Saturday, July 31, 2010
Trip of a Lifetime: Le Tour de France
Our only bad luck was losing one of our travel partners before we even started, Coach Dave fell very sick and was unable to travel. We called everyday and even as I write this he is still struggling. I hope he recovers soon. Despite losing Dave, Dean Adams and I struck out on our trip. With 50 pound back packs and no checked luggage we went out on our adventure. On our way to the Cincinnati airport we were told our flight from Paris to the south of France was cancelled because of a strike and that there were no other flights. So the adventure began before we ever left the states. Upon arriving in Paris we figured out that we needed to take two local metro subways to a suburb where we could catch a train to the Pyrenees. So two metros and a 6 hour train ride later we arrived in the City of Lourdes.
The picture above was taken outside our hotel. It was an incredible village with a magnificent castle overlooking from a cliff, it had great restaurants, pubs, coffee shops and variety shops everywhere. Lourdes had become the base camp for thousands of cycling enthusiast because you can access about 4 different mountain stages from this location. It is also the home of the "Gratto of Lourdes". Tens of thousands of pilgrims make their way to this location to see the place where St. Bernadine had 16 confirmed visions of what is called the "Lady of Lourdes", who people believe was Mary. Seeing the thousands that had made this pilgrimage was truly breathtaking. Words could not do justice to the feeling that came over me as I witnessed people touch the walls of the cave, and make the sign of the cross with the pure mountain water that came from inside the cave. The lighting of the candles and the quiet peacefulness that surrounded the entire area was surreal. This was an unexpected surprise on our trip and one that I will cherish for having the opportunity to have witnessed it.
I have been asked how close we got to the cyclists? Well let me show you. You may recognize one of the cyclists in the picture. Dean and I had camped out in this town for over 6 hours and on this particular spot for almost 3 just to make sure we had a good look. It not only landed us a great look, it got us on Versus TV twice. Yes, that is Lance Armstrong in the red kit. This was the Tourmalet summit finish stage. This was as close as we could get because they closed the top of the mountain down. There were too many people at the top, but we found this awesome village less than 18 miles from the finish atop the Tourmalet. It was still filled with thousands of people lining the streets.
The next day we paid to have a private taxi take us to the top of the Tourmalet so that we could actually see what it looked like and just how hard it was. There are no words to describe the scene. There were over 300 cyclists making the trip up the climb, suffering the entire way. It was cold, very cold and yet they were dripping with sweat from the torturous elevation and gradient of the road. This prooved to be the best decision we made. I would not trade that trip to the top for anything. Our driver was a Tour follower, and spoke great English. He gave us a unique history and perspective during the 2.5 hour tour up one side and down the other. I have a new appreciation for the incredible athleticism of these athletes. Check out Dean with the mountain as a back drop. The sights were incredible, my pictures cannot do the trip justice.
We moved on to the city of Bordeaux for the individual time trial. Again another spectacular city and we were just taken back by the breathtaking views of the river, the monuments, and the beauty of the architecture. The next day we headed to Paris for the final. Over 1 million of our closest friends joined us on the Champs Elysees to witness the final stage. It was pure madness!
It was impossible to get close to the fences unless you had camped out since 5am the morning of the race. The night before we went out and visited the Arch de Triumph and climbed the 284 steps to the top to capture a few pictures. This was worth the 9 euros and the walk up.
Everywhere we went in France I was struck by how lean and healthy everyone looked. I made several observations that I will share with my bothers. They eat small portions, all our meals were simple. Breakfast was usually strong pressed coffee, small juice, fresh bread (baquettes), fresh butter/jam, hard meats and cheese every morning. Lunch was usually a baquette sandwich with hard meats and fresh vegetables. Dinner was similar to home but again all the portions were small. You could also tell that everything was fresh and was not processed. Our steak one night was very lean and almost tasted like venison, I believe it is because they grow their livestock under different conditions. There is an emphasis on agriculture and the local markets have fresh produce everyday.
The French are not in a hurry, they are relaxed and social and perhaps that lends itself to their healthy lifestyle. They commute by foot or bicycle everywhere, there are actual public bicycle programs throughout the city's. Just jump on and go, drop it off at designated locations. You simply purchase an electronic pass and you rare ready to ride. They make being healthy very easy in all the city's we visited.
