Thanks Coach

The boom in sports coaching has been pretty wild. You can benefit from a structured training plan and good feedback, but there are a couple things that make me crazy
1.Coaches who race-how can I trust you? Are you going to make me as fast as I can be or just a little slower than you?
2.McCoaching. Why drop money monthly for a plan with no personal feedback or assessment?
3.Ex-Pros who now coach, but never used coaches or training plans in their racing days? Then brag about it in interviews?
4.Half truths-coaches always tell you not to starve yourself and to "refuel" etc, but then you read coaches blogs that talk about skipping meals and cutting weight.
Cycling always comes down to a weight to power ratio. There isn't anyway around it.
Rule number one will always be "shut up and suffer". If you do that long enough, you might get better.



So with that all said I guess there are only two options until Jens Voigt turns coach. Nega Coach is probably suitable for 90% of aspiring racers.If you are uncomfortable with Nega-Coach, that leaves Greg Hill. He was wining before you were born. BMX you say? But of course, think about the BMX roots of some of today's top pros (Robbie McEwen for example.

Cycling Odds and Ends

1.Congratulations to Sammy Sanchez!!! He strikes at the Vuelta and pulls within 11 seconds of Cadel. That should keep it interesting. Menchov looks ready to win this one again, but this time get to celebrate. He is not the most exciting rider to watch, but then again neither are his competition. Sastre and Evans have always been in the top, but seemed to lack that defining attack.

2. Wheel Prices???? Improvements in frames trickle down and prices drop over time, but if you look at wheel prices they stay frustratingly high. Where is the trickle down effect? Most prebuilt sets can't competed dollar for dollar against hand built, but the median price seems to be trending towards $1500. Rotational weight or not that is a lot of loot.

3.Landis. Shut up already, you only make cycling look more crooked and stupid to boot.
It pisses me off that off all the 2007 cycling highlights (Ballan at Flandes for instance) Landis and Sinkewitz getting hit by a dog are what 99.9% of the world will remember and ask me about. Same thing with skateboarding. Off all the unreal action, all you hear about is Jake Brown's slam. I would rather people knew nothing than just these things.

4. De Peet. Peter Van Petegam retired last week. Hats off to the "black man of brakel" being a hairy fellow, I can feel some sympathy for this classics killer. The changing of the guard is almost done-hardly any pros that were around when I started riding are still in the game.

5. If Hincapie wins a stage race does anyone care?? I realize this is a little old, but I was on vacation. Tour of Missouri-not so much in the excitement dept.

Old School BMX

More sidehack madness and pay attention a tandem!

Sidehack Racing

The good old days never get old to me

Liger

Is it a good move to name you companies first bike after Napoleon Dynamite's favorite animal?? Massimiliano Lelli throws caution to the wind with the Liger....
I have mixed feeling about Lelli's reemergence. Riding for Cofidis near the end of his career, Lelli was often highlighted in the media as a mentor to David Millar. Possibly mentoring him on all the wrong things. Lelli got caught up in some doping accusations as well.-Although he and Millar were acquitted by the French in the bigger "Cofidis Affair".
So is he a wily old Italian road captain? or is he a desperate ex-doper trying to make a buck? Or do those 2 things go together for Italians from the 90s? And most importantly is the Liger any good?

Offenders "I Hate Myself" 45

Early 80s hardcore often had a overdriven trebly production that only magnified the angst and aggression being laid down(No Labels and Neon Christ for example). "I Hate Myself" is blessed with searing guitar sound that makes it twice as brutal.
This is a perfect slice of American Hardcore and American Music period.
Rabid Cat Records 1984. "Bad Times" is on the flip, but I don't think I've flipped it over since the first time I listened to it
The Offenders were along with MDC,Dicks,Big Boys, part of a wave of in you face, anti-redneck, anti bullshit Texas Punk and Hardcore that is hard to comprehend. I can't imagine the puds from falloutboy having the balls to try their schtick in the early 80s in Texas let alone this anti-everything agenda.
First heard the Offenders on the Peace Comp and tracked down their LP Endless Struggle. All of their offerings were good, but "I hate Myself" was the kind of all out reckless anthem that would fuel you to do almost anything. This is without a doubt one of the top ten US Hardcore tracks.

Looks like someone redid the cover art and reissued it. New art looks like some junkie meets loverboy bullshit, but grab this crucial track however you can. You can check it on myspace... of course.
Props to something I learned today blog for dropping some more MP3s
Good Discography here.

Power of Zeus Gospel According to Zeus LP

It's not very often that you get to thank Obie Trice and Nick Salomon in the same sentence, but thanks to the eternal glory of Power of Zeus I am able to do so today. First heard the band sampled on Obie's second album. Total Sabbath overload-who were these guys?. I gave up searching and hoped I would figure it out one day. One year later, I grab the incredible "White Lace and Strange" comp on Psychic Circle. Fourth song in is the none other than the Uber-Sabbath song Obie sampled. Damn. Power of Zeus from Detroit on Rare Earth Records 1970. A Motown connection? Not to big a stretch for a Detroit rapper to sample.
So the record has been reissued and isn't so hard to track down. 10 tracks of "hard rock". No track reaches the Sabbath worship of "it couldn't be me", but elements of B.O.C and Bad Company are in the house. The can ramble on in a pseudo spiritual Zep/Sabbath type vein for epic lengths-for example on the mega opus "death trip" that closes side one
They open side 2 with a mega guitar and piano groove monster called "no time" that works the Sabbathy groove again before tripping out into outerspace. "Hard Workin Man" keeps the cow bell beer drinking plod going strong.
Lots of odd hits when you google the name. They may also be the first band to use the name Gangrene -at least the Skate to Hell crew spelled it better.
A quick check over at thebreaks.com shows that "Sorcerer of Isis" is more sampled than "it couldn't be me" with Nas,Tribe,Common,Eminem, Spider Loc, 50 Cent, and Wiseguys all sampling it. The slow long,opening drum break should make it clear why. When the vocals kick in it is veering very close to Flower Travelling Band-it just never pushes the vocals to FTB's heights.
Perhaps most of this record resides closer to Vanilla Fudge than Sabbath but it is still a prime slice of forgotten US hard rock. The Motown connection only makes it better.