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This week I am in San Diego and I have to say ... happy with the weather.  It was 34 degrees at home and 64 here.  Rough life I know.  I am staying right down on the bay and I really like that.  After my meetings were done this evening, I darted up to my hotel room, threw on the gear and out the door I went.  I had no clue where I was going, I just knew it was warm, I wanted to see the sights and I had 2 good legs to get me there.  I threw some $$ in for dinner and off I went.

And what a way to see things.  On my nice evening run I ran by the BMW Oracle Racing teams center and saw them out working on the racing cat.  I then ran by the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier.  Man, that thing is huge.  I then continued my running tour past the Star of India and the USS Dolphin.  I saw countless yachts that while neat, where a little extravagant.  I then found my way into a little shopping village with some great little outside restaurants.  I grabbed a quick bite to go and walked along the bay eating dinner and enjoying the sights.  I then ran back to the hotel for a nice 6 mile run.

Now that's how to see the sights and get your exercise in at the same time.

Everyone has their favorite running or cycling route, or at least I do.  And every morning I run to a local coffee shop, grab a coffee and then run home.  This morning I realized I probably run that route too often when I walked in the shop and she had my double espresso already waiting.  So maybe it is time to change it up a little and discover new sights in town.

For the LaMee household, it is the day after trick-or-treat and we have candy everywhere.  There is the candy that the kid does not want and then there is the leftover candy that we did not hand out.  You know how it goes, you are slow handing it out at first because you don't want to run out, then halfway through you realize you are going to have too much and hand out handfuls, but to no avail you have a big bowl of candy just begging you to eat it.

And then it taunts you, calls you, "just one piece, you deserve it."  And for those that can stop there, good for you.  I am not one of those people.  I start off with one piece, then two, then the room starts to spin and I wake up in a pile of empty Butterfinger and Reese's cup wrappers and wonder why I feel like I just beached up somewhere.  So what to do with all of the leftover candy?  For me, I have two things that always work:

1) Give it away / Take it to work
Hey, better somebody else than me.  I make my wife take it to work were it is devoured in a day.  I know what you are thinking and it is a dilemma.  I am contributing to the problem.  But this tactic takes advantage of the "survival of the fittest" mentality.  You eat it and get fat so I don't have to eat it and get at.  Now if you have a problem with this strategy then ...

2) Throw it away
There is no rule that says you or anyone has to eat it.  The financial side of us many times cant stand the idea of throwing away something we paid for.  But that $20 loss in candy is nothing compared to the purchase of a new wardrobe, the time you have to spend burning it off, the health costs later down the line.  So chuck it guilt free.  This is actually the strategy I am taking this year. 

It is only $20 and while I will have guilt for throwing $20 away, that guilt is nothing compared to the guilt I would feel putting the weight on and having to start all over again.

At lease in our town, trick or treat night is tonight.  Candy, candy, everywhere.  How to control oneself!  At least for me this is very challenging.  Most years I am the poor sap sitting there with a bowl of candy in my lap handing it out.  We always buy too much candy so it is easy for me to do the "one for you, one for me" approach.  Cut scene and there are a dozen empty candy wrappers lying on the ground, a bunch of leftover candy and then there is the pile that the kids won't eat.  Next thing you know the jeans don't fit and you have to blame the dryer for shrinking them again.  So here is my Halloween survival strategy.

1) Exercise.  I go my run in the morning so at least any candy I do eat, I burned something off.  Also, for me, I am less likely to overeat knowing how hard that run was this morning (mental thing)

2) Don't go hungry.  I make sure I eat before we have to head out.  If I am hungry I want to eat the first thing I see and it is candy.  If I am full, the urge tamed.

3) Choose my reward.  I usually set 1-2 pieces of candy that I want.  For me, the Reese's PB Cup.  Not those tiny mini cups either.  The full size cup at 130 calories a pop.  I save them until the night is over.  I get my treat but I had to push myself through to get them.

4) Out of sight, out of stomach.  All of those leftovers get put away, where I can't see them  .  If the bowl is sitting on the table in arms reach, it is easy to do a drive-by and snag a piece here and a piece there.

So the goal, survive the night.

So today we make the trek for my nephews birthday and there will be cake.  I love cake almost as much as I love ice cream ... and I LOVE ICE CREAM!  I am sure there will be ice cream and cake.  So that meant up this morning for a pre-cake run.  I am sure I will still eat more cake and ice cream than I burned on my hour run, but it is better than nothing.

... Who's there?

Crazy Denver Weather

Crazy Denver Weather Who?

Crazy Denver weather are you kidding me?  It was 75 on Monday and Snowing this morning.  Expecting frogs and locusts tomorrow.