My comments do not do our trip justice, all I can say is that I would go again in a heart beat. Next time I am bringing my bike, I want to climb the Tourmalet. Who's with me? This could be our next adventure.
Schmidty
L3-Live, Learn and Lead
NYTimes: Advice by Panel Is to Reprimand, Not Oust, Rangel
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Bacon Weekly- July 19-25, 2010
Tues- 4 miles @ 10:15 avg
Wed- off
Thurs-4 miles @ 9:33 avg
Fri- off
Sat- 400 M swim- easy pace
Sun- 1 Hour bike trainer (Full Metal Jacket)
Decent week; however I struggled to do more than run and when run fairly short...a quick swim yesterday while at the pool with the kids and a very nice hour on the bike today on the trainer...too much heat for a training ride; especially after church at the peak of the heat. More to come on my new training program...I;ve ordered a new book too that should help guide my triathlon strength training....the plan and the reasons for it are coming in a new post
Week In Review- Karl
Tuesday- Grandmother returned home
Wednesday-Friday Rest
Saturday- 1 hour on bike trainer
Sunday- 1 hour run
My apologies for not posting last week. My grandmother came into town from California and we spent the weekend enjoying her company and taking her around Austin.
Thursday was our son's 12th birthday. We celebrated at Cheesecake Factory and came home for ice cream, cake, and presents. On Friday, one of his friends came over to spend the night. It was a late night of Wii, movies, and pizza.
After my bike trainer workout on Saturday, the boys and I went to Blazer Tag, the largest laser tag arena in Texas. The first game included 26 people and three teams. My team won and I came in 2nd place. The second game was just the three of us. The "old man" showed the youngsters a thing or two about laser tag by taking first place. We had a blast!
Had a really nice run this morning. I started around 7am just as the sun was rising. It was cooler and shadier on the trail. After breakfast, we cleaned the house in preparation for my mom and dad who arrive today from Dallas. They arrived there from Puerto Rico on Friday to spend a couple of days with Mark and his family. They'll stay with us through Tuesday before flying back to P.R.
Congrats to Bighead on his engagement; I hope Ashley had a wonderful time in Dollywood with his niece and family; best wishes to Mark as he recuperates from a broken foot bone; look forward to hearing all about SchmidtDog's trip to the Tour de France; great to hear from Dino last week; and I look forward to hearing more about Claude's new training plan we discussed by phone last week.
Hope you boys are enjoying the Texas heat in Kentucky. This time last year we'd had 30 days over 100 degrees. This year, only one or two. I'm happy to let someone else have it for a while. :-)
Kia Kaha!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
TT Bikes at the Tour de France
Chris Schmidt (@BigSchmidtDog) 7/24/10 2:41 AM For all my teamtoppertri brothers @KarlMiller surrounded by incredible tt bikes http://yfrog.com/bcme5pj |
Sent with Twitter for iPhone
Monday, July 19, 2010
The Welcoming Darkness #triathlon
What does it look like when and where you train? Share your photos.
Still Alive
Long live those endorphin highs...... High on life, high on exercise!
"Give it Hell!"
Dino
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Miller Weekly Update
Tuesday 30 minute run
Wednesday 30 minute bike trainer
Thursday 30 minute run, hill sprints and intervals
Friday Off
Saturday 1 hour bike (30 minutes of big gear work)
Sunday 1 hour run (race pace)
Had a good recovery week. Got all my workouts in, put in a 16 hour work day on Friday, got 3rd and 2nd place in laser tag with my son today, and watched The Last Airbender. Oh, and got our fence stained, but I paid to have that done.
My grandmother arrives tomorrow and will be here for 8 days. When she leaves, my mom and dad arrive from Puerto Rico to stay for a few days. Looking forward to some fun family time.
Best wishes to all my TTT brothers and sisters. I commented on Claude's terrific update and I hear Schmidt Dog is headed to the Tour de France soon. Look forward to hearing all about that incredible experience.
Kia Kaha!
