Performance Enhancing Drugs

Drug Test - A Cautionary Tale is an article that was published in early 2004 on the website of the International Association of Athletics Federations. It's from Outside Magazine.

... what is it like to take these banned substances? Do they really help you win? To find out, Outside Magazine sent an amateur cyclist into the back rooms of sports medicine, where he just said yes to the most controversial chemicals in sports.

Things I saw on my Commute III

A guy in a white truck, almost foaming at the mouth in the driver's seat. It was like this: He sets himself up as the creator of grid-lock, then I press the bike-button and get the green light. As I ride by the arse end of his truck I give it a light (I swear!) tap with my open palm. Kind of like I was balancing against it as I rode by. He immediately honks his horn. The car in front of him must have been pretty confused because traffic was backed up for about 130 yards in front of him. I look back and see the guy gesturing and spitting all over the interior of his truck cab. So I give him a big wave and smile and ride away.

Weather "predictions"

The way they were talking on the CBC this morning you'd have expected to see scenes out of the friggin Book of Revelations on the streets today. It's rainy and wet out there, folks, Don't forget about the wet leaves on the pavement!, Chance of thundershowers!!1. Well, I took my bike to work anyway. It was a nice crisp fall morning with mostly blue skies. Of course I still had these extreme weather predictions in my mind so I wore my scavenged/improvised rain gear (my old columbia rain jacket, my old wind/snow pants, and little covers for my shoes which I suspect are completely useless because they only cover half my foot). The windpants make my legs really hot so that is annoying.

I hope the nice weather lasts until tonight. I guess it is just impossible to predict the weather with any kind of accuracy here.

And a follow-up regarding those 10 year old crossing guards: I saw them again today and they were wearing white hard-hats.

Things I saw during my commute this week II

• Two boys, nine or ten (?) years old, acting as crossing guards on 45th Ave. They're on opposite sides of the street and they each have a small hand-held STOP sign. One yells across to the other Did you finish your graph?
• A few days later, just a block from the crossing guards (although I'm sure they were not involved): A police car with lights flashing parked in the middle of the street, directly behind a sporty maroon car which has a very very crooked front left tire. There were no other cars around: if it was a car accident then the other car was able to drive away, or it was towed away. It looked kind of like the car's tire had been shot out.
• This morning, a woman stopping to smell the roses. Literally. She was riding up the hill in front of me on 37th Ave. and she pulled over to the side, got off her bike, and smelled the flowers on a big hedge/bush in someone's front yard.

Obsessive, unhealthy behaviour is key to weight loss

So says a study, reports the CBC: Keep eye on scales to stop weight from creeping back.

Weighing yourself daily and adjusting diet and exercise levels based on what the scale says is the key to keeping pounds off, according to a study on maintaining weight loss.

Things I saw during my commute this week

I have been commuting to and from work on my bicycle for the past few months. It's great when it's not raining. The rain is coming, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do. There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear. Yeah, well, riding in the dark when it's raining heavily is still no picnic. Anyway, here are a few things that I recall from this week:

• A guy driving while smoking a joint. While riding on Central Blvd I could distinctly smell marijuana. I looked around while stopped at a traffic light and saw the driver of a sporty little Pontiac (or something) holding a smoldering little cigarette just so. The only unusual thing about his driving was the slowness. This was probably less the effects of THC and more just the attention that he was forced to divert to managing the burning joint. If only the cellphone using drivers would be so careful. He was totally Bogarting it too; the whole time I was following him I never saw the passenger get a toke. I vaguely remember the license plate being something like 762 GLK.
• Just east of Main on 37th Ave the street was wet. A municipal work crew had been there earlier in the day digging up the street for some reason. The light from the setting sun reflected strongly off the wet surface of the road and I thought it looked like a milk truck had overturned there.
• The front-end of a little sh*t-box car stopping abrubtly to my right this morning. I was proceeding through a four-way-stop intersection after waiting more than my turn (a car to my left had decided to cut me off just moments before). So yeah, it was definitely my turn. This guy either didn't see me or thought hey, it's just a bike. Whenever something like that happens I get an urge to see if my black Kryptonite U-Lock matches the colour of the car, IYKWIM, AITYD.

Vancouver is Different

Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my grip on reality. Or at least sometimes reality manages to defy what I consider to be my reasonable expectations. I should make a note of when this happens because I suspect that the frequency is increasing. Check this out: City Wants 2028 Olympics. Quote:

Vancouver and Seattle will join forces to try to attract a post-2010 global mega-event, with a wish list that includes co-hosting the 2018 World Cup of soccer, a world's fair around 2020 or the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Hole. Lee. Sh*t. Now I have a little voice in my head going wheeeee!. Thanks, Vancouver Sun. I don't want to give anybody the impression that I'm some kind of party-pooper, or socialist, but I'm not the only person who thinks there are better ways to invest public money. Quote:

What is it about these events that’s get otherwise sensible people so out of their tree? Wasn’t the Montreal experience bad enough? Why plan around short term sporting events? Why not plan around the needs of the people who are here and who cannot be housed or moved around in any reasonable way?

Of course we have to get being a jack-a** and driving around in an expensive car in as a demonstration sport (if not a full-fledged event!). The Yaletown training facility is already completed, after all.