So today I had to head to Denver for a week of meetings.  I got in and the weather was in the 70s.  It is all I was thinking about because it is 30 back home.  I timed it so I could get out for a quick run before dinner and honestly, it is all I thought about.  I finished my meeting, ran back to the room, threw my gear on and I was out the door.  Warm weather and my shoes were all I needed.  I did forget a few things though.  Obviously Denver is a little hillier than Ohio so it made for a great workout and I knew it was a great workout because I was sweating and breathing hard.  After a few miles, my lungs felt like they were on fire.  My heart rate was up and I was really breathing heavy but I was running at my normal pace.  You are already thinking it, "hey idiot, you are running hills in high altitude so you are working a ton harder in thin air."  But I didn't care.  It is going to start to rain later in the week so I was just happy to be outside.  I just failed to pay attention when I looked down and I had already gone 5 miles.  No big deal, but I had to turn around and head back.  So I was not planning on a 10 mile run before dinner, but it made the beer and steak I had worth it.

Salads are always a healthy choice right?  Not always.  You can take a healthy veggie choice and pile on fat and sugar and defeat the whole purposed.  Check out The Top 10 Worst Restaurant Salads.  Who knew a salad could be worse than a double bacon cheeseburger with fries!

Great ad on changing your eating habits.

If you ride a bike, you should at least travel with a spare tube, some type of pump or CO2 and know how to do it.  That includes the rear wheel.  Look here to learn how.  Want to do it fast, then check this out: http://video.bicycling.com/video/Fastest-Tire-Change

So this morning I am cruising through the airport, hunting down some breakfast.  The catch, a healthy breakfast.  So I ducked into Dunkin Donuts.  I know what you are thinking, and a restaurant that has "donuts" in the name can't possible be healthy.  Well, if you have the willpower to look past the chocolate glazed or jelly filled they have some breakfast sandwich options.  I gave the Egg White Turkey Sausage Flatbread a shot and at 280 calories added a banana (100 calories) and a coffee and had a reasonable breakfast.  I have also had the Ham Egg and Cheese English Muffin (350 calories) and the Egg and Cheese Bagel (480 calories) but had not had the turkey sausage yet and decided to give it a try.  The verdict?  Not bad.  I mean it is a preformed frozen egg and turkey sausage sponge that they heat up and throw on a flatbread with a piece of cheese, but it is not like I thought they were separating egg whites and making it from scratch.  Taste was good, it was not greasy and it hit the spot on the run to catch the flight.  The important thing is that I found a better option than the donuts that was a reasonable portion and kept me on track.  "I was in a hurry" does not have to be an excuse for eating crap.  I am seeing more and more places offering and advertising healthier options.  They had the calorie count listed on the board next to the sandwich so I knew it was 280 calories.  Looks like they are starting to get it and listen to consumers.  But they realize if they put the counts next to all of their items, some would not sell. 

Not sure how I missed this one, but comedian Eddie Izzard ran 43 marathons in 7 weeks for charity.  When you think ultra athletes, Eddie is not a person that would come to mind, but you have to admire the commitment and drive to tackle this great feat.  He ran 1,100 miles.  Wow!

Read the whole story

Two things I love.  My new healthy routine and geeky gadgets.  So when I saw the new Fitbit it was right up my alley.  It appears to be a geekier and cooler looking pedometer for $99.  So if you are looking for a new gadget to clip on your belt next to your iPhone, it might be worth a peak.  It is being released October 31, so I am sure we will start seeing it in many health reviews.

OK, I know several of you have been itching for my feedback on the Koobi Century.  This seat review hits home because one challenge that we guys have is the "male numbness" that I talk about here. 

Before we get started, these seats are for road cycles and while the makers of these various seats do make non-road cycle models, I did not try those out.  Also, I was not asked to review these specific models, these are the ones that I researched and tried to help fix my personal numbness problem.  If you are a seat maker and want me to review your seat, ask, but I was not paid to review or endorse the seats below.

E3
There was a eBook written by Joshua Cohen PT, MS (PT sand for physical therapist) called Finding the Perfect Bicycle Seat.  About that time Josh developed the E3 Seat.  Now you can view this as a shameless plug or conflict of interest, but for me, I needed to try the seat before I judged.  So I ordered one a few years ago and decided to give it a try.  It the was under $40 so in my opinion, that was worth a try and if I didn't like it, I was only out 40 bucks.  My first reaction was that it was a hard seat with little padding, but as seat experts will tell you, it has nothing to do with padding by where the pressure of the seat hits you.  After some tweaking to find the right angle of the seat so that the pressure was just right, I was really surprised by the seat and I had no numbness issues.  I put over 2500 miles and over 200 hours in that saddle and it was a great seat for $40 as compared to some of the $100 seats out there.