Summary of training/racing
It's been a while since I reported but there is plenty to tell. This is basically a summary of what has been a build up of mileage the last several weeks. For three weeks I have been building up some base miles and going back to my crossfit strength training leading up to this week. Between 6/20 - 7/3 I put in just shy of 300 miles on my bike. Saturday July 3rd culminated with a 20 mile warm up ride followed by a 5k Race (28:05 not bad for a guy who hates to run), followed by jumping back on the bike for another 45 mile ride.
This week (7/4-7/11) was a maintenance week leading up to today for the Blue Grass State games Circuit Race. The entire family was packed up and on the road by 6a.m. headed for Lexington. Cole was racing in the 10-12 yr old division (he finished 3rd last year). He was disappointed to finish 4th this year, but the race was much longer and tougher. He has been riding alot with me and some of the guys and is starting to put in some real mileage. I think his legs were flat. I'm still very proud.
I was racing in the CAT5 under 40 division (yes, I'm just under 40). This would be my last chance against the young guys in this division. I was super pleased, I followed my race plan, pushed the pace early, covered several attacks and made the final selection of 4 guys. I knew I had no chance in a short up hill sprint, so I launched super early trying to put these guys away. One guy shot off the back and in the end it was three across the line. I just didn't have the final couple of pedal strokes to match the two other guys. Kudos to their effort.
I was super stoked to finish 3rd. It was a tough race and I felt tactically I did everything right from the first pedal stroke. Lot's to improve on, but feeling great to be racing and training with my son, and having my family at races. It is an incredible feeling when you hear your family cheering.
On a side note, Becca is rehabbing from ACL surgery. She is out walking as I type. Doctor is pleased with her progress and she can start riding a trainer this week. She will be back soon, so look out.
Keep working brothers, I see you all out there working hard!!!
Schmidty
Bacon Weekly- race report
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Prechter’s Market Forecast Says ‘Take Cover. Worst Economic Decline in 300 Years
Mr. Prechter is convinced that we have entered a market decline of staggering proportions — perhaps the biggest of the last 300 years.
In a series of phone conversations and e-mail exchanges last week, he said that no other forecaster was likely to accept his reasoning, which is based on his version of the Elliott Wave theory — a technical approach to market analysis that he embraces with evangelical fervor.
Originating in the writings of Ralph Nelson Elliott, an obscure accountant who found repetitive patterns, or “fractals,” in the stock market of the 1930s and ’40s, the theory suggests that an epic downswing is under way, Mr. Prechter said. But he argued that even skeptical investors should take his advice seriously.
“I’m saying: ‘Winter is coming. Buy a coat,’ ” he said. “Other people are advising people to stay naked. If I’m wrong, you’re not hurt. If they’re wrong, you’re dead. It’s pretty benign advice to opt for safety for a while.”
His advice: individual investors should move completely out of the market and hold cash and cash equivalents, like Treasury bills, for years to come. (For traders with a fair amount of skill and willingness to embrace risk, he suggests other alternatives, like shorting the market or making bets on volatility.) But ultimately, “the decline will lead to one of the best investment opportunities ever,” he said.
Buy-and-hold stock investors will be devastated in a crash much worse than the declines of 2008 and early 2009 or the worst years of the Great Depression or the Panic of 1873, he predicted.
For a rough parallel, he said, go all the way back to England and the collapse of the South Sea Bubble in 1720, a crash that deterred people “from buying stocks for 100 years,” he said. This time, he said, “If I’m right, it will be such a shock that people will be telling their grandkids many years from now, ‘Don’t touch stocks.’ ”
The Dow, which now stands at 9,686.48, is likely to fall well below 1,000 over perhaps five or six years as a grand market cycle comes to an end, he said. That unraveling, combined with a depression and deflation, will make anyone holding cash “extremely grateful for their prudence.”
Mr. Prechter is hardly the only market hand to advocate prudence now, but nearly everyone else foresees a much rosier future, once current difficulties are past.
For example, Ralph J. Acampora, a market analyst with more than 40 years of experience, said he moved entirely out of stocks and into cash late last month. Now a partner at Alverita, a wealth management firm in New York, he said recent setbacks suggested that the market would drop another 10 or 15 percent, probably until September or October, before resuming another “meaningful rally.”
