Kike Gavilan’s Egotrip

Just a quick post to share the pictures

pictures on flickr

and the videos of Frank Schleck and Nibali breaking away after the Cole grade

Frank Schleck and Vincenzo Nibali breakaway

and the peloton left overs (the peloton exploded in Mount Palomar and the Cole grade), lead by Popovych and Lance Armstrong doing tempo. Nibali was about 2′30" behind Levi on the general classification and these were the last 30 kilometers of the tour so Lance and Popo were controling the gap and delivering the yellow jersey to Levi.

Levi will be able to tell his grandkids that Lance worked hard for him in San Diego in 2009 to help him win the leaders jersey. He’s probably the only person in the world that will be able to say that "post Tour de France Lance" worked for him.   

Astana chasing the breakaway with Popovych and Lance pulling

I still have a smile on my face about it. We went to see the start and then went to a spot about 30K before the finish line. Took a bunch of pictures that I will upload to flickr and share and two little vids that are already on youtube and will also share on the next post. It was amazing to see the best riders in the world in action.

I’ve been meaning to post more but it gets difficult. I have at least three things I wanted to post about:

1. My ride over the top of Honey Springs. Seven miles all uphill. Climbs 2000 ft. And it’s really pretty there.

2. Jeremy Podeswa’s movie "Fugitive Pieces." One of the most beautiful films I’ve seen in years. The only other film I remember seeing of him is "The Five Senses" in the late 90’s and I really enjoyed that one too. But Fugitive Pieces is just incredible. Check out this trailer in youtube.  

3. The "experiment" of the Washington Post about having Joshua Bell playing at a subway station. It’s an incredibly interesting story. It really forces you to do some instrospection and you find yourself hypothesizing about why people would just ignore pure beauty. Just google "Joshua Bell subway" or go to the entire story at the washington post.

So here’s this short post that doent elaborate on any of the three things. Maybe one day I’ll give you my thoughts on the Joshua Bell experiment or my review of Fugitive Pieces (and why not, The Five Senses too).  

I have absolutely no energy. The only thing I want to do right now is sleep. It’s 10 p.m. so you would think that that’d be normal. But this lack of energy is different. It’s something I need to get rid of. So I’m going for a run….

This morning I went on a 90K ride. It was supposed to be 100k but I took the wrong path when I left home (just out of routine) and I realized it too late so I just mentally patched pieces of routs that I know and kept pedaling, and the ride ended up being a bit short. I’m glad, though, since I was really tired at the end.

I started at 6:45 a.m. and it was really cold. There was daylight but the sun was too shy and the first hour felt like a lonely quest for survival. I almost can’t remember that first hour. The second part was not lonely. It was only me on the road but my shadow was keeping me company. It was really cool. For about an hour I could see my shadow right in front of me or to my left. It was an elongated version of me, helping me keep my technique and good form. It was the best coach. I understood shadow boxing.

I thought about stopping and taking a picture but then remembered that my cell phone camera isn’t working. Out of memory it says. So I just kept going. But here is a link to someone else’s photo on flickr that shows what I’m talking about.

I’m tired but nothing hurts….

I just have to share this bike reviews. I was laughing out loud and I ended up with beer all over the keyboard!

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2007/08/bsnyc-2008-dream-bike-shootout.html

I just noticed the dude behind me in the picture of the half marathon finish line. The arms, up and waving. I can’t do that. Am I too repressed or is he too cheerful?

And by the way, I just signed up for the New York City marathon. I should say that I entered the lottery. I will know if I’m running it in mid-June. And between now and then, I need to try and run more. I’ve been riding my bike and almost not running. Not good. My left knee ligaments and left hip flexors are starting to complain, as they always do when I don’t cross-train enough. 

I guess I never mentioned that my hiccups (see posts below) actually went away after three days. It was indeed a side effect of the general anesthesia.

Way too busy at work. More than usual. More than I can manage. Hence the lack of posts. 

I watched the Oscar acceptance speech video (in youtube) of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova for their song Falling Slowly. It made me want to watch the movie once again. The movie, Once, again. If you haven’t seen Once, you should. I want to own that one. But I want it to be my first movie purchased digitally on the web.

I’m sick of DVDs. Especially scratched DVDs. DVDs are like CD’s: a necessary but completely ineffective step between pre-digital technology and digital technology. I never liked CDs. Ever. LP albums actually allowed for another artistic expression in the cover. The large, 15" by 15" (or whatever the actual size was or is), area of the album covers was perfect to display some art. Not the case at all with the CDs. And CDs scratch easily. And then the stupid cellophane wrap of the CDs!!!!!!!!!  I could never unwrap and open a CD in less than 15 minutes. And then the plastic case would ALWAYS break. There were many things wrong with CDs. So I’m happy I don’t have to buy another one.  Same goes for DVDs. Looking forward to the full transition to downloading movies and bypassing the DVDisk.

Magalí thinks that I should start a cycling blog. With all my comments and thoughts on pro cycling. Maybe I will. The fact is that I follow that sport very closely and I read about it almost every day. And Maga is probably bored with my comments about Damiano Cunego and Alessandro Petacchi. We’ll see.

I’m posting a pic of my half marathon to test the pic posting since I’ve never done it. Here it is….

I don’t really feel like posting, but don’t feel like sleeping either. And if I don’t post today, God knows when I’ll be posting again. Some significant things have been happening and I haven’t posted at all. And that’s mostly because I haven’t posted. Wha??? Yes. I don’t post because I don’t post. The more you post the easier it is and you do it more frequently.

Like riding your bike. If you ride today you are much more likely to ride tomorrow.

So, what significant things have happened?  Well there are some really significant. Like medical procedures for the entire family (wife, mom, brother in-law and now even my wisdom teeth extraction).  Some major (like getting a new kidney!) some minor (like getting your wisdom teeth removed) but it feels like everyone’s been under general anesthesia lately.

By the way, me going into general anesthesia brought me hiccups. Which is what’s keeping me up right now. Woke up in the middle of the night, had a glass of water and sure enough, my hiccups started again. It hasn’t stopped for two days. Every time I have ANY food, my hiccups start. So I went on the web and found that it may be a side effect of the anesthesia. Oh well…..

Another couple of significant things: Diego is wearing glasses now. He looks really cute, but then again, he looks cute without them too. He looks cute. [as in "he looks cute, period"].

$@#! there is it again. My hiccups!! Shit! Not fun.

So, I said two significant things. One was Diego’s glasses, the other one is that I actually did run the half marathon and did it in 1:43:47. I was very happy with finishing and finishing strong. But my training -just like my posting on this blog- has been totally derailed by work, sickness and ….I guess just by the fact that you don’t feel like running as frequently when you run a long-distance event for the first time. I’ll be running all next week in by business trip to Little Rock and Denver.  By the way, running in Denver is not fun when you are there just for one or two days. The elevation kills me!! 

There it is. A new post. Gotta go and drink 2 liters of water. Yep. Two liters. I just read that that’s a way to stop the anesthesia-related hiccups for good. If it doesn’t work, water won’t hurt.