Pros: Inexpensive seat, fixes the numbness, lightweight, narrow seat
Cons: Takes some tweaking to find the right fit, not for people used to wide seats

Fizik Arione
When it was time to replace the E3 because I wore it out, I tried another seat, the Arione Wing Flex.  The reason I probably chose this seat is because of Fizik's great marketing.  If you look at most of the high end cycles and the seats that many of the pros ride, they are Fiziks.  So I chose a medium end seat in the Arione Wing at $150.  Quite a step up from the E3, but can all of those riders be wrong?  As with all seats, it took me a few rides to get it dialed in.  It was definitely a lightweight seat with a narrow nose designed for people who want a fast ride.  I didn't have any numbness issues on long rides, which was the point but it was not as comfortable as my E3.  A nice feature of the seat was that it uses suede down the middle of the seat.  This keeps you from sliding around on the seat so once you find your comfortable spot, you stay there and don't slide around.  Now I am sure the $400 Fiziks are even better, but I didn't have that kind of coin to throw around.

Pros: Fixes numbness, comfortable on longer rides, narrow nose for control and no leg rubbing
Cons: A bit pricey for what you get

Koobi Century
A friend suggested I try out a Koobi and actually let me borrow his seat for a week to ride before I pulled the trigger.  The seat features a groove or cut out in the middle to relieve pressure.  It also features a customized shock suspension system in the seat that you can control how soft or hard of a ride you feel.  It is a harder seat and more in line with the E3, but they do make softer models.  The seat is designed for your weight (you tell them how much you weight and how long you ride and they send you a seat) so it is really customized for your riding style.  It is a more expensive seat at $160 but compared to the Fizik, I was getting more for my $$.  I tried my friends for a week, ordered mine and the first ride on my brand spanking new seat was a 102 mile ride.  No numbness, no sore butt.  Now I never suggest going that far on a brand new seat, but that speaks highly of the seat if you could do that.  This by far was the best seat I had never heard of.  Had a friend not suggested it, I would never have heard of them, but their popularity is word of mouth so that must say something.  I like the seat so much, I have put the Tri version on my Christmas list for my Tri bike.

Pros: no numbness, comfortable ride, tailored seat, custom shocks
Cons: hard to find someone riding one to ask or test

So for those with the numbness, a bike seat can help and these are 3 that I tried and all fit the bill.  I loved my E3 for the price and love my Koobi for the features.  Good luck and keep riding.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ADDING-MULTIMEDIA-KFC-to-bw-1580163647.html?x=0

So after my 100 mile ride I decided to take the rest of September off of working out to fully recover the quads and take a mental break from all of the training.  That and I took a "healthy eating break."  Yes I will admit, that post 1/2 Iron training and countless 5K, 100 mile rides and the such, I decided to just eat.  Yes, I over indulged and even admit eating an entire peanut butter pie one Saturday afternoon.  I have to admit, it sounded good, tasted good, but then I felt so bad for the rest of he day ... and the next that I had to question why I really did it.

October 1 was the date I set on the calendar to get back on the horse and begin my regular exercise regime again.  November 1 I will start training for the Spring Tri season so October is the moth to get back into the swing of things and get some of the pounds off pre-holidays.  Yea, I know, they are fast approaching.  So I stepped on the scales for the first time since my race in August and I was up 10 pounds.  Not surprising, as I said, I have not been working out and have not really been focusing on my eating.  I, like many people had the, "who cares, I can eat that" attitude and truth ... no, I couldn't.  So, back to the routine and focus.

So I said I was going to talk about some bike seats and some reviews of some of the more popular seats out that that I have ridden, specifically the Koobi I just slammed 100 miles on the first time out and loved it.  I got quite a few emails asking me about the seat because they were having problems with their current seat.  Now to be fair, all of these emails were from men that have been having problems with genital numbness or what we in the riding community call, "numb nuts."  Sorry Mom, that's what they call it.  So what causes it?  Well the blood vessels in the perineum (on wikipedia - warning - actual pictures, so not something for work or the kids) can get pinched and blood flow cut off to "sensitive areas."  Cut off blood flow long enough and the area can go numb.  Now this is a big deal because cyclists that do this to themselves every day for years can cause serious damage to the blood vessels.  And this has even led to erectile dysfunction issues for people longer term.  And that is enough to scare people off the bike for good.

I personally went through this issue and as my mileage increased and the time I spent in the saddle increased, so did the "issues."   The fix among riders to genital numbness is generally to adjust their bike fit, change their saddle or change their riding style.  So think about it like a garden hose and you are sitting on the hose cutting off the flow.  So how do you fix that.  Well, a few options.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor or medical professional and I do not play one on TV.  What I am going to share is the advice I got and the things I tried.  If you have prolonged issues, please see a doctor.  I saw 2 doctors to get advice and these are the things that they advised me and suggested I change to stay on the bike.