Over the next several years Mr. Acampora expects an “old normal market,” characterized by relatively short-lived swings that will provide many opportunities for smart investors — one that resembles the markets of the 1960s and 70s. “I’ve lived through it,” he said.
Like Mr. Prechter, he is a past president of the Market Technicians Association, the leading organization of technical market analysts, and he said that his colleague has done “some very good work.” But Mr. Acampora doesn’t agree with Mr. Prechter’s long-term theories, either intellectually or emotionally.
The “mathematics don’t work,” Mr. Acampora said, because such a big decline would imply that individual stocks would need to trade at unrealistically low levels. Furthermore, he said, “I don’t want to agree with him, because if he’s right, we’ve basically got to go to the mountains with a gun and some soup cans, because it’s all over.”
Still, on a “near-term” basis, he said, “We’re probably saying the same thing.”
Similarly, Larry Berman, who co-founded ETF Capital Management in Toronto and recently ended his term as the president of the technicians association, says he sees a “classic” short-term negative market trend developing now. But he doesn’t use the Elliott Wave theory, saying Mr. Prechter is trying to “measure the market in decades, which is too long a time frame for practical trading purposes or for risk management.”
Mr. Prechter, 61, lives in Gainesville, Ga., where he runs Elliott Wave International, a forecasting and publishing firm. He graduated from Yale as a psychology major in 1971, dabbled as a singer, drummer and songwriter in a rock band and became a technical analyst for Merrill Lynch.
He became fascinated by Mr. Elliott’s writings, which suggest that the market moves in predictable if complex patterns. Along with A. J. Frost, Mr. Prechter wrote “Elliott Wave Principle,” a 1978 book that predicted the emergence of a great bull market — a forecast that was largely fulfilled. By 1987, he was widely regarded as an expert in technical analysis. Articles in The New York Times said he was known as “the market’s leading technical guru” — and more. An article in October that year said he had “emerged as both prophet and deity, an adviser whose advice reaches so many investors that he tends to pull the market the way he has predicted it will move.”
He has far less day-to-day influence now, after years spent developing a theory he calls “socionomics,” which holds “social moods” as the cause not only of market cycles but also of economic and political events. A grand cycle is ending, he says, and the time for reckoning is near.
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How do we know what to believe?
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Garcia-Tolson nominated for an Espy Award. Please Vote!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
How Many People Do You Influence? You Won't Believe How Many!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Bacon Weekly June 27 - July 4th
Mon- 3 mile run- easy
Tues- 3 mile run- easy
Wed- 15 mile bike- easy
Thurs- swim- 30 minutes
Fri- 3 mile run- fast
Sat- off
Sun- 15 mile bike
No excuses for the lack of posting...other than an injury which set me back about 2 weeks and little to report; however back on track now. The injury started on vacation playing with the kids in the pool. A pain in the left glute lead me early on to believe that I had torn a muscle; however a small slip of the L5 vertebrae pinched the sciatic nerve and lead to a pain running all the way through the hip, down the leg and into the toes....I have a new respect for this injury...I was powerless on the left side of the body. Came home and headed straight to the chiropractor for my first visit ever and he squared me away in about 1 week. A variance of easy exercises the week before this one and this past week got me back 100%, but still did easy effort for the most part...emerging this week much stronger... Have a race this weekend...48k bike and 10K run! Headed out for a heated training run now....Samantha just back and running the 5k this Saturday too!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy 234th Birthday, USA
Happy 4th of July!
This past week I did the following:
Monday 10 minutes of core work and push ups
Tuesday 30 minutes of hill intervals (run)
Wednesday My daughter's 7th birthday! Took the day off!
Thursday Off
Friday 30 minute big gear intervals on bike trainer
Saturday 1:30 bike trainer session (50 minutes of big gear work)
Sunday 1:20 long run
I wish you all a wonderful 4th of July! On this day, I remember what Warren Buffet said when he was asked how he became so rich. He said, "I won the lottery when I was born in the USA!"
Kia Kaha!