I came across an interesting piece in the Sydney Morning Herald regarding brain injury as a result of severe head trauma:

"The ones with brain swelling, that's diffuse axonal injury, and that's bad news," says Rosenfeld, who steers the National Trauma Research Institute's neurotrauma evidence translation committee at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. In diffuse axonal injury, he explains, the whole brain is shaken up, creating many little tears in its inner structure.

Such patients undergo personality change, can contract epilepsy, and have difficulty controlling their anger. They might become unemployable. Depression is a common accompaniment to brain injury. Rosenfeld sees patients' families shattered, too. "They're never the same. It often leads to marriage disharmony and family breakdown."

This is no joke. Having spent time with someone suffering from this, I can say that it's more damaging than you could possibly imagine.

RUN!

This evening marked my first ever participation in a timed running event, a 3.5 mile run on the Embarcadero in the Shitty. The event was put on by JP Morgan Chase as a charity event for somethingorother. The race provided me a convenient training goal to work towards with the Vibram FiveFingers.

In the months and weeks leading up to the race, I had some concerns that I wouldn't be able to complete the event because I was unable to run the full 3.5 miles in training. However, as the race grew nearer, my body started to finally adapt to the shoes and the running, and mileage and pace started to pick up at a fairly rapid clip. I did my first non-treadmill run two weeks before the event on a rubberized track and managed to only complete 3 miles at a pace just under 9 minutes/mile. The soleus in both legs basically cramped up after mile 1 and gave me much concern.

I rested up for the next week, getting in some easy rides and a good massage to flush them out and promote good circulation. I returned to the track a week later and was able to complete 3.25 miles at a pace just under 8 minutes/mile. Even though I was still having problems with my soleus, they didn't act up until mile 2, and the cramping was far less severe than a week before. The distance and pace were also very encouraging.

The week before the event (this week), I got back into more aggressive training on the bike but didn't run, allowing my soleus to heal in both legs. I had high hopes that I'd be able to achieve my goal of 30 minutes for the event. I also acquired a new event objective: better the time of one very competitive and athletic co-worker.

The event has come and gone and I can say I am very pleased with the result. I achieved both goals: to finish faster than my co-worker and to finish within 30 minutes. The co-worker target was achieved within the first mile with him having gone out far too fast and having to back off considerably so as to not completely blow up. I far exceeded my expectation with regard to how long it would take to finish, beating my target time by over 5 minutes. I crossed the finish line in 24 minutes, 12 seconds, giving me an average speed of 6.53 minutes/mile. For me, this is a fantastic result as it again bested my pace by 1 minute over what I ran last week, and 2 minutes faster than two weeks prior.

Just last week I was telling my massage therapist, also a runner, that my long term goal for running is to be able to regularly pace at 6 minutes/mile. To be within sight of this goal after only 5 months of once per week treadmill torture is fantastic.

It should be noted that my pace today was under race conditions and It's pretty unreasonable to expect that I'll be able to regularly put myself through that level of pain and exertion in normal training. For now, I'm content and confident enough to look at my target pace as a completely attainable goal. Only time will tell how long it takes me to get there.

Some people will tell you that slow is good – but I’m here to tell you that fast is better. I’ve always believed this, in spite of the trouble it’s caused me. Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba…

— Hunter S. Thompson

Insecurity and Death

Hey Dingdong, I told you so! Love yourself before you kill yourself.

3 Miles

Ran my longest session ever last Friday...three miles done at 8:49/mile. Everybody says that's a good time, but it's nowhere near my 6:00/mile target. The good news is that my HR is nowhere near threshold at my current pace and RPE is maybe at a 5. The only limiting factor is my soleus in both legs. Running in the FiveFingers is a tough go, and has taken since Feb to build up from 0.5 miles at 10:00/mile to the current distance and pace. Each week I'm able to go a little further and a little faster without the soleus locking up. I'm gonna pick up some New Balance 800's for next week's charity event cuz the reviews have these as close to barefoot as one can get without using the FiveFingers.

I was once told that one MUST run with a very deliberate heel-toe footstrike. Oh how wrong she was. The worst part about it was that this advice was dispensed and insisted upon to her eager sibling who followed it like the gospel and ended up further trashing her already injured knees. I guess different stroke for different folks, but for me, the mid/fore foot strike has eliminated all my knee pain (which was significant when running), and allowed me to carry on for the past 6 months.

Eu não falo português.

Probably best that I learn it BEFORE I go this time.

PleasePleasePleasePlease Jeezus find a way to get Troy out of retirement. WSBK is booring without him.

speechless

Moto moto moto!

La LaLa LaLa Happy Birthday to me! Matching helmet, cool as can be gloves and ridiculous boots have yet to arrive. New Arrow/Triumph exhaust is waiting to be installed, will probably do it at the same time as the 500 mile service. Man cave has been sorted with newly constructed ceiling racks with accommodations for 8 rigs, a wall unit for an extra two, plus shelving heavy enough to fit a friggin car transmission. All this just to make room for Mr. Black. Gonna take it up into the hills this weekend and give it a proper introduction to my favorite roads...staying within the break-in guidelines, of course! It's so much a different bike than the SV. Not that the SV was bad but this one is just so much more precise. It seems a bit less forgiving, but that may just be because I don't know yet all of what it needs to go round a corner at good speed. It's not going anywhere, so I've got plenty of time to bond with it and get to know how to make it go.

