and my next adventure is no exception. Unlike my prior three tours, this time we are flying in to and out of different airoports so I can't use my hardshell bike box. Instead, I need to pack my bike in disposable cardboard box.

Yesterday, I went to my local bike shop to pickup a box. They will give you a cardboard bike box for free since they are just going to throw them out anyway (these are the boxes used to ship new bicycles to the store). But they charge you $65 to pack the bike in it. I decided I'm going to pack it myself since I have the time and the mechanical knowlege. But I really have no clue on the logistics.

Enter Rohan. He's the head mechanic at the shop. Plain and simple, I love the guy. He's a nice, calm dude who always goes the extra mile for you. I'm not sure of his nationality but he's likely West African or Hatian. When I entered the service area he gave me the calm, smooth and slow "is everything allright with you, Jeff?". It's a great open ended question that can really elicit any response. When I told him I needed to pack my bike in a cardboard box he gave me the simple steps as well as some zip ties and a piece to protect the front fork:

1) gear up to the largest cog on the cassette to protect the rear derailer
2) remove the pedals
2) remove the saddle/seatpost
3) remove the front wheel
4) zip tie the drive side crank arm to the chainstay to keep the crankset locked at parallel
5) remove the handlebars and stem
6) set the front wheel on the non-driveside of the frame locked into the crank arm (takes a little practice once you get it, it's easy)
7) set bike into the box

I just did a dry run and it fits pretty well. I picked up some pipe insulation at Home Depot for $5 that I'm going to use to protect the frame. If I can get motivated I'm going to finish the job today so I just have the soft packing left for next Wednesday.

Definitely Starting to Assimilate

I'm working my way through the Assimil language program. Not 100% sure what to make of it yet but I'm starting to see some benefits. For instance, I learned my first grammar rule! This is the bizarre thing about Pimsleur. You have such great speaking abilities but you are a bit like a robot in that you are just repeating certain things back without understanding the rules.

The grammar rule I learned is regarding definite articles. While doing PIM, you kind of just mish mash the definite articles you hear when you repeat them back because they take so many forms and can sound very similar. What's a definite article you ask? In English, "the" is the only definite article and it's used for both singular and plural nouns. Additionally, nouns in English aren't assigned a gender. Well, they are in Italian. Kinda sexist, huh? Leave it to the Italians.

There's a different definite article for each situation (and a few exceptions which follow): 1) feminine singular nouns use "la" (la mano); 2) feminine plural nouns use "le" (le mani); 3) masculine singular nouns use "il" (il bagno); and masculine plural nouns use "i" (i bagni).

But wait, there's more: "lo" is used with masculine singluar nouns beginning with: a) the letter S and followed by consonant (lo scompartimento); b) the letter Z (lo zucchero) or c) a vowel -- but you drop the o and combine l' with the noun (l'operaio). Oh and finally, "gli" is used these same situations a) (gli compartimenti) b (gli operai), and c (gli zucchero).

Easy stuff, huh?!

Old Time's Sake

When I showed up for my weekly ride on Saturday I noticed there weren't any A riders to be found. The A rides coordinator was out of town but supposedly others were riding. I wasn't sure what to make of it. All I know is I wanted to ride. So I decided to ride with the B's for old time's sake.

After taking almost 2 hours to go 25 miles I realized I've been affected. I can no longer do the "slow" miles. It's not that the pace is all that slow, it's just that there seems to be constant stops. Flat tires, waiting for the rest of the group, people stopping for water, etc... When we got to the first official rest stop I decided to call it quits. I headed back to my car solo and realized I may never be able to ride with the B's again. Now I really need to lose that weight!

Burn Baby Burn

Participating in the faster rides lately has really made me think about my weight in a lot of ways. While I'm not "fat", at 220 lbs. I'm definitely a larger rider and it really takes its toll on hills. I'm not really into the technical side of cycling but I'd be curious to know how much more power/energy I need to expend vs. other cyclists in order to get up some of the larger hills. Why do I suddenly bring this up? Well I've been struggling a bit on the rides lately, particularly in the hotter weather. I realize I need to lose weight in order to take up my cycling game.

This is where it gets tricky. I read somewhere that the best way to burn calories/fat and lose weight on the bike is through long rides with sustained low-intensity effort. In other words, you are much more likely to lose weight riding 75 miles at 15 mph than doing 50 miles at 20 mph. I definitely believe this to be the case. While I'm so much more tired after the faster rides I do, I'm having a lot of trouble losing weight doing them. By contrast, when I rode longer distances at much slower speeds in Italy, the weight was flying off of me.

