Beautiful

So sunny and nice!

BBC - happy place

Despite a night on a plane, we did a decent gym effort this morning (I even made a treadmill display "maximum duration reached"), a good client lunch, and a solid 3h office session with a client this afternoon, followed by dinner with them. We couldn't resist this when we walked home either - there's something about the vibe of the BBC that's just right. Their beer is great. The crowd is a mix of suits and ties, or ties that were loosened 5 beers ago, to lesbians rubbing each others ears, to a bunch of people really getting the most out of iPhone cameras with their friends. Its unpretentious, relaxed, nice music and fun. It's a happy place that's always worked for me.

I think I'm now in Houston Friday at a board meeting, fresh off another redeye, instead of going home. That's good, in a painful way!

Beautiful Bogota afternoon

Had a good lunch meeting, some downtime for a patio coffee at Juan Valdez, 15 mins of shuteye, and some time in my favourite office now before dinner.

Guilt free

We ate $5 adult sized pizza pockets of little nutritional value at the only food place still open, in about 6 minutes with the janitors working next to us, while trying to hurry to our connection in Houston. Star Alliance lounge in Frankfurt, I miss your comparative euro civility!

Here's why I feel absolutely zero guilt about using upgrade points to get first class lie down beds on Christmas personal vacation flights - they're earned by redeye flights with zero legroom from 11pm to 5am 3 rows from the lavatory during the working year. The seat feels like a special "dual concave" design created to maximize chiropractic revenue. So much for stretching the legs. Ugh.

Airplanes and health

I'm doing 2 redeye flights this week. Coincidentally that's exactly the three days that are forecast to be -23C. Ha!

But it cuts back exercise, sleep and nutrition. It cuts back fresh air and comfort. I'm not trying to be a health Nazi - it's more that I'm having so much fun on weekends riding that I don't want to come home feeling like total garbage and suffer the opportunity cost of lost fun. Work travel has benefits too, like having a pay cheque, and seeing new places of course, but it isn't always easy.

Airline food has gotten better. Or maybe I'm less price sensitive. For $7 I could have had something that resembles pizza, but is really white flour, awful salami, and some tomato sauce in a budget rendition that doesn't do justice to Italy.

I picked the $9 tapas option, which was heavily packaged, but interesting to read the labels. It perhaps didn't do honor to the tapas culture fully, but it was a decent effort for being 35,000 feet up. It comprised:
- a little baggie of unsalted, ungreased, totally plain almonds
- two different cracker packages, 2 crackers each
- an actual tomato based bruschetta with respectable allowance of spices in a mini dish
- an actual real cheese peppercorn parmesan mini container
- a mini bag of about a dozen green olives with basil and garlic, no pits
- pita chips
- hummus that actually was just chick peas, sesame oil, lemon juice and salt
- a little baggie of blueberry and acai berries covered in chocolate
- packing and expiry date labels coincided with a general lack of aggressive preservation techniques and chemicals

I'm surprised that this food option existed. It contained edible things that existed on earth before airplanes, which is kind of a good test. I'm the only one in my row who didn't get a can of coke, although I was tempted. And the guy on my other side is saying the "steak and potatoes" share a common rubbery texture. Mine was all fine at room temperature. His gravy is bubbling and his steak is refrigerated. Mmmm...

Andalucia team

We're going to smile, that's for certain. Above that, all I know is that my favourite partner has been doing some big rides, big hills, and had a super strong finish at spin class the other day on the last kilometer of a climb on a CompuTrainer course!

American Classic 29er Race Wheels

When I bought some American Classic CR420's like 6-7 years ago, a few people asked if I thought it was wise to ride regularly on lightweight racing wheels... recall then, carbon wasn't anywhere near as prevalent in commercial wheels - high budget teams were spending their money on doping and Lightweight wheels, and there were a few carbon options available, but not nearly what 2013 takes for granted.

7 years later, after countless miles on snow, gravel, gravel, roots, rocks and 'cross courses, extreme temperature changes (parkade to Calgary winter in daily commuting), oh and did I say snow, gravel, roots and rocks? ... only rim brake surface failed at the weld, and one set is going strong. To be clear, each set had bearings replaced a time or two, but that's cheap and to be expected. But also to be clear, neither set had a single spoke so much as see a spoke wrench over that time. True and straight, with intense use as they have seen, amazes me. The one that failed still lasted 80+km home that day.

Post that failure, I called American Classic to talk about options with the failed rim. They said they could do a discount rim replacement, but that it wouldn't look the same since they've changed graphics. Alternately they offered a "loyalty discount" on a new set if I sent mine in (at my cost), which I took them up on. I believe they have third world charitable use for the old ones.

Side note: I've had issues with my "legendary" Chris King hubs cracking, which they say is related to drastic temperature changes and salt corrosion on the aluminum. The reality that the American Classic ones had higher spoke tension, more exposure to temperature change and corrosive substance through more use, and people question their reliability vs. supposed "legendary" King ones that have had two crack in two months... I'll tell you which ones I think are more durable.

Anyway, I couldn't decide on which replacement model I wanted, and my King ones were dropping like flies, so I did the classic comprimise: two!  I ordered a single speed and a geared set on their deal.

Initial pre-ride impressions: they're light, the tubeless tape looks awesome, the tubeless valve is awesome (how does a simple valve look awesome? check theirs out in detail...) the tension seems great, the hub feels good, their 9/10mm through axles look good, the white spokes instantly steer your eyes to the valves, the width of the rim is nice.

I'm pumped to get these things rolling for the Whiskey 50 in Prescott on a bike that's getting a facelift...