Darn...

Ju said he's no longer in Ukraine anymore and has instead re-located back to Brazil. Darn. Guess I'll just have to go back there again.

Invite for Garry

Teammies,

As you may know, GazFest 2010 will be taking place this coming Monday and I'm writing to encourage every one of you to attend. This year's celebration will be of particular significance because the good folks from the Guinness Book of World Records will be in attendance to certify Garry as the Oldest Person Ever. They've even created a new number for him since there isn't actually a number that goes that high. His new number, in his honor, will be called Gazooogle (notice the third 'o' in the number, this was done as an indication of just how large the number is). Hopefully Richard will be in attendance since he's pretty smart and may actually know what the previous largest number used to be until Garry became older this year, necessitating the creation of Gazooogle.

The activities will start off in the morning with the ceremonial parade up Mt. Diablo (ask Garry what it was like before it was actually a Mt. It's a pretty cool story), after which we'll all gather at Garry's house to use up all his towels, clog his toilets, and eat everything in sight. Actually, the food part is great because Garry's better half (no, not his ass!), puts together quite a spread. Oh, and to make Garry feel young again, we call it lunch even though meal time is much closer to his normal 4pm dinner time.

Entertainment will include, but is not limited to:
1. Story time during which Garry tells us what it was like to hang out with Jesus before he got into the cross bearing business.

2. Nap time. Actually, this is pretty much all day long for Garry.

3. A Bridge tournament. I have no idea what Bridge is, but apparently it's all the rage at the local AARP.

4. "What's My Name" No, this isn't a dirty game, this is a fun one where we tell Garry our names and then see how long it takes him to ask us who we all are and what the hell are we doing in his house. Currently Gaz is on a 5 minute cycle.

5. Prune Tag. Kinda like dodgeball, except with stewed prunes. Don't worry about the mess, his guard dog usually cleans up most of it.

And many, many more fun games. You'll see.

BTW, note that the ride is on 2/15, not 2/14 so don't write back with any of those Valentines Day BS excuses. Pay Hallmark on Sunday, ride on Monday. Also, I've taken the liberty of having all local rides by all clubs, teams, and random groups of people, canceled so as to allow for the greatest possible attendance figures. This means that nobody has any other ride plans, so don't come at me with that one either cuz it's a lie. Most importantly, Monday is President's Day, and since Gaz is the Prez of the team, I believe it's some sort of Federal law that you MUST celebrate the day with the Prez. Finally, you wouldn't miss your Grandparent's birthday, would you? No? Well good. Garry is at least twice as old as them, so you should be twice as likely to show up for his birthday.

Thanks, and see you Monday!

-Zigaggeration

Oh? What's this?

SE says he's got a few days of Maui lined up for the trip. Yes please. May I also have an extra helping of Beer and Beaches to go with that?

Just emailed the stinky bastard Juliano so we'll see about checking out the Ukraine later this year too.

Pandora Lottery Perfection

Pandora QuickMix just spit out some Marvin Gaye, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Al Green, and some wicked flamenco from someone I've never heard of. Etta followed immediately by Ella...are you kidding me? Gave me feckin goose bumps. Perfection? Yes, I think so!

Thanks, Boss!

Company stock's gone through the roof thanks to the fresh "For Sale" sign tacked to the side of the building, boss decided I "work" hard enough for a decent raise...platinum problems all solved with the click of a button! Now that it's empty, I'm off to Hawaii for a nice sized chunk of quiet time, and of course the three B's...Beer, Beaches, Bicycles. Erwin says all I gotta do is pick up my socks and his wife won't even know I'm there. Deal!

Back on the horse

I want back on. Everyone says I shouldn't do it, that I'm lucky to be alive, etc. etc. Maybe they're right, maybe not. Either way, I want back on. I don't think it's so much the "freedom" that others say they love about it, rather I enjoy the skill and concentration required to do it efficiently (i.e. not kill myself). Yes the acceleration is addictive but one quickly realizes how silly and irresponsible it is to twist the right-side grip to the lower stop. Good moto brakes can slow you down quick, but nowhere near as quick as those on a car, and it takes much longer than one thinks to slow down from 140 or so. No, I don't need top speed. I've been there on two wheels and on four and can say for certain that it's much more fun on four...death isn't so apparent when surrounded on all four sides by metal. I need clutchless upshifts and perfectly rev-matched downshifts just before hitting as near a perfect apex as my skill will allow.

I want back on. My time with the machine is not finished yet.

If you wanna...

There's so many ways to offer monetary assistance to Haiti right now and most turn to the American Red Cross to do so. This is not a bad thing, it's just not the most efficient way to go about helping out. I was recently directed towards Direct Relief International as a charity to consider when deciding where to donate. They're 99% efficient which means that 99 cents of every dollar goes toward the cause it was intended for, whereas the ARC is overburdened with a hefty CEO salary and Bureaucratic BS. If you're thinking about donating but haven't decided whom to give your money to, give DRI a look.