I also need to do a better job of watching what I eat. I'd love to get down to 200 lbs and see how my riding responds. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself because that'll guarantee failure but it's something I'm targeting. I guess it's just a question of how to get there?

PIMp My Language

I'm nearing the end of Pimsleur and it's definitely a bittersweet moment. I'm psyched to have completed the series but I'm truly going to miss it. If you ever decide to try and learn a foreign language, please give Pimsleur strong consideration. Like any other language program it has some shortcomings, but the methodology is so incredibly positive in terms of your ability to retain information and speak the language. I'm truly amazed how far I've come after only a little over 3 months.

Knowing Pimsleur was coming to an end, over the past few weeks, I started to contemplate what was next for my quest to learn Italian. I considered taking a course at the local community college but given the relatively unorthodox way I am learning I figured this was not a good fit. Next, I started researching other self-study courses that would specifically address grammar and vocabulary, the two biggest Pimsleur deficiencies. After careful consideration, I've chosen Italian With Ease by Assimil. It's a nice transition from Pimsleur for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which is there's also a CD listening component to the series. I got the program a few days ago and it looks pretty interesting. It has 105 lessons and the publisher says it should take you 6 months to complete -- although I'm thinking I should be able to do it in about 4 months because they assume you need a few days to get through each of the first few lessons if this is your first language series. I would agree with them that it appears fairly advanced off the bat/it's not as accodomating for true beginners as PIM.

So regarding PIM, today I'm doing lesson 28 of level III. This means I have only 2 more lessons left. Next week I'll be starting Assimil. However, I get the feeling I'm still going to using PIM in my quest to learn Italian. I'll probably re-do level III lessons as I drive in the car, etc... So maybe this isn't goodbye to PIM as much as a transition to a different way of using it. Regardless, PIM is GOD.

P-Push It Real Good

I never got to my Italy tour follow-up post and not sure I ever will. I kind of missed the sweet spot for writing it because I got caught up in some other things (firSSt can attest to how busy you can get not working sometimes).

So if you're wondering about my blog post title, aside from a good opportunity to homage Salt-N-Peppa, I've been stepping up my cycling game lately and really pushing myself to the limit. Before I jump into the details I want to give LI cycling the props it deserves. If you recall, when I moved out here I was nervous about finding good riding. But now I can't imagine riding anywhere else. The north shore of LI has some awesome scenery and hills with very limited traffic. I would estimate that I see about 25% of the cars on LI rides as I do on NYCC rides.

Two Saturdays ago I decided to join the fastest "A" group in the Long Island Bike Club. I had previously done two rides with the club but both times with the B group. Man, was it a challenge. But a good challenge. They really take no prisoners and they don't stop nearly as much as the B group. The A group can bang out 50 miles in under 3 hours including a bathroom/snack break. It takes upwards of 5 hours to ride 50 miles in a B group because of the slower speed and the generally more relaxed attitude towards stopping and overall lingering.

I definitely struggled a bit on my first A ride because I had forgotten about the importance of nutrition when you push yourself. I'd been doing so many B rides that I got into the bad habit of 1) not eating before the ride and 2) not bringing food on the ride. These came back to haunt me big time on my first fast ride. About halfway through I started to bonk (go anerobic) and I became like a homeless person begging for food. Someone was nice enough to give me an energy bar but the damage was already largely done. (Once you go bonk, you never come back.) Luckily I only half-bonked so I was able to struggle my way through the rest of the ride. Afterward, Phil, the rider leader, invited me to a training ride on Tuesday.

The Tuesday ride took things up another level. The best woman triathlete on the east coast rode with us, as well as a professional woman triathlete who was ranked in the top 50 in the world up until two months ago when she broke a bone in her foot. Suffice it to say she still roasted me on the bike even with a broken foot and after not riding for two months. After the Tuesday ride, I got invited to the Thurdsay training ride. This ride was even tougher than the Tuesday ride as a guy who used to race in Europe showed up. Man was he fast. These Tuesday/Thursday training rides seem like they have a certain minimum pace but can be a bit faster or slower depending on who shows up. Needless to say I did a lot of sleeping after the rides on Tuesday and Thursday but I'm feeling better and better with each ride. Saturday I rode with the A group in the LIBC again and felt great afterward.

I'm hoping the weather holds up tomorrow so the Tuesday ride is on. If I can continue making these rides I will soon be in the best cycling shape of my life and smash my mileage record from last year. I'd also love to lose some weight as I have issues keeping up on the hills sometimes. If I could lose another 15-20 lbs. (down to 195-200 lbs) I think I could be a force to be reconed with on the bike.