One is changing your riding style and there are a few things you can try here.  The first thing to do is make sure you get up out of the saddle at regular intervals to get off the hose.  When you feel numb, blood flow is already cut off.  One of the things I try to do is make sure every 5 miles, I take a hit off the water bottle and get out of the seat and peddle for a minute or two.  This helped and worked for shorter rides, but for anything over 30 miles, I still had issues. 

The next step was a proper bike fit.  Now I advise this even if you don't have issues to make sure the bike is fit for your best performance and comfort.  You want to find a bike shop that does a proper fit.  It should take at least an hour so you can replicate your riding and the bike professional can make adjustments and you keep trying them out.  For me, this was the result of moving my seat forward and handlebars in to help with the numbness (since I was sitting further back on the wider part of the seat and not on the nose) and helped my shoulders since I was not leaning forward as far.  Now I am not sawing those are the adjustment you need to make, but those were the recommendations made for me by a pro.  A good bike fitter should also be a rider and put in the miles.  I just feel that the kid that happens to ride mountain bike and works at the shop on weekends is a good guy to help me fix some problems, but not the guy that needs to advise me on my riding style when I put more miles then they do.  I think you get my drift.

The third option and one most people do is to change their seat.  And this appears to be a popular option when you look at the variety of bike seats out there. Here is a good article of the types of bike seats.  Now there were several seats I have tried and I will talk about that in the next post, but gist of it is that you find a seat that helps get pressure off the hose and open up blood flow.

So if you have issues with the numbness don't give up the miles.  Now you understand a little more about the issue and what causes it and what other riders have done to get over that hurdle.  Hopefully by adjusting your riding, getting a proper fit and possibly changing out the seat can help you stay out there on that bike.

So Wednesday I rode in the Tour by Design in Pewaukee, WI, which was a great charity ride.  I was asked to join a friend and co-worker out there to show some support and have fun ridding a beautiful course in the fall.  The ride itself was great, but the buildup to it was a little un-nerving.

I had blown my quads during my 1/2 Iron a few weeks before the ride so I had been resting up, healing and not really been putting in the seat time.  A week before the ride, I was ready to put some serious miles in and get ready for a 100 mile ride.  My bike seat was in bad shape so I bought a new one, went out for a ride and it tore me up.  Translation: it was so uncomfortable that it hurt to sit on the thing.  So here I am a week out and I need a new seat.  Based on the recommendation by a friend, I pulled the trigger on a Koobi Century.  I had it overnighted, put it on the bike and crossed my fingers it would work.  2 days before I had to leave for Wisconsin, I went out for a quick 20 miles just to try the seat out.  The seat felt great, but I felt like I was riding through mud.  I was working really hard to just do 17mph (not usual for me.)  Was I still hurt?  I got back and took a look at the bike.  I gave the back wheel a quick spin and it went around once and froze.  Ahhh @#$%!  2 days to go and I have a screwed up back wheel.  I called the bike shop in a panic, rush over and they look at it.  "Dude, your hosed."  I blew up the hub and it was going to be 2 weeks before I could get another one.  But as one of the guys reminded me, my wife has the exact same bike in the women's size, but the wheels are the same.  So I hijacked her wheels, threw them on my bike.  OK, new wheels, new seat and I am off to Wisconsin.  I threw my junk in the car and drove the 6 hours there to ride. 

We got up that morning and the weather was perfect.  60 degrees in the morning and a high of 70.  The winds were going to be high at 14mph, but that is the benefit of riding in a pack.  They guys at Eppstein Uhen Architects that out the event on did a great job.  Logistics were perfect.  Great course and plenty of food and support on the ride.  They broke up the packs into average speeds, so I went with the 18mph group.  They had 3 ride captains who knew the course and could help pace everyone and made sure nobody got left behind.  The course was beautiful as the leaves were just starting to change.  I also had no idea that Wisconsin was so hilly so I was glad I chose the 18mph average group.  I had a blast, met some new people and I think more people were surprised I would come all the way from Ohio just to ride, but that's my thing.  We rode, we laughed, we then drank some post ride beers and I made some new friends in Wisconsin.

Best of all, everything worked out.  New wheels, new bike seat  and the quads held up to the hills.  And I love the new seat.  I had only ridden on it once and then put 5 1/2 hours of butt time on the thing and actually, I could have ridden another 100 if my legs would not have been so tired hammering out the hills.  I'll do a deeper review of my Koobi next week.  But what a great cap to the season.  Now time to take some time off and just get ready to survive the holidays.

Well. today I made the trip to Pewaukee, WI to participate in the Tour by Design tomorrow.  My goal ... finish it.  I have not really done much since my 1/2 Iron and have not really gotten the miles in but my company is sponsoring this charity event and I agreed to ride in it, so I will make a showing and try not to embarrass myself.  It is supposed to be great temps, but 14mph winds so that should be interesting.